{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_54717/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_54717","id":"gutenberg_54717","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54717","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Category: Plays/Films/Dramas","Dido (Legendary character) -- Drama","Epic poetry, Latin -- Adaptations","Trojan War -- Drama","Virgil -- Adaptations"],"text":"E-text prepared by Richard Tonsing, Juliet Sutherland, Jane Robins, and\nthe Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net)\n\n\n\nNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this\n      file which includes audio files and the original\n      sheet music and illustrations for staging.\n      See 54717-h.htm or 54717-h.zip:\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/54717/pg54717-images.html)\n      or\n      (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54717/54717-h.zip)\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n      Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).\n\n\n\n\n\nTWO DRAMATIZATIONS FROM VERGIL\n\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\nTHE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS\nCHICAGO, ILLINOIS\n\nTHE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY\nNEW YORK\n\nTHE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS\nLONDON\n\nTHE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA\nTOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI\n\nTHE MISSION BOOK COMPANY\nSHANGHAI\n\n      *      *      *      *      *      *\n\n\nTWO DRAMATIZATIONS FROM VERGIL\n\nI. DIDO\u2014The Ph\u0153nician Queen\n\nII. THE FALL OF TROY\n\nArranged and Translated into English Verse\n\nby\n\nFRANK JUSTUS MILLER\n\nAuthor of _The Tragedies of Seneca, Translated into English Verse_\n\nThe Stage Directions and Music for the DIDO Are Contributed By\n\nJ. Raleigh Nelson\n\n\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe University of Chicago Press\nChicago, Illinois\n\nCopyright 1908 by\nFrank Justus Miller\n\nAll Rights Reserved\n\nPublished September 1908\nSecond Impression April 1913\nThird Impression March 1917\nFourth Impression January 1920\nFifth Impression August 1924\n\nComposed and Printed By\nThe University of Chicago Press\nChicago, Illinois U.S.A.\n\n\n\n\n                                PREFACE\n\n\nThe epic is a drama on gigantic scale; its acts are years or centuries;\nits actors, heroes; its stage, the world of life; its events, those\nmighty cycles of activity that leave their deep impress on human\nhistory. Homer\u2019s epics re\u00ebnact the stirring scenes of the ten years\u2019\nsiege of Troy, and the perilous, long wanderings of Ulysses before he\nreached his home; Vergil\u2019s epic action embraces the fall of Troy and the\nnever-ending struggles of \u00c6neas and his band of exiles till Troy should\nrise again in the western world; Tasso pictures the heroic war of\nGodfrey and his crusaders, who strove to free the holy city of\nJerusalem; and Milton, ignoring all bounds of time and space, fills his\ntriple stage of heaven, earth, and hell with angels, men, and devils,\nall working out the most stupendous problems of human destiny.\n\nSuch gigantic dramas could be presented on no human stage. But in them\nall are lesser actions of marked dramatic possibility. Notable among\nthese are the events culminating in the death of Hector, the home coming\nof Ulysses and his destruction of the suitors, Satan\u2019s rebellion and\nexpulsion from heaven, and the temptation and fall of man. All these\nfurnish abundant material for the tragic stage; but all leave much to be\nsupplied of speech and action before the full-rounded drama could take\nform. In the _\u00c6neid_ alone is found, among the minor parts which make up\nthe epic whole, a dramatic action well-nigh complete\u2014the love story of\n\u00c6neas and Dido.\n\nThe ordinary student of Vergil is too much engrossed with an intensive\nstudy of the text, and has too near a view of the poem, to appreciate\nhow fully this story is worked out in detail; how its speech, action,\nand events all lead to a dramatic climax. There is need only here and\nthere of an interpolated lyric upon some suggested theme, a bit of\nVergil\u2019s description of action or feeling expressed in the actor\u2019s\nwords, an interjected line to relieve the strain of too long speech\u2014all\nelse is Vergil\u2019s own, ready to be lifted out of its larger epic setting\nand portrayed upon the stage.\n\nIn arranging and translating this epic tragedy, the authors have made\nonly such minor additions and alterations of the original as seemed\nnecessary from the dramatic point of view. Prominent among these are the\nintroduction of lyrics at certain points, the obviously necessary\ncurtailing of the banquet scene by the omission of the long narrative of\n\u00c6neas, and the removal behind the scenes of the final tragedy of Dido\u2019s\nsuicide. The lyrical parts have been set to original music in sympathy\nwith the themes; stage action and scenery are suggested by outline\ndrawings of the different settings; and idealized figures and costumes\nare reproduced from ancient vases and bas-reliefs. These figures have,\nin some cases, been assigned by scholars to other subjects; but they may\nbe taken, for the purposes of the present work, as illustrative of the\ncharacters designated.\n\nWith full consciousness of the shortcomings of the work, but with the\nhope also of assisting the student in school and home to a fuller\nappreciation of the power and beauty of Vergil, this volume is\nrespectfully presented to the public.\n\n\n\n\n                     PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION\n\n\nThe first edition of this volume, containing only the _Dido: An Epic\nTragedy_, a dramatization of the love story of \u00c6neas and Dido, was\npublished in 1900, and met with a gratifying success. Teachers of Vergil\nhave found the book an interesting supplement to their study and\npresentation of the text; and in numerous instances high-school and\ncollege classes have staged the play with most excellent results.\n\nThe book has been out of print for several years; but the continued\ndemand from teachers who desire to use it has made a second edition\ndesirable. This is accordingly offered in the present volume, under a\nnew title, and containing a second dramatization from Vergil\u2014this from\nthe second _\u00c6neid_, the story of the Fall of Troy.\n\n                                                                F. J. M.\n\n  CHICAGO, 1908\n\n\n\n\n                                   I\n                        Dido\u2014The Ph\u0153nician Queen\n\n\n\n\n                              THE ARGUMENT\n\n\n_For ten years the Greeks had besieged Troy, and on the tenth they took\nand utterly destroyed that ancient city. The inhabitants who had escaped\ncaptivity and the sword, wandered in exile to many quarters of the\nearth. Now the chief band of exiles was led by \u00c6neas, son of Venus and\nAnchises, and son-in-law of Priam, king of Troy._\n\n_After many adventures on land and sea, \u00c6neas came, in the sixth year,\nto Sicily, where he was kindly entertained by Acestes, king of that\nland, and where his aged father died and was buried. Thence setting sail\nin the summer of the seventh year, he approached the shores of Africa.\nHere a violent storm arose which scattered and all but destroyed the\nTrojan ships. \u00c6neas, with a number of his companions, was cast upon a\ndesert coast, where they passed the night in gloomy forebodings. In the\nearly morning, \u00c6neas and Achates set forth to explore the land, and came\nto the newly founded city of Carthage._\n\n_Now Ph\u0153nician Dido, also, with a band of exiles, had fled from her\nnative Tyre, to escape the persecutions of her brother, Pygmalion, who\nhad already slain Sych\u00e6us, her husband. And to the land of Africa had\nshe come, and built her a city, even the city of Carthage._\n\n_And so these two, \u00c6neas, prince of Troy, and Dido, fugitive from Tyre,\nnow meet in distant Africa and live the tragedy which fate has held in\nstore._\n\n\n\n\n                        THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA\n\n\n  \u00c6NEAS, prince of Troy, and leader of the Trojan exiles.\n  ACHATES, confidential friend of \u00c6neas.\n  ILIONEUS, a Trojan noble.\n  DIDO, the queen of Carthage.\n  ANNA, sister of Dido.\n  BARCE, nurse of Dido.\n  IOPAS, a Carthaginian minstrel.\n  IARBAS, a Moorish prince, suitor for the hand of Dido.\n  JUNO, queen of Jupiter and protectress of the Carthaginians, hostile\n     to Troy.\n  VENUS, the goddess of love, mother of \u00c6neas, and protectress of the\n     Trojans.\n  CUPID, son of Venus, god of love.\n  MERCURY, the messenger of Jupiter.\n  Maidens, Courtiers, Soldiers, Attendants, Servants, etc., in Dido\u2019s\n     train.\n  Nobles, Sailors, etc., in the band of \u00c6neas.\n\n\n\n\n                              THE PRELUDE\n\n\n                         [For music, see p. 57]\n\n  Arma virumque cano, Troi\u00e6 qui primus ab oris\n  Italiam, fato profugus, Lavinaque venit\n  Litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto\n  Vi superum, s\u00e6v\u00e6 memorem Iunonis ob iram,\n  Multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,\n  Inferretque deos Latio: genus unde Latinum\n  Albanique patres atque alt\u00e6 m\u0153nia Rom\u00e6.\n  Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine l\u00e6so,\n  Quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus\n  Insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores\n  Impulerit. Tant\u00e6ne animis c\u00e6lestibus ir\u00e6?\n\n\n\n\n                                 ACT I\n\n\n\n\n                        Dido\u2014The Ph\u0153nician Queen\n\n\n                             ACT I. SCENE 1\n\n[Illustration]\n\nEarly morning; the open square before the temple of Juno on a height\nnear Carthage. In the distance (see cut, 1, 2, 3) appear mountains, and\nat their foot lies the city, clustered about the harbor where ships are\nriding at anchor. The effect of elevation is increased by the unfinished\ncolumns and the tree-tops just showing above the low marble wall which\nencloses the square. This scene (4) is set nearer than 1, 2, 3, to\nincrease the perspective.\n\nAt the first wing on the right (5), a colonnade, leading to a flight of\nsteps, forms the entrance from the city below. On the same side, along\nthe wall, is a broad marble seat (6), shaded by a wild crab tree, pink\nwith bloom. The dark rug on the step before it is strewn with fallen\npetals. On the left is the front of the temple (7). Two large columns of\nwhite marble flank three broad steps leading to the platform. Above\nthese columns, the architrave bears a frieze representing scenes from\nthe Trojan war. Before the temple door is an altar on which fire is\nburning.\n\nAt the rise of the curtain, a chorus of Carthaginian maidens, clad in\nwhite, are seen kneeling before the altar on the temple steps; they sing\na greeting to the dawn.\n\n\n                           _Hymn to the Dawn_\n\n                         [For music, see p. 61]\n\n  Wake, Aurora, Wake!\n        Come, rosy-fingered goddess of the dawn,\n        The saffron couch of old Tithonus scorning;\n        Fling wide the golden portals of the morning,\n        And bid the gloomy mists of night be gone.\n\n  Hail, Aurora, Hail!\n        The dewy stars have sped their silent flight,\n        The fuller glories of thy rays expecting;\n        With rosy beauty from afar reflecting,\n        Thy Orient steeds come panting into sight.\n\n  Rise, Apollo, Rise!\n        Send forth thy healing rays to greet the world,\n        Upon the lands thy blessed radiance streaming;\n        Arise, and fling afar, in splendor gleaming,\n        The banners of thy golden light unfurled.\n\nEnter \u00c6neas and Achates, on their way into the city, evidently attracted\nhither by the singing. \u00c6neas is resplendent in full armor. Achates wears\nthe Phrygian costume: long trousers of brown, a tunic of deep old blue,\nornate with embroidered patterns in gold and purple thread; over this a\ntraveling cloak of brown. He carries two spears. The maidens withdraw\nand as their voices grow fainter \u00c6neas and Achates kneel before the\naltar. The light brightens. A bugle call in the distance rouses them\nfrom their devotion. They arise. Enter Venus, dressed as a huntress.\n\n_Venus_ (_\u00c6neid_, I. 321-324):\n\n  I crave your grace, good sirs. If my attendant maids\n  Have chanced to wander hither, quiver-girt, and clad\n  In tawny robes of fur, the trophies of the chase,\n  Or with triumphant shouts close pressing in pursuit\n  The foaming boar,\u2014I fain would know their course.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (326-334):\n\n                                                    Fair maid,\n  No huntress of thy train have we beheld, nor heard\n  The clamor of their chase.\u2014But oh, no mortal maid\n  Art thou! Th\u2019 immortal beauty of thy face and voice\n  Proclaim thee goddess. Art thou Ph\u0153bus\u2019 sister then?\n  Or some fair nymph? Whoe\u2019er thou art, we crave _thy_ grace:\n  Be merciful and tell beneath what sky at length,\n  Upon what shores we \u2018re tossed. For ignorant of men\n  And land we wander, driven on by wind and wave\n  In vast conspiracy.\n                       Full many a victim slain\n  Upon thine altars shall repay thine aid.\n\n_Venus_ (335-350):\n\n                                            For me,\n  I claim no homage due the gods. Behold a maid\n  Of ancient Tyre, with quiver girt and feet high shod\n  With purple buskin\u2014such our country\u2019s garb. Thou seest\n  Before thee Punic realms; the city and its men\n  Are both alike Ph\u0153nician; but around them lie\n  The borders of the Libyans, hardy race, unmatched\n  In war. The city owns the sway of Dido, late\n  Escaped from Tyre and from her brother\u2019s threat\u2019nings. Long\n  The story of her wrongs, and devious its way;\n  But here I \u2018ll trace the outline of her history.