Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ... Volumnia referred to above in Act v. Sc. 3. These passages will be found quoted in full in the notes. VIII. Plutarch And Non-shakespearean Drama. The influence of Plutarch is to be traced in the work of other writers besides Shakespeare in the history of English drama, although there is no other patent instance of deliberate appropriation of North's style and language. Among all the classical subjects of the drama none have proved more adaptable or more popular than Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, and Plutarch is the fountain-head of information about their lives. Julius Caesar figured upon the English stage long before Shakespeare placed him there, and the words of Polonius already quoted are an obvious allusion to an academic play on his fall. There is ah interesting example of a similar play of later date (1607) in the British Museum, entitled 'The Tragedie of Caesar and Pompey, or Caesar's Revenge. Priuately acted by the Studentes of Trinity College in Oxford'. It is typically academic (in the least complimentary sense), and portentously dull, for it carries on the declamatory traditions of Sackville's Gorboduc. The plot is constructed out of the narratives of Plutarch and Suetonius, with a jealous exclusion of all their lighter touches and illuminative details; but the writer probably read Plutarch in a Latin version, as did Stephen Gosson, who quotes him repeatedly in his School of Abuse, and had doubtless made use of his materials in his play of Catilins Conspiracies. Henslowe's Diary records more than one Caesar play anterior in date to Shakespeare's: e.g. on November 8, 1594, a new play, 'seser and pompie', and on June 18 in the following year, 'the 2 pte of sesore'. On May 22, 1602, is an entry of payments to Munday, Drayton, ..
