Whether the invention was or was not the merit of Euripides, certainly
this is not the only instance wherein he has turned it to dramatic
advantage. No dramatist was so distinct a painter as Euripides; his mind
was ever upon picture. He makes Hecuba, in the dialogue with Agamemnon,
say, "Pity me, and, standing apart as would a painter, look at me, and
see what evils I have,"

[Greek: Oichteiron hemas, os grapheus t apostatheis,
Ida me chanathreson, oi echo chacha.]

And this Hecuba, when Talthybius comes to require her presence for the
burial of Polyxena, is found lying on the ground, _her face covered_
with her robe:--

[Greek: Aute pelas sou, not echous epi chthoni,
Talthubie, keitai, sugchechleismene peplois.]

And in the same play, Polyxena bids Ulysses to cover her head with a
robe, as he leads her away, that she might not see her mother's grief.

[Greek: Komiz, Odysseu, m'amphitheis peplois chara.]

But in the instance in question, in the Iphigenia, there is one
circumstance that seems to have been overlooked by the critics, which
makes the action of Agamemnon the more expressive, and gives it a
peculiar force: the dramatist takes care to exhibit the more than common
parental and filial love; when asked by Clytemnestra what would be her
last, her dying request, it is instantly, on her father's account, to
avert every feeling of wrath against him:--

[Greek: Patera ge ton emon me stugei, posin te son.]

And even when the father covers his face, she is close beside him,
_tells him that she is beside him_, and her last words are to comfort
him. Now, whether Timanthes took the scene from Euripides or Euripides
from Timanthes, it could not be more powerfully, more naturally
conceived; for this dramatic incident, the tender movement to his side,
and speech of Iphigenia, could not have been imagined, or at least with
little effect, had not the father first covered his face. Mr Fuseli has
collected several instances of attempts something similar in pictures,
particularly by Massaccio, and Raffaelle from him; and he well
remarks--"We must conclude that Nature herself dictated to him this
method, as superior to all he could express by features; and that he
recognized the same dictate in Massaccio, who can no more be supposed to
have been acquainted with the precedent of Timanthes than Shakspeare
with that of Euripides, when he made Macduff draw his hat over his
face." From Timanthes