\n  Her husband was Sych\u00e6us, of his countrymen\n  The richest far in wide possessions; well beloved\n  By his ill-fated bride was he, whose virgin hand\n  In wedlock\u2019s primal rite her sire had given him.\n  But Tyre\u2019s domain Pygmalion her brother held,\n  Surpassing all in crime. Between these Tyrian lords\n  A deadly feud arose. With impious hand and blind\n  With love of gold, Pygmalion, at the altar-side,\n  With stealthy, unsuspected stroke Sych\u00e6us slew;\n  And little recked he of his sister\u2019s doting love.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (III. 56, 57):\n\n  O awful, quenchless thirst of gold! \u2018T was ever thus\n  That thou hast spurred the hearts of men to deeds of blood.\n\n_Venus_ (I. 351-370):\n\n  He long concealed the deed with wanton, feigned excuse,\n  And mocked his sister, sick at heart, with empty hopes.\n  In vain: for in the visions of the night the shade,\n  The pallid shade of her unburied husband came;\n  The cruel altar and his pierc\u00e8d breast he showed,\n  And all the hidden guilt of that proud house revealed.\n  He bade her speed her flight and leave her fatherland,\n  And showed, to aid her cause, deep buried in the earth,\n  An ancient treasure, store of silver and of gold\n  Uncounted.\n              Thus forewarned the queen prepared her flight\n  And bade her comrades join her enterprise. They came,\n  Whom hatred or consuming terror of the prince\n  Inspired. A fleet of ships at anchor chanced to lie\n  In waiting. These they seized and quickly filled with gold;\n  Pygmalion\u2019s treasure, heaped with greedy care, was reft\n  Away upon the sea, a woman leading all.\n  They reached at last the place where now the mighty walls\n  And newly rising citadel of Carthage stand.\n  But who and whence are ye? and whither do ye fare?\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (372-385):\n\n  O goddess, if beginning at the first the tale\n  Of direful woes on land and deep I should relate,\n  The day, before my story\u2019s end, would sink to rest.\n  From Troy (perchance the name of Troy has reached your ears)\n  Borne over many seas, the fitful tempest\u2019s will\n  Has brought us to these shores.\n                                  \u00c6neas am I called,\n  The Pious, for that in my ships I ever bear\n  My country\u2019s gods, snatched from our burning Troy. My fame\n  O\u2019erleaps the stars. My quest is Italy, a land\n  And race that mighty Jove hath promised me. For this,\n  With score of vessels staunch I braved the Phrygian sea,\n  By Venus\u2019 star directed and by fate impelled.\n  But oh, alas for Venus\u2019 star, alas for fate!\n  Scarce seven shattered barks survive the waves, and I\u2014\n  And I, a beggared stranger, wander helpless here,\n  A fugitive from all the world.\n\n_Venus_ (387-401):\n\n                                  Whoe\u2019er thou art,\n  Full sure am I the gods must love thee well, since thou\n  Through dangers manifold hast reached this Tyrian realm.\n  But haste thee and with heart of cheer seek out the queen.\n  For lo, thy friends are rescued and thy fleet restored,\n  Unless in vain my parents taught me augury.\n  For see, those joyous swans are fluttering to the earth,\n  Which, swooping from the sky, but now the bird of Jove\n  Was harrying. As they, with fluttering wings and cries\n  Of joy regain the earth, so, by this token know,\n  Thy ships and comrades even now are safe in port,\n  Or with full sails the harbor\u2019s mouth are entering.\n  Then fare thee on, and follow where the path of fate\n  May lead.\n\nAs Venus vanishes from the temple steps she is illumined in rosy light.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (402-409):\n\n      Achates, see the bright refulgent glow\n  Upon her face! \u2018T is light divine! And from her locks\n  Ambrosial, heavenly odors breathe! Her garments sweep\n  In stately folds, and she doth walk, a goddess all,\n  With tread majestic!\n                        Lo, \u2018t is Venus\u2019 self! O stay,\n  My heavenly mother, stay! Why dost thou, cruel too,\n  So often mock thy son with borrowed semblances?\n  Why may we not join hands, each in his proper self,\n  And speak the words of truth? Ah me! She\u2019s vanished quite,\n  And I am left forlorn!\u2014\n\nDeeply moved, he follows her vanishing figure.\n\n_Achates_, seeking to divert \u00c6neas, leads him to the parapet and points\nout to him the life awakening in the city below (422-429).\n\n  Behold this city with its gates and mighty walls,\n  And well-paved streets, where even now the Tyrians\n  With eager zeal press on their various toil. See there,\n  Some build the citadel and heave up massive stones\n  With straining hands; while some a humbler task essay,\n  And trace the furrow round their future homes. Behold,\n  Within the harbor others toil, and here thou seest\n  The deep foundations of the theater, where soon\n  Shall rise huge columns, stately set, to deck the scene.\n\n_\u00c6neas_(430-437):\n\n  Yea all, like busy bees throughout the flowery mead,\n  Are all astir with eager toil. O blessed toil!\n  O happy ye, whose walls already rise! But I,\u2014\n  When shall I see _my_ city and my city\u2019s walls?\n\nHe remains in deep dejection.\n\n_Achates_, observing the pediment of the temple itself (456-458):\n\n  But here, O friend, behold, in carv\u00e8d imagery,\n  Our Trojan battles one by one, that mighty strife\n  Whose fame has filled the world. Here see Achilles fierce,\n  The sons of Atreus,\u2014and, alas, our fallen king!\n\n_\u00c6neas_, deeply affected (459-463):\n\n  What place, Achates, what far corner of the world\n  Is not o\u2019erburdened with our woes? O fallen King,\n  E\u2019en here our glorious struggle wins its meed of praise,\n  And those our mortal hopes defeated and o\u2019erthrown,\n  Are mourned by human tears.\n                              Therefore our present cares\n  Let us dismiss. This fame shall bring us safety too.\n\n_Achates_, continuing to examine the pediment (467, 468):\n\n    See how the Greeks are fleeing, pressed by Trojan youth!\n  While here, alas, our warriors flee Achilles\u2019 might.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (469-478):\n\n  And here behold the ill-starred Rhesus\u2019 white-winged tents,\n  Where fierce Tydides slays his sleeping foe; and drives\n  Those snowy steeds to join the Grecian camp, before\n  They graze in Trojan meadows or the Xanthus drink.\n  Alas poor Troilus, I see thee too, ill-matched\n  With great Achilles. Prone thou liest within thy car,\n  While in the dust thy comely locks and valiant spear\n  Are basely trailed.\n\n_Achates_ (479-482):\n\n                      Here to Minerva\u2019s temple come\n  Our Trojan dames with suppliant mien and votive gifts;\n  With locks dishevelled, self-inflicted blows, and tears;\n  But all for naught. All unappeased the goddess stands\n  With stern averted face, nor will she heed their prayers.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (483-487):\n\n  Thrice round the walls of Troy the fell Achilles drags\n  The body of my friend.\u2014O Hector, Hector! Here\n  He sells thy lifeless body for accursed gold,\n  While aged Priam stretches forth his helpless hands.\n\n_Achates_ (488-497):\n\n  And here behold thyself amid the Grecian chiefs\n  In combat raging. See the swarthy Memnon\u2019s arms,\n  And that fierce maid, who, clad in gleaming armor, dares\n  To lead her Amazons and mingle in the fray.\n\nMusic is heard in the distance, flutes and zithers leading a chorus.\n\n  But hark! The distant strains of music greet my ear,\n  As of some stately progress fitly timed with flute\n  And zither.\n              See, it is the queen, who with her band\n  Of chosen youths and maidens hither takes her way.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (498-501):\n\n  How like Diana when she leads her bands by swift\n  Eurotas, or on Cynthus green, while round her press\n  A thousand graceful creatures of the wood; but she,\n  With shoulder quiver-girt, a very goddess moves\n  With stately tread among the lesser beings of\n  Her train. To such an one I liken yonder queen.\n\nThey conceal themselves in the foreground behind the columns of the\ntemple. Dido, accompanied by her bands of courtiers, crosses the stage\nand ascends the temple steps. She seats herself on the throne which has\nbeen placed for her at the temple door.\n\nDido throughout this act is dressed in white, the symbol of her\nwidowhood. Her dress, worn without himation, is of light filmy stuff\ndraped in the Greek style, and unornamented save for a border of gold\nthread. Anna wears a dress of delicate blue, elaborately embroidered\nabout the edges with a Greek pattern in gold thread. Her himation,\nwrapped gracefully about her, is a tender shade of rose pink.\n\nIn Dido\u2019s train all classes are represented, gayly dressed courtiers,\nsoldiers, and peasants. The men wear cloaks of dark blue and of rich\nbrown over their tunics. The women are clad in dresses of cream color,\npink, and faint green.\n\nWhen all are on the stage, the general effect should be a mingling of\npink, blue, brown, green, and white, which harmonize with the tints of\nthe marble, of the flowering crab tree, the blue sky, and the purple\nmountains.\n\nSuddenly Ilioneus and his following of Trojans appear. They wear the\nPhrygian costume, but over it the long brown traveling cloak. The\nsinging ceases, the guards lower their spears, and great excitement\nreigns.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, aside (509, 510):\n\n  Achates, can it be? What! Antheus, and our brave\n  Cloanthus and Sergestus too?\n\n_Achates_, aside (511-514):\n\n                                Yea, all our friends\n  Whose ships the raging storm hath parted from our fleet\n  And driven far away. O joy! Come, let us go\n  And grasp their hands in greeting.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, aside (515-521):\n\n                                      Nay, not so, for still\n  Our fortune in the balance hangs. Here let us see\n  What fate befalls our friends, where they have left their fleet,\n  And why they hither come. For chosen messengers\n  In suppliant aspect do they seek this sacred fane,\n  While round them rage the mob.\u2014But see, Ilioneus speaks.\n\nDido has arisen and with a gesture bids the soldiers stand aside. She\nsends a page to lead Ilioneus to her throne. Ilioneus kneels before her;\nshe extends the scepter, which he touches.\n\n_Ilioneus_, rising and standing before the queen (522-558):\n\n  O Queen to whom the king of heav\u2019n hath given to found\n  A city and to curb proud nations with the reins\n  Of law, we Trojans in our need, the sport of winds\n  On every sea, implore thee, spare a pious race\n  And look, we pray, with nearer view upon our cause.\n  We have not come to devastate with fire and sword\n  The Libyan homes, or fill our ships with plundered stores.\n  Such violence and such high-handed deeds a race\n  By fate o\u2019ercome may not attempt. There is a place,\n  Hesperia the Greeks have named it, ancient, rich\n  In heroes, and of fertile soil. \u0152notrians\n  Once held the land; but now, as rumor goes, their sons\n  In honor of their mighty leader have the place\n  Italia called. To this our seaward course was bent:\n  When suddenly, upstarting from the deep, all charged\n  With tempests, did Orion on the shallows drive\n  Our vessels, with the aid of boisterous winds and waves,\n  Through boiling, overtopping floods and trackless reefs,\n  And put us utterly to rout. To these thy shores\n  A few of us have drifted. But alas! what race\n  Of men is this? What land permits such savage deeds\n  As these? We are refused the barren refuge of\n  The sandy shore; they seek a cause for mortal strife,\n  And will not that we set our feet upon the land.\n  What though the human race and mortal arms are naught\n  To thee; be sure that gods regard the evil and\n  The good. We had a king, \u00c6neas, more than peer\n  Of all in justice, piety, and warrior\u2019s might.\n  If by decree of fate he still survives, if still\n  He draws the vital air of heav\u2019n, and lies not low\n  Amid the gloomy shades, fear not, and let it not\n  Repent thee that in deeds of mercy thou didst strive\n  To be the first. We still possess both towns and lands\n  Upon Sicilia\u2019s isle; Acestes too, renowned,\n  And born of Trojan blood, is ours. Our only prayer,\n  That we may draw our shattered fleet upon the shore,\n  And in the forest shade renew our weakened beams\n  And broken oars. That thus, if to Italia\u2019s realms,\n  Our comrades and our king regained, \u2018t is ours again\n  To hold our way, with joy we may that selfsame land\n  And Latium\u2019s borders seek. But if in vain our hope,\n  And if, loved father of the Teucri, thou art held\n  By Libya\u2019s billows and no more we may upon\n  Iulus rest our hopes, then let us seek the land\n  And homes reserved for us, whence, setting sail, we came\n  To these thy hostile shores, and make Acestes king.\n\nShouts of applause from the Trojans.\n\n_Dido_, with modest bearing (562-578):\n\n  Let not a fear disturb your souls, O Teucrians;\n  Away with all your cares. My cruel fortune and\n  My yet unstable throne compel me thus to guard\n  My bounds with wide and jealous watch. Who knows not well\n  \u00c6neas and his race, their city Troy, their brave,\n  Heroic deeds? Who has not seen the far-off flames\n  Of their great war? We carry not such brutish hearts\n  Within our breasts, nor yet does Ph\u0153bus yoke his steeds\n  So far from this our land. Seek you the mighty west,\n  The land of Saturn\u2019s reign, or where your foster-king,\n  Acestes, rules within Sicilia\u2019s borders? Lo,\n  In safety will I send you forth and gird you with\n  My aid. Or would you share with me this realm? Behold,\n  The city which I build is yours. Draw up your ships.\n  To Trojan and to Tyrian will I favor show\n  In equal measure. Would that your \u00c6neas\u2019 self,\n  Conducted by the same o\u2019er-mastering gale, were here!\n  My messengers along the shore will I despatch,\n  And bid them search the farthest bounds of Libya,\n  If he in wood or city, rescued from the waves,\n  May chance to stray.