Pentheus appears from the palace of Cadmus in disguise as a Maenad.
Infatuation has become a phrensy: he sees double, Dionysus seems a
bull, his eyes penetrate into distance and perceive his mother and her
comrades. Unconscious of the laughter of Dionysus he adjusts his
feminine dress and practices the Maenad step. Irony is added:
_Dio._ Follow me! thy preserver goes before thee;
Another takes thee hence.
_Pen._ Mean'st thou my mother?
_Dio._ Aloft shalt thou be borne--
_Pen._ O the soft carriage!
_Dio._ In thy mother's hands.
_Pen._ Wilt make me thus luxurious?
_Dio._ Strange luxury, indeed!
_Pen._ 'Tis my desert.
Exclaiming in ambiguous phrase as to the awful end to which he is
destined, Dionysus leads the king out towards Cithaeron. {986}