A Shakespeare Source Book
Seneca His Tenne Tragedies. translated into Englysh.
London: Thomas Marsh, 1581.
Full Description:
SENECA. Seneca His Tenne Tragedies.. translated into Englysh. London: Thomas Marsh, 1581.
The first collected edition of these tragedies, edited by Thomas Newton. There was a collected edition of eight tragedies in English published in 1566, but this includes all ten thought to be by Seneca at the time. Octavia, is now ascribed to a later imitator. Quarto (7 x 5 1/8 inches; 179 x 130 mm). [2], 65, 64-217 leaves. Bound without the title-page and two blank leaves A1 and Ff4. Paginations mistakes match British Library copy. The title added in manuscript on front flyleaf. The last fully complete copy we could find at auction was in 1937.
Full 18th-century tree calf, rebacked to style. Boards ruled in gilt. Spine with brown morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Top edge dyed brown, others speckled red. Previous owner's armorial bookplate on front pastedown. Some staining throughout. Top margin trimmed close, sometimes affecting the headline. Small repairs to fore-edge margin of leaves A3-B3, not affecting text. Leaf E6 with repair to top margin, part of headline supplied in ink facsimile. Leaf I6 with corner repair, just affecting catch-words. Leaf M6 with corner repair, not affecting text. Leaves N8-O3 with repairs to top margin, just touching headline, but with no real loss. Overall a good copy of this book which is rarely found complete.
"A portion of ' The Tragedy of Thyestes ' is reprinted by Capell in his School of Shakespeare. Holt White, in his notes on Romeo and Juliet, Act IV., Scene 5, remarks 'In this speech of mock heroic love, and perhaps in the two that follow, Shakespeare seems to have ridiculed as he has done elsewhere, the translation of Seneca's Tragedies published in 1581.' Steevens considers that some of the lines in Othello were taken from this translation". (Lee's Shakespeareana)
"The influence of Seneca upon the Elizabethan drama has been traced, among others, by Professors Cunliffe, F.L. Lucas, and Kastner and Charlton. There is not much that can here be added except to say that it was probably greater than even the numerous identifiable pilferings and paraphrases would seem to indicate. Besides the unquestionable responsibility for the five-act division of the modern European tragedy, it is perhaps not exaggerating to claim for Seneca the development of blank verse as a vehicle of the English drama, instead of the old fourteener or heroic couplet, received considerable support from its being obviously the nearest equivalent to the solemnity and weight of the Senecan iambic." (Pforzheimer.)
"A reprinting of the following translations previously published separately: "Hercules furens", "Thyestes", and "Troas" by Jasper Heywood; "OEedipus" by Alexander Neville (a revised version); "Medea" and "Agamemnon" by John Studley; and "Octavia" (not by Seneca) by Thomas Nuce Prints for the first time "Hippolytus" and "Hercules Oetæus" translated by Studley, and "Thebais" translated by Thomas Newton." (ESTC).
Pforzheimer, 867. ESTC S117108
HBS 69644.
$8,500.
Price: $8,500.00
Item #69644