Cu^'-'' 
 
THE 
 
 INFLUENCE OF SENECA 
 
 ON 
 
 ELIZABETHAN TRAGEDY 
 
 AN ESSAY 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN W. CUNLIFFE, D.Lit., M.A., 
 Late Berkeley Fellow of the Owens College, Manchester, 
 
 1 > ; > 
 
 '. ! ' 5 » ' ^ 
 MACMILLAN AND CO. 
 
 AND NEW YORK 
 1893 
 
 ANASTATIC REPRINT 1907. 
 
 G.E. STE CHERT & eg., NEW YORK. 
 

 H 
 
PREFACE. ^^ 
 
 U 
 
 /J 
 
 This investigation was suggested to me while 
 attending Dr. AVard's English Literature Lectures at 
 the Owens College in the Session 1885-6; and after 
 going through the degree courses on which I was then 
 engaged, I gave the suhject such attention as was at 
 my command. It would prohahly have heen a long 
 time before I arrived at results worthy, even in my own 
 oi^inion, of publication, but for my appointment to 
 a Bishop Berkeley Fellowship at the College, which has 
 enabled me to give undivided attention to the inquiry 
 for the last two years. I have to thank Dr. Ward for 
 help and encouragement in addition to the original 
 suggestion of the subject of investigation ; indeed, I 
 should have liked to dedicate this little work to him as 
 its " only begetter," but that I hesitate to connect his 
 name with faults which are all my owu. I am also 
 under obligations to Dr. Willdns, to Mr. Elton, Lecturer 
 in English Literature, and to other members of the staff 
 of the Owens College for their kiudly interest in my 
 work and ready response to any appeal on questions of 
 scholarship in connection with a subject which has 
 points of contact with many branches of ancient and 
 modern literature. 
 
 In giving the results of the investigation, I have 
 endeavoured to keep as closely as possible to the main 
 lines of an inquiry which offers unusual temptations to 
 
 258628 
 
IV. 
 
 digression. I may, however, be permitted to state here, 
 very shortly, my opinion on some of the points I have 
 decHned to discuss in the essay. The identity of the 
 Rutlior of the tragedies with Seneca the philoso})her 
 seems to me sufficiently estahhshed ; but the Octavia 
 and the Hercules Oelacm are clearly not his, and there 
 is something to be said against the Thebais and the 
 Agamemnon. As to the Shakspercan controversies referred 
 to, I accept Miss Jane Lee's theory as to the authorship 
 of Parts II and III of Henry VI, and it seems to me 
 not unlikely that in Richard II L Shakspere made use of 
 a previous play. The arguments lately brought forward 
 by Idi'. Sarrazin in Anglia, coupled with the recently dis- 
 covered fact that Kyd's father was a scrivener, convince 
 me that Kyd is the tragedian attacked by Nash in the 
 Preface to Greene's Mcn/qihon, and therefore the author of 
 the old Hamlet upon which Shakspere founded his immortal 
 tragedy. Having given considerable attention to this 
 famous controversy, I was tempted to add another appen- 
 dix dealing with Nash's allusions and the developement 
 of the Hamlet tragedy, but in the end I deemed it wiser 
 not to wander so far from the path on which I had set 
 out. 
 
 It remains to be added that the essay was submitted 
 to the examiners for the Doctorate of Literature in the 
 University of London, and accepted by them as a sufficient 
 qualification for the degree. 
 
 JOHN W. CUNLIFPE. 
 
 January, 1893. 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF SENECA ON 
 ELIZABETHAN^ TRAGEDY. 
 
 The influence of Seneca (or, to speak more correctly, of 
 the tragedies ascribed to bini) upon the Elizabethan 
 drama is so plainly marked that no competent historian 
 of our literature could fail to notice it. The translations 
 of Seneca and their connection with the beginnings of 
 the regular drama in England have been referred to by 
 Warton, by Collier, and by Dr. Ward ; and Mr. J. A. 
 Symonds has an admirable review of the whole subject.^ 
 Indeed, the obligations of our early dramatists to Seneca 
 did not escape the attention of contemporary critics. 
 Writing "to the Gentlemen Students of both Universi- 
 ties" in the preface to Greene's Menaphon (pub. 1589), 
 Thomas Nash inveighs in his usual lively style against ^^"'"^^ ■^'««''- 
 
 *' the seruile imitation of vain-glorious tragoedians 
 
 who (mounted on the stage of arrogance) think to out- 
 braue better pens with the swelling bumbast of a bragging 
 blanke verse." After a violent outburst of contemptuous 
 
 1 I have used the term "Elizabethan" in its broad literary meaning 
 rather than in the strict historical sense. It seems to me more ex- 
 pressive, as well as more convenient, than the cumbrous " Elizabetho- 
 Jacobaean," or even the less objectionable term, "pre-Restoration." The 
 drama was one in spirit throughout the three reigns, and exhibits only 
 continuous stages of developement from the first plays of Lyly and 
 Marlowe to the last plays of Shirley. 
 
