Will they not issue in armed pursuit from all the city, and
some launch ships from the dockyards?
some launch ships from the dockyards?
Virgil - Aeneid
linger no
more! Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing. ' So spoke he, and
melted in the black night.
[571-603]Then indeed Aeneas, startled by the sudden phantom, leaps out
of slumber and bestirs his crew. 'Haste and awake, O men, and sit down
to the thwarts; shake out sail speedily. A god sent from high heaven,
lo! again spurs us to speed our flight and cut the twisted cables. We
follow thee, holy one of heaven, whoso thou art, and again joyfully obey
thy command. O be favourable; give gracious aid and bring fair sky and
weather. ' He spoke, and snatching his sword like lightning from the
sheath, strikes at the hawser with the drawn steel. The same zeal
catches all at once; rushing and tearing they quit the shore; the sea is
hidden under their fleets; strongly they toss up the foam and sweep the
blue water.
And now Dawn broke, and, leaving the saffron bed of Tithonus, shed her
radiance anew over the world; when the Queen saw from her watch-tower
the first light whitening, and the fleet standing out under squared
sail, and discerned shore and haven empty of all their oarsmen. Thrice
and four times she struck her hand on her lovely breast and rent her
yellow hair: 'God! ' she cries, 'shall he go? shall an alien make mock of
our realm?
Will they not issue in armed pursuit from all the city, and
some launch ships from the dockyards? Go; bring fire in haste, serve
weapons, swing out the oars! What do I talk? or where am I? what mad
change is on my purpose? Alas, Dido! now thou dost feel thy wickedness;
that had graced thee once, when thou gavest away thy crown. Behold the
faith and hand of him! who, they say, carries his household's ancestral
gods about with him! who stooped his shoulders to a father outworn with
age! Could I not have riven his body in sunder and strewn it on the
waves? and slain with the sword his comrades and his dear Ascanius, and
served him for the banquet at his father's table? But the chance of
battle had been dubious. If it had! whom did I fear [604-635]with my
death upon me? I should have borne firebrands into his camp and filled
his decks with flame, blotted out father and son and race together, and
flung myself atop of all.
more! Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing. ' So spoke he, and
melted in the black night.
[571-603]Then indeed Aeneas, startled by the sudden phantom, leaps out
of slumber and bestirs his crew. 'Haste and awake, O men, and sit down
to the thwarts; shake out sail speedily. A god sent from high heaven,
lo! again spurs us to speed our flight and cut the twisted cables. We
follow thee, holy one of heaven, whoso thou art, and again joyfully obey
thy command. O be favourable; give gracious aid and bring fair sky and
weather. ' He spoke, and snatching his sword like lightning from the
sheath, strikes at the hawser with the drawn steel. The same zeal
catches all at once; rushing and tearing they quit the shore; the sea is
hidden under their fleets; strongly they toss up the foam and sweep the
blue water.
And now Dawn broke, and, leaving the saffron bed of Tithonus, shed her
radiance anew over the world; when the Queen saw from her watch-tower
the first light whitening, and the fleet standing out under squared
sail, and discerned shore and haven empty of all their oarsmen. Thrice
and four times she struck her hand on her lovely breast and rent her
yellow hair: 'God! ' she cries, 'shall he go? shall an alien make mock of
our realm?
Will they not issue in armed pursuit from all the city, and
some launch ships from the dockyards? Go; bring fire in haste, serve
weapons, swing out the oars! What do I talk? or where am I? what mad
change is on my purpose? Alas, Dido! now thou dost feel thy wickedness;
that had graced thee once, when thou gavest away thy crown. Behold the
faith and hand of him! who, they say, carries his household's ancestral
gods about with him! who stooped his shoulders to a father outworn with
age! Could I not have riven his body in sunder and strewn it on the
waves? and slain with the sword his comrades and his dear Ascanius, and
served him for the banquet at his father's table? But the chance of
battle had been dubious. If it had! whom did I fear [604-635]with my
death upon me? I should have borne firebrands into his camp and filled
his decks with flame, blotted out father and son and race together, and
flung myself atop of all.
