imagination of the Theban Women fome formidable animal of prey, and confequently under this idea of delufion be deftroyed by them: This fenfe would correfpond with the fequel of the drama, where we shall find, that Agave cónftantly imagines her fon Pentheus in her ftate of frenzy to have been really a wild beaft, and the calls him a lion 22, a heifer 23. and a whelp 24: The immediate address to Bacchus in the fubfequent line would hence acquire an additional propriety, as he would then be invoked under the epithet of Gngaygera 25, or the Hunter-God, against this imaginary monfter, which title frequently occurs hereafter in the Play 26. There are few paffages to be found, where different fenfes are fo well adapted to the context; but I am inclined to give the preference of the application of the addrefs to Bacchus rather than to Pentheus. θηραγρέτα 22 V. 1174. 1194. 1212. 24 V. 1183. 26 V, 1144. 1187. 1189. 23 V. 1168. N⚫ XXXIII. Gg 3 Verfe N° XXXIII. ་ Ὑψῶ δὲ θάσσων, ὑψόθεν χαμαιπετὴς 1111. Πενθεύς. Pentheus, high-feated, with it from his height 1189. Came headlong to the earth with many a groan. HERE I difcover in the original line of Euripides two beautiful and happy effects, which are unnoticed by any former Commentator: The first confifts in the artful cadence of the metre on the first foot of the third line, which occafioning a paufe expreffes by the fall of its measure the fall of Pentheus: The fecond is the delay of the principal word, which is the fubject of the two former lines, to the end of the fentence, where it strikes the ear with a stronger degree of energy: I will illuftrate thefe graces of Eloquence with other examples. Homer in the opening of his Iliad furnishes a fimilar inftance of verfification, where defcribing Apollo, as throwing his fatal dart against Mortals, he ftrikes the Reader too with an uncommon cæfura on the first fyllable of his verfe : Αὐτὰρ ἔπειτ' αυτοῖσι βέλος έχεπευκὲς ἐφιεὶς And Milton difplays a beauty of the fame nature, where Raphael in the fixth book of Paradife Loft concludes his * II. 1. V. 52. account account of the fallen Angels by this expreffive pause in the first foot of the line: Yet fell 2. Firm they might have stood, In regard to the other admired effect, here produced by the delay of the emphatick word, Pentheus, to the last, we may compare it with that fine addrefs of Horace in his Ode on the Philofopher Archytas ; Nec quidquam tibi prodeft Aerias tentâffe domos, animoque rotundum Here morituro at the close of the line ftamps an awful folemnity on the whole fentence, and impreffes the imagination with a deep fenfation. The English Reader may have a perfect idea of my meaning, by recalling to his memory those inimitable lines of Pope in his Effay on Man, where the final word dwells with irresistible force on the feeling mind, and is not fubfervient only to the rhime, but eminently useful to the fenfe : Go, wond'rous creature, mount where Science guides, Then drop into thyfelf, and be a fool * ! 2 V.912. 3 L. 1. Od. 28. v.6. ♦ Epist, 2. v. 30, N° XXXIV. Gg 4 Verse N° XXXIV. ̓Απεσπάραξεν ὦμον οὐχ ̓ ὑπὸ σθένες, 1126, Αλλ' ὁ Θεὸς εὐμάρειαν ἐπεδίδε χεροίν, And preffing on his fide tore off His fhoulder with a force not her's, the deed 1205. Made eafy by the God. THIS affertion of Euripides, that Agave fevered the fhoulder of Pentheus by the marvellous affiftance of the God, and not by the effort of her own natural ftrength, correfponds with an accurate knowledge of anatomy: For no human force, unaided by artificial inftruments, can ever detach the tenacious adhesion of the finews and tendons of the human body: Yet various Authors, who have defcribed this divulfion of Pentheus, have been guilty of this error by fubjecting the feparation of the limbs to the effect of mortal ftrength: Thus Apollodorus afferts, "that Pentheus, advancing to Mount Citharon, as a Spy of the Bacchanalians, was torn into pieces by the frantick rage of his Mother Agave" And Paufanias relates, "that the Women on Mount Cithæron fevered each of them a limb from Pentheus while alive: Philoftratus likewife in his Images paints * Καὶ παραγενόμενος εἰς Κιθαιρῶνα τῶν Βακχῶν κατάσκοπος ὑπὸ τῆς μητρὸς ̓Αγαυῆς κατὰ μανίαν ἐμελίσθη. (L. 3. p. 142. Ed. 1699.) 1. Καθελκύσαι τι αὐτίκα Πενθέα και ζώνιος ἀποσπᾶν ἄλλο ἄλλην τῷ σώματος, (L. 2. c. 2.) the the Mother and her Sifters, as actually dividing asunder their prey 3: Theocritus alfo reprefents Agave, as feizing the head of her Son, while Ino and Autonoe are forcing his shoulder and fhoulder-blade. Μάτηρ μὲν κεφαλάν μυκήσατο παιδὸς ἑλοῖσα, · Λαξ ἐπὶ γαςέρα βᾶσαν καὶ Αὐτονίας ῥυθμὸς αὐτὸς *. And Nonnus defcribes the entire feparation of the different limbs of the unfortunate Monarch by these frantick Bacchanalians; Καί μιν ἐδηλήσαλο τέθηπότα μαινάδες άρκτοι, Πρυμνόθεν ἔσπασε χειρα, κι ἄσχετα μαινομένη θήρα Ἡμιτόμε Πενθῆος έρεισαμένη πόδα λαιμῷ, Θηγαλέοις ονύχεσσι διέθρισεν ανθερεῶνα, Αἱμαλέον δὲ κάρηνον ἐκέφισεν ἅρπαγι ταρσῷ. Our Poet himfelf, unlefs we extend this obfervation of divine affiftance to the whole fcene, may perhaps be confidered, as guilty of this very error; for he afterwards defcribes one of the Bacchæ, as carrying away an arm, and an another as feizing a leg 7: But Ovid has even increased 3 Αἱ δὲ καὶ ξαίνεσι τὸ θήραμα, μητὴρ ἐκείνη καὶ ἀδελφαὶ μηρός, αἱ μὲν ἀποῤῥηγνεί σαι τὰς χεῖρας, ἡ δὲ ἐπισπῶσα τὸν υἱὸν τῆς χαίτης. (C. 18. Ed. Olear. P. 790.) 4 Idyll. 26. v, 23. 5 Dionyfiaca, 1, 44. p. 752. Ed. Falken. 1569. φ V. 1332. ? V. 1333. the |