Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Doomed Queen of by Ingrid de Haas The Story of Dido, Queen of Ancient Carthage. Dido (pronounced Die-doh) is known best as the mythical queen of Carthage who died for love of , according to "The " of the Roman poet Vergil (). Dido was the daughter of the king of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre, and her Phoenician name was Elissa, but she was later given the name Dido, meaning "wanderer." Dido was also the name of a Phoenician deity named Astarte. Who Wrote About Dido? The earliest known person to have written about Dido was the Greek historian Timaeus of Taormina (c. 350–260 BCE). While Timaeus's writing did not survive, he is referenced by later writers. According to Timaeus, Dido founded Carthage in either 814 or 813 BCE. A later source is the first-century historian Josephus whose writings mention an Elissa who founded Carthage during the rule of Menandros of Ephesus. Most people, however, know about the story of Dido from its telling in Viergil’s Aeneid . The Legend. Dido was the daughter of the Tyrian king Mutto (also known as Belus or Agenor), and she was the sister of Pygmalion, who succeeded to the throne of Tyre when his father died. Dido married (or Sychaeus), who was a priest of Hercules and a man of immense wealth; Pygmalion, jealous of his treasures, murdered him. The ghost of Sychaeus revealed to Dido what had happened to him and told her where he had hidden his treasure. Dido, knowing how dangerous Tyre was with her brother still alive, took the treasure, and secretly sailed from Tyre accompanied by some noble Tyrians who were dissatisfied with Pygmalion's rule. Dido landed in Cyprus, where she carried off 80 maidens to provide the Tyrians with brides, and then crossed the Mediterranean to Carthage, in what is now modern Tunisia. Dido bartered with the locals, offering a substantial amount of wealth in exchange for what she could contain within the skin of a bull. After they had agreed to what seemed an exchange greatly to their advantage, Dido showed how clever she really was. She cut the hide into strips and laid it out in a semi-circle around a strategically placed hill with the sea forming the other side. There, Dido founded the city of Carthage and ruled it as queen. According to the "Aeneid," the Trojan prince Aeneas met Dido on his way from to Lavinium. He stumbled on the beginnings of the city where he had expected to find only a desert, including a temple to and an amphitheater, both under construction. He wooed Dido who resisted him until she was struck by an arrow of . When he left her to fulfill his destiny, Dido was devastated and committed suicide. Aeneas saw her again, in the Underworld in Book VI of the "Aeneid." An earlier ending of Dido's story omits Aeneas and reports that she committed suicide rather than marry a neighboring king. Dido's Legacy. While Dido is a unique and intriguing character, it is unclear whether there was a historical Queen of Carthage. In 1894, a small gold pendant was found in the 6th–7th century Douïmès cemetery at Carthage that was inscribed with a six-line epigraph that mentioned Pygmalion (Pummay) and provided a date of 814 BCE. That suggests that the founding dates listed in historical documents could well be correct. Pygmalion may reference a known king of Tyre (Pummay) in the 9th century BCE, or perhaps a Cypriot god associated with Astarte. But if were real people, they could not have met: he would have been old enough to be her grandfather. Dido's story was engaging enough to become a focus for many later writers including the Romans (43 BCE–17 CE) and Tertullian (c. 160–c. 240 CE), and medieval writers Petrarch and Chaucer. Later, she became the title character in Purcell's opera Dido and Aeneas and Berlioz's Les Troyennes . Dido, Queen of Carthage. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Dido, Queen of Carthage , in full The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage , play in five acts by Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Nashe, published in 1594. The play is based on the story of Dido and Aeneas as told in the fourth book of Virgil’s Aeneid . In the play, Dido, the queen of Carthage, is in love with Aeneas, who has taken refuge in Carthage after the fall of Troy. He refuses to marry her, however, and as he sails from Carthage, the despairing Dido kills herself. The play adds a significant character from Greek legend to Virgil’s story: , a barbarian chieftain who himself wants Dido for his bride. This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper, Senior Editor. Dido (Queen of Carthage) Dido ( / ˈ d aɪ d oʊ / DY -doh ) was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first Queen of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia). She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid . In some sources she is also known as Elissa ( / iː ˈ l ɪ s ə / ee- LISS -ə ). Contents. Early accounts. The person of Elissa can be traced back to references by Roman historians to lost writings of Timaeus of Tauromenium in Sicily (c. 356–260 BC). Historians gave various dates, both for the foundation of Carthage and the foundation of Rome. Appian in the beginning of his Punic Wars claims that