ABSTRACT
Aeneas, the son of Venus and Anchises, having at the destruction of Troy saved his gods, his father, and son Ascanius from the fire, put to sea with twenty sail of ships, and having been long tossed with tempests, was at last cast upon the shore of Libya, where Queen Dido, flying from the cruelty of Pygmalion her brother, who had killed her husband Sychaeus, had lately built Carthage. She entertained Aeneas and his fleet with great civility, fell passionately in love with him, and in the end denied him not the last favours. But Mercury admonishing Aeneas to go in search of Italy, he readily prepared to obey him. Dido soon perceived it, and having in vain tried all other means to engage him to stay, at last in despair writes to him as follows.
