Dido Queen of Carthage and The massacre at Paris

C. Marlowe, H. Oliver

The story of Dido Queen of Carthage focuses on the classical figure of Dido, the Queen of Carthage. There are strong homosexual themes in this play. It tells an intense dramatic tale of Dido and her fanatical love for Aeneas (induced by Cupid), Aeneas' betrayal of her and her eventual suicide on his departure for Italy. The playwrights depended upon Books 1, 2, and 4 of the Aeneid of Virgil as their main source. The opening scene, with its emphasis on homosexuality, as an indication of Marlowe's own emotional orientation whe he wrotes this play. The Massacre at Paris is an Elizabethan play that concerns the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre, which took place in Paris in 1572, and the part played by the Duc de Guise in those events.