Carthage was founded by a certain Zorus and Carchedon, but Zorus looks like an alternative transliteration of the city name Tyre and Carchedon is just the Greek form of Carthage . Timaeus made Carchedon's wife Elissa the sister of King Pygmalion of Tyre. Archaeological evidence of settlement on the site of Carthage before the last quarter of the 8th century BC has yet to be found. Paucity of material for this period may be explained by rejection of the Greek Dark Age theory. [ 1 ] That the city is named ( Qart-hadasht , or "New City") at least indicates it was a colony. [ citation needed ] The only surviving full account before Virgil's treatment is that of Virgil's contemporary Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus in his Philippic histories as rendered in a digest or epitome made by Junianus Justinus in the 3rd century. Justin quoting or paraphrasing Trogus states (18.4–6), a king of Tyre whom Justin does not name, made his very beautiful daughter Elissa and son Pygmalion his joint heirs. But on his death the people took Pygmalion alone as their ruler though Pygmalion was yet still a boy. Elissa married Acerbas her uncle who as priest of Hercules— that is, Melqart— was second in power to King Pygmalion. Acerbas (Sicharbas, Zacherbas) can be equated with the Zikarbaal king of Byblos mentioned in the Egyptian Tale of Wenamon . Rumor told that Acerbas had much wealth secretly buried and King Pygmalion had Acerbas murdered in hopes of gaining this wealth. Elissa, desiring to escape Tyre, expressed a wish to move into Pygmalion's palace, but then ordered the attendants whom Pygmalion sent to aid in the move, to throw all Acerbas' bags of gold into the sea apparently as an offering to his spirit. In fact these bags contained only sand. Elissa then persuaded the attendants to join her in flight to another land rather than face Pygmalion's anger when he discovered what had supposedly become of Acerbas' wealth. Some senators also joined her in her flight. The party arrived at Cyprus where the priest of joined the expedition. There the exiles also seized about eighty young women who were prostituting themselves on the shore in order to provide wives for the men in the party. Eventually Elissa and her followers arrived on the coast of North Africa where Elissa asked the Berber king Iarbas [ 2 ] [ 3 ] for a small bit of land for a temporary refuge until she could continue her journeying, only as much land as could be encompassed by an oxhide. They agreed. Elissa cut the oxhide into fine strips so that she had enough to encircle an entire nearby hill, which was therefore afterwards named Byrsa "hide". (This event is commemorated in modern mathematics: The "isoperimetric problem" of enclosing the maximum area within a fixed boundary is often called the "Dido Problem" in modern Calculus of variations.) That would become their new home. Many of the local Berbers joined the settlement and both Berbers and envoys from the nearby Phoenician city of Utica urged the building of a city. In digging the foundations an ox's head was found, indicating a city that would be wealthy but subject to others. Accordingly another area of the hill was dug instead where a horse's head was found, indicating that the city would be powerful in war. But when the new city of Carthage had been established and become prosperous, Iarbas, a native king of the Maxitani or Mauritani (manuscripts differ), demanded Elissa for his wife or he would make war on Carthage. Elissa's envoys, fearing Iarbas, told Elissa only that Iarbas' terms for peace were that someone from Carthage must dwell permanently with him to teach Phoenician ways and they added that of course no Carthaginian would agree to dwell with such savages. Elissa condemned any who would feel that way when they should indeed give their lives for the city if necessary. Elissa's envoys then explained that Iarbas had specifically requested Elissa as wife. Elissa was trapped by her words. But Elissa preferred to stay faithful to her first husband and after creating a ceremonial funeral pyre and sacrificing many victims to his spirit in pretense that this was a final honoring of her first husband in preparation for marriage to Iarbas, Elissa ascended the pyre, announced that she would go to her husband as they desired, and then slew herself with her sword. After this self-sacrifice Elissa was deified and was worshipped as long as Carthage endured. In this account, the foundation of Carthage occurred 72 years before the foundation of Rome. Servius in his commentary on Virgil's Aeneid gives Sicharbas as the name of Elissa's husband in early tradition. Questions of historicity and dating. The oxhide story which explains the name of the hill must be of Greek origin since Byrsa means "oxhide" in Greek, not in Punic. The name of the hill in Punic was probably just a derivation from Semitic brt "fortified place". But that does not prevent other details in the story from being Carthaginian tradition though still not necessarily historical. Michael Grant in Roman Myths (1973) claims: "That is to say, Dido-Elissa was originally a goddess." It has been conjectured that she was first converted from a goddess into a human queen in some Greek work of the later fifth century