第55章

Or does my glutted spleen at length relent?

As if 't were little from their town to chase, I thro' the seas pursued their exil'd race;Ingag'd the heav'ns, oppos'd the stormy main;But billows roar'd, and tempests rag'd in vain.

What have my Scyllas and my Syrtes done, When these they overpass, and those they shun?

On Tiber's shores they land, secure of fate, Triumphant o'er the storms and Juno's hate.

Mars could in mutual blood the Centaurs bathe, And Jove himself gave way to Cynthia's wrath, Who sent the tusky boar to Calydon;(What great offense had either people done?)But I, the consort of the Thunderer, Have wag'd a long and unsuccessful war, With various arts and arms in vain have toil'd, And by a mortal man at length am foil'd.

If native pow'r prevail not, shall I doubt To seek for needful succor from without?

If Jove and Heav'n my just desires deny, Hell shall the pow'r of Heav'n and Jove supply.

Grant that the Fates have firm'd, by their decree, The Trojan race to reign in Italy;At least I can defer the nuptial day, And with protracted wars the peace delay:

With blood the dear alliance shall be bought, And both the people near destruction brought;So shall the son-in-law and father join, With ruin, war, and waste of either line.

O fatal maid, thy marriage is endow'd With Phrygian, Latian, andRutulian blood!

Bellona leads thee to thy lover's hand;

Another queen brings forth another brand, To burn with foreign fires another land!

A second Paris, diff'ring but in name, Shall fire his country with a second flame."Thus having said, she sinks beneath the ground, With furious haste, and shoots the Stygian sound, To rouse Alecto from th' infernal seat Of her dire sisters, and their dark retreat.

This Fury, fit for her intent, she chose;One who delights in wars and human woes.

Ev'n Pluto hates his own misshapen race;

Her sister Furies fly her hideous face;

So frightful are the forms the monster takes, So fierce the hissings of her speckled snakes.

Her Juno finds, and thus inflames her spite:

"O virgin daughter of eternal Night, Give me this once thy labor, to sustain My right, and execute my just disdain.

Let not the Trojans, with a feign'd pretense Of proffer'd peace, delude the Latian prince.

Expel from Italy that odious name, And let not Juno suffer in her fame.

'T is thine to ruin realms, o'erturn a state, Betwixt the dearest friends to raise debate, And kindle kindred blood to mutual hate.

Thy hand o'er towns the fun'ral torch displays, And forms a thousand ills ten thousand ways.

Now shake, out thy fruitful breast, the seeds Of envy, discord, and of cruel deeds:

Confound the peace establish'd, and prepare Their souls to hatred, and their hands to war."Smear'd as she was with black Gorgonian blood, The Fury sprang above the Stygian flood;And on her wicker wings, sublime thro' night, She to the Latian palace took her flight:

There sought the queen's apartment, stood before The peaceful threshold, and besieg'd the door.

Restless Amata lay, her swelling breast Fir'd with disdain for Turnus dispossess'd, And the new nuptials of the Trojan guest.

From her black bloody locks the Fury shakes Her darling plague, the fav'rite of her snakes;With her full force she threw the poisonous dart, And fix'd it deep within Amata's heart, That, thus envenom'd, she might kindle rage, And sacrifice to strife her house husband's age.

Unseen, unfelt, the fiery serpent skims Betwixt her linen and her naked limbs;His baleful breath inspiring, as he glides, Now like a chain around her neck he rides, Now like a fillet to her head repairs, And with his circling volumes folds her hairs.

At first the silent venom slid with ease, And seiz'd her cooler senses by degrees;Then, ere th' infected mass was fir'd too far, In plaintive accents she began the war, And thus bespoke her husband: "Shall," she said, "A wand'ring prince enjoy Lavinia's bed?

If nature plead not in a parent's heart, Pity my tears, and pity her desert.

I know, my dearest lord, the time will come, You in vain, reverse your cruel doom;The faithless pirate soon will set to sea, And bear the royal virgin far away!

A guest like him, a Trojan guest before, In shew of friendship sought the Spartan shore, And ravish'd Helen from her husband bore.

Think on a king's inviolable word;

And think on Turnus, her once plighted lord:

To this false foreigner you give your throne, And wrong a friend, a kinsman, and a son.

Resume your ancient care; and, if the god Your sire, and you, resolve on foreign blood, Know all are foreign, in a larger sense, Not born your subjects, or deriv'd from hence.

Then, if the line of Turnus you retrace, He springs from Inachus of Argive race."But when she saw her reasons idly spent, And could not move him from his fix'd intent, She flew to rage; for now the snake possess'd Her vital parts, and poison'd all her breast;She raves, she runs with a distracted pace, And fills with horrid howls the public place.

And, as young striplings whip the top for sport, On the smooth pavement of an empty court;The wooden engine flies and whirls about, Admir'd, with clamors, of the beardless rout;They lash aloud; each other they provoke, And lend their little souls at ev'ry stroke:

Thus fares the queen; and thus her fury blows Amidst the crowd, and kindles as she goes.

Nor yet content, she strains her malice more, And adds new ills to those contriv'd before:

She flies the town, and, mixing with a throng Of madding matrons, bears the bride along, Wand'ring thro' woods and wilds, and devious ways, And with these arts the Trojan match delays.

She feign'd the rites of Bacchus; cried aloud, And to the buxom god the virgin vow'd.

"Evoe! O Bacchus!" thus began the song;

And "Evoe!" answer'd all the female throng.

"O virgin! worthy thee alone!" she cried;"O worthy thee alone!" the crew replied.

"For thee she feeds her hair, she leads thy dance, And with thy winding ivy wreathes her lance."Like fury seiz'd the rest; the progress known, All seek the mountains, and forsake the town: