Diʹdo

It was Porson who said he could rhyme on any subject; and being asked to rhyme upon the three Latin gerunds, gave this couplet—

“When Dido found Æneas would not come,

She mourned in silence, and was Di-do dum(b).”

⁂ In the old Eton Latin grammar the three gerunds are called -di, -do, -dum. In modern school primers they are -dum, -di, -do.

When Dido saw Æneas needs must go,

She wept in silence, and was dum(b) Di-do.

E. C. B.

⁂ Dido was queen of Carthage, who fell in love with Ænēas, driven by a storm to her shores. After abiding awhile at Carthage, he was compelled by Mercury to leave the hospitable queen. Dido, in grief, burnt herself to death on a funeral pile. (Virgil: from Ænēid, i. 494 to iii. 650.)

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.

Diʹdo

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