BC. But others conjecture that Elissa was indeed historical, as described in the following accounts. It is not known who first combined the story of Elissa with the tradition that connected Aeneas either with Rome or with earlier settlements from which Rome traced its origin. A fragment of an epic poem by Gnaeus Naevius who died at Utica in 201 BC includes a passage which might or might not be part of a conversation between Aeneas and Dido. Servius in his commentary (4.682; 5.4) cites Varro (1st century BC ) for a version in which Dido's sister Anna killed herself for love of Aeneas. Evidence for the historicity of Dido (which is a question independent of whether or not she ever met Aeneas) can be associated with evidence for the historicity of others in her family, such as her brother Pygmalion and their grandfather Balazeros. Both of these kings are mentioned, as well as Dido, in the list of Tyrian kings given in Menander of Ephesus's list of the kings of Tyre, as preserved in Josephus's Against Apion , i.18. Josephus ends his quotation of Menander with the sentence “Now, in the seventh year of his [Pygmalion’s] reign, his sister fled away from him and built the city of Carthage in Libya.” The Nora Stone, found on Sardinia, has been interpreted by Frank Moore Cross as naming Pygmalion as the king of the general who was using the stone to record his victory over the local populace. [ 4 ] On paleographic grounds, the stone is dated to the ninth century BC. (Cross’s translation, with a longer discussion of the Nora stone, is found in the Pygmalion article.) If Cross’s interpretation is correct, this presents inscriptional evidence substantiating the existence of a 9th-century-BC king of Tyre named (in Greek) Pygmalion. Several scholars have identified Baa‘li-maanzer, the king of Tyre who gave tribute to Shalmaneser III in 841 BC, with Ba‘al-‘azor (Phoenician form of the name) or Baal-Eser/Balazeros (Greek form of the name), Dido’s grandfather. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 7 ] [ 8 ] This lends credibility to the account in Josephus/Menander that names the kings of Tyre from Abibaal and Hiram I down to the time of Pygmalion and Dido. Another possible reference to Balazeros is found in the Aeneid . It was a common ancient practice of using the hypocoristicon or shortened form of the name that included only the divine element, so that the “Belus” that Virgil names as the father of Dido in the Aeneid may be a reference to her grandfather, Baal-Eser II/Balazeros. Even more important than the inscriptional and literary references supporting the historicity of Pygmalion and Dido are chronological considerations that give something of a mathematical demonstration of the veracity of the major feature of the Pygmalion/Dido saga, namely the flight of Dido from Tyre in Pygmalion’s seventh year, and her eventual founding of the city of Carthage. Classical authors give two dates for the founding of Carthage. The first is that of Pompeius Trogus, mentioned above, that says this took place 72 years before the foundation of Rome. At least as early as the first century BC, and then later, the date most commonly used by Roman writers for the founding of Rome was 753 BC. [ 9 ] This would place Dido’s flight in 753 + 72 = 825 BC. Another tradition, that of the Greek historian Timaeus (c. 345–260 BC), gives 814 BC for the founding of Carthage. Traditionally most modern scholars have preferred the 814 date. However, the publication of the Shalmaneser text mentioning tribute from Baal-Eser II of Tyre in 841 BC caused a re-examination of this question, since the best texts of Menander/Josephus only allow 22 years from the accession of Baal-Eser/Balazeros until the seventh year of Pygmalion, and measuring back from 814 BC would not allow any overlap of Balazeros with the 841 tribute to Shalmaneser. With the 825 date for the seventh year of Pygmalion, however, Balazeros’s last year would coincide with 841 BC, the year of the tribute. Additional evidence in favor of the 825 date is found in the statement of Menander, repeated by Josephus as corroborated from Tyrian court records ( Against Apion i.17,18), that Dido’s flight (or the founding of Carthage) occurred 143 years and eight months after Hiram of Tyre sent assistance to Solomon for the building of the Temple. Using the 825 date, this Tyrian record would then date the start of Temple construction in 969 or 968 BC, in agreement with the statement in 1 Kings 6:1 that Temple construction began in Solomon’s fourth regnal year. Solomon's fourth year can be calculated as starting in the fall of 968 BC when using the widely accepted date of 931/930 BC for the division of the kingdom after the death of Solomon. These chronological considerations therefore definitely favor the 825 date over the 814 date for Dido’s departure from Tyre. More than that, the agreement of this date with the timing of the tribute to Shalmaneser and the year when construction of the First Temple began provide evidence for the essential historicity of at least the existence of Pygmalion and Dido as well as their rift in 825 BC that eventually led to the founding of Carthage. According to J. M. Peñuela, the difference in the two dates for the foundation of Carthage has an