1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910780688803321

Autore

Rudd Niall

Titolo

The classical tradition in operation : Chaucer / Virgil, Shakespeare / Plautus, Pope / Horace, Tennyson / Lucretius, Pound / Propertius / / Niall Rudd

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto, [Ontario] ; ; Buffalo, [New York] ; ; London, [England] : , : University of Toronto Press, , 1994

©1994

ISBN

1-282-00301-1

9786612003011

1-4426-7300-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (199 p.)

Collana

Robson Classical Lectures

Disciplina

821.009142

Soggetti

English literature - Roman influences

English literature - History and criticism

Comparative literature - English and Latin

Comparative literature - Latin and English

Classicism - Great Britain

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Electronic books.

Rome In literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references.

Nota di contenuto

Foreword -- Preface -- Chaucer and Virgil -- Shakespeare and Plautus -- Pope and Horace -- Tennyson and Lucretius -- Pound and Propertius -- Professor Hale and Homage as a document of cultural transition.

Sommario/riassunto

In these five essays Niall Rudd presents an eclectic set of comparisons between certain ancient authors and later English writers ranging from Chaucer to Pound. He shows how five English writers consciously used and adapted classical works, and in so doing he illuminates both the classical authors and their English imitators and admirers. Readable translations and summaries of the Latin sources make these



stimulating studies accessible even to scholars and students with little or no Latin.The first essay compares Chaucer's treatment of Dido in The House of Fame and The Legend of Good Women with Virgil's presentation of Dido in the Aeneid, and Ovid's in Heroides 7. The second essay, comparing Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors with Plautus' Menaechmi, demonstrates how Shakespeare, weaving Roman farce into the framework of Hellenistic romance, developed both genres into something richer and more complex. The third essay on Pope's Epistle to Augustus shows his conversion of Horace's praise of Augustus into an anti-royalist attack on George II. In the fourth essay, Rudd discusses how much of Tennyson's Lucretius is invented and imported by Tennyson as a way of externalizing the inner conflicts he experienced in the age of doubt. The final essay, on Pound and Propertius, looks at Pound's representation of the Latin poet in Homage to Sextus Propertius, specifically in the areas of imperial politics, love, and language.In his preface Rudd writes: 'Everyone knows of the Classical Tradition - comprehending it is another matter.' This book brings it closer to our understanding.