\n\nShe despatches courtiers to seek \u00c6neas. \u00c6neas and Achates, meantime, are\ngreatly agitated by her words.\n\n_Achates_, to \u00c6neas, aside (582-585):\n\n                      \u00c6neas, what thy purpose now?\n  Thou seest all is well. Thy fleet and captains all,\n  Save one, are rescued. One we saw ourselves o\u2019erwhelmed\n  Within the deep. All else thy mother\u2019s prophecy\n  Upholds.\n\nAt this, \u00c6neas suddenly reveals himself, to the great surprise of both\nTrojans and Carthaginians.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, to Dido (595-609):\n\n  O Queen, before thee, whom thou wouldst behold, am I,\n  \u00c6neas, Prince of Troy, late rescued from the waves\n  Of Libya. O thou, who only o\u2019er the woes,\n  The dreadful woes of Troy hast wept, who to thy town\n  And home dost welcome us, the leavings of the Greeks,\n  Who every peril of the land and sea have faced,\n  And lost our all: we may not thank thee worthily,\n  O Queen, nor yet the Trojan race, what remnant still\n  In distant lands in exile wanders. May the gods\n  A fitting gift bestow upon thee; if indeed\n  They feel a true regard for pious souls, if e\u2019er\n  The truth and conscious virtue aught avail. But thee\u2014\n  What blessed age, what mighty parents gave thee birth?\n  Whate\u2019er my fate, while to the sea the rivers flow,\n  While o\u2019er the mountains\u2019 rounded sides the shadows drift,\n  While on the plains of heav\u2019n the stars shall feed, so long\n  Thine honor and thy name and praises shall abide.\n\nThe queen is silent with amazement, while \u00c6neas greets his friends amid\ngeneral rejoicing.\n\n_Dido_, recovering from her astonishment (615-630):\n\n  What fate, thou son of heav\u2019n, decrees these perils vast?\n  And what the power that drives thee on our savage shores?\n  And art thou that \u00c6neas whom to Ilium\u2019s prince,\n  Anchises, on the bank of Phrygian Simois,\n  The kindly Venus bore? And now do I recall\n  That Teucer once to Sidon came as suppliant;\n  For exiled from his native Salamis he came.\n  \u2018T was at the time when fertile Cyprus bowed beneath\n  My father\u2019s might, and by the victor\u2019s sway was held.\n  From that time on, thy name, and all the Grecian kings,\n  And the fortunes of thy city have been known to me.\n  Nay, Teucer\u2019s self, though foeman, sang the praise of Troy,\n  And said that he himself from ancient Trojan stock\n  Had sprung.\n              Wherefore, O princes, come and make my halls\n  Your own. An equal fate has willed that I, like you,\n  The sport of many toils, should find a resting place\n  Within this land. With grief acquainted, I have learned\n  To comfort hapless wanderers oppressed with grief.\n\nThey prepare to leave the scene. Dido despatches men to bear gifts to\nthe Trojan fleet, and proclaims a banquet for the ensuing night in honor\nof \u00c6neas and the Trojan princes.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, to Achates (643-655):\n\n  Go, speed thee, friend, to where, upon the sandy beach,\n  Our comrades camp about the ships. This joyful news\n  To young Ascanius bear, and bid him come with thee\n  To Dido\u2019s town.\n\n                                                           Exit Achates.\n\nTo other Trojans:\n\n                  Go ye, and fetch from out the ships\n  The treasures that we saved from Ilium\u2019s fall: the robe,\n  Stiff wrought with golden pattern, and the flowing veil\n  All interwov\u2019n with bright acanthus\u2019 yellow bloom,\n  Those beauteous robes of price which Argive Helen brought\n  From rich Mycen\u00e6 when to Pergama she came,\n  Her mother\u2019s wondrous gift. And bring the scepter fair\n  Which once Ilione, the eldest daughter of\n  Our monarch, bore; the pearl-set necklace, and the crown,\n  Its double golden circlet spangled o\u2019er with gems.\n\nThe Trojans withdraw to do his bidding. The music sounds, and as the\nentire court moves from the scene, Dido sends some of her maidens back\nto throw incense upon the flames. They kneel upon the steps and Anna\nadvances to the altar. As the smoke ascends, Dido and \u00c6neas turn to\nfollow the rest. Curtain.\n\n\n                             ACT I. SCENE 2\n\nA place in the deep, green forest. Ferns and flowers strew the ground\nand the sunlight falls through the branches in flecks of gold. In the\nforeground are two great moss-grown rocks, on one of which sits Cupid,\ndraped with garlands of wild flowers, shooting his arrows at a\nheart-shaped target hung from the branches of a tree in the center of\nthe stage. At one side sits Venus, absorbed in deep, troubled\nmeditation. She has resumed the flowing draperies befitting a goddess.\nPink or canary yellow will harmonize with the scene.\n\n_Venus_ (657-662):\n\n  Ah me! I fear this Tyrian hospitality;\n  For well I know their faithless hearts and lying tongues.\n  And ever, mid the anxious watches of the night,\n  The savage threats of Juno agitate my soul.\n  If only this fair queen might feel the pulse of love\n  For this my hero son, then would her purposes\n  Of amity be fixed, and my anxiety\n  Be set at rest.\u2014But how accomplish my design?\n\nSuddenly her face is lighted with a new thought. She goes to Cupid and\naddresses him with insinuating gentleness.\n\n_Venus_, to Cupid (664-688):\n\n  O son, my comrade and my only source of might,\n  O thou, who scorn\u2019st the giant-slaying darts of Jove,\n  To thee I come and humbly pray thy fav\u2019ring aid.\n  How on the sea, from land to land, thy brother fares,\n  Pursued by Juno\u2019s unrelenting hate, is known\n  To thee, and often hast thou mingled in my grief.\n  Now Tyrian Dido holds him, and with fawning words\n  Delays his course; and much do I distrust and fear\n  The shelter which our envious rival Juno gives.\n  For, in this pregnant crisis of affairs, be sure\n  She will be active. Wherefore now my mind is bent\n  With wiles to take the queen, ere Juno steel her heart,\n  And hold her fast in passion\u2019s net; that at the hest\n  Of Juno she her present purpose may not change,\n  But by a mighty love for this her Trojan guest\n  She may be bound to work my will.\n                                    Now hear thy part:\n  Obedient to the summons of his doting sire,\n  The youthful prince Ascanius goes to Dido\u2019s town\n  With gifts which Ocean and the flames of Troy have spared;\n  Him, lapped in sleep, will I to far Cythera bear,\n  Or hide him in my sacred fane on Ida\u2019s top,\n  Lest he should know what we intend, and thwart our plans.\n  Do thou, if only for a night, assume the form\n  Of young Ascanius, that, when the queen with joy\n  To her embrace shall take thee, when amid the wine\n  And feasting she shall hold thee in her arms and kiss\n  Thy lips, thou mayst inflame her unsuspecting heart\n  With the subtle fires of love.\n\nAs she unfolds her plan, Cupid is filled with delight. He struts up and\ndown, comically imitating Ascanius. When his mother has finished, he\nhastens to pick up his scattered arrows, puts them in his quiver, and\nstruts off, looking back for his mother\u2019s smile of approval. Curtain.\n\n\n                             ACT I. SCENE 3\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA banquet hall in Dido\u2019s palace. Across the back of the stage is a\ncolonnade (2), raised above the level of the hall. Through the columns\nthere is a view (1) out over the moonlit sea. Two broad steps lead from\nthe colonnade to a landing, from which again three steps at each side\ndescend to the level of the hall (3). At the second wing (4) on each\nside, curtained doorways open into the side rooms, from which the\nservants hurry with viands for the table. At the first wing (5), half\ncolumns form the corner of the wall. In the center a sort of triclinium\n(6) is set for the feast, a broad, three-sided table flanked by couches\nupholstered in Tyrian purple and having pillows of blue and gold.\n\nWhen the curtain rises, the moonlight is streaming down through the\ncolumns upon the scene. A tripod burns before the triclinium. Otherwise\nthere is no light except as it flashes from the side rooms when the\ncurtains are parted for an instant. Servants are strewing the banquet\ntable with flowers and bringing in dishes of gold.\n\nThe antique bronze lamps, hung between the columns, are lighted one by\none, till the scene is brilliant with light and color.\n\nMusic is heard within. The servants hastily finish their work. The royal\nparty enters along the colonnade. Dido is still clad in white, but Anna\nand the other ladies of the court have assumed himations of royal\npurple, royal blue, brilliant yellow, and deep green. \u00c6neas has laid\naside his helmet and greaves, but still wears his breastplate of mail,\nalthough he carries on his shoulder a cloak of royal purple.\n\nThe Carthaginians are more elaborately and richly dressed than in the\nfirst scene. The Trojans have put aside their outer cloaks, and wear\ntunics gayly embroidered in colors. The servants wear tunics of white.\n\nThe guests recline upon the couches. \u00c6neas is in the seat of honor,\nwhile Dido has placed the supposed Ascanius upon the couch at her side.\nMany of the Carthaginians and the Trojans fill the hall.\n\nDido rises. There is silence through the room. She intones the\ninvocation.\n\n_Dido_ (731-735):\n\n                         [For music, see p. 69]\n\n  O Jove, thou lord of gods and men, since \u2018t is from thee\n  The rites of hospitality proceed, ordain\n  That this may be a day of joy to us of Tyre\n  And these the Trojan exiles; let its fame go down\n  To our descendants. May the god of wine and joy,\n  And fost\u2019ring Juno grace and celebrate the day.\n\nThe entire company repeats the invocation in unison. When they have\nfinished, all bow and Dido pours forth the libation upon the table.\nTouching the cup to her lips, she passes it to the guests of honor.\n\nWhile the cup is passing about, Iopas and his chorus sing.\n\n                 _Song of Iopas_ (suggested by 740-746)\n\n                         [For music, see p. 72]\n\n                          I\n\n  Of the orb of the wandering moon I sing,\n  As she wheels through the darkening skies;\n  Where the storm-brooding band of the Hyades swing,\n  And the circling Triones arise;\n      Of the sun\u2019s struggling ball\n      Which the shadows appall\n  Till the menacing darkness flies;\n\n                          2\n\n  Of the all-potent forces that dwell in the air,\n  With its measureless reaches of blue;\n  The soft floating clouds of gossamer there,\n  And the loud-wailing storm-rack too;\n      Of the rain and the winds\n      And the lightning that blinds\n  When its swift-darting bolt flashes through;\n\n                          3\n\n  Of the marvels deep hid in the bowels of earth,\n  In the dark caves of Ocean confined,\n  Where the rivers in slow-trickling rills have their birth,\n  And the dense tangled mazes unwind;\n      In the deep under-land,\n      In the dim wonderland,\n  Where broods the vast cosmical mind.\n\n                          4\n\n  Of the manifold wonders of life I sing,\n  Its mysteries striving to scan,\n  In the rippling wave, on the fluttering wing,\n  In beast and all-dominant man.\n      \u2018T is the indwelling soul\n      Of the god of the whole,\n  Since the dawn of creation began.\n\n_Dido_, who has been gazing upon \u00c6neas in rapt admiration (753-756):\n\n  Now come, my guest, and from the first recount the tale\n  Of Grecian treachery, thy friends\u2019 sad overthrow\n  And all thy toils; for lo, the seventh summer finds\n  Thee wand\u2019ring still in every land, on every sea.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, rising (II. 3-13)\n\n  Thou wouldst that I should feel a woe unspeakable,\n  O Queen, and tell again how all our Trojan power\n  And kingdom, endless source of grief, the Greeks o\u2019erthrew:\n  Those sad events which I myself beheld, and in\n  Whose fabric I was wrought a part. Who, though he be\n  Of fierce Achilles\u2019 band, or in the train of hard\n  Ulysses, telling such a tale could hold his tears?\n  Now night sinks down the steeps of heaven, while setting stars\n  And constellations summon us to rest. But if\n  So strong is thy desire to know the story of\n  Our woe, and hear Troy\u2019s final agonies rehearsed,\n  Though at the very thought my soul within me shrinks\n  And has recoiled in grief, I will begin the tale.\n\nAll the Trojans and Carthaginians crowd around the tables, seating\nthemselves to listen. As all faces are turned toward \u00c6neas, he sinks\nback upon his couch, overcome with emotion. There is a moment of silent\nsympathy. Curtain.\n\n\n\n\n                                 ACT II\n\n\n                            ACT II. SCENE 1\n\n[Illustration]\n\nDido\u2019s chamber. At the left, in front, is a shrine (1). An antique bust\nwith an inscription above it, visible in the light from the glowing\ncenser, indicates that it is sacred to Synch\u00e6us. Two broad steps raise\nit slightly from the level of the stage. On the same side in the middle\na door (2), flanked by half columns. At the right, first wing, a door\n(3); half-way back on the same side (4), a curtained recess in which are\nhung Dido\u2019s brilliant robes. In the center of the background (5), is a\nwindow overlooking the city and harbor, which show in the distance when\nthe window is opened. It is reached by two steps covered with rugs, and\nthe seats about the three sides of the recess are richly upholstered in\ngreen and gray.\n\nAnna and Dido both wear simple white, while Barce, the aged nurse, is\nclad plainly in brown.\n\nBarce lies asleep on a couch near the shrine, her face lighted by the\nglowing flame. Anna is asleep on a couch in the foreground.\n\nDido sits at the window in the moonlight, looking out into the night.\nShe gets up and moves restlessly about the room. She kneels before the\naltar, replenishing the incense. She comes finally to her sister, and,\nwakening her, tells of her struggle against the new love.