Background, Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam In order to download a copy of this information in rich text format, which most word processors should be able to read, select the following: cary.rtf.
Biography, Cary The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry by Elizabeth Cary is the first English play by a woman to be published. Printed in 1613, the play was probably written between 1604-09. (Among the very few early modern women who translated plays, Mary Sidney, Sir Philip Sidney's sister, had previously translated into English a French play based on the story of Antony and Cleopatra.) In your introduction to The Tragedy of Mariam, your anthology features a full amount of Elizabeth Cary's biography; because of biographies her daughters had written about her, there is more early modern information about the life of Elizabeth Cary than there is about William Shakespeare. Knowing a bit more about the form of drama that Cary has written, though, and about the story of Mariam, wife of King Herod, can make reading through the play a bit easier.
The form of Cary's play is called "closet drama." The name implies where this type of drama is performed: it is not performed on the stage, but rather read aloud (not acted) to a smaller, more private audience. Like the plays of Seneca, closet drama features a series of long speeches that often debate action on various problems. The speeches in The Tragedy of Mariam might resemble the longer speeches in Arcadia--both reflect early modern education in rhetoric, which often required the ability to deliberate in speeches--although the speeches in The Tragedy of Mariam, unlike Sidney's prose, are in rhyming iambic pentameter. (The first 14 lines, in fact, are a sonnet.) Elizabeth Cary is known to have attended English plays, though, including the plays of Shakespeare, and many have made connections between The Tragedy of Mariam and Othello, both being plays that depict mixed marriages and a husband who kills his wife.
Josephus's Account of Mariam and Herod The Tragedy of Mariam is largely based on an account by the Jewish historian Josephus of the marriage and subsequent murder of the Jewish Queen Mariam, married to King Herod. In the Renaissance, versions of Josephus Antiquities, in which he writes about Mariam and Herod, were available in Greek, Latin, various vernacular languages, and, in 1602, in English. The New Testament mentions several Jewish kings named Herod: the Herod in Luke's account of Jesus's birth; the Herod who killed John the Baptist; the Herod who questions Jesus before his crucifixion (in Luke); and the Herod, Herod Agrippa, who arrests Peter. The Herod of this play is Herod the Great, son of Antipater, the Herod featured in Luke's account of the slaughter of the innocents. Herod was succeeded ultimately by Herod Antipas, son of Herod from his fourth marriage, along with two other sons, Archelaus and Philip, from succeeding marriages (although none of them would be called king). The kingdom had been willed following Mariam's death to Antipater, his son from Doris, as the playtext suggests would happen, but later to a combination of Antipater and two of Mariam's sons: Alexander (mentioned in the play) and Aristobulos. However, suspecting Alexander and Aristobulos of plotting against his life, Herod later had the two executed and shortly thereafter has Antipater killed also for the same reason. Herod was married five more times after his marriage to Mariam. In having ruled for so long and had so many wives, he would indeed be a parallel in the Jacobean mind to Henry VIII.
The play begins, after a brief dedicatory poem by Cary's sister-in-law, with the cast of characters and the argument, a summary of what will happen in the play. But because it's useful to know a bit more about the story, which may be unfamiliar to you because its source is not biblical, I'll offer a bit of extra background. In 39 B.C.E., Herod was appointed King of the Jews by the Romans. In attaining the throne in Jerusalem two years later, Herod displaced the previous ruler, Antigonus, from the Maccabean dynasty. Mariam was also Maccabean; because Antigonus had usurped power from another member of Mariam's family, Mariam's grandfather Hyrcanus supported Herod's rule and Herod's marriage to Mariam. In order to marry Mariam, Herod divorced his first wife, Doris. (This in particular makes Herod parallel to Henry VIII, especially through the eyes of Henry's Catholic opponents. Cary herself, as your introduction suggests, was Catholic when being so was illegal in England.) Herod, however, was Idumean, which means he is from a bloodline that is not considered as traditionally Jewish as the Maccabeans; Maccabeans looked down on Idumeans. When Herod took over Jerusalem, Constabarus, an Idumean who would later marry Herod's sister Salome and thus become Herod's brother-in-law, was entrusted with making sure that none of Herod's enemies escaped the city. Constaburus, however, unsure of whether Herod's reign would be secure, protected two of Herod's enemies, the sons of Babas, by hiding them in farms outside Jerusalem for 10 years. This is information that Salome will use in the play to get Constabarus killed so she can pursue her love for Silleus. (Interestingly enough, she also debates initiating a divorce.) Salome had previously been married to Josephus--more on Josephus below). Although married to Mariam, however, Herod had rather contentious relations with Mariam's family. Unwilling to allow Mariam's grandfather Hyrcanus to become high priest, as that would make Hyrcanus (who would have been next in line for the throne, had not Herod taken over) fairly close to Herod in power, Herod had first appointed a man named Ananelus to that position, which angered Mariam's mother Alexandra. Later, he demoted Ananleus and appointed Mariam's 17-year-old brother Aristobolus to that position. Aristobolus became so popular as high priest that Herod became jealous and arranged a swimming party in which his associates held Aristobolus under water until he drowned. Herod also had Hyrcanus, Mariam's grandfather, killed for apparently legitimate treason: after the Roman defeat of Antony and Cleopatra, when Herod's previous frienship to Antony appeared to threaten his reign, Hyrcanus had tried to enlist Arabian power in overthrowing Herod. All of the above are events that Mariam and Alexandra refer to in some of their opening speeches, and that establish Herod's violent and capricious character. But there is still more violence and intrigue in Herod's marital relations and in his family-at-large. When Herod had been in Rome answering to Alexandra's accusations about the above murders, Herod had given an order to Josephus, Salome's first husband, to have Mariam killed if he were to be put to death. Josephus, who was to keep this order secret, revealed it to Mariam in an effort to prove that Herod still loved her, albeit in a fiercely jealous way. When Herod returned to Jerusalem, Salome, who wanted to end her marriage to Josephus, told Herod that Josephus had not kept the order secret. She accused Mariam and Josephus of committing adultery--an apparently untrue accusation--and used Josephus's communication with Mariam as evidence of the affair. Herod had Josephus executed, and subsequently arranged the marriage between Salome and Constabarus. He resolved his relationship with Mariam. This play opens after Herod has again returned to Rome to negotiate his position following Caesar's overthrow of Marc Antony. In Jerusalem, it is rumored that Herod has been killed, and Mariam opens the play by debating whether or not to grieve. In the course of the play, Herod arrives unexpectedly, to the joy of almost no one but Salome, who uses Herod's wrath in her plots against Constabarus and Mariam, both of whom Herod will have killed. The last acts depict Herod debating whether or not to have Mariam killed and, in true tragic form, regretting his action after the damage cannot be undone.
Discussion Questions, Acts 1-2
Innes, Kari-Anne. The Prodigal Daughter Project, but a VU alum and staff member, which features a link on Elizabeth Carey, Margaret Cavendish, and Seventeenth-Century Closet Drama. Ferguson, Margaret. "The Spectre of Resistance": The Tragedy of Mariam. Early Modern Women Dramatists, 1500-1800. Rubik, Margaret, ed. St. Martin's Press, 1998. Weller, Barry, and Margaret Ferguson, eds. The Tragedy of Mariam, Fair Queen of Jewry. University of California Press, 1994. Posting on select passages from The Tragedy of Mariam as part of our class project last spring. Posting on Joseph Swetnam's The Arraignment of Lewed, Idle, Froward, and Inconstant Women as part of our class project last spring. |