• Overview
• Staging information
• Translations
• Sample translations
• Production history

Scene

It is a three-act mythological comedia

Staging

Troy falls in the second scene, and the characters run on in terror as the city burns, and Anquises, Ascanio and Creusa appear nearly engulfed in flames. Creusa dies in the fire (offstage) but returns as a ghost, with her face bloodied. The goddess Venus appears dressed as a huntress with a bow and arrow, and Dido appears in her palatial splendour as Queen. In the second act Dido and Aeneas undergo a handwashing ceremony (so they would need a bowl with water). Behind a curtain, a portrait of Dido’s dead husband Siqueus is revealed; but this disappears, and in its place Dido sees a bloody sword. In Act Two, scene four, Dido and Aeneas go hunting, and Aeneas kills a lion offstage.  A storm is heard approaching and they take shelter in a cave. In the third act, Anquises appears to Aeneas by coming through the trunk of a tree with his sword at the ready. At the end Dido is found stabbed on Aeneas’s sword. (less)

Troy falls in the second scene, and the characters run on in terror as the city burns, and Anquises, Ascanio and Creusa appear nearly engulfed in flames. Creusa dies in the fire (offsta... (Read more...)

Music

There is a song and music/guitar playing in the third act

Cast number

Minimum	Maximum
6 males	18 males
4 females	6 females
10 (total)	24 (total)

Cast information

Plus additional attendants and soldiers

Characters

• DIDO, Queen of Carthage
• AENEAS, Trojan, son of the goddess Venus and the human Anquises
• HIARBAS, King of Libya
• ANQUISES, Aeneas’s father
• AN ADVISER
• TWO CAPTAINS
• ACATES, One of Aeneas’s captains
• ASCANIO, Aeneas’s son
• PIRRO, The victorious Greek in the fall of Troy, and his soldiers
• VENUS, Aeneas’s mother
• CREUSA, Aeneas’s wife (dies in the fall of Troy)
• CLOANTO, One of Eneas’s men
• ALCINO, Protector to Dido
• TWO AMBASSADORS
• CELIO, Celeusia’s brother
• CELEUSIA, Resident of Carthage, sister to Celio
• SIQUEUS, Dido’s murdered husband
• A MUSICIAN
• ANTEO, One of Aeneas’s men
• SERGESTO, One of Aeneas’s men
• ANA, Dido’s sister
• CASSANDRA, Trojan seer
• COREBO, man who wants to marry Casandra
• SOLDIERS, GREEKS, TROJANS AND LIBYANS

ATTENDANTS

Entry written by Kathleen Jeffs. Last updated on 4 October 2010.

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