Roman d'Eneas, 263-

Roman d'Eneas

(lines 263-844, 1197-2154)

(translated [from CFMA ed.] by Míceál F. Vaughan [June 1999])

. . . . . . . . . . . .
(lines 1-262 omitted)

In these conditions, the fugitives from Troy
Suffered for three days, so that they had no joy.
When day arrived on the fourth day,	265
The winds lessened, ceased completely,
The sun rose, and it rained no more,
The sea went entirely calm;
The tempest was assuaged.
Then Eneas lifted up his head	270
And looked straight in front of him,
And he saw the land of Libya.
He encouraged all his companions;
They rowed with power in that direction.
They rowed and sailed	275
Until they reached the Libyan harbor;
They landed as soon as they could.
They had only seven of their twenty ships;
These they secured on the beach.
They found the country very wild;	280
They saw neither cabin nor house
Nor village nor city, only trees;
But nevertheless they were quite pleased.
Eneas went into the forest;
A single boy went with him,	285
Both carrying their bows,
And hunted deer and wild beasts.
His men carried back many of them.
They made fires on the shore,
And happily prepared to eat	290
What they had taken from the woods.
Often they looked out to sea
To see if they could spot their ships
That the wind had driven away from them;
They were anxious about them;	295
But they were even more distressed
About those men they saw in the water,
Whom they did not expect to see again.
They were more hopeful about the others,
But they had no hope for the dead.	300
They went to watch from the bluffs
And looked long out to sea;
When they saw nothing of them, they greatly feared
That the deep sea had swallowed the ships.
Then Eneas assembled	305
Those who had come along with him;
Of his company he had with him
No more than a third.
He began to comfort them
For the bad times they had on the sea.	310

'Men,' he said, 'noble knights,
Do not be dismayed
If you were afraid
On this sea, or felt troubled or sad;	315
It will, in the future, delight you,
When you remember it;
It will be a pleasure for you to tell stories
About the bad times you had had at sea.
A man who journeys to another land,	320
To conquer a kingdom and country,
Cannot achieve very great honor
If he cannot bear up under both good times and bad.
Whoever always gets what he wants
And never experiences evil,	325
In my opinion, will not know
At any time what 'good' might be;
But if he suffers a little discomfort ,
So that he does not get everything that pleases him,
In my opinion, he will treasure	330
The good later, when he gets it.
Now have we suffered much hardship
On many seas for more than seven years
And we have worked hard out there
And gone hungry and sleepless often;	335
If we ever get some rest,
A bit of good will please us greatly.
Having suffered hard labor and evil and pain,
If fortune keeps us in hand,
The gods will lead us to the place	340
That they promised us as a feudal territory,
In Greater Lombardy;
From there our ancestors came.
We are a large group and do not have
Very much in the way of food;	345
We must seek out supplies.
But I see this is a very uncivilized land;
I do not know if there is any grain here,
Or village or town or city.
I have never seen a wilder place.	350
If we find nothing here to live on,
There is no reason to stay,
But instead we should return to the sea
And look for another country.
Along with food we'll also need to find	355
Fresh water, hay and oats
For the horses, who are barely still alive.

