The Tragedie of Dido Queene of Carthage: Played by the Children of her Maiesties Chappell. Marlowe, and Thomas Nash. Gent.
At London, Printed, by the Widdowe Orwin, for Thomas Woodcocke, and are to be solde at his shop, in Paules Churchyeard, at the signe of the blacke Beare.
JUPITER.
GANYMEDE.
HERMES.
ACHATES.
ILIONEUS.
CLOANTHUS.
SERGESTUS.
Other Trojans.
IARBAS.
TRAGEDY OF DIDO, QUEEN
DIDO, QUEEN OF CARTHAGE.
Here the curtains draw: there is discovered JUPITER dandling
GANYMEDE upon his knee, and HERMES* lying asleep.
Jup. Come, gentle Ganymede, and play with
I love thee well, say Juno what she will.
Gan. I am much better for your worthless love,
That will not shield me from her shrewish blows!
To-day, whenas + I fill'd into your cups,
And held the cloth of pleasance whiles you
drank,
She reach'd me such a rap for that I spill'd,
As made the blood run down about mine ears.
Jup. What, dares she strike the darling of my
thoughts?
Grace my immortal beauty with this boon,
And I will spend my time in thy bright arms.
Jup. What is't, sweet wag, I should deny thy
youth?
Whose face reflects such pleasure to mine eyes,
As I, exhal'd with thy fire-darting beams,
Have oft driven back the horses of the Night,
Whenas they would have hal'd thee from my
sight.
Sit on my knee, and call for thy content,
Control proud Fate, and cut the thread of Time:
Why, are not all the gods at thy command,
And heaven and earth the bounds of thy delight?
Vulcan shall dance to make thee laughing-sport,
And my nine daughters sing when thou art sad;
From Juno's bird I'll pluck her spotted pride,
By Saturn's soul, and this earth-threatening To make thee fans wherewith to cool thy face; hair,+
And Venus' swans shall shed their silver down,
That, shaken thrice, makes nature's buildings To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed;
I vow, if she but once frown on thee more,
Hermes no more shall shew the world his wings
If that thy fancy in his feathers dwell,
To hang her, meteor-like, 'twixt heaven and But, as this one, I'll tear them all from him, earth,
And bind her, hand and foot, with golden cords,
As once I did for harming Hercules !
Gan. Might I but see that pretty sport a-foot,
O, how would I with Helen's brother laugh,
And bring the gods to wonder at the game!
Sweet Jupiter, if e'er I pleas'd thine eye,
Or seemed fair, wall'd-in with eagle's wings, §
[Plucks a feather from HERMES' wings.
Do thou but say, "their colour pleaseth me."
Hold here, my little love; these linked gems,
[Gives jewels.
My Juno ware upon her marriage-day,
Put thou about thy neck, my own sweet heart,
And trick thy arms and shoulders with my
theft.*
Gan. I would havet a jewel for mine ear,
And a fine brooch to put in my hat,
And then I'll hug with you an hundred times.
Jup. And shalt + have, Ganymede, if thou
wilt be my love.
Ven. Ay, this is it: you can sit toying there,
And playing with that female wanton boy,
Whiles my Æneas wanders on the seas,
And rests a prey to every billow's pride.
Juno, false Juno, in her chariot's pomp,
Drawn through the heavens by steeds of Boreast
brood,
Made Hebe to direct her airy wheels
Into the windy country of the clouds ;
Where, finding Æolus entrench'd with storms,
And guarded with a thousand grisly ghosts,
She humbly did beseech him for our bane,
And charg'd him drown my son with all his
train.
Then gan the winds break ope their brazen doors,
And all Æolia to be up in arms:
Poor Troy must now be sack'd upon the sea,
And Neptune's waves be envious men of war;
Epeus' horse, to Ætna's hill transform'd,
Prepared stands to wreck their wooden walls;
And Eolus, like Agamemnon, sounds
The surges, his fierce soldiers, to the spoil:
See how the night, Ulysses-like, comes forth,
And intercepts the day, as Dolon erst !
Ay, me! the stars suppris'd, like Rhesus' steeds,
Are drawn by darkness forth Astræus' tents.§
What shall I do to save thee, my sweet boy?
Whenas || the waves do threat our crystal world,
And Proteus, raising hills of floods on high,
Intends, ere long, to sport him in the sky.
False Jupiter, reward'st thou virtue so?
What, is not piety exempt from woe? |
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Then die, Æneas, in thine innocence, Since that religion hath no recompense.
Jup. Content thee, Cytherea, in thy care,
Since thy Eneas' wandering fate is firm,
Whose weary limbs shall shortly make repose
In those fair walls I promis'd him of yore.
But, first, in blood must his good fortune bud,
Before he be the lord of Turnus' town,
Or force her smile that hitherto hath frown'd:
Three winters shall he with the Rutiles war,
And, in the end, subdue them with his sword;
And full three summers likewise shall he waste
In managing those fierce barbarian minds;
Which once perform'd, poor Troy, so long sup-
press'd,
From forth her ashes shall advance her head,
And flourish once again, that erst was dead.
But bright Ascanius, beauty's better work,
Who with the sun divides one radiant shape,
Shall build his throne amidst those starry
towers
That earth-born Atlas, groaning, underprops:
No bounds, but heaven, shall bound his empery,
Whose azur'd gates, enchasèd with his name,
Shall make the Morning haste her grey uprise, ↑
To feed her eyes with his engraven fame.
Thus, in stout Hector's race, three hundred years
The Roman sceptre royal shall remain,
Till that a princess-priest, conceiv'd by Mars,
Shall yield to dignity a double birth,
Who will eternish Troy in their attempts.
Ven. How may I credit these thy flattering
When yet both sea and sands beset their ships,
And Phœbus, as in Stygian pools, refrains
To taint his tresses in the Tyrrhene main +?
Jup. I will take order for that presently.— Hermes, awake! and haste to Neptune's realm, Whereas the wind-god, warring now with fate,
* conceiv'd] i. e. become pregnant. (So in the fourth line of the next speech but two, "the heavens, conceiv'd with hell-born clouds.")
"Donec regina sacerdos Marte gravis geminam partu dabit Ilia prolem." Virgil,-En. i. 273.
(Here the modern editors print,
"Till that a princess, priest-conceiv'd by Mars"!!) + To taint his tresses in the Tyrrhene main] Here taint does not mean-stain, sully, but is equivalent to-dip, bathe. In Sylvester's Du Bartas we meet with nearly as violent an expression;
"In Rhines fair streams to rinse his amber tresses." The Colonies, p. 129, ed. 1641; where the original French has merely,
"Va dans les eaux du Rhin ses blonds cheveux lavant." Whereas] i. e. where.
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