Dido and Aeneas (1689)
AN OPERA
Perform’d at
Mr. JOSIAS PRIEST’s Boarding-School at
CHELSEY.
By Young Gentlewomen.
The Words Made by Mr. NAT. TATE.
The Muſick Compoſed by Mr. Henry Purcell.
The PROLOGUE.
Phœbus Riſes in the Chariot,
Over the Sea, The Nereids out of the Sea.
Phœbus, FRom Aurora’s Spicy Bed,
Phœbus tears his Sacred Head.
His Courſers Advancing,
Curvetting and Prancing.
1. Nereid, Phœbus ſtrives in vain to Tame ’em,
With Ambroſia Fed too high.
2. Nereid, Phœbus ought not new to blame ’em,
Wild and eager to Survey
The faireſt Pageant of the Sea.
Phœbus, Tritons and Nereids come pay your Devotion
Cho. To the New riſing Star of the Ocean.
Venus Deſcends in her Chatiot,
The Tritons out of the Sea.
The Tritons Dance.
Nereid. Look down ye Orbs and See
A New Divinity.
Phœ. Whoſe Luſtre does Out-Shine
Your fainter Beams, and half Eclipſes mine,
Give Phœbus leave to Prophecy.
Phœbus all Events can ſee.
Ten Thouſand Thouſand Harmes.
From ſuch prevailing Charmes,
To Gods and Men muſt inſtantly Enſue.
Cho. And if the Deity’s above,
Are Victims of the powers of Love,
What muſt wretched Mortals do.
Venus Fear not Phœbus, fear not me,
A harmleſs Deity.
Theſe are all my Guards ye View,
What can theſe blind Archers do.
Phœ. Blind they are, but ſtrike the Heart,
Ven. What Phœbus ſay’s is alwayes true.
They Wound indeed, but ’tis a pleaſing ſmart.
Phœ. Earth and Skies addreſs their Duty,
To the Sovereign Queen of Beauty.
All Reſigning,
None Repining
At her undiſputed Sway
Cho, To Phœbus and Venus our Homage wee’l pay,
Her Charmes bleſt the Night, as his Beams bleſt the day.
Exit. )
[Scene the Grove.
The Nerieds Dance.
The Spring Enters with her Nymphs.
Ven. See the Spring in all her Glory,
Cho. Welcomes Venus to the Shore.
Ven. Smiling Hours are now before you,
Hours that may return no more.
[Exit, Phœ. Ven. Soſt Muſick.
Spring, Our Youth and Form declare,
For what we were deſigned.
’Twas Nature made us Fair,
And you muſt make us kind.
He that fails of Addreſſing,
’Tis but Juſt he ſhou’d fail of Poſſeſſing.
The Spring and Nymphs Dance.
Shepherdeſſes, Jolly Shepherds come away,
To Celebrate this Genial Day,
And take the Friendly Hours you vow to pay.
Now make Trial,
And take no Denial.
Now carry your Game, or for ever give o’re.
The Shepherds and Shepherdeſſes Dance.
Cho. Let us Love and happy Live,
Poſſeſs thoſe ſmiling Hours,
The more auſpicious Powers,
And gentle Planets give,
Prepare thoſe ſoft returns to Meet,
That makes Loves Torments Sweet.
The Nymphs Dance.
Enter the Country Shepherds and Shepherdeſſes.
He, Tell, Tell me, prithee Dolly,
And leave thy Melancholy.
Why on the Plaines, the Nymphs and Swaines,
This Morning are ſo Jolly.
She, By Zephires gentle Blowing,
And Venus Graces Flowing.
The Sun has bin to Court our Queen,
And Tired the Spring with wooing.
He, The Sun does guild our Bowers,
She, The Spring does yield us Flowers.
She ſends the Vine,
He, He makes the Wine,
To Charm our happy Hours.
She, She gives our Flocks their Feeding,
He, He makes ’em fit for Breeding.
She, She decks the Plain,
He, He fills the Grain,
And makes it worth the Weeding.
Cho. But the Jolly Nymph Thitis that long his Love ſought,
Has Fluſtred him now with a large Mornings draught.
Let’s go and divert him, whilſt he is Mellow,
You know in his Cups he’s a Hot-Headed Fellow.
The Countreys Maids Dance.
[Exit.
ACT the Firſt,
Scene the Palace
Enter Dido and Belinda, and Train.
Bel. SHake the Cloud from off your Brow,
Fate your wiſhes do Allow.
Empire Growing,
Pleaſures Flowing,
Fortune Smiles and ſo ſhould you,
Shake the Cloud from off your Brow,
Cho. Baniſh Sorrow, Baniſh Care,
Grief ſhould ne’re approach the Fair.
Dido, Ah! Belinda I am preſt,
With Torment not to be Confeſt.