Then Eneas chose
Ten brave and hardy knights
Who would go to search the countryside	360
And would find out to report to him
In what country they had arrived,
If there were people in it, or a grain of wheat.
The messengers who were going to check out
The country set off from there;	365
The wandered through valleys and mountains,
Through woods and fields;
They wandered far and wide, but did not see anyone
Who could give them any information,
Nothing alive, not even a wild animal.	370
They wandered far and wide through the thickets
Until they came upon a path;
From this issued a broad road.
The messengers kept on the main road,
Which was very wide, until they saw	375
The city of Carthage,
Whose fortress Dido controlled.
Lady Dido ruled the country;
She ruled it better than count or marquis;
Never was there a feudal state or kingdom	380
Better governed by a woman.
She was not born in that country,
But was from the country of Tyre;
Sicheus was the name of her husband.
One of her brothers had had him killed,	385
Chased his sister into exile,
Because he wanted to control the feudal estate.
She fled from there by sea;
She had a large group of companions,
Carried off a great deal of treasure,
Silks and cloths, silver and gold.	390
In this territory she arrived;
She came to the prince of the country,
With great ingenuity she went to ask
Him to sell her as much of his land
As the skin of bull would contain,	395
For which she gave him silver and gold;
And the prince, not expecting trickery
Gave her what she asked for.
Dido cut the skin
Into strips, which were very thin;	400
With these she got possession of so much land
That she founded a city there;
Then she conquered so much with her wealth,
With her ingenuity, with her prowess,
That she took possession of the whole territory	405
And the barons submitted to her.
The city was called Carthage,
Set on the coast of Libya.
The sea beats against it there on one side,
So that it never would be assailed from that quarter;	410
On the other side were pools
And great and broad marshes
And large moats with barbicans,
Made in the Libyan style,
And trenches and palisades,	415
Fences, barriers, drawbridges.
Before one could reach Carthage,
There were many tight and narrow places.
In a corner, high up toward the shore
There was a large natural outcropping.	420
There they erected the walls:
The stones were of gray marble,
Of white and of indigo and of red.
With great ingenuity and planning
They were laid completely around the city;	425
They were all constructed of marble and adamant.
The walls were made with columns,
With pillars and with niches.
With wild beasts, with birds, with flowers,
In marble of a hundred colors	430
Was the outside of the wall decorated,
Without red and without blue.
All around were made three rows
With very great care, of magnets,
A stone which is extremely hard;	435
The magnet is of such a nature,
That any man who comes near it in arms
Is pulled toward the stone.
So one who comes near it with a hauberk
Would be pulled immediately toward the wall.	440
The walls were thick and high,
They feared no assault;
They had five hundred towers on the perimeter
In addition to the main fortress.
Facing the town the walls	445
Had a triforium, with arches and canopies,
Made entirely of huge blocks of marble;
The road ran underneath.
A great market was held there every day;
There was selling of silk, furs,	450
Satin blankets, coverlets,
Purple cloth, gowns, colored clothes,
Gems, spices and dishes.
Rich and lovely merchandise
Could be found there at all times;	455
One could not imagine
Any finery that existed in the world,
Of which there was not a supply in that place.
They had broad streets in the city
And plenty of noble palaces,	460
Wealthy townsmen, halls and towers
And galleries and parlors.
There was a great supply of beautiful buildings
Within the confines of the city.
It had seven main gates;	465
A count lived above each one,
He held his fief and his land in exchange:
If war erupted in Carthage,
Each count would have to take up arms
And lead seven hundred knights.	470

In this sea near Carthage,
Along the coast, there is caught
A kind of fish
Not very large, but small.
They slice these near the tail,	475
And red drops fall from them;
From this is derived an expensive purple dye.
There are only a few fish of this kind;
They are called concilium.
From the blood of these small fish,	480
Of which there is a great supply in that place,
From them come the red purple.
They also make black dyes in Carthage
From the blood of a huge water serpent,
Called the crocodile,	485
Of which there are quite a few on an island.
These are extraordinarily large serpents
And are of a very strange character:
When one has devoured its prey,
Then it falls asleep with its jaws open.	490
It does not have any digestive tract;
Birds go inside its body
And while it is asleep they feed
On whatever it had earlier eaten.
It doesn't expel wastes otherwise,	495
For it doesn't produce excrement.

On one side of the city
Dido set her fortress.
It had strong towers and a fine dungeon,
Which feared nothing but a thunderbolt;	500
No one could damage it at all
In any assault, with spear or arrow,
Nor could any engine damage it
Unless if came from the sky.
The palace was beneath the tower;	505
Never, by king or emperor,
Was one as fine a this ever seen.
A bushel of precious natural gems
Was set in the wall,
And seven thousand enamels were placed there	510
On the pillars, on the battlements,
On the gates, on the arches,
On the rafters, on the windows,
On the glass and on the window frames.
Nearby, Dido built a temple,	515
Where Juno was worshipped.
It was extravagantly rich;
It would be boring to recount
All the features of its construction.
The goddess Juno wanted	520
Carthage to be the capital of the world
And all the kingdoms which were in it
Would be completely subservient to her,
But she could never achieve this goal.
Destiny had completely different things in mind,	525
For the gods had decided
That Rome would be the capital.
The Capitol lay to the right,
On one side, outside the castle,
Where the senators, by common decision,	530
Were set up to hold court,
To preserve justice, and to restrain evil:
This was the place were pleas were heard.
It was made with marvelous ingenuity;
It was very beautiful and spacious inside,	535
It had two hundred vaults and arches.
Never did any one speak so quietly there,
That he was not heard immediately
Around the entire Capitol.
The twenty-four senators	540
Were selected there.
Later, a very distant time from then,
Rome obtained the power
That Dido wanted to give Carthage.
This city was not yet	545
Fully completed;
Still Dido having work done
To reinforce the walls all around.

The messengers traveled very quickly
Until they came into Carthage;	550
They inquired and asked
Who ruled that city.
People told them that a woman
Was the lady over the entire kingdom.
They inquired where she was;	555
They went directly according to the directions.
In the castle beneath the tower
They found the lady
In the hall with a large crowd.
The messengers came before her.	560
Ilioneus, who was very wise
And brave, spoke first;
He greeted her, and then said to her:

'Lady, listen to us for a moment.
You have surely heard, long ago,	565
That the Greeks went against the Trojans;
They burned and destroyed the town,
Ruined everything, large and small;
Not a single one of those they were able to capture
Was able to save himself from death.	570
The city was entirely destroyed.
In Troy there was a noble lord
Of heavenly lineage;
From the great slaughter
That the Greeks carried out at night,	575
The gods preserved him well.
They got him out of the city;
He had a large company gathered with him.
At their command he was setting out to seek
Italy, a distant land;	580
We have sought it on the sea for seven years
And we can find it nowhere.
We had a great storm the other day,
Which caused one of our ships to sink,
We saw the men from it drown	585
And we were separated from a large number
Of other ships, and we do no know
If they are already drowned or not.
The smaller part has arrived
Very near here in your country;	590
Eneas has remained there,
Where he is waiting for his ships;
He has sent us to you here,
So that he might be safe in your country,
And not have to defend himself from your people,	595
As long as there is storm and wind,
And until he has fixed his ships a little,
That the storm has damaged.'

Dido replied to the messenger.
'I know well,' she said, 'the great loss	600
And destruction of the Trojans;
I heard a great deal about it long ago.
You who were saved from that
Have suffered more since then;
Never since have you been free from sorrow,	605
Are in great need of a rest.
If you wish to rest here,
To repair and fix your ships,
Have no fear, I promise you,
Of any people in this country;	610
Be confident, have no fear.
If Eneas wants to come here,
I will look after him in my city;
What is mine will be given over to him.
I was even more distraught,	615
When I came into this country,
For I am not from this land.
For my part, I know--I understand it well--
I ought certainly have pity
On a man, if I see him disconsolate.	620
If Eneas wants to rest here
And remain for a short stay,
He will not have to spend a penny
For a single thing he needs.
I will have him fully supplied from my possessions	625
And I will give him more when he departs;
I will do more for him than I tell you.
If in the end he should want to remain here,
And if he should abandon the pursuit
Of the folly that he is seeking out,	630
He may have a part of my territory
For himself and his companions;
My people and his will be one.
If he should want to live together with me,
I will not hold the Tyrians more dear	635
Than I will the Trojans.
Go back to him on the shore, quickly,
And tell him that he should come
To Carthage to lodge with me;
He is completely worn out with sailing.'	640

The messengers took their leave,
And returned to their lord full of joy.
Eneas saw them far away,
Went to meet them and said to them:
'What have you found?' 'Our good fortune.' 'Where?'	645
'Carthage.' 'Did you speak with the king?'
'No.' "Why not?' 'They don't have a lord there.'
'What then?' 'Dido controls the realm.'
'Did you speak with her?' 'Yes.'
'Does she threaten us?' 'Certainly not.'	650
'And what did she say then?' 'She promised us good,
"Be confident, don't be afraid."
That's what the Tyrian lady says,
And if you wish to remain and rest
In this Libyan territory,	655
To repair and restore your ships,
You ought to fear nothing,
For she offers you every assurance.
Through us she offers you rest
Together with her in her tower;	660
Her assistance will not fail you,
As long as you will be pleased to take it.'