 2 Shakspere's Predecessors in the English Drama, Chapter VI. 
 
' c ' • ' ' ' r' • 
 
 
 2 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 indignation, be threatens " to leaiie these to the mercie 
 of their mother tonf]jne, that feed on nought hut the 
 crummes that fal from the translators trencher;" hut he 
 soon resolves to " turne back to his first text ; and talke a 
 little in friendship with a few of our triuiall translators." 
 "It is," he says, "a common practise now a dales amongst 
 a sort of shifting companions, that ranne through euery 
 arte and thriue by none, to leaue the trade of Noxierint 
 whereto they were borne, and busie thcmsekies with the 
 indeuors of Art, that could scarcelie latinize their uecke- 
 verse if they should hauc neede ; yet English Seneca read 
 by candle light yeeldes manie good sentences, as Bloid 
 is a begger, and so foortli : and if you intreate him fairc 
 in a frostie morning, he v/ill affoord you whole Hamkt:^, 
 I should say handfulls of tragical speaches. But 6 griefe ! 
 tenipiis edax reriim, what's that will last alwaies ? The sea 
 .exhfdedby droppes willin continuance be drie, and Seneca 
 
 I let blood line by line and page by page, at kngth must 
 
 Vneedes die to our stage " The whole passage is one of 
 
 great interest as a contemporary criticism of the dramatic 
 models of the time, but it is too long for full quotation . 
 
 /I must content myself with drawing attention to the 
 reference to the translation of Seneca, which is also 
 mentioned by Ascham in The Scholemaster (1570), by 
 Arthur Hall in the preface to his Homer (1581), by 
 William Webbe in his Discourse of English Poetric (1586), 
 
 '\and by Francis Meres in Falladis Tamia (1598). This 
 ti'anslation, which held a high place in the esteem of 
 contemporary critics, and, according to Nash, was laid 
 under heavy contribution by the dramatists, merits care- 
 
on ^lizahethan Tragedij. 3 
 
 ful examination, becanse of its close and important 
 connection with the subject of this essay. X 
 
 The translation of ft en ecn/s ' ' Tenn e Tva gedies ' ' ^^' }f'',l'ff^'' 
 appeared as a whole in 1581^ but all the pla3^s composing 
 the volume had been previously published, with the 
 exception of the fragmentary Thehais. The Troas_ had 
 been printed in 1559, the Thiit\<ites in 1^0^ the Hercules 
 Furcns in 1561, all from the pen of Jasper Hey Wood ; 
 the Oedipus was translated by Alexander Nevvle in 1560 
 
 -*■ *■ *. 
 
 and published in 1563; the Octavia was done by Thomas 
 Nuce in 1562 and printed in 1566, the 3Tec1ea and 
 Agamemnon by John Studley q3pearing in the same year; 
 the Hippolijius was licensed to Henry Denham in 1556-7, 
 and was doubtless printed, though no copy of this edition 
 is known ; the Thehais was added in 1581 by Thomas 
 Newton, the editor of the whole^ for the sake of compltte- 
 ness. .. 
 
 The translation seems to have been intended, at 
 least in part, for dramatic representation. Nevyle, in his 
 preface to the- Oeilipiis, says his translation was not at 
 first meant for publication, "but ouely to satisfy the 
 instant requests of a few my familiar frends, who thought 
 to haue put it to the very same vse, that Seneca himselfe 
 in his luuention pretended : Which was by the tragicall 
 and Pompous showe upon Stage, to admonish all 
 men . . . ." The translator of the Troas seems to have 
 had the same end in view, as may be gathered from the 
 last line of the chorus at the end of Act II : — 
 
 Aud now (good Ladies) heare wluit eliall be done. 
 
4 The Ivfluence of Seneca. 
 
 Taken as a whole the translation is generally close, 
 but not always correct. Difficult passages are rendered 
 in a literal and often meaningless way, and sometimes 
 slurred over or omitted altogether. Occasionally the 
 translator expands a familiar reflection, or inserts a few 
 lines of his own. Jasper Heywood added a long soliloquy 
 to the Thijcstes, and made in the Troas a considerable 
 number of alterations, which he details in the preface to 
 that tragedy ; his additions are affected to some extent 
 by the tastes of his time, but are for the most part after 
 the style of the original, the third Chorus in Heywood's 
 Troas being borrowed from the third Chorus in Seneca's 
 Hippolytus. There is an interesting insertion in the 
 
