Shakespeare's Pagan World: The Roman Tragedies. J. L. Simmons

1976 ◽  
Vol 73 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-295
Author(s):  
John W. Velz
Keyword(s):  
Roman Tragedies

scholarly journals Tragedy According to Jacobus Pontanus and the Tradition of Antiquity

Terminus ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (3 (56)) ◽  
pp. 187-208
Author(s):  
Iwona Słomak
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Moderate Degree ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Drama Theory ◽  
Introductory Part ◽  
Roman Tragedies ◽  
The One ◽  
Theoretical Reflection ◽  
Short Presentation

The aim of this study is to present the findings of a comparative analysis that covers—on the one hand—the theory of tragedy presented in Poeticarum institutionum libri III by Jakob Pontanus (Spanmuller), the classical and Renaissance poetics and commentaries on which he based his work, as well as the ancient tragedies that belonged to the literary canon in Jesuit colleges, and—on the other hand—Pontanus’s theoretical approach mentioned above and his tragedy Elezarus Machabaeus. The works of Pontanus have previously been discussed by Joseph Bielmann. However, Bielmann did not present them against the background of the Greek and Roman tragedies or the statements of the ancient theorists on drama, the Renaissance theoretical reflection on tragedies, or the playwriting practice resulting from this reflection. Consequently, his characterisation of the Elezarus Machabaeus is untenable, and his comments on Pontanus’s theory of drama need reviewing. Determining whether Pontanus respected the rules of ancient tragedy or whether he openly violated them is important because he was one of the most outstanding Jesuit humanists and a person of authority in his community. If we take into account the fact that Elezarus Machabaeus was the first tragedy printed by the Jesuits, the Poeticarum institutionum libri tres was one of the first printed Jesuit textbooks of this kind, and Pontanus himself was also the author of other books recommended for reading in Jesuit colleges and participated in the work of the committee for the evaluation and approval of the Jesuit school act, his views on the imitation of ancient models should be considered influential at least to a moderate degree and at least in some literary circles of his time. This matter is addressed in the introductory part of this paper. It also contains a short presentation of Pontanus’s textbook against the background of other Jesuit poetics, as well as of his main sources in the field of drama theory. Subsequently, the author presents Pontanus’s concept of drama and then discusses his piece taking into account the context of ancient and contemporary drama theory and practice of writing. In the light of this comparative reading, Eleazarus Machabaeus seems to be generally based on ancient models despite certain peculiarities, such as the composition and absence of choruses, which may be surprising at first. Both Pontanus’s tragedy and his theoretical approach should be regarded as classical in nature.

Errata

1986 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-117
Keyword(s):  
Roman Tragedies ◽  
The Cost

No. 28: The Roman Tragedies. Sixty minute video cassette for students of Shakespeare. Reviewed by G.M.P. in No. 28 of Cahiers élisabéthains. The cost of this cassette was given as £ 20.00 (p. 88) but there seems to be some doubt as to whether this is indeed the correct price. We are investigating the matter and will report in our next issue. The Merry Wives of Windsor (play review, line 15 of first paragraph, P: 100), for the golden forties read the golden fifties.

Roman Tragedies performed by Toneelgroep Amsterdam

2013 ◽  
Vol 31 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-733
Author(s):  
D.J. Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Roman Tragedies

scholarly journals Tragic Time in Ben Jonson's Sejanus and Catiline

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-153
Author(s):  
Leon Grek ◽  
Aaron Kachuck
Keyword(s):  
Political Violence ◽  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Classical Literature ◽  
Bellum Civile ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Roman Tragedies

This essay explores Ben Jonson's treatment of dramatic and historical time in his Roman tragedies, Sejanus His Fall (1603) and Catiline His Conspiracy (1611). Although the plays conspicuously fail to respect neoclassical strictures about the unity of time, both reproduce the temporal compression of Greek and Roman tragedy through their sustained intertextual engagements with a wide range of Roman source texts, including, above all, Lucan's Bellum Civile, and the works of the late antique court poet Claudian. The ultimate effect of these quotations, allusions, and reminiscences is to transform Jonson's dramas of early imperial corruption and late Republican civil conflict into proleptic visions of Roman history as a phantasmagoria of unceasing political violence, extending to the ends of both classical antiquity and classical literature.

The Mirour for Magistrates (1587)

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harriet Archer
Keyword(s):  
Civil Conflict ◽  
Inns Of Court ◽  
Roman Tragedies ◽  
Selection Of

Chapter 4 returns to John Higgins, who edited a selection of extant Mirror complaints for publication in 1586–7. Beginning with the reprinting of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville’s Inns of Court tragedy Gorboduc in 1590 alongside John Lydgate’s Serpent of Division, a publication which similarly pulled together ancient British and Roman narratives of assassination and civil conflict, the chapter interprets Higgins’s revisions and additions to his own First Part of the Mirror and suggests that they point to a change of emphasis. Higgins seems to have updated the work to sharpen its political focus at a moment of heightened national and international tension. The chapter then turns to his engagement with the use of moral exempla in the collection of Roman tragedies with which he enlarged the edition, and argues for a growing sense of disillusionment in their efficacy.

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