________________________________________________
_ [
Here the Curtaines draw, there is discovered Jupiter dandling Ganymede upon his knee, and Mercury lying asleep.]
JUPITER
Come gentle Ganymede and play with me,
I love thee well, say Juno what she will.
GANYMEDE
I am much better for your worthless love,
That will not shield me from her shrewith blows:
To day when as I filled into your cups,
And held the cloath of pleasance whiles you drank,
She reacht me such a rap for that I spilled,
As made the blood run down about mine ears.
JUPITER
What? dares she strike the darling of my thoughts?
By Saturnes soul, and this earth threatning air,
That shaken thrise, makes Natures buildings quake,
I vow, if she but once frown on thee more,
To hang her meteor like twixt heaven and earth,
And bind her hand and foote with golden cordes,
As once I did for harming Hercules.
GANYMEDE
Might I but see that prety sport a foote,
O how would I with Helens brother laugh,
And bring the Gods to wonder at the game:
Sweet Jupiter, if ere I pleasde thine eye,
Or seemed fair walled in with Eagles wings,
Grace my immortall beauty with this boon,
And I will spend my time in thy bright arms.
JUPITER
What ist sweet wagge 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.
When as they would have hal'd thee from my sight:
Sit on my knee, and call for thy content,
Controule proud Fate, and cut the thred of time,
Why are not all the Gods at thy command,
And heaven and earth the bounds of thy delight?
_Vulcan_ shall daunce to make thee laughing sport,
And my nine Daughters sing when thou art sad,
From Juno's bird I'll pluck her spotted pride,
To make thee fannes wherewith to coole thy face,
And Venus Swannes shall shed their silver down,
To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed:
Hermes no more shall shew the world his wings,
If that thy fancie in his feathers dwell,
But as this one I'll tear them all from him,
do thou but say their colour pleaseth me:
Hold here my little love these linked gems,
My Juno ware upon her marriage day,
Put thou about thy neck my owne sweet heart,
And tricke thy arms and shoulders with my theft.
GANYMEDE
I would have a iewell for mine eare,
And a fine brouch to put in my hat,
And then I'll hugg with you an hundred times.
JUPITER
And shall have Ganymede, if thou wilt be my love.
[Enter Venus.]
VENUS.
I this is it, you can sit toying there,
And playing with that female wanton boy,
Whiles my Aeneas wanders on the Seas,
And rests a pray to every billows pride.
Juno, false Juno in her Chariots pompe,
Drawne through the heavens by steads of Boreas brood,
Made Hebe to direct her airy wheels
Into the windy country of the clouds,
Where finding AEolus intrencht with storms,
And guarded with a thousand grisly ghosts,
She humbly did beseech him for our bane,
And charg'd him drowne my son with all his train.
Then gan the winds break ope their brazen doores,
And all AEolia to be up in arms:
poor Troy must now be sacked upon the Sea,
And Neptunes waves be envious men of war,
Epeus horse to AEtnas hill transformd,
Prepared stands to wracke their woodden walls,
And AEolus 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 Starres supprisde like Rhesus steads,
Are drawne by darknes forth Astraeus tents.
What shall I do to save thee my sweet boy?
When as the waves do threat our Chrystall world,
And Proteus raising hils of floods on high,
Intends ere long to sport him in the sky.
False Jupiter, rewardst thou virtue so?
What? is not piety exempt from woe?
Then die Aeneas in thine innocence,
Since that religion hath no recompence.
JUPITER
Content thee Cytherea in thy care,
Since thy Aeneas wandring fate is firme,
Whose weary lims shall shortly make repose,
In those fair walls I promist 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 hetherto hath frownd:
Three winters shall he with the Rutiles war,
And in the end subdue them with his sword,
And full three Sommers likewise shall he waste,
In mannaging those fierce barbarian minds:
Which once performd, poor Troy so long supprest,
From forth her ashes shall aduance her head,
And flourish once again that erst was dead:
But bright Ascanius beauties better worke,
Who with the Sun devides one radiant shape,
Shall build his throne amidst those starry towers,
That earth-borne Atlas groning underprops:
No bounds but heaven shall bound his Empery,
Whose azured gates enchased with his name,
Shall make the morning halt her gray uprise,
To feede her eyes with his engraven fame.
Thus in stoute Hectors race three hundred years,
The Romane Scepter royall shall remain,
Till that a Princesse priest conceived by Mars,
Shall yeeld to dignity a dubble birth,
Who will eternish Troy in their attempts.
VENUS.
How may I credite these thy flattering termes,
When yet both sea and sands beset their ships,
And Phoebus as in stygian pools, refrains
To taint his tresses in the Tyrrhen main?
JUPITER
I will take order for that presently:
Hermes awake, and haste to Neptunes realm,
Whereas the Wind-god warring now with Fate,
Besiege the ofspring of our kingly loynes,
Charge him from me to turn his stormy powers,
And fetter them in Vulcans sturdy brasse,
That durst thus proudly wrong our kinsmans peace.
Venus farewell, thy son shall be our care:
Come Ganymede, we must about this gear.
[Exeunt Jupiter cum Ganymede.]
VENUS.
Disquiet Seas lay down your swelling looks,
And court Aeneas with your calmy cheer,
Whose beautious burden well might make you proud,
Had not the heavens conceived with hel-borne clouds,
Vaild his resplendant glory from your view,
For my sake pity him Oceanus,
That erst-while issued from thy watrie loynes,
And had my being from thy bubling froth:
Triton I know hath filled his trumpe with Troy,
And therefore will take pity on his toyle,
And call both Thetis and Cimodoae,
To succour him in this extremity.
