Interlude–Epic Pastness: War Stories, Nostalgic Objects, and Sexual and Textual Spoils in Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage

Abstract

Harlan turns her attention to the post-war moment, a space in which memories of the Trojan War have implications for the future: both Aeneas’ founding of Rome and early modern England’s perceived connection to this ancient city. She argues that the play’s characters are haunted by the war, and that this haunting is emblematic of the challenges the play stages of remembering the past and looking to the future. Material objects (some militant) are gifted and stolen, pointing to a larger concern with the play’s relationship to its epic source text, from which it cites, and to the foundational female, sexual spoils of the epic tradition: Helen of Troy and Dido. Ultimately, Dido’s manipulation of key spoils from a disarmed and lost Aeneas is emblematic of the transformation of mourning into her own object-laden suicide-funeral.