 speech of Phaedra on folio 73 (And sith that I ) by 
 
 Stadley, who also altered the first Chorus in the Medea 
 out of all semblance of translation, and added to the 
 Agamemnon a long speech by Eurybates. Studley also 
 made omissions and additions of some interest in the 
 Hercules Oetaeus. In Nevyle's Oedipus the first Chorus is 
 considerably shortened, the second is left out altogether, 
 and the third and fourth bear little or no resemblance to 
 the original. Nevyle apologises for thus " adding and 
 subtracting at pleasure," and in the preface to the Troas 
 Heywood excuses himself on the ground that the author's 
 mind is " in many places verye harde and doubtfull, and 
 the worke much corrupt by the default of euil printed 
 Bookes." Doubtless everyone of the translators would 
 be able to make with truth the avowal of the editor, 
 Newton, " Yet this dare I saye, I haae deliuered myne 
 Authors meaning with as much perspicuity, as so meane 
 
on EHzahethan Tragedy. 5 
 
 a Scholler, out of so meane a stoare, in so smal a time, 
 and vpon so short a warning was well able to performe;" 
 and when we take into consideration the state of the text 
 at that day, and the youth of some of the authors (Nevyle 
 was only 15), the translation seems a very creditable, 
 and even an admirable performance. There is every 
 evidence that it was highly esteemed and extensively 
 used ; but I have been unable to confirm Nash's taunt 
 that playwrights ignorant of Latin found in English 
 Seimca, not merely "manie good sentences," but "whole 
 Hamlets, I should say handfulls of tragical speaches." A 
 large and important chapter of Shaksperean controversy 
 centres in this reference by Nash in 1589 to an earlier The Ea,H«r 
 
 JIaintet. 
 
 Hamlet, which is also referred to in Lodge's Wits 
 miserie, and the Worlds madnessc, discoveHng the Devils 
 incarnat of this Age (1596). One of these devils is 
 
 described as " a foule lubber, who looks as pale as 
 
 the visard of the ghost, which cried so miserally at the 
 theater, like an oisterwife, Hamlet reuenge." We find 
 from Henslowe's Dia^-y that a Hamlet had been acted at 
 Newiogton on June 9th, 1594, and there is also a 
 reference by Tucca in Dekker's Satirornastix (1602). This 
 earlier Hamlet doubtless formed the foundation for 
 Shakspere's tragedy as we have it, but the text of 1603-4 
 offers no confirmation for Nash's sneers, and the German 
 Hamlet published by Mr. Cohn does not help us. Doubt- 
 less in the old Hamlet, if we had it, we should be able to 
 discover the "good sentences" and "tragical speaches" 
 borrowed by the author from English Seneca; and in 
 many other old plays now lost we might find evidence in 
 
6 The Infiucnce of Seneca 
 
 support of Nash's criticisms. The learned dramatists 
 of the Tmis of Com-t and the popular playwrights of a later 
 date who borrowed from Seneca seem to have gone to the 
 Latin text, and their version is often more accurate, as 
 well as more elegant, than the rendering of the pro- 
 fessed translators. Of course the dramatists who used 
 Seneca's lines without acknowledgment would not be 
 likely to reveal their indebtedness to the English version, 
 if they could avoid it ; and there can be little doubt that 
 the translation would be extensively used in conjunction 
 with the original by those who had but " small Latin," 
 and w^ere glad to take advantage of what help they could 
 get to puzzle out Seneca's aphoristic obscurities and 
 far-fetched allusions. The translation must also have 
 had considerable effect in spreading a general knowledge 
 of Seneca's form, style, and manner, the character of 
 his subjects, and the leading ideas of his philosophical 
 teaching^ as contained in the trac^edies. 
 
 ^5l."fl'"' The trauslation of 1581 is further remarkable as the 
 
 only complete version of Seneca's tragedies in the 
 Eno-lish lanouao-e. Sir Edward Sherburne in 1701 
 published a translation of the Medea, the Hijjpolytus, and 
 the Twos, and odd plays were printed by other transla- 
 tors ; ^ but the issue of 1581 still remains the first and 
 only English translation of the ten tragedies./ For many 
 years past, Seneca has been treated, at any rate in England, 
 
 or Seneca. 
 
 1 In the Bodleian Library there is a translation fiom the Ihrcuhs 
 Oetaeus by Queen Elizabeth. 
 
"iuropean 
 naseence. 
 
 on EUzahethan Tragedy, 7 
 
 with a contemptuous neglect contrasting strangely with 
 
 the high esteem in which he was once held. I suppose 
 
 no one nowadays would think of upholding the judgement 
 
 of Scaliger: " Senecam nullo Graecorum male tatemf 
 
 inferiorem existinio, cultu vero ac nitore, etiam Euripide 
 
 niaiorem." Few critics would pin their faith even to the 
 
 more moderate claim of Muretus : ''Est profecto poeta 
 
 ille praeclarior et uetusti sermonis diligentior quam quidam 
 
 inepte fastidiosi suspicantur." But altogether apart from 
 
 his intrinsic merits, Seneca held such a prominent place senega and the 
 
 European Jic- 
 
 in the Eevival of Learning in Europe, and exercised such 
 a great influence on the developement of the modern 
 drama, that the study of his tragedies is of the utmost 
 importance. When Alberto Mussato gave new life to the 
 European drama at the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury, though his subjects were taken from modern history, 
 his model, both in style and metro, was Seneca. At a 
 later date Italian tragedy, to use the words of Klein, ^ 
 "indeed exchanged Mussato's Latin for the vulgar tongue; 
 but only td again force this too into the Senecan buskin." 
 "With every subsequent tragedy of the sixteenth cen-\ 
 tury," Klein says later, " with every step we fall deeper 
 
