The Myth of Rome in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries

This book presents illuminating comparisons of Shakespeare's Roman plays with plays by Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists including Jonson and Massinger.

Warren Chernaik (Author)

9781107654075, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 May 2013

308 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

'Warren Chernaik's The Myth of Rome in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries truly lives up to the breadth of material suggested by the title. … Chernaik places Shakespeare's plays and poems about Rome in full conversation with other contemporary works on the subject. … [He] lends us, the readers, his incredible expertise, so that we too can glimpse the complexity of what Rome meant for an early modern audience.' Brian J. Harries, Shakespeare Newsletter

When Cleopatra expresses a desire to die 'after the high Roman fashion', acting in accordance with 'what's brave, what's noble', Shakespeare is suggesting that there are certain values that are characteristically Roman. The use of the terms 'Rome' and 'Roman' in Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra or Jonson's Sejanus often carry the implication that most people fail to live up to this ideal of conduct, that very few Romans are worthy of the name. In this book Chernaik demonstrates how, in these plays, Roman values are held up to critical scrutiny. The plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, Massinger and Chapman often present a much darker image of Rome, as exemplifying barbarism rather than civility. Through a comparative analysis of the Roman plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, and including detailed discussion of the classical historians Livy, Tacitus and Plutarch, this study examines the uses of Roman history - 'the myth of Rome' - in Shakespeare's age.

1. The Roman historians and the myth of Rome
2. The wronged Lucretian and the early Republic
3. Self-inflicted wounds
4. 'Like a colossus': Julius Caesar
5. Ben Jonson's Rome
6. Oerflowing the measure: Antony and Cleopatra
7. The city and the battlefield: Coriolanus
8. Tyranny and empire
9. Ancient Britons and Romans
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Theatre studies [AN]