A widow printer makes Dido

This article explores the career of printer Joan Orwin and in particular on a playbook she was hired to print: Christopher Marlowe's Dido, Queene of Carthage (1594). Drawing on archival records of female stationers in the period, the article demonstrates that Joan Orwin was unique in her employment of her brand ‘the Widow Orwin’. The play is a rich case study, not only because the multifarious significations of widowhood and loss in early modern culture seem to consolidate in and on the playbook Orwin printed, but because Dido engages in gender dynamics created by powerful widows who populate the play.