Yet roams the earth, can give to recompense thy grace.
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LXXX .
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"The gods, if gods the good and just regard, And thy own conscience, that approves the right, Grant thee due guerdon and a fit reward. What happy ages did thy birth delight? What godlike parents bore a child so bright? While running rivers hasten to the main, While yon pure ether feeds the stars with light, While shadows round the hill-slopes wax and wane,
|
712
|
|
|
Thy fame, where'er I go, thy praises shall remain."
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LXXXI .
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So saying Æneas with his left hand pressed Serestus, and Ilioneus with his right, Brave Gyas, brave Cloanthus and the rest. Then Dido, struck with wonder at the sight Of one so great and in so strange a plight, "O Goddess-born! what fate through dangers sore, What force to savage coasts compels thy flight? Art thou, then, that Æneas, whom of yore
|
721
|
|
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Venus on Simois' banks to old Anchises bore?
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LXXXII .
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"Ay, well I mind me how in days of yore To Sidon exiled Teucer crossed the main, To seek new kingdoms and the aid implore Of Belus. He, my father Belus, then Ruled Cyprus, victor of the wasted plain, Since then thy name and Ilion's fate are known, And all the princes of Pelasgia's reign. Himself, a foe, oft lauded Troy's renown,
|
730
|
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And claimed the Teucrian sires as kinsmen of his own.
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LXXXIII .
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"Welcome, then, heroes! Me hath Fortune willed Long tost, like you, through sufferings, here to rest And find at length a refuge. Not unskilled In woe, I learn to succour the distrest." So to the palace she escorts her guest, And calls for festal honours in the shrine. Then shoreward sends beeves twenty to the rest, A hundred boars, of broad and bristly chine,
|
739
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A hundred lambs and ewes and gladdening gifts of wine.
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LXXXIV .
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Meanwhile with regal splendour they arrayed The palace-hall, where feast and banquet high All in the centre of the space is laid, And forth they bring the broidered tapestry, With purple dyed and wrought full cunningly. The tables groan with silver; there are told The deeds of prowess for the gazer's eye, A long, long series, of their sires of old,
|
748
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Traced from the nation's birth, and graven in the gold.
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LXXXV .
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But good Æneas—for a father's care No rest allows him—to the ships sends down Achates, to Ascanius charged to bear The welcome news, and bring him to the town. The father's fondness centres on the son. Rich presents, too, he sends for, saved of old From Troy, a veil, whose saffron edges shone Fringed with acanthus, glorious to behold,
|
757
|
|
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A broidered mantle, stiff with figures wrought in gold.
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LXXXVI .
|
|
Fair Helen's ornaments, from Argos brought, The gift of Leda, when the Trojan shore And lawless nuptials o'er the waves she sought. Therewith the royal sceptre, which of yore Ilione, Priam's eldest daughter, bore; Her shining necklace, strung with costly beads, And diadem, rimmed with gold and studded o'er With sparkling gems. Thus charged, Achates heeds,
|
766
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And towards the ships forthwith in eager haste proceeds.
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LXXXVII .
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But crafty Cytherea planned meanwhile New arts, new schemes—that Cupid should conspire, In likeness of Ascanius, to beguile The queen with gifts, and kindle fierce desire, And turn the marrow of her bones to fire. Fierce Juno's hatred rankles in her breast; The two-faced house, the double tongues of Tyre She fears, and with the night returns unrest;
|
775
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|
So now to wingèd Love this mandate she addressed:
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LXXXVIII .
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"O son, sole source of all my strength and power, Who durst high Jove's Typhoean bolts disdain, To thee I fly, thy deity implore. Thou know'st, who oft hast sorrowed with my pain, How, tost by Juno's rancour, o'er the main Thy brother wanders. Him with speeches fair And sweet allurements doth the queen detain; But Juno's hospitality I fear;
|
784
|
|
|
Scarce at an hour like this will she her hand forbear.
|
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|
LXXXIX .
|
|
"Soft snares I purpose round the queen to weave, And wrap her soul in flames, that power malign Shall never change her, but her heart shall cleave Fast to Æneas with a love like mine. Now learn, how best to compass my design. To Tyrian Carthage hastes the princely boy, Prompt at the summons of his sire divine, My prime solicitude, my chiefest joy,
|
793
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|
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Fraught with brave store of gifts, saved from the flames of Troy.
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XC .
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"Him on Idalia, lulled into a dream, Will I secrete, or on the sacred height Of lone Cythera, lest he learn the scheme, Or by his sudden presence mar the sleight. Take thou his likeness, only for a night, And wear the boyish features that are thine; And when the queen, in rapture of delight, Amid the royal banquet and the wine,
|
802
|
|
|
Shall lock thee in her arms, and press her lips to thine,
|
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|
XCI .
|
|
"Then steal into her bosom, and inspire Through all her veins with unsuspected sleight The poisoned sting of passion and desire." Young Love obeys, and doffs his plumage light, And, like Iulus, trips forth with delight. She o'er Ascanius rains a soft
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