Yet thinks my mind that this is Priamus;

And when my grieved heart sighs and says no,
Then would it leap out to give Priam life:
O were I not at all, so thou might'st be!
Achates, see, King Priam wags his hand;
He is alive; Troy is not overcome!

ACHA. Thy mind, Æneas, that would have it so, Deludes thy eye-sight; Priamus is dead.

EN. Ah, Troy is sack'd, and Priamus is dead; And why should poor Eneas be alive?

ASCA. Sweet father, leave to weep, this is not he :

For were it Priam, he would smile on me.

ACHA. Æneas, see, here come the citizens;
Leave to lament, lest they laugh at our fears.
Enter CLOANTHUS, SERGESTUS, and ILIONEUS.
EN. Lords of this town, or whatsoever style
Belongs unto your name, vouchsafe of ruth
To tell us who inhabits this fair town,
What kind of people, and who governs them:
For we are strangers driv'n on this shore,
And scarcely know within what clime we are.
ILIO. I hear Eneas' voice, but see him not,
For none of these can be our general.

ACHA. Like Ilioneus speaks this nobleman,
But Ilioneus goes not in such robes.
SERG. You are Achates, or I deceiv'd.
ACHA. Æneas, see Sergestus, or his ghost.
ILIO. He names Eneas; let us kiss his feet.
CLOAN. It is our captain, see Ascanius.

SERG. Live long Eneas and Ascanius!
EN. Achates, speak, for I am overjoy'd,
ACHA. O, Ilioneus, art thou yet alive?
ILIO. Blest be the time I see Achates' face.
CLOAN. Why turns Eneas from his trusty friends?
EN. Sergestus, Ilioneus, and the rest,

Your sight amaz'd me: O, what destinies

Have brought my sweet companions in such plight? O, tell me, for I long to be resolv'd.

ILIO. Lovely Æneas, these are Carthage walls, And here Queen Dido wears th' imperial crown; Who, for Troy's sake, hath entertain'd us all, And clad us in these wealthy robes we wear. Oft hath she ask'd us under whom we serv'd, And when we told her, she would weep for grief, Thinking the sea had swallow'd up thy ships; And now she sees thee, how will she rejoice. SERG. See, where her servitors pass through the hall Bearing a banquet; Dido is not far.

ILIO. Look where she comes: Æneas, view her well. EN. Well may I view her, but she sees not me. Enter DIDO and her Train.

DIDO. What stranger art thou, that dost eye me thus?

EN. Sometime I was a Trojan, mighty queen: But Troy is not ;-what shall I say I am?

ILIO. Renowned Dido, 'tis our general, warlike Æneas.

DIDO. Warlike Eneas! and in these base robes?

Go, fetch the garment which Sicheus wore:

Brave prince, welcome to Carthage and to me
Both happy that Eneas is our guest:

Sit in this chair, and banquet with a queen ;
Eneas is Æneas, were he clad

In weeds as bad as ever Irus wore.

EN. This is no seat for one that's comfortless: May it please your grace to let Æneas wait; For though my birth be great, my fortune's mean, Too mean to be companion to a queen DIDO Thy fortune may be greater Sit down, Eneas, sit in Dido's place, And if this be thy son, as I suppose, Here let him sit; be merry, lovely child.

than thy birth:

EN. This place beseems me not; O, pardon me.
DIDO. I'll have it so; Eneas, be content.

ASCA. Madam, you shall be my mother.

DIDO. And so I will, sweet child: be merry, man, Here's to thy better fortune and good stars.

EN. In all humility, I thank your grace.

DIDO. Remember who thou art, speak like thyself; Humility belongs to common grooms.

EN. And who so miserable as Eneas is?

DIDO. Lies it in Dido's hands to make thee blest?

Then be assur'd thou art not miserable.

Es. O Priamus, O Troy, O Hecuba!

DIDO. May I entreat thee to discourse at large, And truly too, how Troy was overcome? For many tales go of that city's fall, And scarcely do agree upon one point:

Some say Antenor did betray the town;
Others report 'twas Sinon's perjury;
But all in this, that Troy is overcome,
And Priam dead; yet how, we hear no news.
EN. A woeful tale bids Dido to unfold,
Whose memory, like pale death's stony mace,
Beats forth my senses from this troubled soul,
And makes Eneas sink at Dido's feet.

DIDO. What! faints Eneas to remember Troy, In whose defence he fought so valiantly?

Look up, and speak.

EN. Then speak, Eneas, with Achilles' tongue!
And Dido, and you Carthaginian peers,
Hear me but yet with Myrmidons' harsh ears,
Daily inur'd to broils and massacres,

Lest you be mov'd too much with my sad tale.
The Grecian soldiers, tir'd with ten years' war,
Began to cry," Let us unto our ships,
Troy is invincible, why stay we here?"
With whose outcries Atrides being appall'd,
Summon'd the captains to his princely tent;
Who, looking on the scars we Trojans gave,
Seeing the number of their men decreas'd,
And the remainder weak, and out of heart,
Gave up their voices to dislodge the camp,
And so in troops all march'd to Tenedos ;
Where, when they came, Ulysses on the sand
Assay'd with honey words to turn them back:
And as he spoke, to further his intent,

The winds did drive huge billows to the shor

And heaven was darken'd with tempestuous clouds:
Then he alleg'd the gods would have them stay,
And prophecied Troy should be overcome :
And therewithal he call'd false Sinon forth,
A man compact of craft and perjury,
Whose 'ticing tongue was made of Hermes' pipe,
To force a hundred watchful eyes to sleep :
And him, Epeus having made the horse,
With sacrificing wreaths upon his head,
Ulysses sent to our unhappy town,

Who, grov'ling in the mire of Zanthus' banks,
His hands bound at his back, and both his eyes
Turn'd up to heaven, as one resolv'd to die,
Our Phrygian shepherds hal'd within the gates,
And brought unto the court of Priamus;
To whom he us'd actions so pitiful,
Looks so remorseful, vows so forcible,

As therewithal the old man, overcome,

Kiss'd him, embrac'd him, and unloos'd his bands, And then,-O Dido, pardon me.

DIDO. Nay, leave not here; resolve me of the rest. EN. Oh! the enchanting words of that base slave, Made him to think Epeus' pine-tree horse

A sacrifice t' appease Minerva's wrath ;
The rather, for that one Laocoon,

Breaking a spear upon his hollow breast,

Was with two winged serpents stung to death.
Whereat, aghast, we were commanded straight,
With reverence, to draw it into Troy;

In which unhappy work was I employ'd: