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Act 1
Scene: The Palace
[enter Dido, Belinda and train]
Belinda
Shake the cloud from off your brow,
Fate your wishes does allow;
Empire growing,
Pleasures flowing,
Fortune smiles and so should you.
Chorus
Banish sorrow, banish care,
Grief should ne'er approach the fair.
Dido
Ah! Belinda, I am prest
With torment not to be Confest,
Peace and I are strangers grown.
I languish till my grief is known,
Yet would not have it guest.
Belinda
Grief increases by concealing,
Dido
Mine admits of no revealing.
Belinda
Then let me speak; the Trojan guest
Into your tender thoughts has prest;
The greatest blessing Fate can give
Our Carthage to secure and Troy revive.
Chorus
When monarchs unite, how happy their state,
They triumph at once o'er their foes and their fate.
Dido
Whence could so much virtue spring?
What storms, what battles did he sing?
Anchises' valour mixt with Venus' charms
How soft in peace, and yet how fierce in arms!
Belinda
A tale so strong and full of woe
Might melt the rocks as well as you.
What stubborn heart unmov'd could see
Such distress, such piety?
Dido
Mine with storms of care opprest
Is taught to pity the distrest.
Mean wretches' grief can touch,
So soft, so sensible my breast,
But ah! I fear, I pity his too much.
Belinda and Second Woman
[Repeated by Chorus]
Fear no danger to ensue,
The Hero Loves as well as you,
Ever gentle, ever smiling,
And the cares of life beguiling,
Cupid strew your path with flowers
Gather'd from Elysian bowers.
DANCE THIS Chorus
The Baske
[Aeneas enters with his train]
Belinda
See, your Royal Guest appears,
How Godlike is the form he bears!
Aeneas
When, Royal Fair, shall I be blest
With cares of love and state distrest?
Dido
Fate forbids what you pursue.
Aeneas
Aeneas has no fate but you!
Let Dido smile and I'll defy
The feeble stroke of Destiny.
Chorus
Cupid only throws the dart
That's dreadful to a warrior's heart,
And she that wounds can only cure the smart.
Aeneas
If not for mine, for Empire's sake,
Some pity on your lover take;
Ah! make not, in a hopeless fire
A hero fall, and Troy once more expire.
Belinda
Pursue thy conquest, Love; her eyes
Confess the flame her tongue denies.
A DANCE. GITTARS CHACONY.
Chorus
To the hills and the vales, to the rocks and the mountains
To the musical groves and the cool shady fountains.
Let the triumphs of love and of beauty be shown,
Go revel, ye Cupids, the day is your own.
THE TRIUMPHING DANCE
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