Rethinking the Birth of French Tragedy
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Tristan Alonge
Abstract
this paper explores the French translations from Greek Tragedy at the beginning of the 16th century and aims to rethink the birth of French Tragedy, by showing that its origin was Greek and not Latin. Historical and religious reasons - and not a literary preference - explain Seneca’s hegemony after 1550: all the translators belong somehow to Marguerite de Navarre’s Evangelist network, heretics and Hellenists are frequently associated, and the impact of the Council of Trent’s prohibitions will put an end to this experience. For more than a century, until Jean Racine, Greek Tragedy will disappear from libraries and schools and Seneca will become the new predominant source for playwrights.
Abstract
this paper explores the French translations from Greek Tragedy at the beginning of the 16th century and aims to rethink the birth of French Tragedy, by showing that its origin was Greek and not Latin. Historical and religious reasons - and not a literary preference - explain Seneca’s hegemony after 1550: all the translators belong somehow to Marguerite de Navarre’s Evangelist network, heretics and Hellenists are frequently associated, and the impact of the Council of Trent’s prohibitions will put an end to this experience. For more than a century, until Jean Racine, Greek Tragedy will disappear from libraries and schools and Seneca will become the new predominant source for playwrights.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of figures IX
- Introduction 1
- Through the Eyes of the Greeks: Byzantine Émigrés and the Study of Greek in the Renaissance 9
- Janus Lascaris’ Florentine Oration and the ‘Reception’ of Ancient Aeolism 27
- Manuel Calecas’ Grammar: Its Use and Contribution to the Learning of Greek in Western Europe 51
- Issues in Translation: Plutarch’s Moralia Translated from Greek into Latin by Iacopo d’Angelo 67
- Translating from Greek (and Latin) into Latin: Niccolò Perotti and Plutarch’s On the Fortune of the Romans 79
- Humanist Translations and Rewritings: Lucian’s Encomium of the Fly between Guarino and Alberti 95
- Cardinal Bessarion and the Introduction of Plato to the Latin West 109
- The Reception of Aeschylus in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Case of Coriolano Martirano’s Prometheus Bound (1556) 125
- Rethinking the Birth of French Tragedy 143
- ‘Pantagruel, tenent un Heliodore Grec en main [...] sommeilloit’: Reading the Aethiopica in Sixteenth-Century France 157
- From Greek to the Greeks: Homer (and Pseudo-Homer) in the Greco-Venetian Context between the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century 175
- The Wanderings of a Greek Manuscript from Byzantium to Aldus’ Printing House and Beyond: The Story of the Aristotle Ambr. B 7 inf. 195
- The Reception of Horace’s Odes in the First Book of Marcantonio Flaminio’s Carmina 213
- Orazio Romano’s Porcaria (1453): Humanist Epic between Classical Legacy and Contemporary History 233
- List of Contributors 253
- Index 255
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of figures IX
- Introduction 1
- Through the Eyes of the Greeks: Byzantine Émigrés and the Study of Greek in the Renaissance 9
- Janus Lascaris’ Florentine Oration and the ‘Reception’ of Ancient Aeolism 27
- Manuel Calecas’ Grammar: Its Use and Contribution to the Learning of Greek in Western Europe 51
- Issues in Translation: Plutarch’s Moralia Translated from Greek into Latin by Iacopo d’Angelo 67
- Translating from Greek (and Latin) into Latin: Niccolò Perotti and Plutarch’s On the Fortune of the Romans 79
- Humanist Translations and Rewritings: Lucian’s Encomium of the Fly between Guarino and Alberti 95
- Cardinal Bessarion and the Introduction of Plato to the Latin West 109
- The Reception of Aeschylus in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Case of Coriolano Martirano’s Prometheus Bound (1556) 125
- Rethinking the Birth of French Tragedy 143
- ‘Pantagruel, tenent un Heliodore Grec en main [...] sommeilloit’: Reading the Aethiopica in Sixteenth-Century France 157
- From Greek to the Greeks: Homer (and Pseudo-Homer) in the Greco-Venetian Context between the Late Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Century 175
- The Wanderings of a Greek Manuscript from Byzantium to Aldus’ Printing House and Beyond: The Story of the Aristotle Ambr. B 7 inf. 195
- The Reception of Horace’s Odes in the First Book of Marcantonio Flaminio’s Carmina 213
- Orazio Romano’s Porcaria (1453): Humanist Epic between Classical Legacy and Contemporary History 233
- List of Contributors 253
- Index 255
