Dido Queen of Carthage
Act III Scene iii
Location: The Woods
The party goes hunting, and Iarbus cannot hide his jealousy of Aeneas. Dismissed again by Dido, he ruminates on revenge against the Trojan.
Iarbus:
O God of heauen, turne the hand of fate,
Vnto that happie day of my delight.
Dido, Queen of Carthage, III.iii.80-1
The Hunting Party: Iarbus is Humiliated
The party go hunting, and Dido's attention is solely on Aeneas. She invites the Lords to go before, because she wants to talk alone with Aeneas. Iarbus can hardly contain his jealousy, muttering asides, which further irritate the Queen. The pair end up bickering with each other. Dido is dismissively cruel to Iarbus: "Peasant, goe seeke companions like thyselfe" [III.iii.21], and even Aeneas' attempts at diplomacy fail.
Aeneas' stock is further raised indirectly by others, first by the boldness of the child whom they believe to be Ascanius: "How like his father speaketh he in all," observes Anna [III.iii.41]. Soon Achates weighs in by observing that this is the very same wood where Aeneas shot a deer to save his sailors' lives when they were first washed up on Carthage shore.
Dido orders her hunting party off in different directions, but instructs Iarbus to return to the house. Once alone, he ruminates on what revenge he might take on Aeneas, or perhaps even on Dido. His soliloquy ends with his dreaming of Aeneas' death, whereupon Dido might after time "mould her mind vnto newe fancies shapes" [III.iii.79], namely him.