explanation if we understand that Dido fled Tyre in 825 BC, but eleven years elapsed before she was given permission by the original inhabitants to build a city on the mainland, years marked by conflict in which the Tyrians first built a small city on an island in the harbor. [ 10 ] Additional information about Dido’s activities after leaving Tyre are found in the Pygmalion article, along with a summary of later scholars who have accepted Peñuela’s thesis. If chronological considerations thus help to establish the basic historicity of Dido, they also serve to refute the idea that she could have had any liaison with Aeneas. Aeneas fought in the Trojan War, which is conventionally dated anywhere from the 14th to the 12th centuries BC, far too early for Aeneas to have been alive in the time of Dido. Even with the date of 864 BC that historical revisionist David Rohl gives for the end of the Trojan War, [ 11 ] Aeneas would have been about 77 years old when Dido fled Tyre in 825 BC and 88 when she began to build Carthage in 814 (following Peñuela’s reconstruction), hardly consistent with the romantic intrigues between Dido and Aeneas imagined by Virgil in the Aeneid . Virgil's Aeneid. Virgil's references in the Aeneid generally agree with what Justin's epitome of Trogus recorded. Virgil names Belus as Dido's father, this Belus sometimes being called Belus II by later commentators to distinguish him from Belus son of Poseidon and Libya in earlier Greek mythology. If the story of Elissa/Dido has a factual basis and is synchronized properly with history then this Belus should stand for Mattan I, father of the historical Pygmalion. Virgil (1.746f) adds that the marriage between Dido/Elissa and Sychaeus, as Virgil calls Dido's husband, occurred while her father was still alive. Pygmalion slew Sychaeus secretly and Sychaeus appeared to Dido in a dream in which he told the truth about his death, urged her to flee the country, and revealed to her where his gold was buried. None of these details contradict Justin's epitome, but Virgil very much changes the import and many details of the story when he brings Aeneas and his followers to Carthage. (1.657f) Dido and Aeneas fall in love by the management of Juno and , acting in concert though for different reasons. (4.198f) When the rumour of the love affair comes to King Iarbas the Gaetulian, "a son of Jupiter Ammon by a raped Garamantian ", Iarbas prays to his father, blaming Dido who has scorned marriage with him yet now takes Aeneas into the country as her lord. (4.222f) Jupiter dispatches to send Aeneas on his way and the pious Aeneas sadly obeys. Mercury tells Aeneas of all the promising Italian lands and orders Aeneas to get his fleet ready. (6.450f) During his journey in the underworld Aeneas meets Dido and tries to excuse himself, but Dido does not deign to look at him. Instead she turns away from Aeneas to a grove where her former husband Sychaeus waits. Virgil has included most of the motifs from the original: Iarbas who desires Dido against her will, a deceitful explanation for the building of the pyre, and Elissa/Dido's final suicide. In both versions Elissa/Dido is loyal to her original husband in the end. But whereas the earlier Elissa remained always loyal to her husband's memory, Virgil's Dido dies as a tortured and repentant woman who has fallen away from that loyalty. Later Roman tradition. Letter 7 of Ovid's Heroides is a feigned letter from Dido to Aeneas written just before she ascends the pyre. The situation is as in Virgil's Aeneid . In Ovid's Fasti (3.545f) Ovid introduced a kind of sequel involving Aeneas and Dido's sister Anna. See . The Barcids, the family to which Hannibal belonged, claimed descent from a younger brother of Dido according to Silius Italicus in his Punica (1.71–7). The Augustan History ("Tyrrani Triginta" 27, 30) claims that Zenobia queen of Palmyra in the late 3rd century AD was descended from Cleopatra, Dido and Semiramis. Continuing tradition. In The Divine Comedy Dante sees the shade of Dido in the second circle of Hell, where she is condemned (on account of her consuming lust) to be blasted for eternity in a fierce whirlwind. The story of Dido and Aeneas remained popular throughout the post-Renaissance era, and was the basis for many operas including : 1641 : La by Francesco Cavalli 1656 : La Didone by Andrea Mattioli 1689 : Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell 1693 : by Henry Desmarets 1707 : Dido, Königin von Carthago by Christoph Graupner 1724 : by Domenico Sarro 1740 : Didone abbandonata by Baldassare Galuppi 1747 : Didone abbandonata by Niccolò Jommelli 1762 : Didone abbandonata by Giuseppe Sarti 1770 : Didone abbandonata by Niccolò Piccinni 1783 : Didon by Niccolò Piccinni 1823 : Didone abbandonata by Saverio Mercadante 1860 : by Hector Berlioz. This legend also inspired the drama Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe. Even today, Dido appears in Sid Meier's strategy games Civilization II and Civilization V, as the female leader of the Carthaginian tribe. Remembrance of the story of the bull's hide and the foundation of Carthage is preserved in mathematics in connection with the Isoperimetric problem which is sometimes called Dido's Problem (and similarly the