\n\n_Dido_ (IV. 9-29):\n\n  O sister, what dread visions of the night invade\n  My troubled soul! What of this stranger lodged within\n  Our halls, how noble in his mien, how brave in heart,\n  Of what puissant arms! From heav\u2019n in truth his race\n  Must be derived, for fear betokens low-born souls.\n  Alas, how tempest-tossed of fate was he! How to\n  The dregs the bitter cup of war\u2019s reverses hath\n  He drained! If in my soul the purpose were not fixed\n  That not to any suitor would I yield myself\n  In wedlock, since the time when he who won my love\n  Was reft away, perchance I might have yielded now.\n  For sister, I confess it, since my husband\u2019s fate,\n  Since that sad day when by his blood my father\u2019s house\n  Was sprinkled, this of all men has my feelings moved.\n  Again I feel the force of passion\u2019s sway. But no!\n  May I be gulfed within earth\u2019s yawning depths; may Jove\n  Almighty hurl me with his thunders to the shades,\n  The pallid shades of Erebus and night profound,\n  Before, O constancy, I violate thy laws!\n  He took my heart who first engaged my maiden love.\n  Still may he keep his own, and in the silent tomb\n  Preserve my love inviolate.\u2014\n\n_Anna_ (31-53):\n\n  O dearer to thy sister than the light of life,\n  Wilt thou consume thy youth in loneliness and grief,\n  And never know the sacred joys of motherhood,\n  The sweets of love? And dost thou think, that in the tomb\n  Thy husband\u2019s sleeping spirit recks of this? Let be,\n  That never yet have other suitors moved thy heart\n  Which long has scorned the lords of Libya and of Tyre;\n  Let prince Iarbas be rejected and the lords\n  Of Africa\u2019s heroic land: wilt still against\n  A pleasing love contend? And hast considered then\n  Whose are the powers upon the borders of thy realm?\n  Here are G\u00e6tulia\u2019s cities, matchless race in war;\n  Here wild Numidians hedge thee round, and Ocean\u2019s shoals;\n  While yonder lies the sandy desert parched and wild,\n  Where fierce Barc\u00e6ans range. Why need I mention Tyre\u2019s\n  Dark-looming cloud of war, thy brother\u2019s threats? For me,\n  I think that through the favor of the gods and care\n  Of Juno hath \u00c6neas drifted to our shores.\n  And to what glory shalt thou see thy city rise,\n  What strong far-reaching sway upreared on such a tie!\n  Assisted by the Trojan arms, our youthful state\n  Up to the very pinnacle of fame shall soar.\n  Then pray the favor of the gods, and give its due\n  To sacred hospitality. Lo, to thy hand\n  Is cause of dalliance, while still the blustering winds\n  Of winter sweep the sea, Orion\u2019s storms prevail,\n  Their fleet is shattered, and the frowning heavens lower.\n\nDido, during this speech, has gone to her husband\u2019s shrine. There is a\nmighty struggle in her soul between love and duty.\n\nBarce, wakened from her sleep and seeing her mistress pale and\nanguish-stricken, throws herself before her. Dido finally yields and\nreaches her trembling hand to quench the censer. The old nurse clings to\nher in terrified appeal. Dido frees herself from her. She quenches the\nflame and draws the curtain before the shrine. Old Barce sits sobbing\nbefore the darkened altar.\n\nMeanwhile the light has been changing into dawn and the sea and harbor\nbegin to be visible through the open window. Dido crosses the chamber,\nand after a moment\u2019s struggle draws back the curtains from before the\nrecess where hang the brilliant garments laid aside during her\nwidowhood. She takes down a purple mantle, and standing before a mirror,\ngirds it about her with a golden girdle.\n\nThe sound of a trumpet and the shouts of the sailors are heard in the\ndistance. Anna goes to the window, and seeing \u00c6neas and his men below on\nthe shore, draws Dido to the window. Dido gazes for a minute and then,\nfilled with her new passion, goes forth with her sister to meet \u00c6neas.\nCurtain.\n\n\n                            ACT II. SCENE 2\n\n[Illustration]\n\nA fragrant nook on Mount Ida. Across the stage at the first wing a low,\nbroad marble wall (1), forming one end of a colonnade which leads back\nto an arch (2), through which the distant sea is visible (3). The\ncolumns at the first wing (4) and the wall between them are\nover-clambered by a flowering vine, which has strewn its delicate yellow\npetals over the wall and the marble floor before it. Behind the wall (5)\na garden of brilliant blossoms, with a path leading through it to the\narch in the background. There is the pleasant sound of falling water.\n\nVenus, seated upon the low marble wall is discovered keeping watch over\nAscanius who lies asleep before her his pink body hidden in a drift of\nyellow petals. The deep blue himation, which has fallen in graceful\nfolds across the wall behind her, forms a rich contrast in color to the\ndelicate tints of the marble, of the flowers, and of her own dress of\ntender pink. Juno in a brilliant purple dress, approaching through the\ngarden, comes upon her in a fury of wrath.\n\n_Juno_ (93-104):\n\n  Fair fame, in sooth, and booty rich thou shalt obtain,\n  Thou and thy boy, a lasting name, if by the guile\n  Of two divinities one woman is o\u2019ercome!\n  Nor have I failed of late to see the jealous fear\n  In which thou holdest these our Carthaginian walls.\n  But come, in such a strife what motive can we have?\n  Nay, rather shall we not a lasting peace secure\n  By Hymen\u2019s bonds? Behold, thou hast what thou hast sought\n  With all thy soul: fair Dido burns with ardent love,\n  And feels its thrill of passion dominate her heart.\n  Then let us rule this people, thou and I, on terms\n  Of amity. Let Dido wed the Trojan prince,\n  And give to thee, as royal dowry, Tyria\u2019s lords.\n\n_Venus_ (107-114):\n\n  How mad th\u2019 opponent who would such fair terms refuse!\n  Or who would wish to strive by preference with thee!\n  If only fortune favor what thou hast proposed:\n  But of the fates am I uncertain, whether Jove\n  Be willing that the Trojan exiles and the men\n  Of Carthage reign in common and a lasting bond\n  Of amity cement. Thou art his wife. \u2018T is right\n  For thee by prayer to try his will. Do thou lead on,\n  I follow.\n\n_Juno_ (115-126):\n\n            Mine the task thou sayest. Now the way\n  In which the matter may be perfected in brief\n  Will I reveal. Do thou attend my words.\u2014The queen,\n  Unhappy Dido, and \u00c6neas, to the wood\n  Prepare to lead the hunt, when first to-morrow\u2019s sun\n  Hath reared his radiant head and with his shining beams\n  Revealed the world. On these, while beaters force the game,\n  And hem the glades with circling nets, will I a storm\n  Of rain and mingled hail pour down and rack the sky\n  From pole to pole. In all directions will they flee\n  Before the storm, and shield themselves in sheltering caves.\n  The queen and Trojan leader will together seek\n  The selfsame grot. And, if thy favoring purpose hold,\n  I shall in lasting union join and make them one.\n\nVenus assents, and, bending over the sleeping boy, shows by a satiric\nsmile that she perceives the purpose of her rival. Curtain.\n\n\n                            ACT II. SCENE 3\n\nA forest scene. Huge trees and moss-grown rocks. Across the back, a\ncliff in the face of which at the last wing on the left is the opening\nto a mighty cavern. Through the trees growing along the summit of this\ncliff, comes the shimmer of the distant sea.\n\nFar and near through all the forest, trumpets are sounding. Attendants\narmed with spears and nets, and with hounds in leash for the chase,\nhurry across the scene. Dido, Anna, \u00c6neas, Ascanius, followed by the\nentire court in brilliant array, cross the scene amid the flourish of\ntrumpets.\n\nAll the costumes are very brilliant with gold, purple, deep blue, and\nwood green. Dido is dressed in purple and gold, Anna in brown and green\nwith a leopard skin instead of a himation. \u00c6neas is in full armor. All\nthe Trojans and Carthaginians are dressed and armed for the chase.\n\nOne of the attendants has seated himself in the foreground to mend his\nbroken bow. As the sound of the trumpets grows fainter, a band of\nCarthaginian youth, hurrying to join the hunt, descry him and stop to\nlaugh at him, because he is left behind. He throws down his bow in\ndisgust, and points in the direction of the hunt with a gesture of\nimpatience.\n\n_Attendant_ (191-194):\n\n  Now look you, to our shores has come this Trojan prince\n  Whom Dido, our fair queen, has taken as her lord.\n  And now in dalliance fond the winter\u2019s days they spend,\n  Unmindful of their heaven-appointed destinies,\n  And taken in the subtle snare of base desire.\n\nApproval on the part of all the youth.\n\nMeanwhile it has grown darker, and there comes a crash of thunder. All\nflee in terror. As the storm increases, the courtiers flee across the\nscene in every direction. The trumpets are heard calling through all the\nwoods.\n\nAt last, amid the crash of thunder and the roar of the tempest, Dido and\n\u00c6neas enter, seeking a place of shelter. Discovering the cavern, they\nflee to that. Lightning flashes, the thunder roars, the wild cries of\nthe nymphs are heard.\n\nThe scene closes in almost utter darkness. Curtain.\n\n\n\n\n                                ACT III\n\n\n                            ACT III. SCENE 1\n\n[Illustration]\n\nThe temple of Jupiter Ammon in Libya. In the center of the stage an\naltar (1), raised high from the level of the stage by four broad steps\n(2). Pillars of barbaric form and decoration at the first and second\nwings (3), between which are hung curtains (4) of rich, oriental\npattern. At the second wing a wall (5) joins the two pillars. In the\ndistance (6), across a wide tract of desert, Carthage can be seen,\nshowing only as a cluster of glimmering lights except when the lightning\nflashes fitfully along the horizon. The scene is lighted only by the\nglare of the altar fire.\n\nIarbas wears a robe of scarlet worked in gold.\n\n_Iarbas_, kneeling before the altar, his face lifted defiantly upward\n(206-218):\n\n  O Jove omnipotent, to whom the Moorish race\n  From \u2018broidered couches pour their offering of wine,\n  Dost thou regard th\u2019 affairs of men? or is \u2018t in vain\n  We tremble, father, when thou hurl\u2019st thy thunderbolts?\n  And is it only aimless flashings that we fear,\n  And meaningless vain mutterings that fill the sky?\n  That vagrant queen to whom we gave within our bounds\n  A site whereon to build her town, a bit of shore\n  To till, and granted full possession of the place,\n  Hath this our suit disdained and to her realm received\n  \u00c6neas as her lord. And now that puny prince,\n  That Paris, with his train of weaklings, and his locks\n  Perfumed, bedecked and sheltered by a Phrygian cap,\n  Hath carried off the prize.\u2014And we, poor fools, bring gifts\n  Unto thy temple and adore an empty shrine!\n\nSullen mutterings of distant thunder. Curtain.\n\n\n                             SCENES 2 AND 3\n\nThe temple colonnade, as in Act I. Scene 1. \u00c6neas, surrounded by\nAchates, Ihoneus, and many other Trojans, is directing the work in the\ncity below them. He has in his hands the plan of the citadel, which he\nis tracing for his countrymen. Mercury appears upon the temple steps,\ncrosses the stage, and stands a moment behind \u00c6neas and his companions,\nunnoticed.\n\n_Mercury_, to \u00c6neas, as the Trojans turn and discover him (265-276):\n\n  And can it be that thou art building here the walls\n  Of Tyrian Carthage, and uprearing her fair towers,\n  Thou dotard, of thy realm and thy great destiny\n  Forgetful! Jove himself, the ruler of the gods,\n  Who holds the heavens and earth and moves them at his will,\n  To thee from bright Olympus straight hath sent me here.\n  He bade me bear on speeding pinions these commands:\n  What dost thou here? or with what hopes dost thou delay\n  Upon the Libyan shores? If thou, indeed, art moved\n  By no regard for thine own glorious destiny,\n  Respect at least the budding hopes of him, thy son,\n  Who after thee shall hold the scepter; for to him\n  Are due the realms of Italy, the land of Rome.\n\nWhile Mercury is giving his message, Dido, followed by her maidens,\ncomes forth from the temple, and as she catches the import of his words,\nstands horror-stricken upon the temple steps, unnoticed by \u00c6neas or his\nmen, whose faces are turned intently toward Mercury.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, overwhelmed with astonishment, aside (281-294):\n\n  O Jove, and I had near forgot my destiny,\n  To oblivion lulled amid the sweets of this fair land!\n  But now my heart\u2019s sole longing is for Italy,\n  Which waits me by the promise of the fates. But how\n  From this benumbing passion shall I free myself?\n  How face the queen and put away her clinging love?\n\nTo his attendants:\n\n  Go ye, and swiftly call the Trojans to the shore;\n  Bid them equip the vessels quickly for the sea,\n  And frame for this our sudden voyage some fitting cause.\n\nMnestheus and the others withdraw to perform his commands. \u00c6neas remains\nburied in deep thought. He turns and sees Dido standing before him. They\ngaze at each other in silence.\n\n_Dido_ (305-330):\n\n  And didst thou hope that thou couldst hide thy fell design,\n  O faithless, and in silence steal away from this\n  My land? Does not our love, and pledge of faith once given,\n  Nor thought of Dido, doomed to die a cruel death,\n  Detain thee? Can it be that under wintry skies\n  Thou wouldest launch thy fleet and urge thy onward way\n  Mid stormy blasts across the sea, O cruel one?\n  But what if not a stranger\u2019s land and unknown homes\n  Thou soughtest; what if Troy, thy city, still remained:\n  Still wouldst thou fare to Troy along the wave-tossed sea?\n  Is \u2018t I thou fleest? By these tears and thy right hand\u2014\n  Since in my depth of crushing woe I\u2019ve nothing left\u2014\n  And by our marriage bond and sacred union joined,\n  If ever aught of mercy I have earned of thee,\n  If I have ever giv\u2019n thee one sweet drop of joy,\n  Have pity on my falling house, and change, I pray,\n  Thy cruel purpose if there still is room for prayer.