Author | Seneca |
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Translator | John Studley |
Genre | tragedy |
Code | Sen.0007 |
Language | English |
Title | Agamemnon |
EMEC editor | Roberta Zanoni |
Introduction | John Studley's 1566 translation of Seneca’s Agamemnon played a significant role in introducing Roman Stoic tragedy to English audiences during the Renaissance. Agamemnon dramatizes the king's tragic homecoming after the Trojan War, culminating in his murder by his wife, Clytemnestra, and reflecting on themes of vengeance, power, and fate. Studley’s translation was part of a larger effort by Elizabethan translators to bring Seneca’s works to the English stage. Studley maintained much of Seneca’s moral reflections on fate and justice but also adapted the Latin text to suit Tudor sensibilities, often employing heightened rhetoric and dramatic flourishes. He took liberties with Seneca’s original to emphasize the intense emotions and philosophical depth of the text, making the play resonate with English audiences. John Studely also translated Seneca’s Medea in 1566 and contributed, with his translation to the 1581 collection Seneca his Ten Tragedies. |
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Bibliography | Boyle, A. J., ed. 2017. Seneca: Agamemnon. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Johnson, W. R. 1992. "The Influence of Seneca's Agamemnon on English Revenge Tragedy." Comparative Drama 26, no. 4: 445-462. Ker, James, and Jessica Winston, eds. 2012. Elizabethan Seneca: Three Tragedies and Selected Prose. London: Modern Humanities Research Association. Kerrigan, John. 1990. "Senecan Tragedy and its Influence on Hamlet." Shakespeare Quarterly 41, no. 2: 240-265. Kerrigan, John. 1996. Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Kraye, Jill. 2010. “Studley’s Agamemnon and its Impact on Renaissance Tragedy.” Classical Receptions Journal 4, no. 2: 221-241. Miola, Robert S. 1991. “Seneca and Elizabethan Tragedy.” Studies in Philology 88, no. 2: 121-144. Miola, Robert S. 1992. Seneca in Renaissance England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Studley, John. 1581. Seneca His Ten Tragedies, Translated into English. Edited by Thomas Newton. London: Thomas Marsh. Winston, Jessica. 2006. "Seneca in Early Elizabethan England." Renaissance Quarterly 59, no. 1: 29-58. |
Witness Description | This edition of John Studley’s translation of Seneca’s tragedy (USTC No. 506576) is held at the British Library. It is in octavo and consists of 120 pages.
The frontispiece reads: THE Eyght Tragedie of Seneca. Entituled AGAMEMNON. Tranſlated out of Latin in to Engliſh, by Iohn ſtudley, ſtudent in Trinitie Colledge in Cambridge. IMPRINTED AT LONDON in Fleteſtreat, beneath the Conduit, at the ſigne of s. Iohn Euangelyſt, by Thomas Colwell. Anno Domini. M. D. LXVI.
The pages devoted to the prefatory material are numbered with signatures from Cii to Cv, followed by three unnumbered pages. Page Ciii is, however, unnumbered. The pages devoted to the dedicatory letter and to the tragedy’s text are numbered with signatures from A to Gv. Only signatures A and Aii are present, followed by two unnumbered pages. As regards the B signatures they follow the following scheme: B, Bii, Biii, <Biiii is unnumbered>, Bv, three unnumbered pages. From signature C the rest of the book’s signatures are organised as follows: C, Ci, Cii, Ciii, Ciiii, Cv, three unnumbered pages. |