Zoe

Zoë , c.978-1050, Byzantine empress (1028-50), daughter and successor of Constantine VIII. Zoë was first married when she was 50 years old at the request of her father to insure stability in the empire. Her husband, Romanus III , soon neglected her and in 1034 was found murdered, probably by Zoë and her lover Michael. The same evening she married Michael, and he became Emperor Michael IV. He proved a capable ruler and eliminated Zoë from state affairs. Much of the government was exercised by his elder brother John, a eunuch of the court and a thoroughly corrupt man, but an able administrator and diplomat. On Michael's death (1041), his nephew, Michael V, became joint ruler with Zoë. He promptly sent his uncle John into exile and in 1042 banished Zoë to a convent. In response the people rose in rebellion, Zoë was recalled, and Michael was blinded and banished. At the same time Zoë's younger sister, Theodora, was crowned joint empress. A few months later (June, 1042), Zoë married Constantine IX, of a distinguished Byzantine family, who ruled jointly with the two sisters until Zoë's death. Under their rule the Byzantine court was a source of scandal but nontheless of intellectual brilliance. The chief event of the period was the final schism between the Eastern Church and the Western Church, brought about by the attacks of Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, on the papacy and by the attacks of the legates of Pope Leo IX on the patriarchate. This resulted in mutual excommunication (1054). After Zoë's death in 1050, Constantine continued to rule jointly with Theodora; he died in 1055, and Theodora in 1056; Michael VI, a Byzantine nobleman who was chosen her successor, was forced to abdicate in 1057 in favor of Isaac I , founder of the Comnenus dynasty.

Octoroon, The (1859), a play by Dion Boucicault.[Winter Garden Theatre, 48 perf.] George Peyton (A. H. Davenport) will inherit the Southern plantation Terrebonne on the death of his aunt, Mrs. Peyton (Mrs. W. R. Blake), if his late uncle's mismanagement does not cause his aunt to lose her property. He would like to settle on the estate, where he has met and fallen in love with the regal octoroon Zoe ( Agnes Robertson). But the villainous Yankee overseer, Jacob McClosky ( T. B. Johnston), murders the slave who is sent to pick up a letter bringing Mrs. Peyton assurances of the money she needs to save her land. McClosky also learns that on a technicality Zoe was never legally freed, and he demands she be put up for sale. Dora Sunnyside ( Mrs. J. H. Allen), who loves George but understands his feelings for Zoe, offers to buy Zoe's freedom, as does a kindly overseer, Salem Scudder ( Joseph Jefferson). McClosky outbids them. Zoe takes poison rather than become McClosky's property. At the same time McClosky's murder of the slave is unmasked and he is forced to flee. George and Dora rush to Zoe's side. She tells George as she dies, “O! George, you may, without a blush, confess your love for the Octoroon.” Boucicault derived the main story from Mayne Reid's novel, The Quadroon, and the incidents relating to the murder of the slave from Albany Fonblanque's novel, The Filibuster. For theatrical effect he added a spectacular scene in which a riverboat burns. Although Boucicault emphasized the absurdity of Southern racial laws by making Zoe an octoroon instead of a quadroon (that is, one‐eighth instead of one‐quarter black), he basically attempted to balance the rights and wrongs of sectional division. As Joseph Jefferson noted of the play, “The truth of the matter is, it was non‐committal. The dialogue and the characters of the play made one feel for the South, but the action proclaimed against slavery and called loudly for its abolition.” The melodrama has enjoyed successful revivals, including a fine 1961 mounting by the Phoenix Theatre.