Oct 24 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2683 -

Sale 2683 - Lot 29

Estimate: $ 800 - $ 1,200
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 BCE-65 CE)
Seneca His Tenne Tragedies.

London: Thomas Marshe, 1581.

Quarto, lacking 24 leaves including first and last blank, title page, and leaves at the beginning and end [A1-4, B1, and all after Dd1: Dd2-Ee8 & Ff4]; first collected edition, edited by Thomas Newton, text in roman and black letter; many pages with corners worn away with loss to the blank margins, one blank marginal corner trimmed away in an L-shape; bound in contemporary limp parchment with later endleaves and pastedowns, hosed in a custom folding chemise & slipcase; 7 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.

STC 22221; Greg III, 1105-1106; Pforzheimer 867; rare at auction.

"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.)

These tragedies were translated into English by Jasper Heywood, Alexander Neville, Thomas Newton, and John Studley.

Rasmussen-Hines Collection of Shakespeare & Renaissance Literature.
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