When dawn comes and Dido sees the Trojan fleet at sea, she is uncontrollably overcome by an all-consuming rage. She momentarily contemplates having the Trojans pursued; then, realizing that it is too late for this tactic, she curses them, praying that eternal hostility may exist between them and her own people, that some "avenging spirit" will right the wrong that has been done to her, and that Aeneas will "fall in battle before his time and lie / Unburied on the sand."
Resigned now to death, Dido sends her dead husband's old nurse to fetch Anna, pretending to need her sister's assistance in completing magic rites. Once the nurse leaves on this errand, Dido mounts the pyre, lies down on the couch, and stabs herself with Aeneas's sword. Anna arrives amidst the uproar of the household and gathers Dido into her arms, where the queen dies.