\n  For thee the Libyan races hate me, and my lords\n  Of Tyre; for thee my latest scruple was o\u2019ercome;\n  My fame, by which I was ascending to the stars,\n  My kingdom, fates,\u2014all these have I giv\u2019n up for thee.\n  And thou, for whom dost thou abandon me, O guest?\u2014\n  Since from the name of husband this sole name remains.\n  What wait I more? Is \u2018t till Pygmalion shall come,\n  And lay my walls in ruins, or the desert prince,\n  Iarbas, lead me captive home? O cruel fate!\n  If only ere thou fled\u2019st some pledge had been conceived\n  Of thee, if round my halls some son of thine might sport,\n  To bear thy name and bring thine image back to me,\n  Then truly should I seem not utterly bereft.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, seemingly unmoved by her appeal (333-361):\n\n  I never shall gainsay, O Queen, that thy desert\n  Can equal all and more than all that thou canst claim;\n  And ever in the days to come \u2018t will be my joy\n  Fair Dido to recall while memory serves me, while\n  My spirit animates these limbs.\u2014To thine appeal\n  A brief reply. I did not hope to leave thy shores\n  By stealth\u2014believe it or not\u2014nor yet a husbands\u2019 name\n  Have I desired, nor have I claimed the marriage bonds.\n  If under omens of my own it were ordained\n  That I should live, and lay aside at will the weight\n  Of destiny, then first of all would I restore\n  My Trojan city and the dear remains of all\n  I called my own; old Priam\u2019s royal halls would still\n  Endure, and long ago would I have built again\n  Our ruined citadel of Pergama. But now\n  To mighty Italy Apollo\u2019s oracle,\n  To Italy his lots command that I repair.\n  This is my love and this must be my fatherland.\n  If thou, though born in distant Tyre, art linked to this\n  Thy Carthage in the land of Libya, why, I pray,\n  Shouldst thou begrudge to us, the Trojan wanderers,\n  Ausonia\u2019s land? \u2018T is fate that we as well as thou\n  Should seek a foreign home. My sire Anchises\u2019 shade\n  Invades my dreams with threats and admonition stern,\n  Whene\u2019er with dewy shadows night o\u2019erspreads the earth.\n  And when I think upon Ascanius and the wrong\n  That I am bringing on his head, though innocent,\n  My heart reproaches me that I am thwarting fate,\n  Which promised him the destined fields of Italy.\n  And now the very messenger of heav\u2019n sent down\n  By Jove himself\u2014I swear by both our lives\u2014has brought\n  The mandate through the wind-swept air; I saw the god\n  Myself in open day invade thy city\u2019s walls,\n  And with these very ears I heard his warning voice.\n  Then cease to vex thyself and me with these complaints;\n  \u2018T is not of mine own will I fare to Italy.\n\n\u00c6neas, as he speaks, has become as one seeing in vision the glorious\nfuture of his race. Dido, who has stood with averted face and scornful\nlook, now turns upon him, in a passion of grief and rage.\n\n_Dido_ (365-387):\n\n  Thou art no son of Venus, nor was Dardanus\n  The ancient founder of thy race, thou faithless one:\n  But Caucasus with rough and flinty crags begot,\n  And fierce Hyrcanian tigers suckled thee. For why\n  Should I restrain my speech, or greater evil wait?\n  Did he one sympathetic sigh of sorrow heave?\n  Did he one tear let fall, o\u2019er-mastered by my grief?\n  Now neither Juno, mighty queen, nor father Jove\n  Impartial sees; for faith is everywhere betrayed.\n  That shipwrecked beggar in my folly did I take\n  And cause to sit upon my throne; I saved his fleet,\n  His friends I rescued\u2014Oh, the furies drive me mad!\n  Now \u2018t is Apollo\u2019s dictate, now the Lycian lots,\n  And now \u201cthe very messenger of heaven sent down\n  By Jove himself\u201d to bring this mandate through the air!\n  A fitting task is that for heaven\u2019s immortal lords!\n  Such cares as these disturb their everlasting calm!\n  I seek not to detain nor answer thee; sail on\n  To Italy, seek fated realms beyond the seas.\n  For me, if pious prayers can aught avail, I pray\n  That thou amid the wrecking reefs mayst drain the cup\n  Of retribution to the dregs and vainly call\n  Upon the name of Dido. Distant though I be,\n  With fury\u2019s torch will I pursue thee, and when death\n  Shall free my spirit, will I haunt thee everywhere.\n  O thou shalt meet thy punishment, perfidious one:\n  My soul shall know, for such glad news would penetrate\n  The lowest depths of hell.\u2014\n\nShe works herself up to a frenzy, and as she finishes she turns to leave\nhim with queenly scorn, staggers, and falls. Her servants carry her from\nthe scene, leaving \u00c6neas in agony of soul, struggling between love and\nduty. Curtain.\n\n\n\n\n                                 Act IV\n\n\n                            ACT IV. SCENE 1\n\nDido\u2019s chamber as in Act II. Scene 1. Anna sits in the foreground,\nspinning. The old nurse, Barce, is bustling about, hanging up her\nmistress\u2019 brilliant robes, which she has cast aside for her old mourning\ngown of simple white. Dido is seated at the latticed window watching the\nTrojans in the harbor below prepare for their departure. She is weeping.\n\n_Barce_, coming cautiously to Anna so that Dido may not hear (416-418):\n\n  Behold, how eagerly the Trojans launch their ships.\n  In their mad zeal they hurry timbers from the woods,\n  Unhewn and rough, from which to shape their masts and oars,\n  While from the city shoreward rush the fleeing men.\n\nThe shouts of the sailors are heard. Dido groans. Anna, hastily putting\naside her work, goes to her sister, whose face is buried in her hands.\nBarce takes up the spinning, stopping at times to wipe her eyes.\n\n_Dido_, lifting her face to her sister (416-418):\n\n  Thou seest, Anna, how they haste from every side,\n  And how the bustle of departure fills the shore.\n  The vessels float, the swelling sails salute the breeze,\n  And now the sailors crown the sterns with festive wreaths!\n\nShe gives way to her tears.\n\n_Anna_, caressing her sister:\n\n  Alas, my sister, for thy sighs and grieving tears,\n  Thy love abandoned and thy trusting faith betrayed!\n\n_Dido_ (419-434):\n\n  If this great grief in expectation I have borne,\n  Then truly shall I patience have to bear it still.\n  But, sister, grant me in my woe this one request\u2014\n  For yonder faithless one was wont to cherish thee\n  Alone, and trust to thee his heart; and thou alone\n  Dost know the fav\u2019ring time and method of approach\n  To try the man:\u2014go, sister, and in suppliant strain\n  Address our haughty foe: I took no oath with Greece\n  At wind-swept Aulis to o\u2019erthrow the Trojan State,\n  Nor did I send a hostile fleet to Pergama,\n  Nor desecrate the sacred ashes of his sire,\n  That now he should refuse to bend his ear to me.\n  Go, say his hapless lover makes this last request:\n  That he wait an easy voyage and a fav\u2019ring gale.\n  No longer do I ask a husband\u2019s love denied,\n  Nor yet that he abandon his fair land and realm;\n  Time, only time, I ask, a little space of rest\n  From this mad grief, till Fortune give me fortitude,\n  And teach me how to bear my woe.\n\n_Anna_, preparing to go (412):\n\n                                    O love betrayed,\n  To what despair dost thou not drive the hearts of men?\n\n                                                              Exit Anna.\n\nDido, at the window, watches her sister as she takes her way down to the\nharbor. When she can no longer see her in the gathering twilight, she\nturns with a sigh to her chamber.\n\nThe old nurse, Barce, totters to her. Dido places her head wearily on\nthe old woman\u2019s shoulder. Barce, drawing her to a couch, tries to soothe\nher. Dido starts up in terror, as if she saw some fearful shape. She\nflees before it to her husband\u2019s shrine, and is only recalled from the\nfancy when she finds the curtains drawn before it.\n\nBarce comes tremblingly to her. Dido in bitter remorse draws the\ncurtains from the shrine and kneels before it. Barce hurries away and\nsoon returns with a lighted candle, which she brings to her mistress.\nDido lights the censer. Curtain.\n\n\n                            ACT IV. SCENE 2\n\nThe same chamber in Dido\u2019s palace. The shrine of Sych\u00e6us is adorned with\nflowers; fire glows on the altar. Barce sits spinning at one side.\n\nDido is pacing the room with fierce energy. She goes to the window from\ntime to time, then renews her fierce walking to and fro. Suddenly she\npresses her hand to her head as if a new thought had come to her. Her\nface assumes an expression of cunning. She picks up a golden goblet, and\nwith a gesture to the old woman sends her to fill it.\n\nWhen Barce has gone, Dido stealthily but quickly takes \u00c6neas\u2019 sword from\nthe wall, and, seating herself, with trembling fingers draws it from its\nscabbard. She feels the edge, shrinking in terror at the thought of her\nintended suicide. With a shudder, she presses the cold blade against her\nneck.\n\nAs she is thus meditating, her sister is heard coming. Dido quickly\nconceals the sword beneath the draperies of the couch. She assumes an\nair of gayety, kissing her sister and drawing her to a seat.\n\n_Dido_ (478-498):\n\n  I\u2019ve found a way, my sister\u2014give me joy\u2014to bring\n  Him back to me, or free me from the love of him.\n  Hard by the confines of the Ocean in the west\n  The \u00c6thiop country lies, where mighty Atlas holds\n  Upon his giant shoulders heaven\u2019s vault, all set\n  With stars. There dwells a priestess skilled in magic art,\n  Of the Massylian race, and guardian of the shrine\n  Of the Hesperides; her care, the dragon huge\n  To which she offers honeydew and soothing herbs,\n  The while she guards the precious boughs.\u2014She claims the power\n  At will to free the soul from sorrow with her charms,\n  Or burden it with care; to stop the rapid stream,\n  And backward roll the stars; the shades of darkness too\n  Can she awake, and at her bidding shalt thou hear\n  The rumbling earth beneath thy feet, and see the trees\n  Descend the mountain slopes.\u2014I swear it by the gods\n  And thee, unwillingly I seek the magic art.\n  Do thou within the palace rear a lofty pyre,\n  And place upon its top the faithless hero\u2019s arms\n  Which in his flight he left within our halls, yea all\n  That he has left, and then our wedding couch, my cause\n  Of woe, my heart is set to banish every trace\n  Of that perfidious one, and this the priestess bids.\n\nAnna assents to her plan and hurries away to execute it. Dido quickly\ntakes the sword from its hiding-place and in tremulous haste hangs it\nagain upon the wall. Barce enters. Dido turns, fearing detection, but\nseeing that the old nurse has not suspected her, she takes the cup in\nher trembling fingers and drains it. Curtain.\n\n\n                            ACT IV. SCENE 3\n\nDido\u2019s chamber, night. Dido is seated in the moonlight that streams\nthrough the open casement. A band of maidens, clad in white, are singing\nsoftly to her.\n\n_Chorus of maidens_ (apropos of 522-528):\n\n                         [For music, see p. 81]\n\n  \u2018T is eve; \u2018t is night; a holy quiet broods\n  O\u2019er the mute world\u2014winds, waters are at peace;\n  The beasts lie couch\u2019d amid unstirring woods,\n  The fishes slumber in the sounds and seas;\n  No twitt\u2019ring bird sings farewell from the trees.\n  Hushed is the dragon\u2019s cry, the lion\u2019s roar;\n  Beneath her glooms a glad oblivion frees\n  The heart from care, its weary labors o\u2019er,\n  Carrying divine repose and sweetness to its core.\n\n                                                   [Selected from Tasso]\n\nThey quietly withdraw. Dido is convulsed with weeping.\n\n_Dido_ (529-532; 534-552):\n\n  But not for me, unhappy one, this night\u2019s sweet calm;\n  My cares redouble and o\u2019erwhelm me with their flood.\n\nShe leaves the window and paces the room.\n\n  Ah me, what shall I do? My former suitors seek\n  And be again rejected? Shall I humbly court\n  Numidia\u2019s lords whose suit I have so often scorned?\n  Or shall I rather follow haughty Ilium\u2019s fleet,\n  Submissive to their every will?\u2014Because in sooth,\n  \u2018T is sweet to be delivered, and my former aid\n  Still dwells within their faithful memory? But who,\n  Though I should wish it, would permit me, or receive\n  The hated Dido in their haughty ships? Ah, poor,\n  Deluded one, dost thou not know, dost thou not still\n  Perceive the frailty of a Trojan oath? What then?\n  Shall I forsake my kingdom and accompany\n  The joyful sailors, or with all my Tyrian bands\n  Around me, follow in pursuit and force again\n  My friends upon the deep and bid them spread their sails,\n  My comrades whom with pain I weaned from Sidon\u2019s halls?\n  Nay, nay! as thou deservest, die, and with the sword\n  Thy sorrows end. O why was it not given me\n  To spend my life from wedlock and its sorrows free,\n  As beasts within their forest lairs? Or why, alas,\n  Was not my promise to Sych\u00e6us\u2019 ashes kept?\n\nShe sprinkles incense on the flame at the shrine of Sych\u00e6us. Dawn begins\nto brighten. The sailors are heard singing in the distance. Dido starts.\nShe rushes to the window, and looking out, sees the Trojan fleet sailing\naway over the sea. She cries out in frenzy.\n\n_Dido_ (590-629):\n\n  Ye gods! and shall he go, and mock our royal power?\n  Why not to arms and send our forces in pursuit,\n  And bid them hurry down the vessels from the shore?\n  Ho there, my men, quick, fetch the torches, seize your arms,\n  And man the oars!\u2014What am I saying? where am I?\n  What madness turns my brain? O most unhappy queen,\n  Is it thus thy evil deeds are coming back to thee?\n  Such fate was just when thou didst yield thy scepter up.\u2014\n  Lo, _there \u2018s_ the fealty of him who, rumor says,\n  His country\u2019s gods with him in all his wandering bears\n  And on his shoulders bore his sire from burning Troy!