Dido Queen of Carthage is heavily indebted to Books I and IV of Virgil’s Aeneid, an Augustan-era poem describing Rome’s foundation by the Trojan prince Aeneas following that city’s legendary fall. Marlowe supplements his engagement with this classical epic, which was widely read in sixteenth-century England, with material drawn from Virgil’s rival Ovid’s iconoclastic Metamorphoses, Amores, and Heroides. In fact, Dido is often said to be distinctly “Ovidian” in tone: a characterisation that emphasises the play’s overt eroticism, irreverent treatment of the gods, and playfully ironic approach. Furthermore, Marlowe’s dramatization of …
2287 words
Citation: Preedy, Chloe Kathleen. "The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 August 2021 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=7958, accessed 24 November 2024.]