 and deeper into the savagery of the tragedy of Seneca."^/ 
 
 The influence of Seneca runs through Italian tragedy from 
 Mussato right down to Alfieri ; and, to again quote Klein, 
 through Seneca "Euripidean tragedy leavened the dra- 
 matic poetry of every cultured nation in Europe through 
 all the centuries, while Aeschylus and Sophocles fed the 
 worms in the libraries." As to the French drama, it will 
 
 1 Geechichte des Dramas, V. 236, 
 
 [y 
 
8 The Inpwice of Seneca 
 
 / be enough to give the statement of Mr. G-eorge Saints- 
 bury^ that Seneca took captive "the whole drama of 
 France, from Jodelle, through Garnier and Montchrestien 
 and even Hardy, through Corneille and Racine and 
 
 \Voltaire, leaving his traces even on Victor Hugo." The 
 "Primeras Tragedias Espanoles" of Geronymo Bermudez, 
 published at Madrid in 1577, bear traces of Seneca's in- 
 fluence; and the " Nueva Idea de la Tragedia Antigua" 
 of Gonzalez de Salas (Madrid, 1633) contains a transla- 
 tion of the Troas ; but the main current of the Spanish 
 drama seems to have been little 'Effected by classical in- 
 fluence. The German dramatist Gryphius took Seneca 
 as his model ; and as early as 1540-3 the Scotch scholar, 
 Buchanan, had written in Seneca's manner a Latin 
 tragedy, Jephthaes, which, after being acted by the stu- 
 dents of Bordeaux, was printed in 1554, and became 
 very popular. It is commended by Ascham in The 
 Scholemaster, and by R. Wilmott in his preface to the 
 revised edition of Tancred and Gismund (1592). Latin 
 imitations of Seneca, as well as the original plays, 
 were acted at the Universities."^ 
 
 1 In a Preliminary Note to Vol. III. of Dr. Grosart's Complete 
 Wo7-ks of Samuel Daniel. 
 
 2 Knight mentions in a note on Hamlet that in Braun's Civifates 
 (1575) there is a Latin memoir prefixed to a map of Cambridge, record- 
 ing that the fables of Seneca were performed by the students "with 
 elegance, magnificence, dignity of action, and propriety of voice and 
 countenance." Gager's Mehager, a Latin tragedy in the form of Seneca 
 and described by the author as " Panuiculus Hippolyto Senecae Tra- 
 gaediae assutus," was acted at Christ Church, Oxford, before Lord 
 Leicester, Sir Philip Sidney, and others in 1581, according to Mr. 
 Pleay's Chronicle of the English Drama, I. 236. It was printed at 
 Oxford in 1592, and the author or publisher apparently fixes the date 
 of composition at 1591. 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedtj, 
 
 Seneca influenced English tragedy through both >;5.f/riS 
 ItaUau and French hteratiire. GascoisQe's Jocasta 
 
 o 
 
 (1565) is an adaptation of the Pkoenissae of Euripides, 
 cast into the form of Seneca, and taken from Ludovico 
 Dolce, the Itahan translator of Seneca, Kyd, the author 
 of The Spanish Tragedy, translated Garnier's Cornelia, 
 a close copy of Seneca's style (pub. 1594) ; and 
 Garnier's Antonius was done into English by the Countess 
 of Pembroke in 1590 and printed in 1592. But \yq need 
 not' seek for the influence of Seneca on the English 
 drama through these indirect channels. The direc t 
 influence w«s of much greater extent and importance. 
 Seneca was held in no less esteem in Endand than on 
 
 O 
 
 the Continent. Without going back to Chaucer^ and 
 Lydgate, it is worthy of note that in the early days of 
 the English Renascence, in Skelton's Garlaiuh of \ 
 Laurell (1523), "Senek full soberly with his tragedies" i 
 is given a place among the most famous classical writers; 
 and there is an interesting reference to the Octavia in 
 More's Utopia (1516). Ascham indeed in The Schole- ^^o^^m- 
 master says : '' Sophocles and Euripides far ouermatch 
 our Smeca in Lutin, namely in okovofXia et Decoro, 
 although Senacaes elocution and verse be verie commend- 
 
 i See R. Peiper Chaucer und seine Vorhilder im Alterthum in 
 Jahrhb. fiir Class. Fhilologie (18G8) p. 65. Even before Chaucer's time, 
 Nicholas Trevet or Trivet, an English Dominican friar, shared with 
 Alberto Mussato the honour of revivina the study of Seneca. A 
 specimen of his annotations on the tragedies is given in the preface to 
 the edition of his Annales published by the English Historical Society, 
 and the complete manuscript is in the British Museum. We might go 
 further back still and establish a connection between Seneca and the 
 Au^lo-Saxon, Aldhelm. 
 