\n  Why could I not have torn his body limb from limb,\n  And strewed his members on the deep? and slain his friends,\n  His son Ascanius, and served his mangled limbs\n  To grace his father\u2019s feast?\u2014Such conflict might have had\n  A doubtful issue.\u2014Grant it might, but whom had I,\n  Foredoomed to death, to fear? I might have fired his camp,\n  His ships, and wrapped in common ruin father, son,\n  And all the race, and given myself to crown the doom\n  Of all.\u2014O Sun, who with thy shining rays dost see\n  All mortal deeds; O Juno, who dost know and thus\n  Canst judge the grievous cares of wedlock; thou whom wild\n  And shrieking women worship through the dusky streets,\n  O Hecate; and ye avenging Furies;\u2014ye,\n  The gods of failing Dido, come and bend your power\n  To these my woes and hear my prayer. If yonder wretch\n  Must enter port and reach his land decreed by fate,\n  If thus the laws of Jove ordain, this order holds:\n  But, torn in war, a hardy people\u2019s foeman, far\n  From friends and young Iulus\u2019 arms, may he be forced\n  To seek a Grecian stranger\u2019s aid, and may he see\n  The death of many whom he loves. And when at last\n  A meager peace on doubtful terms he has secured,\n  May he no pleasure find in kingdom or in life;\n  But may he fall untimely, and unburied lie\n  Upon some solitary strand. This, this I pray,\n  And with my latest breath this final wish proclaim.\n  Then, O my Tyrians, with a bitter hate pursue\n  The whole accurs\u00e8d race, and send this to my shade\n  As welcome tribute. Let there be no amity\n  Between our peoples. Rise thou from my bones,\n  O some avenger, who with deadly sword and brand\n  Shall scathe the Trojan exiles, now, in time to come,\n  Whenever chance and strength shall favor. Be our shores\n  To shores opposed, our waves to waves, and arms to arms,\n  Eternal, deadly foes through all posterity.\n\nThe servants rush in terrified during her passionate speech, and as she\nutters her curse, stand cowering before her. She dismisses with a\ngesture all except old Barce, who approaches her mistress.\n\n(634-640):\n\n  Go, bring my sister Anna hither, dearest nurse:\n  In flowing water bid her haste to bathe her limbs,\n  And bring the rightful sacrifices of the flock.\n  So let her come. And thou with pious fillets gird\n  Thy temples; for to Stygian Jove my mind is fixed\n  To carry on the magic sacrifice begun,\n  And end my cares, and to devouring flames consign\n  The relics of that cursed son of Dardanus.\n\nBarce totters away to do her bidding. Dido takes \u00c6neas\u2019 mantle and sword\nfrom the wall, and unsheathes the sword.\n\n(651-662):\n\n  Sweet pledges of my lord, while fate and god allowed,\n  Accept this soul of mine, and free me from my cares.\n  For I have lived and run the course that Fortune set;\n  And now my stately soul to Hades shall descend.\n  A noble city have I built; my husband\u2019s death\n  Have I avenged, and on my brother\u2019s head my wrath\n  Inflicted. Happy, ah too happy, had the keels\n  Of Troy ne\u2019er touched my shores!\u2014And shall I perish thus?\u2014\n  But let me perish. Thus, oh thus, \u2018t is sweet to seek\n  The land of shadows.\u2014May the heartless Trojan see,\n  As on he fares across the deep, my blazing pyre,\n  And bear with him the gloomy omens of my death.\n\nShe rushes forth from the chamber in her frenzy. The sailors\u2019 chorus is\nrepeated fainter and fainter. In a moment her death cry is heard. The\nservants rush in, and finding their mistress gone, hasten in the\ndirection of her cry. Their lamentation is heard. They return bearing\nthe body of the queen upon a couch. She has fainted, and upon her bosom\nthe wound shows red and terrible. Anna enters, beside herself with\ngrief.\n\n_Anna_, kneeling beside the couch, addresses Dido, who revives enough to\nsmile upon her sister (676-685):\n\n  Was it for this, O sister, thou didst seek to hide\n  Thy heart from me? Was this the meaning of the pyre,\n  And this the altar fires? What plaint in my despair\n  Shall I offer first? And didst thou spurn me, in thy death?\n  Thou shouldst instead have bidden me to share thy fate;\n  The selfsame moment should have reft the lives of both.\n  And with these impious hands did I thine altar rear,\n  And with this voice unto our country\u2019s gods appeal,\n  That, heartless, I might fail thee in this final hour?\n  O sister, here hast thou destroyed thyself and me,\n  Thy people, thy Sidonian fathers and thy realm.\n  With soothing water let me bathe her flowing wounds,\n  And if there hovers on her lips the fleeting breath,\n  With my own lips I claim it in the kiss of death.\n\nThe sailors\u2019 chorus sounds in the distance. Aroused by this, the dying\nqueen half raises herself upon the couch. The servants throw open the\ncasement and the Trojan ships are seen far away, sailing off over the\nsea.\n\nDido falls back lifeless. Curtain.\n\n\n\n\n                                 MUSIC\n\n\n\n\n                                 SONGS\n\n\n                                                                    PAGE\n PRELUDE                                                              57\n\n  The authors are indebted to Professor A. A. Stanley of the University\n             of Michigan for the accompaniment to this air.\n\n HYMN TO THE DAWN                                                     61\n\n INVOCATION                                                           69\n\n SONG OF IOPAS                                                        72\n\n SLUMBER SONG                                                         81\n\n\n\n\n                                PRELUDE\n\n\n                To be sung in unison before the curtain.\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n                            HYMN TO THE DAWN\n\n  ACT I. SCENE 1\n\n                                          Chorus of Carthaginian Maidens\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n                               INVOCATION\n\n                             ACT I. SCENE 3\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n                             SONG OF IOPAS\n\n  ACT I. SCENE 3\n\n                                Adapted from Chopin, Nocturne in G minor\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n                              SLUMBER SONG\n\n  ACT IV. SCENE 3 Chorus of Maidens\n\n                                      Words from Tasso; Ger. Lib. II. 96\n\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\n                                   II\n                            The Fall of Troy\n\n\n  Illustrious Troy! renown\u2019d in every clime\n  Through the long records of succeeding time;\n  Who saw protecting gods from heaven descend\n  Full oft, thy royal bulwarks to defend.\n  Though chiefs unnumber\u2019d in her cause were slain,\n  With fate the gods and heroes fought in vain;\n  That refuge of perfidious Helen\u2019s shame\n  At midnight was involved in Grecian flame;\n  And now, by time\u2019s deep ploughshare harrow\u2019d o\u2019er,\n  The seat of sacred Troy is found no more.\n  No trace of her proud fabrics now remains,\n  But corn and vines enrich her cultured plains.\n\n                                                  FALCONER, _Shipwreck_.\n\n\n\n\n                        THE PERSONS OF THE DRAMA\n\n\n  \u00c6NEAS, son of Anchises and Venus, son-in-law of Priam, and, since the\n     death of Hector, the leader of the Trojan war-chiefs.\n\n  PRIAM, king of Troy, now enfeebled by age.\n\n  ANCHISES, the aged father of \u00c6neas.\n\n  LAOCO\u00d6N, a son of Priam and priest of Apollo.\n\n  PANTHUS, a Trojan noble, priest of Apollo.\n\n  COR\u0152BUS, a Phrygian noble, ally of Priam, in love with Cassandra.\n\n  THE GHOST OF HECTOR.\n\n  ASCANIUS, son of \u00c6neas and Cre\u00fcsa (silent).\n\n  VENUS, the goddess of love, mother of \u00c6neas.\n\n  HECUBA, wife of Priam.\n\n  CRE\u00dcSA, wife of \u00c6neas.\n\n  CASSANDRA, daughter of Priam, reputed to be mad.\n\n  PYRRHUS, son of Achilles, leader of the Greeks in their final attack\n     upon Troy.\n\n  SINON, a Greek tool, through whose treachery the Trojans were induced\n     to admit the wooden horse within their walls.\n\n  ANDROGEOS, a Greek chieftain.\n\n  TROJAN warriors, nobles, and commons, shepherds, priestly attendants,\n     boys, women, etc.\n\n  GREEK warriors.\n\n\n\n\n                                 ACT I\n\n\n\n\n                            The Fall of Troy\n\n\n                             ACT I. SCENE 1\n\nThe plain in front of Troy; the city walls; the sea; and, in the\ndistance, Tenedos. Morning, without the gates. Joyful crowds of men,\nwomen, and children pour through the open doors. They gather about the\nstrange wooden horse which stands without, and excitedly inquire what it\nmeans, and what shall be done with it. Thymoetes voices the sentiment of\none party that it should be taken within the walls and set upon the\ncitadel; while Capys and his adherents urge that they should examine the\nmystery where it stands, and destroy it. Great confusion reigns. The\nsentiment of Thymoetes seems about to prevail (26-39).\n\nEnter Laoco\u00f6n, running, followed by a band of priestly attendants, and\nshouting while still at some distance.\n\n_Laoco\u00f6n_ (42-49):\n\n  What madness, wretched citizens, is this?\n  Can you believe your enemies have fled,\n  Or can you think that any gifts of Greeks\n  Are innocent of guile? So have you learned\n  To judge Ulysses? No, within this horse\n  The crafty Greeks are lying even now,\n  Or else its towering bulk has been contrived\n  To give them spying place upon our homes,\n  Or chance to scale our city\u2019s battlements.\n  Be sure some dark design is hidden here.\n  Trust not the horse, my friends; whate\u2019er it is,\n  I fear the Greeks, though armed with gifts alone.\n\nHe hurls his spear, which sticks fast in the wooden horse and stands\nquivering there.\n\n\n                                SCENE 2\n\nEnter Trojan shepherds, dragging in a man bound with thongs. They\napproach the king. The bystanders jibe at and mock the captive. The\nunknown stands as if bewildered and distraught, and at last cries\n(69-72):\n\n  Where now, alas, can I a refuge find\n  On land or sea? What chance of life remains\n  For one who can no longer claim a place\n  Among the Greeks? and now his bloody death\n  The vengeful sons of Dardanus demand.\n\nThe Trojans in wonder and with growing pity urge him to explain himself.\nHe at last proceeds, having with an apparent effort regained his self\ncontrol (77-104):\n\n  All things and truly will I tell to thee,\n  O king, whatever comes, nor will I seek\n  To hide that I am Grecian born. This first;\n  For though in woe my fate has plunged me deep\n  It shall not make me false and faithless too.\n  If any chance report has touched your ears\n  With Palamedes\u2019 name, great Belus\u2019 son,\n  Whom, though he was all innocent of guile,\n  Yet still, because his voice was ever raised\n  Against the war, by accusations false\n  The Greeks condemned, and sent to gloomy death;\n  But whom they now with fruitless grief lament:\n  To him my sire, while yet the war was young,\n  By poverty impelled, consigned his son\n  To serve the prince, by double ties endeared\n  Of blood and comradeship\n                            While he in power\n  And in the councils of the kings stood high,\n  I, too, by his reflected light, enjoyed\n  Both name and fair renown. But when at last,\n  Through false Ulysses\u2019 murderous hate and guile,\n  (I speak what you do know), his death was wrought;\n  In deep distress, in darkness and in woe\n  I spent my days, and mourned the hapless fate\n  Of my poor friend. And, maddened by my grief,\n  I would not hold my peace, but loudly swore,\n  That if the fates of war should bring me back\n  As victor to my native land of Greece,\n  I should full vengeance take; and by my words\n  Dire hatred \u2018gainst my luckless self I roused.\n  Here was the fountain source of all my woes;\n  From now Ulysses, crafty enemy,\n  Began to spread vague hints among the Greeks,\n  Prefer strange charges, and to seek some cause\n  Against me, conscious in his heart of guilt.\n  Nor did he rest, until by Calchas\u2019 aid\u2014\n  But why do I rehearse this senseless tale\n  To heedless ears? Or wherefore should I seek\n  To stay your hands, if \u2018tis enough to hear\n  That I am Greek, and in your hostile minds\n  All Greeks are judged alike.\n                                Come, glut your hate\n  Upon me. For Ulysses would rejoice\n  To know that I am dead, and Atreus\u2019 sons\n  Would gladly purchase this with great reward.\n\nHere the stranger pauses in seeming despair and resignation to his fate.\nThe Trojans urge him to go on with his story. He resumes (108-144):\n\n  Full oft the Greeks, in utter weariness\n  Of that long siege, desired to abandon Troy,\n  And seek their homes again. Oh, that they had!\n  But whensoe\u2019er they addressed them to the sea,\n  Rough wintry blasts and storms affrighted them.\n  And when this horse, of wooden timbers framed,\n  Completed stood, a votive offering,\n  The winds from every quarter of the heavens\n  Howled threateningly. To seek the will of Heaven,\n  The anxious Greeks despatch Eurypylus\n  To Ph\u0153bus\u2019 oracle. He straight reports\n  Apollo\u2019s mandate grim and terrible:\n  \u201cBefore, O Greeks, ye sailed to Troia\u2019s shores,\n  Ye first had need to appease the angry winds\n  With bloody sacrifice\u2014a maiden\u2019s death\n  E\u2019en so, by blood must your return be sought;\n  Again must Grecian life atonement make.\u201d\n  When this dire oracle among the crowd,\n  From ear to ear, from lip to lip was spread,\n  They stood with horror stunned, and chilling fear\n  Their inmost hearts with dire forebodings filled.\n  They trembling ask for whom the fates prepare,\n  Whom does Apollo seek in punishment?\n  Then comes the Ithacan with clamor loud,\n  The prophet Calchas dragging in our midst,\n  And bids with charge insistent that he tell\n  The will of heaven. And now from many lips\n  The grim forebodings of Ulysses\u2019 guile\n  Assail my ears, while all in silence wait\n  To see the end. Ten days the seer was mute,\n  Hid in his tent, refusing steadily\n  By word of his to doom a man to death.