[Enter AEneas with Ascanius, with one or two more.]
What? do I see my son now come on shore:
Venus, how art thou compast with content,
The while thine eyes attract their sought for joys:
Great Jupiter, still honourd maist thou be,
For this so friendly aide in time of need.
Here in this bush disguised will I stand,
Whiles my Aeneas spends himself in plaints,
And heaven and earth with his unrest acquaints.
AENEAS.
You sons of care, companions of my course,
Priams misfortune follows us by sea,
And Helens rape doth havnt thee at the heels.
How many dangers have we over past?
Both barking Scilla, and the sounding Rocks,
The Cyclops shelves, and grim _Ceranias_ seate
Have you oregone, and yet remain alive!
Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend,
And changing heavens may those good days return,
Which _Pergama_ did vaunt in all her pride.
ACHATES.
Brave Prince of Troy, thou onely art our God,
That by thy virtues freest us from annoy,
And makes our hopes survive to cunning joys:
do thou but smile, and clowdy heaven will clear,
Whose night and day descendeth from thy browes:
Though we be now in extreame misery,
And rest the map of weatherbeaten woe:
Yet shall the aged Sun shed forth his hair,
To make us live unto our former heate,
And every beast the forrest doth send forth,
Bequeath her young ones to our scanted foode.
ASCANIUS.
Father I faint, good father give me meate.
AENEAS.
Alas sweet boy, thou must be still a while,
Till we have fire to dresse the meate we kild:
Gentle Achates, reach the Tinder boxe,
That we may make a fire to warme us with,
And rost our new found victuals on this shore.
VENUS.
See what strange arts necessity finds out,
How near my sweet Aeneas art thou driven?
AENEAS.
Hold, take this candle and go light a fire,
You shall have leaves and windfall bowes enow
Near to these woods, to roast your meat withall:
Ascanius, go and dry thy drenched lims,
Whiles I with my Achates rove abroad,
To know what coast the wind hath driven us on,
Or whether men or beasts inhabit it.
ACHATES.
The air is pleasant, and the soil most fit
For Cities, and societies supports:
Yet much I marvell that I cannot find,
No steps of men imprinted in the earth.
VENUS.
Now is the time for me to play my part:
Hoe yong men, saw you as you came
Any of all my Sisters wandring here?
having a quiver girded to her side,
And cloathed in a spotted Leopards skin.
AENEAS.
I neither saw nor heard of any such:
But what may I fair Virgin call your name?
Whose looks set forth no mortall forme to view,
Nor speech bewrays ought humaine in thy birth,
Thou art a goddess that delud'st our eyes,
And shrowdes thy beauty in this borrowed shape;
But whether thou the Suns bright Sister be,
Or one of chast Dianas fellow Nimphs,
Live happy in the height of all content,
And lighten our extremes with this one boon,
As to instruct us under what good heaven
We breathe as now, and what this world is calde,
On which by tempests fury we are cast,
Tell us, O tell us that are ignorant,
And this right hand shall make thy Altars crack
With mountain heaps of milk white Sacrifice.
VENUS.
Such honour, stranger, do I not affect:
It is the use for Turen maids to wear
Their bow and quiver in this modest sort,
And suite themselves in purple for the nonce,
That they may trip more lightly ore the lawndes,
And overtake the tusked Bore in chase.
But for the land whereof thou doest enquire,
It is the punick kingdom rich and strong,
Adioyning on Agenors stately town,
The kingly seate of Southern Libia,
Whereas Sidonian Dido rules as Queen.
But what are you that ask of me these things?
Whence may you come, or whither will you go?
AENEAS.
Of Troy am I, Aeneas is my name,
Who driven by war from forth my native world,
Put sails to sea to seek out Italy;
And my divine descent from sceptred Jove,
With twise twelve Phrigian ships I plowed the deep,
And made that way my mother Venus led:
But of them all scarce seven do anchor safe,
And they so wrackt and weltred by the waves,
As every tide tilts twixt their oken sides:
And all of them unburdened of their load,
Are ballassed with billows watrie weight.
But haples I, God wot, poor and unknown,
do trace these Libian deserts all despised,
Exiled forth Europe and wide Asia both,
And have not any coverture but heaven.
VENUS.
Fortune hath favord thee what ere thou be,
In sending thee unto this curteous Coast:
A Gods name on and hast thee to the Court,
Where Dido will receive ye with her smiles:
And for thy ships which thou supposest lost,
Not one of them hath perished in the storm,
But are arived safe not farre from hence:
And so I leave thee to thy fortunes lot,
Wishing good lucke unto thy wandring steps.
[Exit.]
AENEAS.
Achates, tis my mother that is fled,
I know her by the movings of her feete:
Stay gentle Venus, fly not from thy son,
Too cruell, why wilt thou forsake me thus?
Or in these shades deceiv'st mine eye so oft?
Why talk we not together hand in hand?
And tell our griefs in more familiar termes:
But thou art gone and leau'st me here alone,
To dull the air with my discoursive moane.
[Exit.] _
Read next: Act 1 - Scena 2
Read previous: Notes and Persons
Table of content of Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage
GO TO TOP OF SCREEN
Post your review
Your review will be placed after the table of content of this book
