Z 626 Dido and Aeneas Act the first. [Italian translation]

OVERTURE

ACT THE FIRST

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.

CHORUS: When monarchs unite, how happy their state,

They triumph at once o'er their foes and their fate.

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.

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

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.

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