Herod's servant makes a keen parallel in the above quote. Nuntio chooses to compare his queen to  Abel, a martyr, like Mariam, to domestic rather than religious issues.  This passage from Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedy of Mariamreflects the transformation of the post-Reformation saint play into the beginnings of the Renaissance history play.  In the sixteenth century, efforts of the Protestant church-state and theological implications of the Reformation begin to change the nature of the saint play.  Upon the Protestant renunciation of the cult of the saints, the dramatic hero as a religious martyr  conjoins with heroes and martyrs of social and historical significance. Martyrdom begins to  include humanistic issues as Protestantism "re-forms"  the saint play into the socio-political historical tragedy. 

The Reformed faith, largely governing the development of drama in the sixteenth century, sheds light on why the martyrs of Renaissance tragedy take up humanistic rather than divine crosses to bear.  Saint plays of the Catholic faith emphasize a martyr's heavenly reward for conversion and sacrifice as they trace a martyr's spiritual and physical journey through penitence, contrition and conversion.  This flies in the face of reformed doctrine which argues that works alone can not guarantee salvation, but that only God's elect experience grace.  Paul Whitfield White explains, "The Catholic penitential system, along with other supposedly meritorious rites such as prayers to the Virgin, the saints, and their images, were now denounced as a massive, humanly devised fraud, which blocked rather than paved the way to salvation....The practical consequences of this new Christian orthodoxy were far-reaching.  Since the institutional apparatus of the Church could no longer help one "do" salvation, or at least combine external acts ("works") with belief ("faith"), one was driven inward to search one's soul..." (White, 147).  Post-Reformation saints, therefore, are not "divine" figures of the Catholic church, but instead figures of history who, being more worldly, look introspectively at common humanistic struggles.  The reformed deconstruction of the saint play to subdue "sainted" characters paves the way for increasingly human characters to reflect upon the sacrifices made to institutions other than the church, including the realms of statehood and domesticity. 

While effects of the Reformation supress sainthood in sixteenth century drama, it is important to distinguish "sainthood" from the dramatic form of the saint play which continued to evolve. Literary critic  Benjamin Griffin in his essay "The Birth of the History Play: Saint Sacrifice and Reformation" argues, "the later-medieval privileging of the Eucharist did not displace the cult of the saints, and saint plays did not disappear with the introduction of the civic cycles.  They continued to flourish into the sixteenth century when the cult of the saints was decisively suppressed in the English church.  The evidence of surviving saint plays suggests that their cultural niche was re-occupied, after the Reformation, by an altered manifestation of the historical/sacramental sensibility" (222).  Griffin goes onto site that both the first recorded and exantant British dramas about historical figures were about saints and dispels the myth that saint plays were overshadowed by mystery cycles.  Referencing figures provided by John Wasson's "The Secular Saint Plays of the Elizabethan Era," in The Saint Play in Medieval Europe, he emphasizes that twenty-six percent of recorded medieval plays were saint plays, equaling the twenty-six percent that were non-cycle mysteries and outweighing the sixteen percent that were Corpus Christi.  Arguably, Griffin makes a case for studying the role of the saint play in the development of sixteenth century historical drama. 

How does The Tragedy of Mariam then reflect, and even define, elements of a humanistic saint play? Nuntio's quote provides a starting point, "If sainted Abel yet deceased be,/'Tis certain Mariam is as dead as he."  By association, Nuntio saints Mariam.  Her sainthood, however, is not a consequence of her association with the Church, but with Abel.  Abel and Mariam are similar not in their association with the Church, but in the association of their deaths.  Both Abel and Mariam can be viewed as martyrs to , in today's terms, domestic violence. Through Nuntio's words, Cary expands the realm of martyrdom to the home.  Mariam is not a saint of the Church, but of domesticity. Her play is not about Mariam's religious virtue, but instead her domestic virtue  as a wife.  Still, Cary does not entirely displace religion, but uses religious references, symbolism and conventions of the saint play to make and strengthen the authority of her domestic argument. 

The Tragedy of Mariamcalls into examination wifely Christian virtues such as "chastity, piety and humility," (humility implying silence and obedience) as popularized in Renaissance conduct books such as Juan Luis Vives Instructions of a Christian Woman.   These conduct books not only  curb the independence of women in the home, but in intellectual circles as well.  In the essay "Transgressing Boundaries: Women's Writing in the Renaissance and Reformation," Janet Clare writes, "Conduct books, aimed primarily at a middle-class audience, also reiterated the end to which female learning was to be directed...In the inculcation of male constructs of female virtue, the Bible, the teachings of the church fathers and narratives of virtuous women are judged appropriate reading material.  Philosophy, poetry and rhetoric are considered inappropriate studies, as they may produce self-expression, seduce women away from simple Christian truths and activate a desire to participate in the public world" (paragraph 5).  To Cary, struggling to pursue reading and writing from an early age, these books undoubtedly posed a threat. 

