Part of the Fourth Book of VIRGIL'S ENEIS

tranflated.

Beginning at Verfe 437:

* Talefque miferrima fletus

"Fertque refertque foror.

And ending with

"Adnixi torquent spumas, et cærula verrunt.” Ver.583.

A

LL this her weeping* fifter does repeat

To the stern + man, whom nothing could intreat';
Loft were her prayers, and fruitless were her tears!
Fate, and great Jove, had stopt his gentle ears.
As when loud winds a well-grown oak would rend
Up by the roots, this way and that they bend
His reeling trunk; and with a boisterous found
Scatter his leaves, and ftrew them on the ground:
He fixed ftands; as deep his roots do lie
Down to the centre, as his top is high:
No less on every fide the Hero prest,

Feels love, and pity, shake his noble breast;
And down his cheeks though fruitlefs tears do roll,
Unmov'd remains the purpose of his foul.
Then Dido, urged with approaching fate,
Begins the light of cruel heaven to hate.

Anna.

† Æneas.

Her

Her refolution to dispatch, and die,
Confirm'd by many a horrid prodigy!
The water, confecrate for facrifice,
Appears all black to her amazed eyes;
The wine to putrid blood converted flows,
Which from her none, not her own fifter, knows.
Befides, there ftood, as facred to her * Lord,
A marble temple which the much ador'd;
With fnowy fleeces and fresh garlands crown'd;
Hence every night proceeds a dreadful found;
Her husband's voice invites her to his tomb:
And dismal owls presage the ills to come.
Befides, the prophecies of wizards old
Increas'd her terror, and her fall foretold
Scorn'd and deferted to herself she seems;
And finds Æneas cruel in her dreams.

So, to mad Pentheus, double Thebes appears;
And Furies howl in his diftemper'd ears.
Oreftes fo, with like distraction toft,
Is made to fly his mother's angry ghost..

Now grief and fury to their height arrive;
Death the decrees, and thus does it contrive.
Her grieved fifter, with a chearful grace,
(Hope well-diffembled fhining in her face)
She thus deceives. Dear fifter! let us prove
The cure I have invented for my love.
Beyond the land of Æthiopia lies

The place where Atlas does fupport the skies:

Hence came an old magician, that did keep
Th' Hefperian fruit, and made the dragon fleep:
Her potent charms do troubled fouls relieve,
And, where the lifts, makes calmeft minds to grieve:
The courfe of rivers, and of heaven, can stop,
And call trees down from th' airy mountain's top.
Witness, ye Gods! and thou, my dearest part!
How loth I am to tempt this guilty art.
Erect a pile, and on it let us place

That bed, where I my ruin did embrace :
With all the reliques of our impious gueft,
Arms, fpoils, and prefents, let the pile be dreft;
(The knowing woman thus prescribes) that we
May rafe the man out of our memory.

Thus fpeaks the Queen, but hides the fatal end
For which the doth thofe facred rites pretend.
Nor worse effects of grief her fifter thought
Would follow, than Sichæus' murder wrought;
Therefore obeys her and now heaped high
The cloven oaks and lofty pines do lie;
Hung all with wreaths and flowery garlands round;
So by herself was her own funeral crown'd!
Upon the top the Trojan's image lies,

And his fharp fword, wherewith anon fhe dies.
They by the altar ftand, while with loofe hair
The magic prophetess begins her prayer:
On Chaos, Erebus, and all the Gods,"
Which in th' infernal shades have their abodes,
She loudly calls; besprinkling all the room
With drops, fuppos'd from Lethe's lake to come.

She

She feeks the knot which on the forehead grows
Of new-foal'd colts, and herbs by moon-light mows.
A cake of leaven in her pious hands

Holds the devoted Queen, and barefoot stands :
One tender foot was bare, the other fhod,
Her robe ungirt, invoking every God,
And every Power; if any be above,
Which takes regard of ill-requited love!

Now was the time, when weary mortals steep
Their careful temples in the dew of Sleep :
On feas, on earth, and all that in them dwell,
A death-like quiet and deep filence fell :
But not on Dido! whofe untamed mind
Refus'd to be by facred night confin'd:
A double paffion in her breast does move,
Love, and fierce anger for neglected love.
Thus fhe afflicts her foul: What fhall I do?
With fate inverted, fhall I humbly woo?
And fome proud prince, in wild Numidia born,
Pray to accept me, and forget my scorn?
Or, fhall I with th' ungrateful Trojan go,
Quit all my state, and wait upon my foe?
Is not enough, by fad experience! known
The perjur'd race of false Laomedon ?
With my Sidonians fhall I give them chace,
Bands hardly forced from their native place?
No-die! and let this fword thy fury tame;
Nought but thy blood can quench this guilty flame.
Ah fifter vanquish'd with my paffion, thou

Betray'dit me first, dispensing with my vow.

Had I been conftant to Sichæus ftill,

And fingle liv'd, I had not known this ill!

Such thoughts torment the Queen's enraged breast, While the Dardanian does fecurely rest

In his tall fhip, for fudden flight prepar'd;
To whom once more the fon of Jove appear'd;
Thus feems to speak the youthful Deity,
Voice, hair, and colour, all like Mercury.

Fair Venus' feed! canft thou indulge thy fleep,
Nor better guard in fuch great danger keep?
Mad, by neglect to lofe so fair a wind!
If here thy fhips the purple morning find,
Thou shalt behold this hoftile harbour fhine
With a new fleet, and fires, to ruin thine :
She meditates revenge, refolv'd to die
Weigh anchor quickly, and her fury fly.

This faid, the God in shades of night retir'd. Amaz'd Æneas, with the warning fir'd, Shakes off dull fleep, and roufing up his men, Behold! the Gods command our flight again. Fall to your oars, and all your canvas spread : What God foe'er that thus vouchfafes to lead, We follow gladly, and thy will obey, Affift us ftill, fmoothing our happy way, And make the reft propitious! With that word, He cuts the cable with his fhining fword: Through all the navy doth like ardor reign, They quit the fhore, and rush into the main : Plac'd on their banks, the lufty Trojans fweep Neptune's smooth face, and cleave the yielding deep.

On