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Dido, Queen of Carthage

Christopher Marlowe (1564 - 1593) and Thomas Nashe (1567 - 1601)

Dido, Queen of Carthage is the earliest of Christopher Marlowe's known plays, possibly written while he was still a student at Corpus Christi College in Cambridge whose college library held a copy of Virgil's Aeneid, the principal source of the story. The play was co-authored by a fellow Cambridge undergraduate Thomas Nashe, although Nashe's contribution is now thought to have been a minor one. It was acted by the "Children of Her Maiestie's Chappell " around 1587.

The play tells of the tragic love affair between Dido, Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, a survivor from the destruction of Troy who is voyaging to Italy to build a new city. When Aeneas and his men are driven ashore near Carthage he and Dido fall in love and plan to marry. But Hermes, the messenger of the Gods, reminds Aeneas of his divinely decreed mission to found Rome.
(Summary by Alan Mapstone)
Dido, Queen of Carthage: Michele Eaton
Aeneas: Greg Giordano
Jupiter: Beeswaxcandle
Ganymede: ShrimpPhish
Venus: dc
Cupid: ShrimpPhish
Juno: Jessie Percival
Hermes: Beeswaxcandle
Ascanius: Inkell
Anna: Hannah Lake
Achates: Hallow Orbiter
Ilioneus: Todd HW
Iarbas: Larry Wilson
Cloanthus: Cavaet
Sergestus: Priamedes
Nurse: Winnifred Assmann
A Lord: Wayne Cook
Narration: Alan Mapstone
Editor (acts 1,2 5): Alan Mapstone
Editor (acts 3&4): Inkell

Genre(s): Tragedy

Language: English

Keyword(s): tragedy (161)