The Æneids of Virgil, Done into English Verse. Virgil

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СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">       Whereby I wended out erewhile; and my old footsteps' track

       I find, and mid the dusk of night with close eyes follow back;

       While on the heart lies weight of fear, and e'en the hush brings dread,

       Thence to the house, if there perchance, if there again she tread,

       I go: infall of Greeks had been, and all the house they hold,

       And 'neath the wind the ravening fire to highest ridge is rolled.

       The flames hang o'er, with raging heat the heavens are hot withal;

       Still on: I look on Priam's house and topmost castle-wall;760

       And in the desert cloisters there and Juno's very home

       Lo, Phœnix and Ulysses cursed, the chosen wards, are come

       To keep the spoil; fair things of Troy, from everywhither brought,

       Rapt from the burning of the shrines, Gods' tables rudely caught,

       And beakers utterly of gold and raiment snatched away

       Are there heaped up; and boys and wives drawn out in long array

       Stand trembling round about the heap.

       And now withal I dared to cast my cries upon the dark,

       I fill the streets with clamour great, and, groaning woefully,

       'Creusa,' o'er and o'er again without avail I cry.770

      But as I sought and endlessly raved all the houses through

       A hapless shape, Creusa's shade, anigh mine eyen drew,

       And greater than the body known her image fashioned was;

       I stood amazed, my hair rose up, nor from my jaws would pass

       My frozen voice, then thus she spake my care to take away:

       'Sweet husband, wherefore needest thou with such mad sorrow play?

       Without the dealing of the Gods doth none of this betide;

       And they, they will not have thee bear Creusa by thy side,

       Nor will Olympus' highest king such fellowship allow.

       Long exile is in store for thee, huge plain of sea to plough,780

       Then to Hesperia shalt thou come, where Lydian Tiber's wave

       The wealthiest meads of mighty men with gentle stream doth lave:

       There happy days and lordship great, and kingly wife, are born

       For thee. Ah! do away thy tears for loved Creusa lorn.

       I shall not see the Myrmidons' nor Dolopes' proud place,

       Nor wend my ways to wait upon the Greekish women's grace;

       I, daughter of the Dardan race, I, wife of Venus' son;

       Me the great Mother of the Gods on Trojan shore hath won.

       Farewell, and love the son we loved together once, we twain.'

      She left me when these words were given, me weeping sore, and fain790

       To tell her much, and forth away amid thin air she passed:

       And there three times about her neck I strove mine arms to cast,

       And thrice away from out my hands the gathered image streams,

       E'en as the breathing of the wind or wingèd thing of dreams.

      And so at last, the night all spent, I meet my folk anew;

       And there I found great multitude that fresh unto us drew,

       And wondered thereat: wives were there, and men, and plenteous youth;

       All gathered for the faring forth, a hapless crowd forsooth:

       From everywhere they draw to us, with goods and courage set,

       To follow o'er the sea where'er my will may lead them yet.800

      And now o'er Ida's topmost ridge at last the day-star rose

       With dawn in hand: all gates and doors by host of Danaan foes

       Were close beset, and no more hope of helping may I bide.

       I turned and took my father up and sought the mountain-side.

BOOK III.

       Table of Contents

ARGUMENT.

       Table of Contents

      ÆNEAS TELLS OF HIS WANDERINGS AND MISHAPS BY LAND AND BY SEA.

      Now after it had pleased the Gods on high to overthrow

       The Asian weal and sackless folk of Priam, and alow

       Proud Ilium lay, and Neptune's Troy was smouldering on the ground,

       For diverse outlands of the earth and waste lands are we bound,

       Driven by omens of the Gods. Our fleet we built beneath

       Antandros, and the broken steeps of Phrygian Ida's heath,

       Unwitting whither Fate may drive, or where the Gods shall stay

       And there we draw together men.

       Now scarce upon the way

       Was summer when my father bade spread sails to Fate at last.

       Weeping I leave my fatherland, and out of haven passed10

       Away from fields where Troy-town was, an outcast o'er the deep,

       With folk and son and Household Gods and Greater Gods to keep.

      Far off a peopled land of Mars lies midst its mighty plain,

       Tilled of the Thracians; there whilom did fierce Lycurgus reign.

       'Twas ancient guesting-place of Troy: our Gods went hand in hand

       While bloomed our weal: there are we borne, and on the hollow strand

       I set my first-born city down, 'neath evil fates begun,

       And call the folk Æneadæ from name myself had won.

      Unto Dione's daughter there, my mother, and the rest,

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