While the messengers
Were going around searching the countryside,
Their ships, which they thought were lost,	665
Came to the harbor.
Each of them was at anchor;
All were there except one,
Which they had lost during the storm,
For which on earth they had no expectation.	670
Eneas was especially joyful
At the news which he heard,
And at his ships, of which he had all but one.
Fortune was very kind to him:
Fortune, which had previously been attacking him,	675
Was now encouraging him.
For this reason, one ought not to give up hope
If he must endure evil;
And, likewise, if he has all his desires,
Then he ought not be overjoyed:	680
Neither too dismayed by great evil,
Nor too happy at great good fortune;
Completely unmoved, by both one or the other.
No good thing, nor an evil, lasts forever.
Fortune turns in a very short time:	685
One who smiles in the morning, weeps at night:
She is ugly at night, beautiful in the morning.
As she turns her wheel,
She puts one on top one day,
On the bottom the next:	690
The higher she has put him,
The farther he falls down.

Eneas talked to his barons
About the lady's offer and her response,
And what message she had sent him:	695
That he should go to her in her city.
They all, collectively, advised him
That he should go there quickly,
And he did so, did not delay.
He got himself well decked out	700
And mounted a palfrey;
Seven score rode along with him,
And they rode straight off to Carthage,
Led by the messengers
Who had been there earlier.	705
He arrived at the city before mid-afternoon.
His men went ahead of him
And rode two by two;
Townsmen, ladies and knights
On the streets and at the windows	710
Came to look at them with wonder.
There was no need to ask
Who was the master of this company:
Without any of them having heard a word,
They recognized immediately the king.	715
Each one identified him to another with his finger;
He was very good-looking and stately
And a strong and well-built knight;
To all he seemed the most handsome of them.
He went to dismount at the castle;	720
Dido came before him;
He went forward, and greeted her.
She took him by the right hand;
In a window nook
They sat, far from the others.	725
She asked how he was,
And he told a long story,
About his wanderings and his coming there.
When he had told her everything,
He called his chamberlain,	730
Sent him back to the ships
For his son, who had remained there;
He asked that he be brought very quickly
And ordered that three bits of finery
That he had be brought.	735
He inwardly thought that he would give them
To the queen of Carthage,
Who had made him feel so welcome.
He had a spectacular brooch,
More precious than any other,	740
And a cloak that was very expensive.
Its fur was checkered,
From a wild animal of a hundred colors;
All the edges were nicely trimmed
With others more valuable and fine,	745
In front and on the hem below.
The lining was very costly
And the covering was worth even more:
The outside was embroidered all over in gold.
The fasteners alone and the buckles	750
And the buttons and tassels
Were worth more than three castles.
He had also a gown there
That would be suitable for a queen:
It was purple, sparkling with gold.	755
King Priam had put these garments
For safe keeping in his treasury,
When he was about to be crowned;
His wife Hecuba wore them
On the day of his coronation.	760
The chamberlain came back,
Having accomplished, in a very short time,
What his master had told him

Eneas's mother knew and saw
That her son was in Carthage;	765
In her heart she was much afraid
That they would threaten him with evil:
He was among a savage people.
She held the power of love;
When she saw that her son had sent for his,	770
She took him gently in her arms,
She kissed him very warmly.
With this kiss she gave him
Great power to inspire love:
Whoever will kiss him after that	775
Will be caught by the fire of love.
Venus said to those who were taking him
That no man or woman should kiss him,
Except the queen and Eneas.
They set off immediately.	780

