Eunomia says to Megadourus at one point: 'Never now, nor through the ages, never any woman dumb'.

 

(ii) Halliwell's version of Dido is based on the story of Dido, who, after her brother, King Pygmalion, murdered her husband, fled and founded a powerful Cathaginian civilization that rivalled Rome in what is now Tunisia.

 

She spurns the advances of Iarbus who threatens that he will go to war with Carthage if she will not marry him. Meanwhile she falls in love with Aeneas, who battles at length with his feelings for her but in the end sets off for Italy.

 

Dido makes a ceremonial pyre, pretending that it is a marriage pyre for Iarbus. Instead, she sacrifices herself and burns to death.

 

(iii) Ezechias is an English biblical drama dealing with the sweeping religious reforms of Hezekiah, the 13th King of Judah, in the Old Testament. Hezekiah demanded that only Yahweh be worshiped, that temples be stripped of gold, and symbols of other deities destroyed. As a result, he was placed under siege by the Assyrian King Sennacherib.

 

A parallel with Elizabeth is the stripping of churches of icons under the reformation, and the rebellions she faced from Catholics led by her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots. 

 

Another parallel is that according to the Talmud, Hezekiah fell ill reportedly as a result of refusing to marry and have children.

In Ajax Flagellifer, the story of Ajax the Warrior, there are two major female characters.

 

Firstly, the goddess Athena tricks Ajax into believing that cows and sheep are actually his opponents in the  Greek camp, whom he wishes to slay.

 

Secondly, Tecmessa, his wife, was imprisoned by Ajax, but when Ajax finally threatens to commit suicide, Tecmessa attempts to stop him. She is the first to find his corpse, which she covers with her own clothing.