10 The Influence of Seiieca 
 
 able for his tyme ; " but the way in which he speaks of 
 '' our Seneca" seems to imply that the Roman dramatist 
 was far more familiar to his readers. Ascham, unlike most 
 of his contemporaries, was " averie good Grecian " — a debt 
 he owed to the teaching of Sir John Cheke, whose dictum 
 he quotes with approval that a good student should 
 '' dwell " in Cicero only of the'Latin writers ; the rest he 
 should " passe and iorney through." Ascham himself 
 boldly asserts the superiority of Greek authors to those of 
 all other nations, ancient or modern. "Cicero onelie 
 excepted, and one or two moe in Latin, they be -all 
 patched cloutes and ragges, in comparison of faire wouen 
 broade cloathes. And trewelie, if there be any good in 
 them, it is either lerned, borowed, or stolne, from some 
 one of those worthie wittes of Athens." But it would be 
 a mistake to suppose that this was au opinion generally 
 held ; we shall get much nearer to the ordinary standard 
 of scholarship and the popular view of classical literature 
 webhe. in William Webbe, a Cambridge graduate and literary 
 critic, connected with our early drama by an introductory 
 letter he supplied to the revised edition of Tancred arid 
 Gismund (1592). In his Discourse of English Poetrie 
 (1586), Webbe confesses that the poets he is best acquain- 
 ted with are " not all nor the moste part of the auncient 
 Grecians, of whom I know not how many there were, but 
 these of the Latinists, which are of the greatest fame 
 and most obuious among vs." He thinks Virgil at least 
 equal to Homer, and asks of the Roman poets generally 
 in Virgil's time, "Wherein were they not comparable 
 with the Greekes ?' In his review of the Latin poets he 
 
on EUzahcthan Tragsdy. 
 
 11 
 
 makes mention of Seneca, " a most excellent wryter of 
 Tragedies ;" and in his list of translators he has a graceful 
 reference to '' the laudable Authors of Seneca m English." 
 Even Ascham, in another passage of The Scholemaster, gives 
 Seneca a place alongside of Euripides and Sophocles as 
 models of tragedy — an example followed by Puttenham in 
 hkArte of English Poesic (1589). To Sidney, to Meres, and // 
 to Shakspere^ himself, Seneca was the model of classical | 
 tragedy; and it was "the famous Corduban" that the/ 
 ambitious tragedians of Hall's Satires (1597) strove to' 
 excel. There is every indication that the kno^Nledo'e ol Greek Tragedy 
 
 little known. 
 
 Greek tragedy was confined to a very small circle ; trans- 
 lations from the Greek dramatists were unknown in this 
 century, Gascoigne's Jocasta being, as has already been 
 remarked, an Italian adaptation. The §rst genuine transla- 
 tion of a Greek play was apparently the Electra of Christo- 
 pher Wase, printed at the Hague in 1649 ; and it was not 
 until more than a century later that there appeared the first 
 complete translation of a Greek tragic poet—Erancklin's 
 Sophocles (1759). All the evidence is in favour of- Dr. 
 Campbell's statement that "English students of the 
 drama contented themselves with Seneca."^ The trans- 
 lation of 1581 was ready to hand, and in 1623-4 Thomas 
 Farnabie published an edition of the original with notes,^ 
 which must have been exceedingly useful. Seneca was a 
 
 \CP 
 
 c^ 
 
 1 Sidney praises Gorhoduc as " clyming to the height of Seneca 
 his style," Shakspere is compared by Meres to Seneca, and Polonius 
 says of the players in Hamlet^ " Seneca cannot bo too heavy, nor 
 Plautus too light" for them. 
 
 2 A Guide to Greek Tragedy, p. 309. 
 
 3 Of this issue twenty editions were published. Munro. 
 
1'2 The Influence oj Seneca 
 
 ^"Mh^or"^ "i f^'^'o^i'it^ school author, and Professor T. S. Baynes has 
 come to the conckision that Shakspere read the tragedies 
 at Stratford Grammar School.^ The afternoon lessons 
 of tlie boys at Rotherham School in Shaksperc's 
 time were *' two days in Horace, and two days in 
 Seneca's Tragedies; both which they translated into 
 English." Hoole, one of the masters at Rotherham 
 School, setting forth a model curriculum iu his New 
 Discovery, published in 1659, but ^vritten 23 years before, 
 and well-known previous to publication, says, "As for 
 Lucan, Seneca's Tragedies, Martiall, and the rest of the 
 finest Latin poets, you may do well to give them a taste 
 of each, and show them how and wherein they may 
 
 imitated and imitate tlicm, and borrow something out of them." This 
 
 borrowed from. ' *^ 
 
 " imitation " and "borrowing " was a lesson well learnt 
 by the dramatists, as I shall have occasion to show 
 hereafter. Enough has already been said to show the 
 esteem in which Seneca was held by the Elizabethans, 
 and if his connection with the drama be deemed to be as 
 yet insufficiently established, proof may easily be found 
 L in the Latin quotations from Seneca embodied in the 
 
 text of many Elizabethan tragedies.^ The fact of Seneca's 
 influence upon the English drama being thus proved, 
 we may proceed to examine the general character of this 
 influence before w^e inquire into its exact extent. 
 