Curiously, however, Cary writes in a genre approved by the code of conduct, a narrative of a virtuous women, but stands the form on its end with tragic consequences.  In Cary's play, the virtuous woman dies at the expense of her virtue while the antithesis of a virtuous woman, Salome, survives.  This ending proposes some serious dilemmas as to how the audience is to interpret Cary's play: Does the tragedy speak to the futility of female virtue?  Does the play advocate anti-virtue for feminist survival? Does it purport that virtuous women should be willing to sacrifice their lives for virtue? Does it punish its protagonist for breaking with virtue? These questions might all be affirmatively answered if indeed Cary did not choose the saint play as a model for her drama.  Instead, Mariam is, in the words of Nuntio "sainted," and Herod punished only when the protagonist transgresses the virtue of humility by vocally opposing her husband.  The heroine confesses saying: 
 

                    Had not myself against myself conspir'd 
                    No plot, no adversary from without 
                    Could Herod's love from Mariam have retir'd 
                    Or from his heart have thrust my semblance out... 
                    Had I but with humility been grac'd, 
                    As well as fair I might have prov'd me wise: 
                    But I did think because I knew me chaste, 
                    One virtue for a woman might suffice. 
                    That mind for glory of our sex might stand, 
                    wherein humility and chastity 
                    Doth march with equal paces hand in hand. 
                                                                                                                                                                                  (IV: viii: 533-65)
 

In speaking outwardly to her husband, Mariam contests the womanly virtue of silent humility. She does so without denying the virtue of chastity.  In her arugument "one virtue for a woman might suffice," and, therefore, she parts with silence.  This rationale, however, is lost on the irrational Herod.  Misappropriately in her confession, Mariam takes Herod's punishment as a loss to her cause when it is her death for this very cause that sanctifies her.  Unlike the foul-mouthed adulterous Salome, who posseses none of the wifely virtues, Mariam remains virtuous in chastity and piety while denying silent humilitude. Evidenced in her act of confession, Mariam possesses "humilty" even in rebellion.  Mariam's act of confession is in itself a humble act, therefore, associating humility, versus pride, with an act of speech and displaying that silence need not go "hand in hand" with humility and chastity. It is her ability to remain virtuous while rebelling against the virtue of unwarranted humility which causes characters to speak of her in heavenly terms. Constabarus rants: 
 

                    But no farewell to any female wight 
                    You wavering crew: my curse to you I leave, 
                    You had but one to give you grace: 
                    And you yourselves will Mariam's life bereave. 
                                                                                                                                                                                    (IV: vi: 310-13)
 

Constabarus refers to Mariam as a Christ-like giver of "grace."  He sums up the message of the play, that Mariam's behavior is the saving "grace" of women.  This admonition by Constrabarus, a man conspired against by the false tongue of his wife Salome,  vindicates the speech act of another woman.   This distinguishes between two types of speech: false praise, which makes women "devils" compared against Mariam's honest speech. Because women will not follow the pattern set by Mariam, Constrabarus chastises them in his misogynist speech naming them as "giddy creatures, sowers of debate," "adulterous, murderous, cunning, proud," unable to use words virtuously of which his wife Salome "attends the latter train."  The argument of the play, therefore, becomes not one questioning the virtue of a woman's silence or speech, but instead how silence and speech are used, or not used, toward virtue.

While many interpretations of Cary's tragedy quickly point toward Mariam's outward and public denunciation of Herod as leading to her demise, it is important to note, as does Arthur Cyril Dunstan in his Examination of Two English Dramas, that it is actually Mariam's silence which provokes the king. Dunstan writes "When Herod charges her with being unfaithful, she can only say: 'Is this a dream?' She merely denies the charge later and to Herod's question: — 'Why didst thou love Sohemus' she replies: — 'they can tell/ That say I lov'd him, Mariam says not so.'  This is her last word to Herod....The hasty Herod, whose jealousy blinds him, looks on her silence as a confession of guilt.  He at once orders her to be executed" (33).   Although Mariam has  voiced her will earlier in the confrontation , in the end, it is her keeping with the womanly virtue of silence that, like Graphina who's silence shows her discontent, dooms her. Again, Cary emphasizes that both speech and silence can be damning, silence in itself is not a virtue.

