QUEEN DID O.

Such is the title given in the Editor's folio MS. to this excellent old ballad, which, in the common printed copies, is infcribed, ENEAS, WANDERING PRINCE OF TROY. It is here given from that MS. collated with two different printed copies, both in black-letter, in the Pepys collection.

The reader will smile to obferve with what natural and affecting fimplicity, our ancient ballad-maker has engrafted a Gothic conclufion on the claffic ftory of Virgil, from whom, however, it is probable he had it not. Nor can it be denied, but he has dealt out his poetical juftice with a more impartial hand, than that celebrated poet.

HEN Troy towne had, for ten yeeres' past,'

WHE

Withstood the Greekes in manfull wife,

Then did their foes encrease foe fast,

That to refift none could fuffice:

Waft lye those walls, that were foe good,

And corne now growes where Troy towne stoode.

Eneas, wandering prince of Troy,

When he for land long time had fought,

At length arriving with great joy,

i To mighty Carthage walls was brought; Where Dido queene, with fumptuous feast, Did entertaine that wandering guest.

Ver. 1. 21. war. MS. and P P.

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VOL. III.

And,

And, as in hall at meate they fate,

The queene, defirous newes to heare,

Says, of thy Troys unhappy fate'

Declare to me thou Trojan deare:

The heavy hap and chance foe bad,

That thou, poore wandering prince, haft had,

And then anon this comelye knight,

With words demure, as he cold well,

Of his unhappy ten yeares 'fight',

Soe true a tale began to tell,

With words foe sweete, and fighes foe deepe,
That oft he made them all to weepe.

And then a thousand fighes he fet,

And every figh brought teares amaine;

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That where he fate the place was wett,

As though he had feene those warrs againe;

Soe that the queene, with ruth therfore,

Said, worthy prince, enough, no more.

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As one unhappye, alwayes wept,

And to the walls shee made her mone;
That the fhold ftill defire in vaine
The thing, the never muft obtaine.

And thus in grieffe she spent the night,
Till twinkling starres the skye were fled,
And Phoebus, with his glistering light,

Through misty cloudes appeared red;
Then tidings came to her anon,
That all the Trojan shipps were gone.

And then the queene with bloody knife

Did arme her hart as hard as stone, Yet, fomething loth to loofe her life,

In woefull wife fhe made her mone;

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te

And, rowling on her carefull bed,

With fighes and fobbs, these words shee fayd:

Though reafon fays, thou fhouldft forbeare,
And stay thy hand from bloudy ftroke;

Yet fancy bids thee not to fear,

Which fetter'd thee in Cupids yoke.
O 2

Come

Come death, quoth fhee, refolve my smart!-
And with those words shee peerced her hart.

When death had pierced the tender hart

Of Dido, Carthaginian queene;

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Where itt confumed fpeedilye:

Her fifters teares her tombe bestrewde;

Her fubjects griefe their kindneffe shewed.

Then was Eneas in an ile

In Grecya, where he ftayd long space, Wheras her fifter in fhort while

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Writt to him to his vile disgrace;

In fpeeches bitter to his mind

Shee told him plainé he was unkind.

Falfe-harted wretch, quoth fhee, thou art;

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And traiterouflye thou haft betraid

Unto thy lure a gentle hart,

"

Which unto thee much welcome made;

My fifter deare, and Carthage' joy,

Whofe folly bred her deere annoy.

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