\n  At length, his feigned reluctance at an end,\n  And goaded by Ulysses\u2019 clamors loud,\n  He spoke, and named me as the sacrifice.\n  All gave assent; and while each feared a doom\n  Which might befall himself, they calmly bore\n  When on my wretched head they saw it light.\n  And now the day of horror was at hand.\n  All things were ready for the sacrifice;\n  The salted meal was sprinkled on my head,\n  And round my brows the fatal fillets twined.\n  Then, I confess it, did I break my bonds.\n  I fled from death and in the sedgy reeds\n  Along the muddy margin of a lake\n  All night I lay in hiding, hoping there\n  To lurk until their homeward sails were spread.\n  And now my country dear I ne\u2019er shall see,\n  My darling children and my aged sire\n  Whose face I long to see. But they are doomed\n  To pay the penalty which I escaped,\n  And by their death repair this fault of mine.\n  But by the gods above, divinities\n  Who with impartial eyes behold the truth,\n  If anywhere there still abides with men\n  Unsullied faith, I beg you, pity me\n  Who have endured so dire a weight of woe,\n  A soul that has been foully overborne.\n\nThe Trojans are moved to tears by this tale of woe; and Priam bids the\nchains be stricken from him. He then addresses the prisoner with\nfriendly words.\n\n_Priam_ (148-151):\n\n  Whoe\u2019er thou art, away with thoughts of Greeks.\n  Be man of ours. And, as I question thee,\n  Give true reply. What means this monster horse?\n  Who first proposed, and what its purpose here?\n  Is it some votive gift, or does it stand\n  Against our walls as enginery of war?\n\nSinon stretches his freed hands to the heavens. He speaks excitedly and\nas one inspired.\n\n_Sinon_ (154-194):\n\n  O ye eternal fires, be witness now,\n  Ye heavenly stars, divine, inviolate,\n  Ye cursed knives, and altars which I fled,\n  Ye fillets which as victim doomed I wore:\n  \u2018Tis right for me to break all sacred oaths\n  Which bound me to the Greeks; \u2018tis right to hate,\n  And blab their secrets to the common air.\n  I\u2019ll not be held by any ties of land\n  Or law. Do thou but keep thy promises,\n  O Troy, and, saved by me, keep plighted faith,\n  If I with truth shall make thee rich returns.\n\nRecovering himself, he goes on more quietly, and with an air of perfect\nsincerity.\n\n  The Greeks\u2019 whole hope and confidence in war\n  Had rested from the first on Pallas\u2019 aid.\n  But from the time when godless Diomede,\n  And that curst Ithacan, expert in crime,\n  Dared desecrate the goddess\u2019 sacred fane,\n  Dared drag her mystic image forth, and kill\n  Her faithful guard, and on her virgin locks\n  Lay bloody, lustful hands unconsecrate:\n  From then their hopes kept ebbing back and back,\n  Their powers were shattered and their goddess\u2019 aid\n  Denied. And she with no uncertain signs\n  Revealed at once her outraged deity.\n  Scarce had the sacred image reached the camp,\n  When glittering flames blazed from the staring eyes,\n  And salty perspiration down her limbs\n  Went streaming; and, oh wonderful to say,\n  Thrice from the ground, accoutered as she was\n  With shield and quivering spear, the image leaped.\n  Straitway did Calchas prophecy that all\n  Must forth again in flight upon the sea;\n  That Troy could never by Argolic arms\n  Be overthrown, save as they back again\n  To sacred Argos fared and there regained\n  That heavenly favor which they first had brought\n  To Ilium.\n            And now have they indeed\n  Gone back to Greece, to seek fresh auspices,\n  And win once more the blessing of the gods.\n  And soon, and suddenly, the sea retraced,\n  Will they be here again. So Calchas bade.\n  Meanwhile, by that same prophet warned, did they\n  This wooden image fashion to appease\n  Th\u2019 offended goddess, and atonement make\n  To her outraged divinity. And more\u2014\n  The prophet bade them form an image huge\n  Of oaken beams, of such proportions vast\n  That through no gate of Troy could it be led,\n  Nor set within the walls, lest thus once more\n  The people from their ancient deity\n  Protection find. For if Minerva\u2019s gift\n  Should by your hands be desecrated, then\n  Would dreadful doom (Heaven send it on _their_ heads)\n  Upon old Priam and his Phrygians come;\n  But if within your walls this sacred horse\n  Should by your voluntary hands be set,\n  Then would all Asia rise with one accord,\n  And sweep in mighty war against the Greeks,\n  And that dire doom upon our grandsons fall.\n\n\n                                SCENE 3\n\nThe Trojans are entirely satisfied with this explanation and treat Sinon\nwith respectful consideration. At this juncture, two huge serpents come\nup out of the sea, and, while the people flee shrieking away on all\nsides, they make their way to Laoco\u00f6n where he stands sacrificing at the\naltar, and enfold him and his two sons in their deadly coils (195-227).\n\n\n                                SCENE 4\n\nGreat excitement follows. People say that Laoco\u00f6n has perished justly,\nsince he impiously violated the sacred horse, and loudly demand that the\ncreature be taken within the walls (228-249):\n\n_A voice from the crowd_:\n\n  Oh, dreadful punishment, but well deserved,\n  For with his impious spear he smote the oak,\n  The sacred wood to Pallas consecrate.\n\n_Another voice_:\n\n  Now haste we and within our city lead\n  This horse portentous, and with humble prayer\n  Minerva\u2019s aid and pardoning favor seek.\n\nThey hastily enlarge the gate, attach ropes to the horse, and put\nrollers under its feet, many willing hands lay hold of the ropes and\npull the horse along. Boys and girls dance and sing around the workers.\nThe horse sticks at the threshold of the gate, and Cassandra, who has\nbeen looking on as one entranced, cries out forebodingly.\n\n_Cassandra_:\n\n  O fatherland! O Ilium, home of gods!\n  Ye walls of Troy, in war illustrious!\n  See there, upon the threshold of the gate,\n  The monster halts\u2014again\u2014and yet again!\n  And from its rumbling hold I hear the sound\n  Of clashing arms! O Troy! O fatherland!\n\nBut the people, not heeding her, press on and disappear within the city\nwalls with the wooden horse, on the way to the citadel. Everywhere are\nheard sounds of delirious joy.\n\n\n\n\n                                 ACT II\n\n\n                            ACT II. SCENE 1\n\nNight. The chamber of \u00c6neas. He lies sleeping calmly upon his couch.\nEnter Ghost of Hector, wan and terrible, bearing in his hands the sacred\nimages of the Penates.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, starting up to a sitting posture, as if talking in a dream\n(281-286):\n\n  O light of Troy, O prop of Trojan hopes,\n  What slow delays have held thee from our sight,\n  O long awaited one? Whence com\u2019st thou here?\n  We see thee now, with hardships overborne,\n  But only after many of thy friends\n  Have met their doom, and after struggles vast\n  Of city and of men.\u2014But what, alas,\n  Has so defiled thy features? Whence these wounds\n  And horrid scars I see?\n\n_Hector_, with deep sighs and groans (289-295):\n\n                          Oh, get thee hence,\n  Thou son of Venus, flee these deadly flames.\n  Our foemen hold the walls; our ancient Troy\n  Is fallen from her lofty pinnacle\n  Enough for king and country has been done;\n  If Troy could have been saved by any hand,\n  This hand of mine would have defended her.\n  But now to thee she trusts her sacred gods\n  And all their sacred rites; take these with thee\n  As comrades of thy fates; seek walls for these,\n  Which, when the mighty deep thou hast o\u2019ercome,\n  Thou shalt at length in lasting empire set.\n\nHe makes as if to give the sacred images to \u00c6neas, and vanishes.\n\nA confused sound of distant shouting and clashing of arms fills the\nroom. \u00c6neas leaps from his couch, now fully awake, and stands with\nstrained and attentive ears. The truth dawns upon him as the sounds grow\nclearer, and as he can see from his window the red flames of burning\nTroy. He snatches up his arms and is rushing from the room when Panthus\nhurries in bearing sacred images in his hands and leading his little\ngrandson.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (322):\n\n  My friend, where lies the battle\u2019s central point?\n  What stronghold do we keep against the foe?\n\n_Panthus_ (324-335):\n\n  The last, the fated day of Troy is come.\n  The mighty glory of the Trojan state\n  Is of the past, and we, alas, no more\n  May call ourselves of Ilium; for lo,\n  The cruel gods have given all to Greece,\n  And foemen lord it in our blazing town;\n  The great horse stands upon our citadel,\n  And from his roomy side pours armed men;\n  While Sinon, gloating o\u2019er his victory,\n  With blazing torch is busy everywhere.\n  Down at the double gates still others press\n  For entrance, all Mycen\u00e6\u2019s clamorous hosts,\n  And weapons thick beset the narrow streets.\n  In battle order stand the long drawn lines\n  Of gleaming steel prepared for deadly strife.\n  Scarce do the sturdy watchmen of the gates\n  Attempt to hold their posts against the foe,\n  But in the smothering press fight blindly on.\n\nAt this, \u00c6neas joins Panthus and together they rush out into the city.\n\n\n                                SCENE 2\n\nA street of Troy, lit by the moonlight and the glare of burning\nbuildings. Trojans rush in from different sides and rally to \u00c6neas.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (348-354):\n\n  O comrades, O ye hearts most brave in vain,\n  If you have steadfast minds to follow one\n  On desperate deeds intent, you see our case:\n  The gods, who long have buttressed up our state,\n  Have fled their sacred altars and their shrines,\n  And left us to our fate. You seek to aid\n  A city wrapped in flames. Then let us die\n  And in the midst of death our safety find:\n  Our safety\u2019s single hope\u2014to hope for none.\n\nThe little band hurries off toward the noise of battle in neighboring\nstreets. Enter from the other direction straggling bands of Greeks,\ndrunk with victory. They burn and pillage on all sides, temples and\nhomes alike. Re-enter Trojans led by \u00c6neas. Androgeos, a Greek, thinking\nthem to be Greeks, goes up to them.\n\n_Androgeos_ (373-375):\n\n  Now haste ye, men; what time for sloth is this?\n  The rest on fire and pillage are intent,\n  While you but now address you to the task.\n\nAndrogeos suddenly perceives that these are foes, and is struck dumb\nwith amazement. The Trojans rush upon him and slay him together with the\nothers of his band.\n\n_Cor\u0153bus_, one of \u00c6neas\u2019 band, exultingly (387-391):\n\n  O friends, where kindly fortune first doth show\n  The path of safety, let us follow there.\n  With these slain Greeks let us our shields exchange,\n  Their helms and breastplates let us don, and so\n  In all things seem as Greeks. When foemen strive,\n  Who questions aught of trickery or might?\n  Our foes against themselves shall lend us arms.\n\nThey exchange arms with the dead Greeks. Thus arrayed, they mingle with\nthe parties of Greeks who straggle in, and slay them. The Greeks, not\nunderstanding this strange turn of affairs, flee away in terror. This\naction is repeated at intervals several times.\n\nEnter a band of Greeks led by Ajax, the Atrid\u00e6, and others, dragging\nCassandra roughly along by the hair. Her hands are tied with thongs.\nCor\u0153bus, though the odds are overwhelmingly against him, rushes in to\nsave his beloved Cassandra. The other Trojans, because of their disguise\nof Greek armor, are attacked by their own friends stationed at near by\npoints of vantage, and now the Greeks themselves, recognizing the ruse\nat last, overwhelm the little Trojan band by force of numbers. Other\nGreeks pour in from all sides and add their testimony that these are\nTrojans. In the desperate encounter many of the Trojans fall.\n\n\u00c6neas performs Herculean feats of arms, and slays many Greeks, but is\nhimself unhurt. At last he and a few followers escape into a street\nleading to Priam\u2019s palace, whence loud and continued shouting can be\nheard.\n\n\n                                SCENE 3\n\nAt Priam\u2019s palace (viewed from without), desperately attacked by Greeks\nand defended by Trojans. (_a_) The assailants attempt by scaling ladders\nto mount to the flat, turreted roof of the palace, while the defendants\nhurl down upon these darts and stones, and pry off whole towers which\nfall with a mighty crash. The air is filled with the thunderous noise of\nthese falling masses and with the other confused shouts and sounds of a\ndesperate conflict.\n\n(_b_) Pyrrhus with a strong band of Greeks is endeavoring to batter down\nthe gates of the palace at its main entrance.\n\n\n                                SCENE 4\n\nPriam\u2019s palace from within. All is confusion and terror. Women rush from\nroom to room, with disheveled hair streaming, and with cries of wild\ndespair. A crowded mass of men are attempting to defend the main\nentrance. Overhead can be seen and heard the defenders on the roof\nopposing the attack from without.\n\nIn the central open court of the palace, upon the steps of a great altar\novershadowed by a laurel tree, Hecuba and a group of women have seated\nthemselves, huddling there in the hope of protection from the sanctity\nof the altar. Suddenly old Priam comes out into the court, hurriedly\nadjusting his armor.\n\n_Hecuba_, calling to him (519-524):\n\n  What dost thou there, of reason all bereft,\n  O wretched husband? What avail those arms?\n  Or whither speedest thou with tottering steps?\n  Such aid and such defense as thou canst give\n  Cannot avail us now, nor Hector\u2019s self,\n  Could he come back to us. Come hither then;\n  These sacred altar stairs shall shield us all,\n  Or in their sight will we together die.\n\nPriam joins the women at the altar.