Peace and I are Strangers grown,
I Languiſh till my Grief is known,
Yet wou’d not have it Gueſt.
Bel. Grief Encreaſing, by Concealing,
Dido Mine admits of no Revealing.
Bel. Then let me Speak the Trajan gueſt,
Into your tender Thoughts has preſt.
2 Women, The greateſt Bleſſing Fate can give, Our Carthage to ſecure, and Troy revive.
Cho. VVhen Monarchs unite how happy their State,
They Triumph at once on their Foes and their Fate.
Dido, VVhence could ſo much Virtue Spring,
VVhat Stormes, what Battels did he Sing.
Anchiſes Valour mixt with Venus’s Charmes,
How ſoft in Peace, and yet how fierce in Armes.
Bel. A Tale ſo ſtrong and full of wo,
Might melt the Rocks as well as you.
2 Women, VVhat ſtubborn Heart unmoved could ſee,
Such Diſtreſs, ſuch pity.
Dido, Mine with Stormes of Care oppreſt,
Is Taught to pity the Diſtreſt.
Mean wretches grief can Touch,
So ſoft ſo ſenſible my Breaſt,
But Ah! I fear, I pity his too much.
Bel. Fear no danger to Enſue,
2 Women, The Hero Loves as well as you.
Cho. Ever Gentle, ever Smiling,
And the Cares of Life beguiling.
Cupid Strew your path with Flowers,
Gathered from Elizian Bowers.
Dance this Cho.
The Baske.
Æneas Enters with his Train.
Bel. See your Royal Gueſt appears,
How God like is the Form he bears.
Æn. VVhen Royal Fair ſhall I be bleſt,
VVith cares of Love, and State diſtreſt.
Dido, Fate forbids what you Enſue,
Æneas has no Fate but you.
Let Dido Smile, and I’le defie,
The Feeble ſtroke of Deſtiny.
Cho. Cupid only throws the Dart,
That’s dreadful to a Warriour’s Heart.
And ſhe that VVounds can only cure the Smart.
Æn. If not for mine, for Empires ſake,
Some pity on your Lover take.
Ah! make not in a hopeleſs Fire,
A Hero fall, and Troy once more Empire.
Bel. Purſue thy Conqueſt, Love—her Eyes,
Confeſs the Flame her Tongue Denyes.
A Dance Gittars Chacony
Cho. To the Hills and the Vales, to the Rocks and the Mountains
To the Muſical Groves, and the cool Shady Fountains,
Let the Triumphs of Love and of Beauty be Shown,
Go Revel ye Cupids, the day is your own,
The Triumphing Dance.
ACT the Second,
Scene the Cave.
Enter Sorcereſs.
Sorc. WEyward Siſters you that Fright,
The Lonely Traveller by Night.
VVho like diſmal Ravens Crying,
Beat the VVindowes of the Dying.
Appear at my call, and ſhare in the Fame,
Of a Miſchief ſhall make all Carthage to Flame.
Enter Inchantereſſes.
Incha. Say Beldam what’s thy will,
Harms our Delight and Miſchief all our Skill,
Sorc. The Queen of Carthage whom we hate,
As we do all in proſperous State.
E’re Sun ſet ſhall moſt wretched prove,
Deprived of Fame, of Life and Love.
Cho. Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, &c.
Incha. Ruin’d e’re the Set of Sun,
Tell us how ſhall this be done.
Sorc. The Trojan Prince you know is bound
By Fate to ſeek Italian Ground,
The Queen and He are now in Chaſe,
Hark, how the cry comes on apace.
But when they’ve done, my truſty Elf
In Form of Mercury himſelf.
As ſent from Jove ſhall chide his ſtay,
And Charge him Sail to Night with all his Fleet away.
Ho, Ho, ho, ho, &c. [Enter 2 Drunken Saylors, a Dance
Sorc. But e’re we, we this perform,
We’l Conjure for a Storm.
To Mar their Hunting Sport,
And drive ’em back to Court.
Cho. In our deep-Vaulted Cell the Charm wee’l prepare,
Too dreadful a Practice for this open Air.
Eccho Dance.
Inchantereſſes and Fairees.
Enter Æneas, Dido and Belinda, and their Train.
Scene the Grove.
Bel. Thanks to theſe Loveſome Vailes,
Cho. Theſe deſert Hills and Dales.
So fair the Game, ſo rich the Sport,
Diana’s ſelf might to theſe Woods Reſort.
Gitter Ground a Dance.
2d. Wom. Oft ſhe Viſits this Loved Mountain,
Oft ſhe bathes her in this Fountain.
Here Acteon met his Fate,
Purſued by his own Hounds,
And after Mortal Wounds.
Diſcovered, diſcovered too late.
A Dance to Entertain Æneas, by Dido Vemon.
