The first complete collection of plays by any author printed in England.Shakespeare source for Macbeth, Richard III, and Titus Andronicus.Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Seneca his tenne tragedies, translated into Englysh.London: Thomas Marsh, 1581.Quarto (180 x 140 mm.), ff. [4], 65, 64-217, [1]. Signatures: A⁴, B-2E⁸, 2F⁴. Black letter and some roman, numerous woodcut inhabited and floriated initials. 19th century half blue morocco over marbled paper boards, spine with five raised bands, compartments with fleurons and corner pieces in gilt, lettered direct in gilt, marbled endpapers, top edge gilt.Lacking the title page A2 (supplied in 19th century manuscript, presumably at a similar period as the binding of the book), and A3, A4, T5-T8. Repaired closed marginal tear in one leaf (B2); lower outer corner of one leaf (I2) repaired with loss of a couple of words (supplied in 19th century manuscript); a few leaves dust-soiled; occasional slight stains. Overall a good copy, with wide margins, a few leaves retaining deckle edges.FIRST COMPLETE EDITION IN ENGLISH, extremely rare, including three first English editions, of the plays of Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c. 4 BC - 65 AD), tutor and speechwriter to the Emperor Nero. The first complete collection of plays by any author printed in England, and of tremendous importance due to their direct influence on the Elizabethan playwrights and Shakespeare. A wide-margined copy retaining some deckle edges.“The first complete collection of plays printed in England, prefiguring the Works of Ben Jonson (1616) and the first folio of Shakespeare (1623)” (Ker p. 1).“No author exercised a wider or deeper influence upon the Elizabethan mind or upon the Elizabethan form of tragedy than did Seneca” - T S Eliot (Selected Essays p. 51).“Seneca was one of the most prolific, versatile, and influential of all classical Latin writers. Arguably, no other classical writer except Virgil has had so deep, so widespread, and so long-lasting an influence on European and British literature. During the Middle Ages and early modern periods Seneca was one of the most read and most imitated authors of antiquity. His plays had an enormous influence on European tragedy, particularly in Italy and France, and on Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy in England. The early modern revenge tragedy - including Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, and John Webster’s Duchess of Malfi - could hardly have existed without Seneca” (Wilson p. xxv).Seneca’s tragedies reflect the emotional and political intensity of the time in which they were written. A contemporary of Jesus, born some time between 1 BC and 4 AD, he lived in one of the most interesting and dangerous periods of Roman history, under the emperors Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero. In later life Seneca became the young Nero’s tutor, and when Nero became emperor of Rome Seneca acted as his speechwriter. In 65 AD Seneca was falsely implicated in a plot to assassinate Nero, and was forced to commit suicide along with his wife, two brothers, and his nephew, the poet Lucan - an end reminiscent of the dark events of his plays.Seneca’s most important literary works are his nine tragedies. A tenth tragedy traditionally attributed to him, Octavia (included in the present 1581 edition), is probably not by him. The plays are modelled on Greek tragedy, with five dramatic episodes. “The central character… is often called upon to take vengeance in reaction to a terrible event. We hear a great deal about violence: Seneca loves to dwell on the horrific and macabre elements of the plot… stock characters in the romantic plays of Shakespeare, such as the ghost, the nurse, and the barbarous villain, were transmitted from the Greek through the medium of Seneca” (Howatson p. 520). SENECA IS A SOURCE IN PARTICULAR FOR SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH, RICHARD III, AND TITUS ANDRONICUS.While Seneca has long been acknowledged to have had a profound influence on Shakespeare’s tragedies in general, Shakespeare also made more specific use of Seneca in individual plays. “Three of Shakespeare’s plays seem to draw more heavily on Shakespeare than any others: Titus Andronicus, Macbeth, and Richard III” (Gillespie p. 454). Lady Macbeth’s famous speech in Act 1 Scene 5 of Macbeth, for example, has direct parallels in Seneca’s Medea, in the English translation by John Studley included in the present 1581 edition (Gillespie p. 454).THIS 1581 FIRST COMPLETE EDITION INCLUDES THREE 1ST ENGLISH EDITIONS OF SENECA\'S PLAYS, PRINTED HERE FOR THE FIRST TIME.These first printings include: Hippolytus and Hercules Oetaeus, both translated by John Studley, and Thebais, translated by Thomas Newton. The remaining seven plays are reprinted from existing editions (all of the utmost rarity, occurring in a handful of copies each). These include: Hercules Furens, Thyestes, and Troas, translated by Jasper Heywood; Oedipus translated by Alexander Neville; Medea and Agamemnon translated by John Studley; and Octavia translated by Thomas Nuce. The earliest of these, Jasper Heywood’s Troas, publised in 1559, was the first classical tragedy to appear in print in England (Ker p. 1).Extremely rare on the market.PROVENANCE:(1) 16th century English ink annotation A1.
(2) Edward (?), a possible English owner? (16th century English ink annotation L2).
(3) 18th century (?) ink annotation verso B2.
BibliographiesESTC S117108; Pforzheimer 867.ReferencesEliot, T.S. Selected Essays (1951)
Gillespie, S. Shakespeare’s Books (2001)
Howatson, M. Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (2011)
Ker, J., and Winstson, J., eds. Elizabethan Seneca (2012).
Wilson, E., ed. Seneca Six Tragedies (2012).