\n\n  But see, Polites comes, by Pyrrhus pressed;\n  Through hostile arms, through halls and colonnades,\n  He flees alone in sore distress of wounds,\n  While Pyrrhus follows hard with deadly aim.\n  And now, Oh, now he grasps and thrusts him through.\n\nPolites falls dead at the feet of Priam and Hecuba.\n\n_Priam_, springing up and facing Pyrrhus (535-543):\n\n  For that base crime of thine, that impious deed,\n  I pray the gods, if there are gods in heaven\n  Who care for men, to grant thee dire return,\n  And give thee what thou hast so richly earned.\n  For thou hast slain my son before my face,\n  And with his blood defiled his father\u2019s eyes.\n  But that Achilles, whom thou falsely claim\u2019st\n  As sire, did not so treat his royal foe,\n  But held in reverence the sacred laws.\n  My Hector\u2019s corpse he gave for burial\n  And sent me back in safety to my home.\n\nHe hurls his spear with feeble strength at Pyrrhus. The spear sticks\nineffectually in the opposing shield.\n\n_Pyrrhus_, scornfully (547-550):\n\n  Then bear this message to my noble sire:\n  Fail not to tell him all my impious deeds,\n  And how unworthy has his Pyrrhus proved.\n  Now die.\n\nHe drags the old man to the altar and slays him there. Exit Pyrrhus,\nleaving the bloody corpse of the old man upon the ground. The women are\ncarried off as prisoners by the Greeks who now come thronging in.\n\n\n                                SCENE 5\n\nIn the now deserted palace near the shrine of Vesta. Helen is lurking\nfor protection within the shrine.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, passing by and seeing Helen (577-587):\n\n  Shall this, the common scourge of friend and foe,\n  Unscathed, behold her native land again?\n  Her husband, home, her sire and children see?\n  Shall she as conquering queen go proudly back,\n  Attended by a throng of Trojan slaves?\n  Shall Troy have burned for this, old Priam die,\n  And all the Trojan plain have reeked with blood?\n  It shall not be. No fame, I know, is earned\n  By woman\u2019s punishment; such victory\n  Has little praise; but yet I shall be praised\n  For having utterly destroyed this wretch,\n  And on her head inflicted vengeance dire.\n  It will be sweet to feed my passion\u2019s flame,\n  And satisfy the ashes of my friends.\n\nHe is rushing into the shrine with drawn sword when suddenly Venus\nappears before him.\n\n_Venus_ (594-620):\n\n  What grief inflames thee to this boundless wrath?\n  What madness this, my son? And whither, pray,\n  Has fled thy care for us? Bethink thee, first,\n  Where thou hast left thy father, spent with age;\n  Whether thy wife, Cre\u00fcsa, still survives;\n  Bethink thee of Ascanius thy son.\n  For they are hemmed about on every side\n  By hostile Greeks; but for my shielding care,\n  Already would the flames have swept them off,\n  And swords of enemies have drunk their blood.\n  \u2018Tis not the beauty of the Spartan queen\n  That should arouse thy hate, nor shouldst thou blame\n  Thy kinsman, Paris; for the cruel gods,\n  The gods, I say, have laid thy city low,\n  And overthrown the lofty walls of Troy.\n  Behold\u2014for I will straight remove the mist\n  Which, dense and clinging, clouds thy mortal sight;\n  Do thou but be obedient to my words;\u2014\n  Here, where thou seest huge masses overthrown,\n  Rocks torn from rocks, commingled smoke and dust,\n  Great Neptune with his trident\u2019s fearful stroke\n  Causes the walls to rock upon their base.\n  Here Juno, first of all, with savage mien,\n  Besets the Sc\u00e6an gates, and, girt with steel,\n  In fury calls her allies from the ships.\n  Now turn thine eyes unto the citadel,\n  And there behold Tritonian Pallas stand,\n  All blazing with the war-cloud\u2019s lurid glare,\n  And that fell Gorgon\u2019s head. Nay Jove himself\n  Inspires the Greeks with courage, gives them strength,\n  And whets the gods against the Trojans\u2019 arms.\n  Betake thee then to flight and end thy toils.\n  For I will never leave thee, till at last\n  I bring thee safely to thy father\u2019s house.\n\n\u00c6neas, overcome by these revelations, and resigned to fate, retires.\n\n\n\n\n                                ACT III\n\n\n                            ACT III. SCENE 1\n\nThe _atrium_ in the palace of \u00c6neas. The aged Anchises lies prone upon\nthe couch. Cre\u00fcsa, Ascanius, and other members of the household are\nhuddled together in the same room, listening in awestruck silence to the\nconfused sounds of battle without. The room is lit by the red glare of\nburning buildings. Enter \u00c6neas, breathless with his haste.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, going up to his father and attempting to lift him in his arms\n(635, 636):\n\n  O father, all is lost; come, flee with me,\n  While still the fates and angry gods allow;\n  Come, let me bear thee on my shoulders broad\n  Unto the shelter of Mount Ida\u2019s slopes.\n\n_Anchises_, resisting (637-649):\n\n  If all is o\u2019er, and Troy is in the dust,\n  Why should I wish to prolong this worthless life\n  In exiled wanderings? Turn ye to flight,\n  Who feel the blood of youth within your veins,\n  Whose sturdy powers still flourish in their prime.\n  If heavenly gods had wished me still to live,\n  They would have saved this home wherein to dwell.\n  Enough and more, that I have seen one fall\n  Of Troy, and once outlived my captured town.\n  Then, even as I lie in seeming death,\n  Address my lifeless body and be gone.\n  I\u2019ll quickly gain the boon of death I seek:\n  The enemy will pity me and slay,\n  Or else will slay me for my noble spoils.\n  As for the loss of burial due the dead,\n  \u2018Twill not be hard to bear. Too long on earth\n  I spend my useless years, abhorred of heaven,\n  Since when the sire of gods and king of men\n  Blasted my body with his lightning\u2019s breath,\n  And marked me with his scorching bolt of flame.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ and all the household join in entreating Anchises to go with\nthem (651-653):\n\n  The heavy hand of fate is on us all,\n  But do not thou, O father, seek to add\n  To this our weight of sorrow, and o\u2019erthrow\n  Our fortunes utterly.\n\nBut the old man stubbornly persists in his refusal.\n\n_\u00c6neas_, seeing his father immovable (656-670):\n\n  And didst thou think that I could leave thee here,\n  O father, and betake myself to flight?\n  And has such monstrous utterance as this\n  Fall\u2019n from a father\u2019s lips? If heaven has willed\n  That nothing from this city vast survive,\n  And if thy mind is firmly set to die,\n  And \u2018tis thy pleasure to our ruined Troy\n  To add thyself and all thy family\u2014\n  The door to that destruction opens wide\n  Soon Pyrrhus will be here, his murderous hands\n  Reeking with Priam\u2019s blood, who slays the son\n  Before his father\u2019s eyes, and eke the sire\n  Upon the sacred altar\u2019s very steps\n  Was it for this that thou, through sword and flame,\n  O fostering mother, didst deliver me,\n  That midst the very sanctities of home\n  I should behold the foe, that I should see\n  Ascanius, my father, and my wife\n  All weltering in one another\u2019s blood?\n  Nay rather, arms! My men, in haste bring arms!\n\nAttendants bring him his sword and shield which he hurriedly fits in\nplace.\n\n  The last day calls the vanquished to their death.\n  Let me go forth to meet the Greeks again,\n  Once more sustain the desperate battle shock.\n  We shall not all in helpless slaughter die.\n\n\u00c6neas is rushing toward the door, when Cre\u00fcsa intercepts him, pushing\ntoward him their little son, Ascanius.\n\n_Cre\u00fcsa_, kneeling (675-678):\n\n  If thou art going forth to seek thy death,\n  Oh, take us, too, with thee to share thy fate;\n  But if thy wisdom bids thee still to hope\n  In sword and shield, here make thy final stand,\n  And guard thy home. To whose protection, pray,\n  Is young Iulus left, to whose thy sire?\n  To whom can I, once called thy wife, appeal?\n\nSuddenly a tongue of flame is seen to leap and play among the locks of\nthe boy. His parents, in consternation, attempt to extinguish this, but\nto no effect.\n\n_Anchises_, seeing the portent, starts up with wondering joy, stretching\nhis hands upward in prayer (689-691):\n\n  O Jove, if thou art moved by any prayer,\n  Look on us now; this only do I ask;\n  And, if our piety deserves the boon,\n  Help us, O father, and confirm these signs.\n\nA sudden crash of thunder resounds without, and through the open\nimpluvium a bright star is seen shooting across the sky.\n\n_Anchises_, rising from his couch in trembling haste (701-704):\n\n  Now, now is no delay; I\u2019ll follow thee,\n  O son, wherever thou wouldst have me go.\n  O gods, on whom our fatherland depends,\n  Preserve my house, preserve my grandson too.\n  From you has come this heavenly augury,\n  And on your will divine does Ilium rest.\n  I yield me then, O son, into thy hands.\n  And would no more refuse to go with thee.\n\nMeanwhile from without the glare of the conflagration increases, and the\nshouting of the victorious Greeks is heard approaching nearer and\nnearer.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (707-720):\n\n  Come then, dear father, mount upon my back,\n  For on my shoulders will I carry thee,\n  Nor will I find that burden overhard.\n  Whatever comes, \u2018twill come to both of us,\n  We\u2019ll share misfortune and deliverance too.\n\nHe takes the old man upon his shoulders, first spreading over his back a\nlion\u2019s skin.\n\n  Let young Iulus fare along with me,\n  But at a distance let my wife note well\n  The way I take. And ye, attendants, hark\n  To what I say. Without the city walls\n  There is a mound, where stands an ancient fane\n  Of Ceres, all alone, a cypress tree\n  Of ancient stock, preserved with reverent care\n  For many generations, overhangs\n  The temple walls. Be this our meeting place\n  To which by devious ways in many bands\n  We all shall come.\n  Do thou, my father, carry in thy hands\n  The sacred emblems and our household gods;\n  For me, late come from strife, and stained with blood,\n  \u2018Twere sacrilege to touch the holy things,\n  Till I have cleansed me in some running stream.\n\nWith his father upon his shoulders and leading Iulus by the hand he\ntakes his way out of the house. The household follows, leaving the room\ndeserted.\n\n\n                                SCENE 2\n\nA dark street near the Ida gate. \u00c6neas, Anchises, and Ascanius as\nbefore. Suddenly through the darkness there comes the distant sound of\nfeet and shouting as of pursuers.\n\n_Anchises_, peering in the direction of the sound (733, 734):\n\n  Oh, speed thy steps, my son; the foe are near;\n  I see their gleaming shields and flashing spears.\n\nAt this \u00c6neas hastens his steps and leaves the scene, his band hurrying\nafter him.\n\n\n                                SCENE 3\n\nAt the ancient temple of Ceres without the walls. The fugitives come\nstraggling in in various bands, a motley array, \u00c6neas and his immediate\nfollowers among the rest. \u00c6neas watches them as they come and gather\nabout him, counting and identifying them. He now discovers that Cre\u00fcsa\nis missing.\n\n_\u00c6neas_ (738-748):\n\n  Alas, Cre\u00fcsa, by what wretched fate\n  Hast thou been overwhelmed? Where art thou now?\n  Hast wandered from the way, or, spent with toil,\n  Hast thou given o\u2019er the journey? Woe is me!\n  My eyes shall never more behold thy face!\n  What god or man is guilty of this crime?\n  Or what more cruel deed have I beheld\n  In all our stricken town?\n\nTo his friends:\n\n                            Behold, my friends,\n  To you my son and sire and household gods\n  Do I commend, while I reseek the streets\n  And ruined dwellings of our fallen Troy,\n  If haply I may find her once again.\n\nHe puts on his full armor, and rushes back through the dark gate into\nthe city.\n\n\n                                SCENE 4\n\nA deserted street in Troy, lit up fitfully by smoldering fires. \u00c6neas\nenters, peering through the gloom on all sides, and calling loudly upon\nthe name of his wife. Suddenly a shadowy form appears before him.\n\n_The Ghost of Cre\u00fcsa_ (776-789):\n\n  What boots it to indulge this storm of grief,\n  O dearest husband? For be sure of this,\n  That not without permission of the gods\n  Have these things come to pass. \u2018Twas not allowed\n  That thy Cre\u00fcsa should go hence with thee,\n  Nor does Olympus\u2019 ruler suffer it.\n  To distant lands, long exiled must thou roam,\n  Must plow the water of the vasty deep,\n  Until thou come to that far western land,\n  Where Lydian Tiber\u2019s gently murmuring stream\n  Rolls down through rich and cultivated fields.\n  There joyful state and kingdom wait for thee,\n  There one who is allotted for thy wife.\n  Then dry the tears which now affection sheds\n  For thy well-loved Cre\u00fcsa, once thy wife;\n  For \u2018tis not mine to see the haughty seats\n  Of Myrmidonian or Dolopian foes;\n  Nor shall I go to serve the Grecian dames,\n  Proud princess of Dardania that I am,\n  By marriage made the child of Venus\u2019 self.\n  But Cybele, great mother of the gods,\n  Detains me still upon these Trojan shores.\n  Then look thy last upon me, and farewell,\n  And let our common son employ your love.\n\n\u00c6neas starts forward with a cry to embrace the ghost, but it eludes his\ngrasp and vanishes from sight. He sorrowfully turns away and leaves the\nscene.\n\n\n                                SCENE 5\n\nThe gray dawn breaks; Mount Ida looms dimly in the distance; the exiles\na weary, discouraged band of men, women, and children, take their way\nout into the unknown world.\n\n\n                         PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.\n\n\n\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's note:\n\n 1. Silently corrected simple spelling, grammar, and typographical\n    errors.\n\n 2. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.","title":"Two Dramatizations from Vergil: I. Dido\u2014the Ph\u0153necian Queen; II. The Fall of Troy","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":17894}