From Book IV of TheAeneid by VirgilNAME: PD:
In Book IV of The Aeneid the flame of love for Aeneas that Cupid has lit in Dido’s heart only grows while she listens to his sorrowful tale. She hesitates, though, because after the death of her husband, Sychaeus, she swore that she would never marry again.
But anxious cares already seized the queen:
She fed within her veins a flame unseen;THE “FLAME” IS A METAPHOR FOR WHAT?
The hero's valor, acts, and birth inspire
Her soul with love, and fan the secret fire.IS THIS AN APPROPRIATE METAPHOR? WHY?
His words, his looks, imprinted in her heart,
Sick with desire, and seeking him she loves,
From street to street the raving Dido roves.
So when the watchful shepherd, from the blind,EXPLAINTHIS METAPHOR? HOW DOES DIDO BEHAVE? IS THIS
Wounds with a random shaft the careless hind,AN ACCURATE DESCRIPTION OF LOVE?
Distracted with her pain she flies the woods,
Bounds o'er the lawn, and seeks the silent floods,
With fruitless care; for still the fatal dart
Sticks in her side, and rankles in her heart.
And now she leads the Trojan chief along
The lofty walls, amidst the busy throng;
She displays her wealth, and rising town,
Which through his love Aeneas makes his own
One day when Dido, her court, and Aeneas are out hunting, Juno brings a storm down upon them to send the group scrambling for shelter and arranges for Aeneas and Dido to wind up in a cave by themselves. They make love in the cave and live openly as lovers when they return to Carthage. Dido considers them to be married though the union has yet to be consecrated in ceremony. Anxious rumors spread that Dido and Aeneas have surrendered themselves entirely to lust and have begun to neglect their responsibilities as rulers.
The queen, whom sense of honor could not move,DIDO CALLS THEIR ‘RELATIONSHIP’ A MARRIAGE? BUT AENEAS
No longer made a secret of her love,DOES NOT, WHY WOULD THIS BE A PROBLEM?
But called it marriage, by that specious name
To veil the crime and sanctify the shame.
When Jupiter learns of Dido and Aeneas’s affair, he dispatches Mercury to Carthage to remind Aeneas that his destiny lies elsewhere and that he must leave for Italy. This message shocks Aeneas—he must obey, but he does not know how to tell Dido of his departure.
[Mercury says to Aeneas:] "Degenerate man,WHY IS AENEAS A DEGENERATE?
Thou woman's property, what makes you stay here,
These foreign walls and Dido’s towers to rear,
Forgetful of thy own? All-pow'rfulJupiter,
Who sways the world below and heaven above,
Has sent me down with this severe command:
Why do you linger in the Libyan land?”…WHAT IS ALLITERATIVE ABOUT THIS LINE?
The pious prince was seiz'd with sudden fear;
Mute was his tongue, and upright stood his hair.
Revolving in his mind the stern command,
He longs to fly, and loathes the charming land.AENEAS TRIES TO SNEAK AWAY? HOW IS THIS IRONIC?
What should he say? or how should he begin?
What course, alas! remains to steer between
This offended lover, the powerful queen?
Aeneas tries to prepare his fleet to set sail in secret, but the queen suspects his ploy and confronts him.
But soon the queen perceives the thin disguise:
(What arts can blind a jealous woman's eyes!)
She was the first to find the secret fraud,
Before the fatal news was yelled aloud
At length she finds the dear disloyal man;
Prevents his formed excuse, and thus began:HOW WOULD YOU CHARACTERIZE DIDO HERE?
"Base and ungrateful!could you hope to fly,
And Escape undiscovered your lover's eye?
Nor could my kindness your compassion move.
Nor plighted vows, nor dearer bands of love?ARE HER FEELINGS SHE JUSTIFIED? WHY OR WHY NOT?
Or is the death of a despairing queen
Not worth preventing? For it has been seen
Even when the wintry winds command you to stay,
You dare the tempests, and defy the sea.
See whom you fly! am I the foe you shun?
Now, by those holy vows, so late begun,
By this right hand, (since I have nothing more
To challenge, but the faith you gave before;)
I beg you by these tears too truly shed,WHAT IS DIDO DOING HERE?
