Roxa´na, daughter of Oxyartês of Bactria, and wife or concubine of Alexander the Great. Proud, imperious, and relentless, she loved Alexander with a madness of love; and being jealous of Statīra, daughter of King Darius, and wife of Alexander, she stabbed her and slew her.—N. Lee, Alexander the Great (1678).
So now am I as great as the famed Alexander; but my dear Statīra and Roxana, don’t exert yourselves so much about me.—Mrs. Centlivre, The Wonder, iii. 1 (1714).
Roxa´na and Stati´ra. Dr. Doran says that Peg Woffington (as “Roxana”), jealous of Mrs. Bellamy (as “Statira”) because she was better dressed, pulled her to the floor when she left the stage, and pummeled her with the handle of her dagger, screaming as she did so:
Nor he, nor heaven, shall shield thee from my justice.
Die, sorceress, die! and all my wrongs die with thee?
Table Traits.
Campbell tells a very similar story of Mrs. Barry (“Roxana”) and Miss Boutwell (“Statira”). The stage-manager had given to Miss Boutwell a lace veil, and Mrs. Barry, out of jealousy, actually stabbed her rival in acting, and the dagger went a quarter of an inch through the stays into the flesh.
Royal Mottoes or Legends.
Dieu et mon droit, Richard I.
Honi soit qui mal y pense, Edward III.
Semper eadem, Elizabeth and Anne.
Je maintiendrai, William III.