Isoperimetric theorem is sometimes called Dido's Theorem). It is sometimes stated in such discussion that Dido caused her thong to be placed as a half circle touching the sea coast at each end (which would add greatly to the perimeter) but the sources mention the thong only and say nothing about the sea. Carthage was the Roman Republic's greatest rival and enemy, and Virgil's Dido in part symbolises this. Even though no Rome existed in her day, Virgil's Dido curses the future progeny of the Trojans. In Italy under the Fascist regime, her figure was demonized, perhaps not only as an anti- Roman figure but because she represented together at least three other unpleasant qualities: feminine virtue, Semitic ethnic origin, and African civilization. As an innocuous example: when Mussolini's regime named the streets of new quarters in Rome with the characters of Virgil's Aeneid , only the name Dido did not appear. In tragic compensation (in a sadly ironic way), the Royal Navy employed Dido-class cruisers against Italian objectives during the Second World War, seemingly a devastating justification of Fascist fears. Christopher Marlowe, Dido, Queen of Carthage. Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position: This text is part of: View text chunked by: act : scene : line. Table of Contents: Act One, Scene One. Jupiter Come gentle Ganimed and play with me, I love thee well, say Juno what she will. Ganimed I am much better for your worthles love, That will not shield me from her shrewish blowes: To day when as I fild into your cups, And held the cloath of pleasance whiles you dranke, She reacht me such a rap for that I spilde, As made the bloud run downe about mine eares. Jupiter What? dares she strike the darling of my thoughts? By Saturnes soule, and this earth threatning haire , That shaken thrise, makes Natures buildings quake, I vow, if she but once frowne on thee more, To hang her meteor like twixt heaven and earth, And bind her hand and foote with golden cordes, As once I did for harming Hercules . Ganimed Might I but see that pretie sport a foote, O how would I with Helens brother laugh, And bring the Gods to wonder at the game: Sweet Jupiter , if ere I pleasde thine eye, Or seemed faire walde in with Egles wings, Grace my immortall beautie with this boone, And I will spend my time in thy bright armes. Jupiter What ist sweet wagge I should deny thy youth? Whose face reflects such pleasure to mine eyes, As I exhal'd with thy fire darting beames, Have oft driven backe the horses of the night, When as they would have hal'd thee from my sight: Sit on my knee, and call for thy content, Controule proud Fate, and cut the thred of time . Why , are not all the Gods at thy commaund, And heaven and earth the bounds of thy delight? Vulan shall daunce to make thee laughing sport, And my nine Daughters sing when thou art sad, From Junos bird Ile pluck her spotted pride, To make thee fannes wherewith to coole thy face, And Venus Swannes shall shed their silver downe, To sweeten out the slumbers of thy bed: Hermes no more shall shew the world his wings, If that thy fancie in his feathers dwell, But as this one Ile teare them all from him, [Plucks a feather from Mercuries wings.] Doe thou but say their colour pleaseth me . Hold here my little love : these linked gems, [Gives jewells.] My Juno ware upon her marriage day, Put thou about thy necke my owne sweet heart, And tricke thy armes and shoulders with my theft. Ganimed I would have a jewell for mine eare, And a fine brouch to put in my hat, And then Ile hugge with you an hundred times. Jupiter And shall have Ganimed , if thou wilt be my love. Enter Venus . Venus I , this is it, you can sit toying there, And playing with that female wanton boy, Whiles my Aeneas wanders on the Seas, And rests a pray to every billowes pride. Juno , false Juno in her Chariots pompe, Drawne through the heavens by Steedes of Boreas brood, Made Hebe to direct her ayrie wheeles Into the windie countrie of the clowdes, Where finding intrencht with stormes, And guarded with a thousand grislie ghosts , She humbly did beseech him for our bane, And charg'd him drowne my sonne with all his traine. Then gan the windes breake ope their brazen doores, And all Aeolia to be up in armes: Poore Troy must now be sackt upon the Sea, And Neptunes waves be envious men of warre, Epeus horse , to Aetnas hill transformd, Prepared stands to wracke their woodden walles, And Aeolus like Agamemnon sounds The surges, his fierce souldiers , to the spoyle: See how the night Ulysses -like comes forth, And intercepts the day as Dolon erst: Ay me! the Starres supprisde like Rhesus Steedes, Are drawne by darknes forth Astraeus tents. What shall I doe to save thee my sweet boy? When as the waves doe threat our Chrystall world, And Proteus raising hils of flouds on high, Entends ere long to sport him in the skie. False Jupiter , rewardst thou vertue so? What? is not pietie exempt from woe? Then dye Aeneas in thine innocence, Since that religion hath no recompence. Jupiter Content thee Cytherea in thy care, Since thy Aeneas wandring fate is firme, Whose wearie lims shall shortly make repose, In those faire walles I promist him of yore: But first in bloud must his good fortune bud, Before he be the Lord of