 ^ See What Shakes2)eai'e learnt at School in Fraeers Magazine 
 for November, 1879. 
 2 See Appendix I. 
 
on EUzahethan Tragcdif, 13 
 
 lu any attempt to estimate the position of Seneca ^'^'Xl!*/*'"''''' 
 in the developement of the modern drama, ^\e nre met 
 at the outset by controversies which offer inviting fields 
 for discussion. Who vv-as the Seneca to whom the 
 trasjedies are ascribed ? How many of them are 
 genuinely his ? "Who wrote those that are wrongly 
 ascribed to him ? Were the tragedies intended for repre- 
 sentation on the stage, or are they to be regarded as mere 
 rhetorical exercises, meant only for private recitation ? 
 These are questions which have agitated the minds of 
 critics and scholars for nearlv three hundred years, but 
 it would be a mistake to pay attention to them when 
 treating Seneca from the point of view of the Elizabethan 
 drama. The authors of the translation of 1581 were 
 troubled by no critical doubts or difficulties ; they had 
 no idea that the very title of their volume, " Seneca his 
 Tennc Tragedies," was open to objection. In his dedica- 
 tory letter Newton unhesitatingly identifies the author of 
 the tragedies with Seneca the philosopher ; he is evi- 
 dently entirely ignorant of any suggestion that the Thehais 
 is simply a patchwork of two fragments ; and he and his 
 fellow translators are equally blind to the fact that the 
 Octavia for chronological reasons, and the Hercules Oetaevs 
 for critical reasons cannot be accepted as the work of 
 Seneca. Nevyle takes it for granted that the Oedijms was 
 originally intended for " tragicall and Pompous showe . 
 upon Stage," and the confidence with which Jasper Heyy 
 wood dubs Seneca "the flowre of all writers" is almost 
 amusing in view of the depth of disrepute to which the 
 tragedies have fallen since. I have thought it best in this 
 
14 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 ^%Hnt'o/'i^iw.' essay to take the tragedies as far as possible from the 
 
 Elizabethan point of view. From this point of view it is 
 
 correct to speak of the author of the tragedies simply 
 
 as Seneca, witliout any cumbrous quahfications ; 
 
 , and I shall call the tragedies by the names given 
 
 / to them by the Elizabethans, tliough no doubt it 
 
 would, be more correct to treat the Thehais as made 
 
 up of a fragmentary Oedipm and a fragmentary 
 
 Phoenlsae. The text quoted is the Aldine of Avantius 
 
 (1517), which has been the foundation of most subsequent 
 
 editions. Peiper and Eichter say in their preface, " Si 
 
 universum spectamus, nullum librum uel manu scriptum 
 
 uel inpressum fatendum est tarn props ad genuinam re- 
 
 eensionis uolgaris condicionem accedere quam Aldinam." 
 
 As I was not in a position to see a copy of the Aldine 
 
 edition, I have restored the readings of Avantius in the 
 
 text of Peiper and Richter published in 1867, and the 
 
 figures refer to the numbering of the lines in that edition . 
 
 f "wwi^n, It would be easy to convict Seneca of many and very 
 
 serious shortcomings; it would not be difficult to prove 
 that by the side of obvious defects he possesses some ex- 
 cellences. Klein praises the scene between Andromache 
 and Ulysses in the Troas as unsm-passed even by Shakspere; 
 a.nd Dryden says of the same passage that it *' bears the 
 nearest resemblance of anything in the tragedies of the 
 ancients to the excellent scenes of passion in Shakespeare 
 or in Fletcher." Leaving aside all question of intrinsic 
 merit, this is the first quality I wish to claim for Seneca 
 
