The Works of John Dryden, now first collected in eighteen volumes. Volume 14

by John Dryden

Note I.

Strange to relate! the flames, involved in smoke, &c.—P. 432.

Virgil, in this place, takes notice of a great secret in the Roman divination: the lambent fires, which rose above the head, or played about it, were signs of prosperity; such were those which he observed in the second Æneïd, which were seen mounting from the crown of Ascanius—

Ecce, levis summo de vertice visus Iüli
Fundere lumen apex.

Smoky flames (or involved in smoke) were of a mixed omen: such were those which are here described; for smoke signifies tears, because it produces them, and flames happiness. And therefore Virgil says, that this ostent was not only mirabile visu, but horrendum.