Dido Queen of Carthage

Act IV Scene ii

Location: The Sacred Altar

Iarbus feels he is being punished by the Gods, and offers up a sacrifice to Jupiter. Anna implores the King to switch his passion to her, but Iarbus knows he cannot change "the course of his desire".

Iarbus:

Eternall Iove, great master of the Clowdes...

Heare, heare, O heare Iarbus plaining prayers,

Whose hideous ecchoes make the welkin howle,

And all the woods Eliza to resound

Dido, Queen of Carthage, IV.ii.4 & 8-10

Iarbus Prays to Jove

After suffering the painful sight of the "adulterers surfeited in sin" emerging from the cave in the previous scene), Iarbus concludes he is being punished by Jove (Jupiter), and is now found offering up a sacrifice whilst praying that the God "redresse these wrongs and warne him to his ships, that now afflicts me with his flattering eyes" [IV.ii.21-2].

Marlowe here is closely following his source. Whilst Virgil for the most part mentions Iarbus only in passing as merely one of Dido's many spurned suitors, he does pick out the king's fury when Fame spreads news far and wide of Dido and Aeneas' liaison. Iarbus' immediate reaction in the Aeneid is to offer up a range of sacrifices and offerings to Jove; indeed it is this plea that alerts Virgil's Jupiter to the situation, and has him immediately dispatch his messenger to remind Aeneas of his Italian destiny.

Dido purchases Land for the Foundation of Carthage by Mathias Merian the elder from Historische Chronica Frankfurt (1630) — Engraving: ***Dido purchases Land for the Foundation of Carthage*** by Mathias Merian the Elder in Historische Chronica (Frankfurt, 1630). Virgil recounts in the Aeneid how Carthage was founded. Dido fled Tyre after her husband was murdered, and landed on the shores of North Africa. She bartered with the local king Iarbas to acquire some land. He wished to drive a hard bargain and agreed to give her as much land as could be covered by the hide of a bull. However, Dido had a bull's hide cut into thin strips and used them to outline a large area of land on which to found Carthage. Iarbus fell in love with Dido, but the queen spurned his advances.

Anna's Pleas are Spurned

Anna's love of Iarbus is solely Marlowe's sub-plot, and the second half of this scene has her coming across the king at prayer and imploring him to switch his passions to her more receptive heart: "Away with Dido, Anna be thy song, Anna that doth admire thee more than heauen" [IV.ii.45-6]. Iarbus however knows that he is a hopeless case, and demands she leave him to his "silent thoughts" [IV.ii.38] and "sorrowes tide" [IV.ii.42]. The king storms out as Anna vainly calls after him.