Ascanius and his companions
Came to his father in Carthage.
He had him present to Dido
Those things he had had him bring.
She accepted them with great thanks,	785
Took the rich gift;
She did not value it as much for its own worth,
As for the person who gave it to her.
The lady and all the Tyrians
Inspected the Trojan gift;	790
They all considered it a marvel.
They talked about it a lot, and with great energy,
And they did not know, among themselves,
How to choose which of them to value more.
When they had examined the cloak	795
They praised it as a spectacular piece,
And, when they looked at the gown,
They considered the cloak a trifle;
And when the brooch came along,
They considered all the others not worth an egg.	800
The queen sent them
To her chamber, then summoned
The child, who had come to his father;
She embraced him, held him softly,
Kissed him very warmly.	805
She looked after herself very badly:
She was acting very foolishly who touched him
About his face and mouth.
Venus had set her flame there;
Dido took him in her arms, and she caught fire.	810
The lady drank a fatal poison,
Did not recognize it, to her great sorrow;
With the kiss she caught such a passion
Of love that her body burned up.
Then Eneas kissed him	815
And then Dido did so immediately again:
Love flickered from one to the other.
Each drank of it deeply in turn;
Whoever kissed him more drank more of it.
Dido was the more foolish,	820
She caught a fatal madness from it.
Now love has her in deep distress.
The queen had devoted herself so long
To kissing him, that soon it was night
And time for supper.	825
First they were called to wash,
And then seated for dinner.
It would be boring to detail
And enumerate all the dishes,
Which came often and in great amounts,	830
And to name the wines and spices.
But each one had enough of them;
They were all very well looked after,
And when the meal was over,
The servants took away the tablecloths.	835
In the palace it was very bright:
There were so many candles, the light would never
Have been greater by day.

Dido remained at the head table;
Her barons there had high reputation;	840
The rest of her household had departed.
She begged her guest to tell her
About the destruction of Troy,
And to narrate the treachery.

. . . . . . . . .
(lines 845-1196 omitted)

When Eneas had told her the story,
The queen was struck with wonder
At the evils, the sorrows and the losses
And the pains that he had suffered.	1200
She looked at him kindly
As Love constrained her.
Love spurs her, Love persuades her,
She often sighs and changes color.
When it was time for bed,	1205
She has the beds prepared;
She led him to the bedroom
Where the beds were ready
With blankets and fine linen.
Very tired, he went to bed;	1210
The queen was there as he pulls up the sheets,
Only with great reluctance was she able to leave.
Four counts led her away;
She is brought into her chamber;
A hundred noble damsels are there,	1215
Daughters of counts and kings;
There isn't one who is not a nobleman's daughter;
They take care of the queen as she goes to bed.
When the chamber has grown quiet,
Lady Dido is not forgetful	1220
Of him for whom the god of love
Has now put her in great distress;
She begins to think about him,
And to recall in her heart
His appearance, his body and his form,	1225
His words, his deeds, his conversation,
The battles that he told her about.
There was no benefit from her lying in bed;
She turned and turned again very often.
She faints and revives,	1230
Gasps, sighs and yawns,
Is greatly upset and troubled,
Trembles, shivers and shakes:
Her heart fails her and deserts her.
The lady is in very bad circumstances,	1235
And when she forgets herself,
She thinks that they lie together,
That she holds him naked in her arms;
She thinks she embraces him in her arms.
She doesn't know how to cover or disguise her love.	1240
She embraces her blanket,
She finds in that neither comfort nor love;
She kisses her pillow a thousand times,
For love of the knight.
She thinks that he, who is absent,	1245
Is instead present in her bed:
He is not there, he is elsewhere.
She speaks to him as if she can hear him.
In her bed she reaches out her hand and seeks him;
Not finding him, she beats herself with her fists.	1250
She weeps and make loud moans,
She dampens her sheets with her tears.
The queen tosses and turns,
First face down, then on her back.
She cannot save herself, she is very upset,	1255
She spends the night in trouble and pain;
She is upset in many ways.
She doesn't know who has trapped her:
She has drunk a fatal poison.
She doesn't realize who the child was	1260
Whom she held and embraced,
Who had inflicted this passion on her.
She cannot avoid the anxieties
That last throughout the night;
She thinks she will never see day again.	1265
When she was able to catch a glimpse of it,
At the crack of dawn, she got up;
She summoned no chambermaid,
And no woman-in-waiting.
She was inflamed with fatal passion,	1270
Felt the great afflictions of the fires of love.

