The cultural encounter addressed in this talk by Molly Clark is between the ancient and the medieval, the classical and the vernacular, specifically, the style of the Roman playwright Seneca and the vernacular style of English drama in the early modern period. English drama of the mid-sixteenth century tended to be written in continuous rhyme. It was also, however, increasingly influenced by the non-rhyming drama of classical playwrights, and Seneca in particular. In 1581, a group of authors published their translations of Seneca's plays, which were generally faithful to the spirit and style of the originals, apart from one striking feature: they were entirely in rhyme. In this talk, Molly Clark considered how rhyme as a particularly Gothic, particularly English device was simultaneously pitted against and conversant with the Senecan approach in the drama that was written in the wake of these translations. Clark also argued that early modern English drama can be Senecan even in this most anti-classical feature of its style—and that the encounter between these two very different cultural predecessors made early modern English drama what it is.
This event was sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project, the Georgetown Humanities Initiative, and Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the year-long series, Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.