towne, Or force her smile that hetherto hath frownd: Three winters shall he with the Rutiles warre, And in the end subdue them with his sword, And full three Sommers likewise shall he waste, In mannaging those fierce barbarian mindes: Which once performd, poore Troy so long supprest, From forth her ashes shall advance her head, And flourish once againe that erst was dead: But bright , beauties better worke Who with the Sunne devides one radiant shape, Shall build his throne amidst those starrie towers, That earth-borne Atlas groning underprops: No bounds but heaven shall bound his Emperie, Whose azured gates enchased with his name, Shall make the morning hast her gray uprise, To feede her eyes with his engraven fame. Thus in stoute Hectors race three hundred yeares, The Romane Scepter royall shall remaine, Till that a Princesse priest conceav'd by , Shall yeeld to dignitie a dubble birth, Who will eternish Troy in their attempts. Venus How may I credite these thy flattering termes, When yet both sea and sands beset their ships, And Phoebus as in Stygian pooles, refraines To taint his tresses in the Tyrrhen maine? Jupiter I will take order for that presently: Hermes awake, and haste to Neptunes realme, Whereas the Wind-god warring now with Fate, Besiege the ofspring of Our kingly loynes, Charge him from me to turne his stormie powers, And fetter them in Vulcans sturdie brasse, That durst thus proudly wrong our kinsmans peace. [Exit Mercury .] Venus farewell, thy sonne shall be our care: Come Ganimed , we must about this geare. Exeunt Jupiter cum Ganimed . Venus Disquiet Seas lay downe your swelling lookes, And court Aeneas with your calmie cheere, Whose beautious burden well might make you proude, Had not the heavens conceav'd with hel-borne clowdes, Vaild his resplendant glorie from your view . For my sake pitie him Oceanus , That erst-while issued from thy watrie loynes, And had my being from thy bubling froth: Triton I know hath fild his trumpe with Troy , And therefore will take pitie on his toyle, And call both Thetis and Cimothoe , To succour him in this extremitie. Enter Aeneas with Ascanius [and Achates ], with one or two more. What ? doe I see my sonne now come on shoare Venus , how art thou compast with content, The while thine eyes attract their sought for joyes: Great Jupiter , still honourd maist thou be, For this so friendly ayde in time of neede Here in this bush disguised will I stand, Whiles my Aeneas spends himselfe in plaints, And heaven and earth with his unrest acquaints. Aeneas You sonnes of care, companions of my course, Priams misfortune followes us by sea, And Helens rape doth haunt ye at the heeles. How many dangers have we over past? Both barking Scilla , and the sounding Rocks, The Cyclops shelves, and grim Ceranias seate Have you oregone, and yet remaine alive? Pluck up your hearts, since fate still rests our friend, And chaunging heavens may those good daies returne, Which Pergama did vaunt in all her pride. Achates Brave Prince of Troy , thou onely art our God, That by thy vertues freest us from annoy , And makes our hopes survive to coming joyes: Doe thou but smile, and clowdie heaven will deare, Whose night and day descendeth from thy browes: Though we be now in extreame miserie, And rest the map of weatherbeaten woe: Yet shall the aged Sunne shed forth his haire , To make us live unto our former heate, And every beast the forrest doth send forth, Bequeath her young ones to our scanted foode. Ascanius Father I faint, good father give me meate. Aeneas Alas sweet boy, thou must be still a while, Till we have fire to dresse the meate we kild: Gentle Achates , reach the Tinder boxe, That we may make a fire to warme us with, And rost our new found victuals on this shoare. Venus See what strange arts necessitie findes out, [Aside.] How neere my sweet Aeneas art thou driven? Aeneas Hold, take this candle and goe light a fire, You shall have leaves and windfall bowes enow Neere to these woods, to rost your meate withall: Ascanius , goe and drie thy drenched lims, Whiles I with my Achates roave abroad, To know what coast the winde hath driven us on, Or whether men or beasts inhabite it. [Exit Ascanius with others.] Achates The ayre is pleasant, and the soyle most fit For Cities, and societies supports: Yet much I marvell that I cannot finde, No steps of men imprinted in the earth. Venus Now is the time for me to play my part: Hoe yong men, saw you as you came Any of all my Sisters wandring here? Having a quiver girded to her side, And cloathed in a spotted Leopards skin. Aeneas I neither saw nor heard of any such: But what may I faire Virgin call your name? Whose lookes set forth no mortall forme to view, Nor speech bewraies ought humaine in thy birth, Thou art a Goddesse that delud'st our eyes, And shrowdes thy beautie in this borrowd shape: But whether thou the Sunnes bright Sister be, Or one of chast Dianas fellow Nimphs, Live happie in the height of all content, And lighten our extreames with this one boone, As to instruct us under what good heaven We breathe as now, and what this world is calde, On which by tempests furie we are cast . Tell us, O tell us that are ignorant, And this right hand shall make thy Altars crack With mountaine heapes of milke white