Two Tragedies of Seneca: Medea and The Daughters of Troy / Rendered into English Verse

xerted by them upon the evolution of the English drama, and these translations have been

their authorship or exact date, but we may turn at once to look for their appearance as agents in the development of the modern, serious drama. In this relation it is hardly possible to overestimate their determining influence throughout Europe. Perhaps it may have been owing to the closer racial bond between the Romans an

thought, and were studied in the Latin originals by pupils in the schools even while the schools were still wholly monastic. During the latter half of the sixteenth century, separate plays of Seneca were translated into English by various authors, and in 1581 Thomas Newton collected these translations into one volume, under the title of "Seneca his Ten Tragedies, Translated into English." After an examination of these translations on

rue, or doth t

eade the Sprite

ies with heavy h

our leames of l

mbe our ashes

soule likewys

) do wretches

all at once t

art his fata

th the Soule from

oudes to vanis

fleeth from t

ote escape f

brand hath bur

n of 1702 the same lines

uth? or Fic

arful

o Earth we

yet do

Wife hath cl

sband'

st fatal Da

oil'd o

Dust and A

nes ar

d yet in n

Fun

longer Li

till r

uite? Nor o

es the

Smoake immixe

pirit

l Tapers a

naked

l rising d

ing sho

r one in the famous passage which closes the chorus at the end of the

oulde doe suffe

oude erecte

, doth not comp

ack, the kynges

te now scuddes

warres are ta

new walles them

lettes nought re

Ind Arexis lu

out in Rhene an

arkes, time shall

ve shall open

World at Will

l some newe fo

hall the Countre

ule, knowen furt

herburne thes

passi

and does all

m'd Argo,

uilt, by He

ne complain

petty Boat'

eep; no Bou

y Towns in

he pervious W

nothing. Ind

Albis, and Rhi

hall come

ars, where

the unive

Tracts of L

of Elder D

y some new T

Earth's far

luence was exerted not only by direct means; the revival of learning in Europe brought with it a general revival of the Latin influence, and England in borrowing from Italy and France borrowed indirectly from Rome. Among the English translations made in the time