So raving Pentheus Troops of Furies sees, Two Suns, and double Thebes: So mad with Guilt, Orestes, agitated on the Stage, Flies from his Mother's Ghost, with Torches arm'd, And black infernal Snakes; revengeful Fiends Sit in the Doors, and intercept his Flight.
As I have occasionally mention'd this remarkable Place, it may not be amiss to observe, that Images are no where better impress'd, than throughout that Description, where Dido is represented under the Conflicts of Love, and dismay'd with Prodigies. I shall only cite one Part of it, and the rather, because it contains a mere intellectual Idea not subject to the Senses, which yet is as clearly impress'd, as if it were the proper Object of them: An infallible Proof of the Skill of the Painter.
[174] ——Agit ipse furentem In somnis ferus Æneas; semperque relinqui Sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtur Ire viam, & Tyrios deserta quærere terra.
In her Dreams Cruel Æneas persecutes her Soul To Madness. Still abandon'd to herself, Cheerless, without a Guide, she seems to go A long, a tedious Journey, and to seek Her Tyrian Subjects on deserted Coasts.
To conclude; in a word, every Conception of the Mind, join'd to a beautiful Description, is an Image. I cannot produce a better Proof of this, than that Passage in Homer, where Astyanax shrinks at the Sight of his Father array'd in Armour.
[175] Ὁϛ ειπων, ὁυ παιδοϛ ορεξατο Φαιδιμοϛ Ἑκτωρ, κ. λ.
Thus having spoke, th' illustrious Chief of Troy Stretch'd his fond Arms to clasp the lovely Boy. The Babe clung crying to his Nurse's Breast, Scar'd at the dazling Helm, and nodding Crest. Pope.[176]
To which may be added, the following Description of Virgil, out of innumerable others:
[177] ——Viridi fœtam Mavortis in antro Procubuisse lupam, geminos huic ubera circum Ludere pendentes pueros, & lambere matrem Impavidos; illam tereti cervice reflexam Mulcere alternos, & corpora fingere lingua.
In the mossy Cave of Mars A female Wolf lay suckling; at her Teats Two sporting Infants hung, and lick'd their Dam, Intrepid: She her sleek round Neck reclin'd, Smooth'd them, by Turns, and form'd them with her Tongue.