Marlowe's Travesty of Virgil: Dido and Elizabethan Dreams of Empire

Abstract

Several recent studies(1) of Christopher Marlowe's Tragedy of Queen of Carthage, have focused on its relation to development of English imperialism. Since play represents a female ruler from North Africa who is brought down by her love for a male voyager intent on an imperial dynasty, play invites studies of politics of gender, nationality, and race. Lurking in background, however, is also a political agenda of a more specific sort. As William Godshalk has suggested, Queen Elizabeth's abortive marriage negotiations with Duke of Anjou in years 1579-81 seem to have been on playwright's mind, though their precise relation to details of play has never been worked out.(2) It seems to me that recognizing allusions to French Marriage is crucial in understanding Marlowe's position on expansionist sentiment that was gathering strength in England in his day. The Queen's courtship of Anjou was a major turning point in Elizabethan foreign policy, one that set in motion England's sustained and ultimately successful attempt to project military power against Spain in Low Countries, New World, and beyond. For that reason, if for no other, negotiations deserve more attention in studies of play than they have so far received. I In considering possible connections between Dido and French Marriage, it is helpful to begin with literary context in which play was written. As founder of an empire that rivaled that of ancient Rome, Dido was a convenient analogue for in her challenge to sixteenth-century Roman imperium controlled by Pope and his powerful allies in France and Spain. Interest in myth at English court appears as early as 1564, when Edward Halliwell staged a Latin play entitled Dido (now lost) before Queen at Cambridge.(3) The myth attracted later writers of Elizabethan panegyric for various reasons, most important of which are made plain in William Gager's Latin play of same name, which was performed at Oxford during a royal visit in 1583. In Epilogue, where author attempts to reckon good to be derived from his work, he stresses three parallels between two queens, saying, Dido, one woman surpasses you by far: our virgin queen. In her piety, how many has she endured! What kingdoms has she founded! To what has she plighted her trust!(4) The lines call to mind Dido's sufferings at hands of her brother Pygmalion, who forced her and her followers to flee from Tyre and settle in Libya; her subsequent achievement in of Carthage; and her peaceable dealings with surrounding peoples. The Epilogue also mentions her trust and aid to wretched, evidently an allusion to assistance that she gave Aeneas and his storm-tossed men. As Gager's Epilogue suggests, Elizabeth's life followed a similar pattern, beginning with her amid sufferings caused by her sister Mary, proceeding through reversals inflicted by her Catholic enemies, and ending with founding of her kingdom as trusted ally of Protestant foreigners on Continent. Other works of period also compare with Dido because of her generosity toward needy, her piety in face of adversity, and her attainments as founder of an empire, though other qualities such as courage and love of her people are also important. In a passage in James Aske's 1588 poem Elizabeth Triumphans, which was written to celebrate defeat of Spanish Armada, author exalts English queen as the only Empress that on earth hath lived. He calls her a Goddesse who accompanies her troops into battle, a Generall who promises the meanest man and greatest an equal share of honor and reward.(5) Comparisons between and Dido were, however, not always so favorable. In period 1579-81, when Protestants rose up in opposition to Queen's marriage negotiations with Anjou, writers and artists placed more stress on self-destructive desires that led to Dido's fall. …