The sceptre Priam's eldest daughter bore,
Her orient necklace, and the crown she wore,
Of double texture, glorious to behold;
One order set with gems, and one with gold.
Instructed thus, the wise Achates goes,
And in his diligence his duty shows.

930

But Venus, anxious for her son's affairs,
New counsels tries, and new designs prepares :
That Cupid should assume the shape and face
Of sweet Ascanius, and the sprightly grace:
Should bring the presents, in her nephew's stead,
And in Eliza's veins the gentle poison shed.
For much she feared the Tyrians, double-tongued,
And knew the town to Juno's care belonged.
These thoughts by night her golden slumbers broke,
And thus, alarmed, to wingéd Love she spoke :
'My son, my strength, whose mighty power alone
Controls the Thunderer on his awful throne;
To thee thy much-afflicted mother flies,
And on thy succour and thy faith relies.
Thou knowest, my son, how Jove's revengeful wife,
By force and fraud, attempts thy brother's life;
And often hast thou mourned with me his pains:)
Him Dido now with blandishment detains;
But I suspect the town where Juno reigns
For this, 'tis needful to prevent her art,
And fire with love the proud Phoenician's heart;
A love so violent, so strong, so sure,
As neither age can change, nor art can cure.
How this may be performed, now take my mind:
Ascanius by his father is designed

To come, with presents laden, from the port,
To gratify the queen, and gain the court;
I mean to plunge the boy in pleasing sleep,
And, ravished, in Idalian bowers to keep,
Or high Cythera: that the sweet deceit
May pass unseen, and none prevent the cheat,
Take thou his form and shape. I beg the grace)
But only for a night's revolving space,

940

950

Thyself a boy, assume a boy's dissembled face. 96c

970

That when, amidst the fervour of the feast,
The Tyrian hugs and fonds thee on her breast,
And with sweet kisses in her arms constrains,
Thou mayest infuse thy venom in her veins.'
The God of Love obeys, and sets aside
His bow and quiver, and his plumy pride:
He walks Iülus in his mother's sight,
And in the sweet resemblance takes delight.
The Goddess then to young Ascanius flies,
And in a pleasing slumber seals his eyes;
Lulled in her lap, amidst a train of Loves,
She gently bears him to her blissful groves:
Then with a wreath of myrtle crowns his head,
And softly lays him on a flowery bed.
Cupid mean time assumed his form and face,
Following Achates with a shorter pace;
And brought the gifts. The queen already sate
Amidst the Trojan lords, in shining state,
High on a golden bed: her princely guest
Was next her side, in order sate the rest.
Then canisters with bread are heaped on high;
The attendants water for their hands supply;
And having washed, with silken towels dry.
Next fifty handmaids in long order bore
The censers, and with fumes the Gods adore.
Then youths, and virgins twice as many, join
To place the dishes, and to serve the wine.
The Tyrian train, admitted to the feast,
Approach, and on the painted couches rest.
All on the Trojan gifts with wonder gaze;
But view the beauteous boy with more amaze,
His rosy-coloured cheeks, his radiant eyes,
His motions, voice, and shape, and all the God's
disguise;

Nor pass unpraised the vest and veil divine,
Which wandering foliage and rich flowers entwine.
But far above the rest, the royal dame,
(Already doomed to love's disastrous flame),
With eyes insatiate, and tumultuous joy,
Beholds the presents, and admires the boy.

980

990

The guileful God about the hero long,

1000

With children's play and false embraces, hung;
Then sought the queen: she took him to her arms
With greedy pleasure, and devoured his charms.
Unhappy Dido little thought what guest,
How dire a God, she drew so near her breast.
But he, not mindless of his mother's prayer,
Works in the pliant bosom of the fair;

And moulds her heart anew, and blots her former care.
The dead is to the living love resigned,
And all Eneas enters in her mind.

Now, when the rage of hunger was appeased, The meat removed, and every guest was pleased; The golden bowls with sparkling wine are crowned, And through the palace cheerful cries resound. From gilded roofs depending lamps display Nocturnal beams, that emulate the day.

1010

A golden bowl, that shone with gems divine,
The queen commanded to be crowned with wine;
The bowl that Belus used, and all the Tyrian line.
Then, silence through the hall proclaimed, she
spoke:

1020

'O hospitable Jove! we thus invoke,
With solemn rites, thy sacred name and power!
Bless to both nations this auspicious hour.
So may the Trojan and the Tyrian line.
In lasting concord from this day combine.
Thou, Bacchus, God of joys and friendly cheer,
And gracious Juno, both be present here:
And you, my lords of Tyre, your vows address
To Heaven with mine, to ratify the peace.'
The goblet then she took, with nectar crowned, 1030
(Sprinkling the first libations on the ground),
And raised it to her mouth with sober grace,
Then, sipping, offered to the next in place.
'Twas Bitias whom she called, a thirsty soul;
He took the challenge, and embraced the bowl:
With pleasure swilled the gold, nor ceased to draw,
Till he the bottom of the brimmer saw.
The goblet goes around; Iopas brought

1040

His golden lyre, and sung what ancient Atlas taught:
The various labours of the wandering moon,
And whence proceed the eclipses of the sun;
The original of men and beasts; and whence
The rains arise, and fires their warmth dispense,
And fixed and erring stars dispose their influence;)
What shakes the solid earth; what cause delays
The summer nights, and shortens winter days.
With peals of shouts the Tyrians praise the song;
Those peals are echoed by the Trojan throng.
The unhappy queen with talk prolonged the night,
And drank large draughts of love with vast delight; 1050
Of Priam much inquired, of Hector more;
Then asked what arms the swarthy Memnon wore,
What troops he landed on the Trojan shore;
The steeds of Diomede varied the discourse,
And fierce Achilles, with his matchless force;
At length, as Fate and her ill stars required,
To hear the series of the war desired.
'Relate at large, my God-like guest,' she said,
The Grecian stratagems, the town betrayed;
The fatal issue of so long a war,

1060

Your flight, your wanderings, and your woes, declare;
For since on every sea, on every coast,
Your men have been distressed, your navy tossed;
Seven times the sun has either tropic viewed,
The winter banished, and the spring renewed.'

THE SECOND BOOK OF THE

ENEIS

THE ARGUMENT

Æneas relates how the city of Troy was taken, after a ten years' siege, by the treachery of Sinon, and the stratagem of a wooden horse. He declares the fixed resolution he had taken not to survive the ruins of his country, and the various adventures he met with in the defence of it: at last, having been before advised by Hector's ghost, and now by the appearance of his mother Venus, he is prevailed upon to leave the town, and settle his household gods in another country. In order to this, he carries off his father on his shoulders, and leads his little son by the 10 hand, his wife following him behind. When he comes to the place appointed for the general rendezvous, he finds a great confluence of people, but misses his wife, whose ghost afterwards appears to him, and tells him the land which was designed for him.

All were attentive to the God-like man;
When from his lofty couch he thus began.
Great queen,
what you command me to relate,
Renews the sad remembrance of our fate.
An empire from its old foundations rent,
And every woe the Trojans underwent:
A peopled city made a desert place;
All that I saw, and part of which I was:
Not even the hardest of our foes could hear,
Nor stern Ulysses tell, without a tear.
And now the latter watch of wasting night,