By the new pleasures of our nuptial bed;
If ever Dido, when you most were kind,
Were pleasing in your eyes, or touch'd your mind;DO YOU THINK HER ENTREATIES WILL WORK?
…For you alone I suffer in my fame,
Bereft of honor, and expos'd to shame.
Whom have I now to trust, ungrateful guest?
(That only name remains of all the rest!)
What have I left? orwhere can I fly?
…..Had you delayed, at least, your hasty flight,EVEN IF HE DID DECIDE TO LEAVE (ACCORDING TO THIS SECTION)
And left behind some pledge of our delight,AENEAS COULD HAVE DONE SOMETHING TO MAKE HER HAPPY.
Some babe to bless the mother's mournful sight,WHAT COULD HE HAVE DONE?
Some young Aeneas, to supply your place,
Whose features might express his father's face;
I should not then complain to live bereft
Of all my husband, or be wholly left."
Here paused the queen. Yet, he holds his eyes,
By Jove's command; nor suffer'd love to rise,
Tho' heaving in his heart; and thus at length replies:
"Fair queen, you never can enough repeat
Your boundless favors, or I own my debt;
.
This only let me speak in my defense:DID AENEAS REALLY WANT TO LEAVE?
I never wished for a secret flight hence,
But I never pretended to the lawful claim
Of sacred nuptials, or a husband's name.
….As often as the night obscures the skies
With humid shades, or twinkling stars arise,
Anchises' angry ghost in dreams appears,WHAT TWO REASONS DOES HE GIVE FOR LEAVING?
Scolds my delay, and fills my soul with fears;
And young Ascanius justly may complain
Of his defrauded and destined reign.
Even now the herald of the gods appeared:
Waking I saw him, and his message heard.
From Jupiter he came, heavenly bright
With radiant beams, and manifest to sight
(The sender and the sent I both attest)
These walls he entered, and those words expressed.
Fair queen, oppose not what the gods command;
Forced by my fate, I leave your happy land."WHAT COMPELS HIM?
Thus while he spoke, already she began,WHAT IS DIDO’S REACTION TO THIS?
With sparkling eyes, to view the guilty man;
From head to foot surveyed his person over,
Nor longer these outrageous threats forebore:
"False as thou art, and, more than false, forsworn!
Not sprung from noble blood, nor goddess-born,
Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and Truth is now no more!
I saved the shipwrecked exile on my shore;
With needful food his hungry Trojans fed;WHY DOES SHE FEEL SO USED?
I took the traitor to my throne and bed:
Fool that I was- it is little to repeat
The rest- I stored and rigged his ruined fleet.
But go! thy flight no longer I detain-DOES SHE AGREE TO LET HIM GO?
Go seek thy promised kingdom thro' the main!
But when you call out my name:
I shall come in a black sulph'ry flame,
When death has once dissolv'dmy mortal frame;
Shall smile to see the traitor vainly weep:
My angry ghost, arising from the deep,WHAT DOES DIDO THREATEN HERE?
Shall haunt you awake, and disturb your sleep.
At least my shade your punishment shall know,
And Fame shall spread the pleasing news below."
Dido writhes between fierce love and bitter anger. Suddenly, she appears calm and instructs Anna to build a great fire in the courtyard. There, Dido says, she can rid Aeneas from her mind by burning all the clothes and weapons he has left behind and even the bed they slept on. Anna obeys, not realizing that Dido is in fact planning her own death—by making the fire her own funeral pyre. As night falls, Dido’s grief leaves her sleepless. Aeneas does sleep, but in his dreams, Mercury visits him again to tell him that he has delayed too long already and must leave at once. Aeneas awakens and calls his men to the ships, and they set sail.
Dido sees the fleet leaving and falls into her final despair. She can no longer bear to live. Running out to the courtyard, she climbs upon the pyre and unsheathes a sword Aeneas has left behind. She throws herself upon the blade and with her last words curses her absent lover. As Anna and the servants run up to the dying queen, Juno takes pity on Dido and ends her suffering and her life.
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF AENEAS’ CHOICE? SHOULD HE HAVE STAYED WITH DIDO? WHY OR WHY NOT?