071 EUzahethan Tragedy. 15 
 
 — that he is the most modern of the ancients ; in the /j^ 
 words of KJein, he " stands nearer to Shakspeare and 
 Calderon than to Em-ipides." Even if Greek tragedy had 
 stood within as easy reach of the Elizabethans as Seneca, 
 it may be doubted whether they would have been 
 able to assimilate it ; its perfectness would .not make 
 it any easier to imitate, and it was as far removed 
 from modern ideas in spirit as in form. The whole of .- 
 Greek tragedy is thoroughly Athenian in spirit, its con- 
 ceptions are all of the aucient Greek world, and its form, 
 its very conventions were vitally affected by- the circum- 
 stances that had given it birth and assisted in its develope- y 
 ment. Seneca is nearer to the moderns in spirit than in V 
 time. In his case the local c onditions which moulded 
 Greek tragedy were absent. His stoicism, his personal 
 circumstances,_and the spirit ^o f~Eis time all^helpedno 
 mak^ him cos mopolitan. "The age of Nero" (I quote ^- <^'''""''^'*'"'"''' 
 from ray notes of a lecture by Dr. Ward) "may be re- 
 garded as the climax of a cosmopolitan tendency in litera- 
 ture, which began under the Ikpublic itself, and was no 
 longer satisfied with what appealed only to Roman senti- 
 ment. There was no national life at Rome in the time 
 of Nero, hardly a national literature, no national drama." 
 Seneca is peculiarly free from local restrictions, and t o 
 this we may^erEaps ascribe the fact that Elizabethan 
 tragedy, though thrilled thr ough and through with 
 patriotism, deafs w ith men and ideas of univer salinteiest. 
 SnaFspere glorified some of his plays with a^^impassioned 
 spirit of healthy patriotism, but of his masterpieces it is pe- 
 culiarly true that they are "not of an age, but for all time,"^; 
 
 -|5>A^ "^t- 
 
16 The Tnfliience of Seneca 
 
 s. inu-ospectiof., j^^ aiiotlier way Seneca stands nearer to the modern 
 drama than to Greek tragedy. "Ancient tra<]fecly" 
 says Dr. Campbell ^ " is stamped with a degree of 
 objectivity and outwardness which, on the whole, differ- 
 entiates its creations from those of the modern drama, 
 steeped as this so often is with the introspectiveness or 
 self-reflectiveness that pervades the modern world." 
 We note the beginning of the change in Euripides ; but 
 in Seneca it is very plainly marked. T he scene is no 
 longer in the open air, but within doors. The plots of 
 Atreus and their bloody execution, the guilty suit of 
 Phaedra, and the machinations of Deianira and Medea 
 could not take place before a temple or in the courtyard 
 of a palace. Seneca's arrangement of the plot in all 
 these cases ii^plies sec resy ^ nd concealment ; and 
 introspecti/eness follows as_a_mat[er_of course upon his 
 mode of treatment^ Sir Walter Scott says in his preface 
 to Dryden's Oedipus t " Though devoid of dramatic effect, 
 of fancy, and of genius, the Oedipus of Seneca displays 
 the masculine eloquence and high moral sentiment of 
 its author; and if it does not interest us in the sjene of 
 fiction, it often compels us to turn our thoughts inward, 
 and to study our own hearts." The remark is equally 
 true of the other plays. In the Thyestes Atreus j sjntro- 
 duc ed bro oding_Q ve^-' his own supineness in ni it_s^king 
 _reyenge,; and when Thyestes enters, he is lost in reflec- 
 tion on the subject of his own doubts and fears. Oedipus 
 and Jocasta in the Thebais are the subjects of the same 
 morbid self-analysis. The thoughts of Phaedra in love, 
 1 A Guide to Greek Tragedy, p. 38, 
 
 •4..- 
 
on FAizahetlmn Tragedy. 
 
 17 
 
 of Medea in hatred, of Deianira in jealousy revolve round 
 one centre — themselves. In the Agamemnon Ciytemnestra 
 shows the same tendency to soliloquy and self-examina- 
 tion, her first words heing 
 
 quid segnis anime tuta consilia expetis ? 
 quid fluctuaris ? 
 
 We sh all find no thing in Greek tragedy so near as this 
 *_to the scruples of Macbeth and the self-analysis of^ 
 Hamlet. 
 
 / 
 
 V 
 
 
 Seneca's introspectiveuess is chiefly due to the -i. sensatwna: 
 
 character of his themes and his mode of dealinf; with 
 them.) The^ sensationalism wdnch Aristotle and Aristo- 
 phanes remark in Euripides is, still more marked in 
 Seneca. His subjects are indeed taken from Greek 
 tragedy, but they are the most sensational he could 
 choose — the horrid banquet of Thyestes, the murder of 
 Agamemnon by his faithless wife and her paramour, the 
 guilty love of Phaedra, the execution of Astyanax and 
 Polyxena, the revenge of Medea, the slaughter of Megara 
 and her children, the fatal jealousy of Deianira, the 
 incest and parricide of Oedipus Cand the unnatural strife 
 of his sons.) In the Octavla, the only tragedy whose 
 subject is not taken from Greek mythology, the theme is 
 still of lust and blood. Perhaps the example of Seneca 
 was hardly needed to direct Elizabethan tragedy into the 
 same channel. Those were stirring and licentious times, 
 and the nation which kept Spain anl the Inquisition at 
 bay abroad had memories at home of the lustfulness of 
 
 / 
 
 f 
 
 ikfi j^'<"i 
 
/- 18 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Henry, the cruelty of Mary, and tlie intrigues of Elizabeth. 
 The moral atmosphere of the court did not improve in 
 the following reign, and it was no wonder that English 
 dramatists continued to treat of lawless love and 
 prodigious crimes ; by this time the example of Seneca 
 had been re-inforced by the influence of the Italian and 
 the Spanish drama, in which the same leaven had been 
 at work. 
 
