Lively Statues and Dramatic Ekphrasis in Dido, Queen of Carthage and The Winter’s Tale

In Dido, Queen of Carthage, Christopher Marlowe reimagines one of the Aeneid’s most enduring scenes—the ekphrasis of Troy’s fall depicted on the walls of Juno’s temple—as a dramatic encounter between Aeneas and an Ovidian statue of the late Trojan king, Priam. This essay considers this moment in Dido as a source for the finale of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, in which the statue of Hermione is compelled to “descend; be stone no more” (5.3.99). Reading these statue scenes alongside one another not only illuminates another chapter in Shakespeare’s artistic relationship with his brilliant but short-lived contemporary, but sharpens our understanding of the early modern theater’s adaptive practices and aesthetic ambitions. In particular, the lively statues of Dido and The Winter’s Tale help uncover the interrelated practices of staged statues, dramatic ekphrasis, and Ovidian dramaturgy on the early modern stage. [L.H.]