Ironically, it is ultimately not Mariam's silence or speech which damn her, but the words of others, both a man and a woman, which condemn her to death.  Salome and Herod are equal in their misuse of words to destroy another's virtue.  Herod confesses this lamenting, 
 

Foul sacrilege to rob those lights so pure, 
From out a temple made by heav'nly skill. 
I am the villian that had done the deed, 
The cruel deed, though by another's hand; 
My word, though not my sword, made Mariam bleed, 
(V: i: 185-89) 

The character of Salome functions similary in her malicious use of speech over life and death. Salome admits her misuse of words to condemn or save  several members of the court saying:  "Tis true indeed, I did the plots reveal....Thus Salome, your minion Joseph slew," (I: 250), "I curse my tongue, the hinderer of his doom" (I:320), and "Now tongue of mine with scandal load her name...Herod's eyes to flame" (III: 97).  Salome's use of words encourages Mariam's saint-like image, making the queen's protest of Herod seem trivial in light of Salome's wicked words. Salome directly foils Mariam's virtue.  Strenthening the foil, Salome and Mariam take on religious associations that emphasize Mariam's virutous , versus Salome's wicked, use of language. The characterization of Salome directly alludes to her biblical counterpart.  In the Bible, Salome demands the head of John the Baptist, in the play Salome threatens her husband Contrabarus with like punishment stating:

Hapless fate, 
To be such a thankless wretch the wife! 
This hand of mine hath lifted up thy head, 
Which many a day ago had fallen low 
Because the sons of Baba are not dead-- 
To me thou dost both life and fortune owe"
(I: 399-404). 

Through the characters of Salome and Mariam, the reader may compare the epitome of female vice against the epitome of female virtue. Both Salome and Mariam use silence and words toward different ends, proving that each can be the mark of either a wicked or pure woman. This portayal of characters as either Vice or Virtue is indicative of the medieval morality and saint plays' influence on Cary's tragedy.  Cary's development of Mariam as a protagonist representative of the saint play distinguishes between possible misogynist readings of her tragedy (misfortune brought about by female outspokeness) and a feminist reading venerating free speech. 

Cary's play is not about Mariam's religious virtue, but instead  domestic virtue  as a woman.  Cary does not displace religious influence, but uses references, symbolism and character development common to the saint play to make and strengthen the authority of her domestic argument. Cary's tragedy is not a mere saint play disguised with secular characters and concerns,  but instead a conversion of the saint play into a separate form of drama. While influence of the saint play is evident in Cary's characterization of Mariam and Salome ,the play fundementally differs from the typical medieval saint play. Cary's tragedy does not concern  a narrative of conversion and/or salvation.  Mariam is not sacrificed on behalf of anyone; her death does not usher in salvation, and characters, while remorseful, are not converted; the social condition remains the same. Returning to Benjamin Griffin's article "The Birth of the History Play: Saint, Sacrifice, Reformation," this is in keeping with the post-Reformation saint play.  Griffin takes his example from another play, argued by some as the first history play called King Johan, stating "to see the legacy of the saint play requires a subtler attention to the drama of martyrdom....Where the saint play is given shape by forces of sacrifice, King Johan fidgets uncertainly; where the saint play dramatizes as past conversion, King Johan's characters are neither converted or convertible; it is the audience, in Bale's view, who ought to suffer the conversion.  On the fictional level of the personae, Johan's martyrdom is only efficacious with respect to its future meaning for its audience in Tudor England.  The sense of history has been refocused upon the theater audience" (232).  Like Bale's play, Cary's tragedy does not intend to make a theological or religious statement.  It does not look back to a past sacrifice  for its historical significance to a people of faith.  Instead, The Tragedy of  Mariamrevisits a historical event and "frames" its meaning to  a contemporary audience on contemporary, humanistic issues .  The power of conversion is brought through the play itself.  In her play, Cary borrows the authority and power of a religious dramatic form, the saint play, to examine the issue of women's free speech in Elizabethan England as told through the historical figure and characterization of Mariam, the Faire Queen of Jewry. Demarcating itself from the salvationist saint-play, the humanistic saint play retells a historical event, with a contemporary and humanist bent, using religious association to emphasize character and enhance or inflate the authority of the message. 

Beyond the saint-like characterization of Mariam, Cary's play also takes influence from the medival genre of the Corpus Chirst play and the classical genre of Senecan tragedy.  These formal antecedents, however, are best traced through another character of the tragedy, that of Herod, Mariams' uxorious and murderous husband. 

Continuing pages on Elizabeth Cary's Tragedy of Mariam: