And teach me how to bear my woe.
Anna, preparing to go (412):
O love betrayed,
To what despair dost thou not drive the hearts of men?
Exit Anna.
Dido, at the window, watches her sister as she takes her way down to the harbor. When she can no longer see her in the gathering twilight, she turns with a sigh to her chamber.
The old nurse, Barce, totters to her. Dido places her head wearily on the old woman’s shoulder. Barce, drawing her to a couch, tries to soothe her. Dido starts up in terror, as if she saw some fearful shape. She flees before it to her husband’s shrine, and is only recalled from the fancy when she finds the curtains drawn before it.
Barce comes tremblingly to her. Dido in bitter remorse draws the curtains from the shrine and kneels before it. Barce hurries away and soon returns with a lighted candle, which she brings to her mistress. Dido lights the censer. Curtain.
Act IV. Scene 2
The same chamber in Dido’s palace. The shrine of Sychæus is adorned with flowers; fire glows on the altar. Barce sits spinning at one side.