David Sarkies's Reviews > The Wonder of Women: Or, The Tragedy of Sophonisba

Love and the Fall of Carthage
11 July 2021

So this play is set in the dying days of the Carthaginian Empire, and since the previous plays of Martson’s that I had read had been fictional stories (to the extent that I hadn’t heard of them) I thought that this was a fictional story as well. Actually, it turned out that it isn’t. I’m not sure whether you could consider it a true story though, but it does seem that Sophonisba was a real person, and there are also a number of characters in the play that are based on historical people, including Jugurtha, who caused a few problems for Rome in the ensuing years.

The play is set during the second Punic War, and Sophonisba has just been married to the Lybian king Masinissa. In fact, she had a choice between one of two kings, Syphax and Masinissa, and she decided to go with Masinissa. Well, Syphax wasn’t too impressed with that, so when Scipio decided to take the war to Carthage, he joined his side. Noting that he had a pretty big army, the Carthaginians decided that they would annul Masinissa’s marriage (since it hadn’t been consummated), and give Sophonisba to Syphax. Well, that is pretty much where everything goes pearshaped because it turns out that Syphax isn’t a particularly decent guy, since he pretty much leaves the battle to go and consummate his marriage, which means that the Carthaginians lose, especially since Masinissa decides to jump ship and join Rome due to the betrayal.

Now, the play is actually a tragedy, though it is a romance in part, which is what differs from the historical account (if the Roman account is anything to go by, because we all know that thing about history and winners). According to the Wikipedia article, the story seems to follow what was indicated in the accounts that we have, namely that Sophonisba was a virtuous woman, and that the marriage to Syphax was against her will. However, due to her unswerving loyalty towards Carthage, the Romans could not have her live, and thus she was put to death, which is where the tragedy lies. This is despite the fact that Masinissa still wanted to consummate the marriage after Syphax’s defeat.

However, Martson paints Syphax in a much less desirable light, in that he not only betrays both Rome and Carthage, but that he calls a witch to cast a spell on Sophonisba so that she would fall in love with him. Mind you, in English plays of this era, when people go to witches, you know that things end up pretty badly, and this is definitely the case here. Like, Syphax goes to bed thinking that he is lying with Sophonisba, and wakes up to discover that he was actually sleeping with the witch. I suspect this is because it doesn’t matter how powerful the witch happens to be, one simply cannot override human free will.

Yeah, talking about beds and wedding nights, the first scene is rather interesting as well because it seemed like everything decided to go into the bedroom with Masinissa and Sophonisba, and they end up having a war council here. Yeah, it seemed like pretty much the bedroom happened to be a major thoroughfare. Then again, we might laugh at the absurdity of the situation (and there have been some comedy sketches of this type, one I remember coming from an English comedy duo called The Two Ronnies). Yet the reality is that with the nobility this was actually quite common. First of all, they would make sure that the marriage was consummated, and secondly, it was to make sure that the woman was a virgin. Yeah, in Early Modern Europe, and even beforehand, there wasn’t a concept along the lines of privacy in the bedroom, at least where the nobility was concerned (and I suspect that the peasants didn’t have much privacy as well).

In a way, I do quite like these plays, especially the ones that explore the lesser-known aspects of history. They do suggest that truth is stranger than fiction, and as such it isn’t surprising that the playwrights would base their stories on historical events since they tend to be much, much better than things that happen to be made up. Mind you, they also end up changing things a bit as well, as I pointed out with Syphax. I get the impression from the Wikipedia article that he certainly wasn’t as bad as the play makes him out to be, and he certainly didn’t leave the battlefield when he discovered that he could bump pelvises with a woman that he happened to like. Then again, why let the truth get in the way of a good yarn?