Æneas, Behold upon my bending Spear,
A Monſters Head ſtands bleeding,
VVith Tuſhes far exceeding,
Theſe did Venus Huntſmen Tear.
Dido. The Skies are Clouded, heark how Thunder
Rends the Mountain Oaks aſunder.
Haſt, haſt, to Town this open Field,
No Shelter from the Storm can yield. [ Exit.
| The Spirit of the Sorcereſs deſcends to Æneas in likneſs of Mercury. |
Spir. Stay Prince and heat great Joves Command,
He Summons thee this Night away.
Æn. To Night.
Spir. To Night thou muſt forſake this Land,
The Angry God will brook no longer ſtay;
Joves Commands thee waſt no more,
In Loves delights thoſe precious Hours,
Allowed by the Almighty Powers.
To gain th’ Heſperian Shore,
And Ruined Troy reſtore.
Æn. Joves Commands ſhall be Obey’d,
To Night our Anchors ſhall be weighed,
But ah! what Language can I try,
My Injured Queen to pacify.
No ſooner ſhe reſignes her Heart,
But from her Armes I’m forc’t to part.
How can ſo hard a Fate be took,
One Night enjoy’d, the next forſook.
Your be the blame, ye Gods, for I
Obey your will - but with more Eaſe cou’d dye,
The Sorcereſs and her Inchantereſs.
Cho. Then ſince our Charmes have Sped,
A Merry Dance be Led
By the Nymphs of Carthage to pleaſe us.
They ſhall all Dance to eaſe us.
A Dance that ſhall make the Spheres to wonder,
Rending thoſe fair Groves aſunder.
The Groves Dance.
ACT the Third,
Scene the Ships.
Enter the Saylors.
The Sorcereſs and her Inchantereſs.
Cho. COme away, fellow Saylors your Anchors be
Tide and Tide will admit no delaying. (weighing,
Take a Bouze ſhort leave of your Nymphs on the Shore,
And Silence their Morning,
VVith Vows of returning.
But never intending to Viſit them more.
The Saylors Dance.
Sorc. See the Flags and Streamers Curling,
Anchors weighing, Sails unfurling.
Phœbus pale deluding Beames,
Guilding more deceitful Streams.
Our Plot has took,
The Queen forſook, ho, ho, ho.
Eliſas ruin’d, ho, ho, ho, next Motion,
Muſt be to ſtorme her Lover on the Ocean.
From the Ruines of others our pleaſure we borrow,
Eliſas bleeds to Night, and Carthage Flames tomorrow.
Cho. Deſtruction our delight, delight our greateſt Sorrow,
Eliſas dyes to Night, and Carthage Flames to Morrow.
| Jack of the Lanthorn leads the Spaniards out of their way among the Inchantereſſes. |
A Dance.
Enter Dido, Belinda, and Train.
Dido Your Councel all is urged in vain,
To Earth and Heaven I will Complain.
To Earth and Heaven why do I call,
Earth and Heaven conſpire my Fall.
To Fate I Sue, of other means bereſt,
The only refuge for the wretched left.
Bel. See Madam where the Prince appears,
Such Sorrow in his Looks he bears, [Æneas Enters.
Æn. As wou’d convince you ſtill he’s true,
What ſhall loſt Æneas do.
How Royal fair ſhall I impart,
The Gods decree and cell you, we muſt part.
Dido Thus on the fatal Banks of Nile,
Weeps the deceitful Crocodile.
Thus Hypocrites char Murder Act,
Make Heaven and Gods the Authors of the Fact.
Æn. By all that’s good,
Dido By all that’s good no more,
All that’s good you have Forſworn.
To your promiſed Empire fly,
And let forſaken Dido dye.
Æn. In ſpight of Joves Command I ſtay,
Offend the Gods, and Love obey.
Dido No faithleſs Man thy courſe purſue,
I’m now reſolved as well as you.
No Repentance ſhall reclaim,
The Injured Dido ſlighted Flame.
For ’tis enough what e’re you now decree,
That you had once a thought of leaving me.
Æn. Let Jove ſay what he will I’le ſtay.
Dido Away [Exit Æn.
To Death I’le fly, if longer you delay.
But Death, alas? I cannot Shun,
Death muſt come when he is gone.
Cho. Great minds againſt themſelves Conſpire,
And ſhun the Cure they moſt deſire.
Cupids appear in the |
Dido Thy Hand Belinda, - darkneſs ſhades me,
On thy Boſom let me reſt,
More I wou’d but Death invades me.
Death is now a Welcom Gueſt,
When I am laid in Earth my wrongs Create.
No trouble in thy Breaſt,
Remember me, but ah! forget my Fate.
Cho. With drooping Wings you Cupids come,
To ſcatter Roſes onher Tomb.
Soft and Gentle as her Heart,
Keep here your Watch and never part. [Cupids Dance.
FINIS.
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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