She came wandering to her sister.
'Anna, I'm dying; I will not survive, sister.'
'What's the matter then?' 'My heart is broken.'
'Are you ill?' 'I'm completely healthy.'	1274a
'What's the matter then?' 'I am weak with love;	1274b
I cannot conceal it, I'm in love.' 'With whom?'	1275
'I'll tell you; I swear it's him....'
And when she was about to speak his name,
She fainted, and wasn't able to speak.
When she recovered from her faint,
She began again to give her explanation:	1280
'He who has suffered such great evil--
The Trojan lord, that is--
Whom fortune has sent into exile
And who came into this land yesterday.
I think that he is from a high family	1285
And from a heavenly lineage;
From everything it is quite clear that he is noble.
And his son is exceptionally courteous;
With holding and kissing him
I couldn't be satiated yesterday evening.	1290
Never since I left Tyre,
When my lord Sicheus died,
Do I have any memory of love.
Until this very day he arrived,
I never saw a man of any age--	1295
No matter how noble, brave or wise he was--
To whom I could have shown any hint
Of this feeling, more or less,
Except for this one alone, whom destiny
Led into my country.	1300
He has inflamed my heart;
He has afflicted me now with a fatal passion;
For him I am definitely about to die.
If I had not promised my spouse
My life-long love,	1305
I would make him my lover;
But since I have entrusted it to him,
It will never be violated by this one.
I would prefer to die than betray him,
Than place my affection in another;	1310
I want to protect it and keep my word.
May the earth open up beneath me
And swallow me down alive,
Or may fire from heaven consume me entirely,
Before to another I give my love,	1315
Which I promised to my lord.
I gave it to him, and he had it and still does,
And he will not be done wrong to by me.
I don't have any need of another's love,
For as long as I may live.	1320
I have nothing to do with this man;	1320a
I never saw him nor knew anything about him,	1320b
Except for what I have heard people say about him.
I heard him called Eneas....'
When she remembered him, said his name,
She went pale, and fainted,
So that she almost died.	1325

Anna, her sister, comforted her:
'Lady, why are you dying so miserably?
This love amounts to nothing,
That you have for your lord:
He is dead, and has been for many days.	1330
Your youth is passing away in sorrow,
No affection will ever come to him,
From him you will never have a child
Nor sweet love nor sweet looks,
Nor protection nor help.	1335
This is a very foolish love.
Since he cannot ever do you any good,
Why do you want to take the bad for his sake?
You will never have anything good from the dead:
Take you pleasure from the living.	1340
For the dead there is no recovery:
Turn your desires to the living.
Foolish is one who pays attention to the dead;
I know that it's true, and I have heard others say:
Let the dead keep with the dead,	1345
The living with the living, that is proper.
Who will keep your city,
Your territory, your inherited property?
A feudal state or kingdom cannot be for long
Well maintained by a woman;	1350
She accomplishes little with her commands,
If they have no other weight behind them;
She cannot sustain great costs,
If it is necessary to wage war.
This is a foreign land for you;	1355
On all sides war surrounds you;
All the barons of this territory
You have made your enemies,
For you have considered no man
Of this feudal state worthy to be your lord.	1360
You held them beneath you;
Because of this they have despised you,
Attack you on many sides,
Will destroy you sooner or later.
Since you have fallen in love with this man,	1365
Make him your lord;
He will keep you in your great feudal state,
For he has very great strength.
I assure you, God led him
Into this territory for your benefit.	1370
Since you were overtaken with love for him,
Do you think you can overcome that in any way?
You cannot do anything against love.	&n