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Thus greets him. Thou dissembler,wouldst thou my arms by stealth perfidiously? Could not the hand I plighted, nor the love, Nor thee the fate of dying Dido, move? And in the depth of winter, in the night, • Dark as thy black designs, to take thy flight, To plough the raging seas to coasts unknown, The kingdom thou pretend'st to not thine own! 'Were Troy restor'd, thou shouldst mistrust a wind False as thy vows, and as thy heart unkind. 30 Fly'st thou from me? By these dear drops of brine I thee adjure, by that right hand of thine, < By our espousals, by our marriage-bed, "If all my kindness aught have merited; 'If ever I stood fair in thy esteem,

From ruin me and my lost house redeem.
6 Cannot my pray'rs a free acceptance find?
Nor my tears soften an obdurate mind?
My fame of chastity, by which the skies
I reach'd before, by thee extinguish'd dies.
Into my borders now Iarbas falls,

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And my revengeful brother scales my walls; The wild Numidians will advantage take; For thee both Tyre and Carthage me forsake. "Hadst thou before thy flight but left with me 45 A young Eneas, who, resembling thee, Might in my sight have sported, I had then • Not wholly lost, nor quite deserted been; By thee, no more my husband, but my guest, Betray'd to mischiefs, of which death's the least.'

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With fixed looks he stands, and in his breast,51TM By Jove's command, his struggling care supprest. Great Queen! your favours and deserts so great, 'Tho' numberless, I never shall forget;

6 No time, until myself I have forgot,

'Out of my heart Eliza's name shall blot : But my unwilling flight the gods enforce,

'And that must justify our sad divorce.
'Since I must you forsake, would Fate permit
To my desires I might my fortune fit,
'Troy to her ancient splendour I would raise,}
"And where I first began would end my days.
'But since the Lycian Lots and Delphic god
'Have destin'd Italy for our abode;

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Since you proud Carthage (fied from Tyre) ' enjoy,

Why should not Latium us receive from Troy? 'As for my son, my father's angry ghost

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'Tells me his hopes by my delays are crost. And mighty Jove's ambassador appear'd 'With the same message, whom I saw and heard; "We both are griev'd when you or I complain, 'But much the more when all complaints are vain : 'I call to witness all the gods, and thy

" Beloved head, the coast of Italy

'Against my will I seek.'

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Whilst thus he speaks she rolls her sparkling eyes, Surveys him round, and thus incens'd replies: Thy mother was no goddess, nor thy stock · From Dardanus, but in some horrid rock,

• Perfidious wretch! rough Caucasus thee bred, 89 And with their milk Hyrcanian tigers fed. 'Dissimulation I shall now forget,

And my reserves of rage in order set,

Could all my pray'rs and soft entreaties force Sighs from his breast, or from his looks remorse.85 • Where shall I first complain? can mighty Jove < Or Juno such impieties approve?

The just Astrea sure is fled to hell,

*Nor more in earth nor heav'n itself will dwell. "Oh, Faith! him on my coasts by tempest cast, 90 Receiving madly, on my throne I plac'd: His men from famine and his fleet from fire C I rescu'd: now the Lycian Lots conspire

• With Phoebus; now Jove's envoy thro' the air Brings dismal tidings, as if such low care

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"Could reach their thoughts, or theirrepose disturb! Thou art a false impostor, and a fourbe. 'Go, go, pursue thy kingdom thro' the main: I hope, if Heav'n her justice still retain, • Thou shalt be wreck'd, or cast upon some rock, "Where thou the name of Dido shalt invoke: 101 I'll follow thee in fun'ral flaines: when dead My ghost shall thee attend at board and bed: And when the gods on thee their vengeance show, • That welcome news shall comfort me below.' 105 This saying, from his hated sight she fled, Conducted by her damsels to her bed: Yet restless she arose, and looking out, Beholds the fleet, and hears the seamen shout

DENHAM.

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When great Æneas pass'd before the guard, 110
To make a view how all things were prepar'd.
Ah! cruel Love! to what dost thou enforce
Poor mortal breasts! Again she hath recourse
To tears and pray'rs, again she feels the smart
Of a fresh wound from his tyrannic dart.
That she no ways nor means may leave untry'd,
Thus to her sister she herself apply'd:
'Dear sister! my resentment had not been
So moving, if this fate I had foreseen;
Therefore to me this last kind office do;
Thou hast some int'rest in our scornful foe;
He trusts to thee the counsels of his mind,
'Thou his soft hours and free access canst find:
'Tell him I sent not to the Ilian coast

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'My fleet to aid the Greeks; his father's ghost 125 'I never did disturb: ask him to lend "To this the last request that I shall send, 'A gentle ear; I wish that he may find 'A happy passage and a prosp'rous wind: "That contract I don't plead which he betray'd 130 "Nor that his promis'd conquest be delay'd; All that I ask is but a short reprieve, Till I forget to love, and learn to grieve: Some pause and respite only I require, 'Till with my tears I shall have quench'd my fire. If thy address can but obtain one day 'Or two, my death that service shall repay." Thus she entreats; such messages with tears Condoling Anne to him, and from him, bears:

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But him no pray'rs, no arguments, can move; 140 The Fates resist; his ears are stopp'd by Jove. As when fierce northern blasts from th' Alps. descend,

From his firm roots with struggling gusts to rend An aged sturdy oak, the rattling sound

Grows loud, with leaves and scatter'd arms the ground

Is overlaid, yet he stands fix'd; as high

As his proud head is rais'd towards the sky, = So low t'wards hell his roots descend.

pray'rs

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With

And tears the hero thus assail'd, great cares
He smothers in his breast, yet keeps his post, 150
All their addresses and their labour lost.

Then she deceives her sister with a smile:
Anne, in the inner court erect a pile;

Thereon his arms and once-lov'd portrait lay:
Thither our fatal marriage-bed convey;

All cursed monuments of him with fire
'We must abolish, (so the gods require.")
She gives her credit for no worse effect
Than from Sichæus' death she did suspect,
And her commands obeys.

Aurora now had left Tithonus' bed,

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And o'er the world her blushing rays did spread.
The queen beheld, as soon as day appear'd,
The navy under sail, the haven clear'd:

Thrice with her hand her naked breast she knocks,
And from her forehead tears her golden locks, 166