Salome and the Stage: Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedie of Miriam
Elizabeth Cary, England, 1668 In her 1668 “closet tragedy,” Elizabeth Cary explores the absence and return of a short-sighted king, the power of revenge, the blame placed on women, and a mysterious interpretation of fate. She tells the classic story of jealousy and revenge, but not without communicating underlying themes of political and social unrest in England. With themes of extreme revenge, race craft, and dissensus with the patriarchy, Cary emulates a Shakespearean drama, although the source of inspiration becomes fuzzy when both were writing around the same period. The overarching voice of the chorus stands out as an interesting, supposedly unbiased opinion, as it reiterates the sentiments of the characters and the lessons they should be learning, from an outside (male) perspective. Cary writes the chorus to chant, “Tis not enough for one that is a wife To keep her spotles from an act of ill: When to their Husbands they themselves do bind, Do they not wholly give themselves away?...