Sacrifize. Venus Such honour, stranger, doe I not affect: It is the use for Tirien maides to weare Their bowe and quiver in this modest sort, And suite themselves in purple for the nonce, That they may trip more lightly ore the lawndes, And overtake the tusked Bore in chase. But for the land whereof thou doest enquire, It is the Punick kingdome rich and strong, Adjoyning on Agenors stately towne, The kingly seate of Southerne Libia , Whereas Sidonian Dido rules as Queene. But what are you that aske of me these things? Whence may you come, or whither will you goe? Aeneas Of Troy am I, Aeneas is my name, Who driven by warre from forth my native world, Put sailes to sea to seeke out Italy , And my divine descent from sceptred Jove : With twise twelve Phrigian ships I plowed the deepe, And made that way my mother Venus led: But of them all scarce seven doe anchor safe, And they so wrackt and weltred by the waves, As every tide tilts twixt their oken sides: And all of them unburdened of their loade, Are ballassed with billowes watrie weight. But haples I, God wot, poore and unknowne, Doe trace these Libian deserts all despisde, Exild forth Europe and wide Asia both, And have not any coverture but heaven. Venus Fortune hath favord thee what ere thou be, In sending thee unto this curteous Coast: A Gods name on and hast thee to the Court, Where Dido will receive ye with her smiles: And for thy ships which thou supposest lost, Not one of them hath perisht in the storme, But are arived safe not farre from hence: And so I leave thee to thy fortunes lot, Wishing good lucke unto thy wandring steps. Exit. Aeneas Achates , tis my mother that is fled, I know her by the movings of her feete: Stay gentle Venus , flye not from thy sonne, Too cruell, why wilt thou forsake me thus? Or in these shades deceiv'st mine eye so oft? Why talke we not together hand in hand? And tell our griefes in more familiar termes: But thou art gone and leav'st me here alone, To dull the ayre with my discoursive moane. Exeunt . Monologue Monday: Dido, Queen of Carthage by Marlowe. Howdy everyone. This week we bring you Christopher Marlowe’s play Dido, Queen of Carthage, though Thomas Nashe may have written some of it. You may remember Marlowe as basically humorless Shakespeare. And he liked to run his mouth and got stabbed in the forehead for his trouble. He is still considered one of the “greats” of English theatre. This plot summary comes straight from The Royal Shakespeare Company. The goddess Venus complains that Jupiter has been neglecting her son Aeneas, who has been lost in a storm on his way to found a new Troy in Italy. Jupiter calms the storm, allowing Aeneas to land safely on the North African coast. Aeneas meets with other surviving Trojans who have been receiving hospitality from Dido, Queen of Carthage. When Aeneas meets Dido, she agrees to supply his ships and he tells her about the fall of Troy. A NEW LOVE. Dido is attached to Iarbas but Venus sends Cupid to make her fall in love with Aeneas instead, believing this will help keep him safe. Dido rejects Iarbas, which pleases her sister Anna who is in love with him. Venus and Juno come together to create a storm, forcing Dido and Aeneas into a cave together. There, they declare their feelings for each other and consummate their love. Meanwhile, preparations are made for the Trojans to depart for Italy. Dido removes the sails from the ships so that they cannot go, although Aeneas denies intending to leave. Dido announces that he will be king of Carthage and they decide to found the new Troy there instead. Translation : Super-duper lonely Dido meets Mr. Johnny McBadass Hero Stud Aeneas and is totally into him. BETRAYAL. Hermes informs Aeneas that he has no choice but to leave as his destiny is in Italy. Aeneas reluctantly agrees and goes to tell Dido. She is horrified and burns everything that reminds her of him. Heartbroken, Dido takes fate into her own hands and, with a single act of protestation, changes the lives of everyone around her. Translation : Aeneas is a dirty dog and Dido loses it. Yeah, the play doesn’t end well for Dido. The entire story of course is taken from Virgil’s Aeneid , which took about 10 years to write because apparently publishers lacked deadlines in ancient Rome. Snark. Dido really, really feels her emotions. The monologue is below: DIDO: Speaks not Æneas like a conqueror? O blessed tempests that did drive him in! O happy sand that made him run aground! Henceforth you shall be our Carthage gods. Ay, but it may be, he will leave my love, And seek a foreign land call’d Italy: O that I had a charm to keep the winds Within the closure of a golden ball; Or that the Tyrrhene sea were in mine arms, That he might suffer shipwreck on my breast, As oft as he attempts to hoist up sail! I must prevent him; wishing will not serve.