The tragedy "Cleomenes," or "The Spartan Hero," was written by Dryden and Southerne, and produced at the Theatre Royal in 1692. It was one of the plays that Purcell ended up writing music for. Only one of the songs survives, and it is entitled "No, no, poor suff'ring heart". The setting is strophic, which was unusual for Purcell, and depicts the Egyptian king Ptolemy's lust for his mistress Cassandra. The music is sung in Cassandra's apartment supposedly by King Ptolemy, but the song was set for soprano voice. The melodic line is beautiful, employing large and small leaps, that move forward to important textual points and cadences.

History of Queen Boudica

Queen Bonduca's real name was Queen Boudica and she ruled the Iceni in the time of Nero. Her husband, King Prasutagus, had left half of his kingdom to the Romans in the hopes that when he died his kingdom would be safe from Roman takeover. Unfortunately, the Romans treated this as an act of surrender on the part of the Iceni and overtook their lands and subjected them to taxes and conscription.

The Iceni's close allies, the Trinovantes, also suffered insults at the hands of the Romans. When Queen Boudica protested to the Roman government, she was publicly flogged and her daughters all raped. She called together the Iceni and the Trinovantes and burned every Roman outpost in southern Britain; Colchester, London, Verulamium, and tortured every Roman she could find. She inflicted heavy casualties on the Roman forces and the Roman governor faced the loss of Britain to the Iceni and Queen Boudica.

When he finally defeated her in open battle he wreaked terrible vengeance. The Romans almost ruined the province in response.Finally the Roman governor to Britain was recalled to Rome, and a new governor took his place. It took ten years for the recovery of Britain to be complete.

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