Christopher Marlowe, The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage

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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 …

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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 28 March 2024.]

7958 The Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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