– Go bid my nurse take young Ascanius, And bear him in the country to her house; Æneas will not go without his son; Yet, lest he should, for I am full of fear, Bring me his oars, his tackling, and his sails. What if I sink his ships? O, he will frown! Better he frown than I should die of grief. I cannot see him frown; it may not be: Armies of foes resolv’d to win this town, Or impious traitors vow’d to have my life, Affright me not; only Æneas frown Is that which terrifies poor Dido’s heart: Not bloody spears, appearing in the air, Presage the downfall of my empery, Nor blazing comets threaten Dido’s death; It is Æneas’ frown that ends my days. If he forsake me not, I never die; For in his looks I see eternity, And he’ll make me immortal with a kiss. Before we bring you the two videos of this monologue, I reached out to Devon Ellington, who is much more familiar with the play and brings a unique perspective as someone with a lengthy theatre background as well as an author. Here’s what she said: On the face of it, this monologue is a woman terrified that the man she loves will leave her and do everything in her power to keep him “shipwrecked at her breast.” She is willing to steal his son and sabotage his ships, perhaps even sink them, because she would rather face his “frown” than his departure. The first response is “here we go again.” Because, after all, it’s an overused trope that a woman is willing to die for love (which Dido does when Aeneas leaves; she kills herself). It’s difficult, from our modern viewpoint, not to get impatient with her. It’s sometimes hard to remember that is was first published in 1594. Boys would have played the women’s roles then, and that can add more layers, depending on the production’s interpretation. [Editor’s note: even beyond this custom, according to the title page of the first publication, it was first performed by the Children of the Chapel, which means ALL the roles were performed by boys in the initial production] Theatre: Do you want little boys playing the men of this Roman tragedy or the women? Elizabethan England: YASSSS. But look at the monologue in the context of the play, and, if you choose to work on it, you can find more. Venus has her son Cupid shoot one of his arrows into Dido to force her fall in love with Aeneas, because Venus wanted Aeneas to stay on Carthage, post-Trojan war, so he would be safe. She hoped Dido’s love would keep him there. In other words, when working on this monologue, one can think in terms of layers. How much of Dido’s overwrought feelings of love – willing to express it in toxic terms to try to make her lover stay instead of letting him stay – are actually hers? What kind of subtext can be played in this piece if a part of Dido realizes something’s not quite right? She might not know she’s under enchantment, via Cupid’s arrow, but what if she starts feeling that something within her is off? What if not only the text is played, but what’s below it? The text is a ranting plan by a desperate woman to keep a lover who might or might not love her in return. But what if she has a moment of lucidity, where she doesn’t actually break free, but realizes that she is not completely in control? That she is behaving out of character, and not as a queen should, but can’t stop herself? It’s more than the emotion of love sweeping everything else away in her life, and creating this wild need. It doesn’t come from within her. It’s a poison that was put into her by Cupid. This monologue shows that love can be a poison that destroys. This is a queen, a leader of her people. In her legend, she proved her cleverness by outsmarting the people with whom she bartered land for a bull’s hide – which she then cut up and placed to encompass the kingdom. Yet she’s willing to throw it all away for a man, and haven’t we as women lived with THAT trope since it was created? But what if, in this passage: “Not bloody spears, appearing in the air, Presage the downfall of my empery, Nor blazing comets threaten Dido’s death; It is Æneas’ frown that ends my days.” What if here, there is a moment where she realizes that she’s not in control? That, no matter what she does, he will leave, and she will lose her kingdom? That she can’t break free of the enchantment and stop it? She can’t flush this poisonous love from her system. What if this is where she realizes she is doomed? What if needing him to stay is not just about her own personal need, created by Venus’s manipulation and Cupid’s enchantment, but the only way to hold Carthage? And that part of her knows it won’t happen, and death is inevitable? In an overall production, how does Venus willingness to hurt another woman play out? Common, in legends of Venus. She caused a lot of pain. How much of it is a male interpretation of “women who can’t get along” that we’ve seen over the centuries, and how much of it is a mother willing to burn down the world to protect her child? Those choices would also affect how this monologue is interpreted. For a modern performer, it certainly gives more to work with than just a terrified woman plotting to keep her lover. One of the reasons we keep exploring and performing plays by Marlowe, Shakespeare, and all the other classics, is the chance to layer on new interpretations as our frames of reference grows, and we understand the contexts of earlier productions. Taking some of Ms. Ellington’s words to heart will definitely help an using this monologue. Devon Ellington publishes under half a dozen names in fiction and non-fiction, and is an internationally-produced playwright and radio writer. The bulk of her career was spent working in theatre, including years working backstage on Broadway.