Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval Aeneid

Title Page, About the Series, Copyright, Dedication

Reading Dido MEDIEVAL CULTURES SERIES EDITORS Rita Copeland Barbara A. Hanawalt David Wallace Sponsored by the Center for Medieval Studies at the University of Minnesota Volumes in the series study the diversity of medieval cultural histories and practices including such interrelated issues as gender, class, and social hierarchies ; race and ethnicity; geographical relations; definitions ofpolitical space; discourses of authority and dissent; educational institutions; canonical and noncanonical literatures; and technologies of textual and visual literacies. VOLUME 8 Marilynn Desmond Reading Dido: Gender, Textuality, and the Medieval Aeneid VOLUME/ Edited by Clare A. Lees Medieval Masculinities: Regarding Men in the Middle Ages VOLUME 6 Edited by Barbara A. Hanawalt and Kathryn L. Reyerson City and Spectacle in Medieval Europe VOLUME 5 Edited by Calvin B.Kendall and Peter S. Wells Voyage to the Other World: The Legacy of Sutton Hoo VOLUME 4 Edited by Barbara A. Hanawalt Chaucer's England: Literature in Historical Context VOLUME 3 Edited by Marilyn J. Chiat and Kathryn L. Reyerson The Medieval Mediterranean: Cross-Cultural Contacts VOLUME 2 Edited by Andrew MacLeish The Medieval Monastery VOLUME 1 Edited by Kathryn Reyerson and Faye Powe The Medieval Castle Reading Dido GENDER, TEXTUALITY, AND THE MEDIEVAL AENEID Marilynn Desmond Medieval Cultures Volume 8 University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London Copyright 1994 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota Parts of this book have been previously published, in slightly different form, as "When Dido ReadsVergil: Gender and Intertextuality in Ovid's Heroides 7," Helios (1993), reprinted with permission of Helios-, and "Bernard Silvestris and the Corpus of the Aeneid," in The Classics in the Middle Ages, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies 69 (Binghamton,N.Y., 1990), 129-39, copyright Center for Medieval & Early Renaissance Studies, State University of New York at Binghamton, reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by the University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Desmond, Marilynn, 1952Reading Dido :gender, textuality, and the medieval Aeneid / Marilynn Desmond. p. cm. — (Medievalcultures : v. 8) Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index. ISBN 0-8166-2246-9.— ISBN0-8166-2247-7 (pbk.) 1. English literature—Roman influences. 2. English literature—Middle English, 1100-1600—History and criticism. 3. French literature—To 1500— History and criticism. 4. Literature, Medieval—History and criticism. 5. Dido (Legendary character)in literature. 6. Carthage (Extinctcity)—In literature . 7. Literature, Medieval—Roman influences. 8. Sexrole in literature. 9. Queens in literature. 10.Virgil. Aeneis. I. Title. II. Series. PR127.D47 1994 809'.93351—dc20 94-6447 The University of Minnesota is an equal-opportunity educator and employer. To G. J. K. —for the age of miracles hadn't passed— ...