 5, Rhetoncji, Scncca goes to no trouble to make his sensational 
 
 themes dramatically effective by clever construction of 
 plot and careful developement of character. He contents 
 himself with amplifying tlie horror of the tragic situa- 
 tions till they become disgusting, and exaggerating the 
 expression of passion till it becomes ridiculous. In 
 Hercules Furens 1291-1301 we have an example of the 
 style to which Nick Bottom gave the immortal title of 
 <' Ercles' vein '' ';— 
 
 arma nisi deiitur mihi, 
 aut omne Pindi thracis excidam nemus 
 Bacchique lucos et Cithaeronis iuga 
 mecum cremabo. tota cum domibus suis 
 domiiiisque tecta, cum deis terapla omnibus 
 thebana supra corpus excipiam meura 
 atque urbe uersa condar et si fortibus 
 leue pondus umeiis mocnia inmissa excident 
 septemque opertus non satis portis premar, • 
 onus omne media parte qua muudus sedet 
 dirimitque superos in meum uertam caput. 
 
 1 In Lingua, a play acted at one of the Universities in the reign 
 of Elizabeth, Tactus "cannot be otherwise persuaded but he is 
 Hercules Furens," a,nd beats Appetitus,Avho sets himself to " outswa;»ger 
 him," 
 
on Mlzahcthan Tragedy. 1^ 
 
 This rhetorical exaggercation is hest known to us in 
 the school of English tragedy headed by Tamhudaine ; 
 br.t wc shall fin(^ that in the later Elizabethans it is not 
 absent. \ Shakspere uses it not infrequently, but always 
 in a white heat of passion that goes far towards making 
 hyperbole pardonable. There is a notable example in 
 the grave scene in Hamlet fV. 1 ad Jin.) ; and Muuro^ 
 compares Thijestes 289-292 :— 
 
 regna nunc sperat mea. 
 hac spe minanti fulmen occurret Tovi, 
 hac spe subibit gurgitis tumidi minas 
 dubiumque libycae Syrtis intrabit fretum, 
 
 with the words of Hotspur in 1 Henry IV, I. 3 : — • 
 
 By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, 
 
 To pluck bright honour from the pale-facod moon, 
 
 Or dive mto the bottom of the deep 
 
 We have other examples in the speech of Juliet^ 
 IV. 1 :— 
 
 0, bid mo leap, rather than marry Paris, 
 
 From off the battlements of yonder tower 
 
 and in The Merchant of Venice, IV. 1 ; — 
 
 You may as well go stand upon the beach. 
 
 And bid the main flood bate his usual height 
 
 Seneca was much given to these exaggerated comj2ari-_ 
 sons^ See Hercules Farens 376-382 ; Thyestes 476 482 ) 
 Hippo! jilifi 57 (j-5Sl; Octavia 227-231; Hercules Oetaeus 
 338-341 and 1586-1590. 
 
 F -I.. . ■ ■ . ■'■■ ■ — ■' ■ - - . 1 ■ 
 
 1 Journal of Philology, VI. 77. 
 
20 The Infiience of Senecd 
 
 c. Descriptive, Witliout legiilar dramatic developement by action 
 
 and character, the tragedies of Seneca are filled up with 
 elaborate descriptions, sententious dialogues, and reflec- 
 ^^^^ tive diatribes. Of Seneca's descriptive passages little 
 need be said ; they are the forerunners of similar efforts 
 by the Elizabethan dramatists, who excel- Seneca as much 
 in descriptive power as they show moderation in the use 
 of it ; particular resemblances whl be pointed out here- 
 after. So far as space goes, narrative plays a great part 
 in Seneca's tragedies ; but much of it is mere padding ; 
 
 7. Refi'xtive. far morc characteristic of Seneca are the reflective pas- 
 sages, and the dialogue, which is highly finished in form 
 and often heavily weiglited with philosophic thought. 
 
 stichomythia. Stichomythia i^ very common in Seneca's tragedies, and 
 sometimes every line is a moral maxim or a commonplace 
 of philosophy. English playwrights very soon began to 
 imitate Seneca's briUiant performances in this respect, 
 and it is interesting to mark the steps of their progress. 
 // Gorhoduc (1561) yielda us no example, but we have 
 already an attempt, though not a very successful one, in 
 Damon and Fythias (printed in 1571, and probably acted 
 and pubHshed a few years before; it was licensed in 1567) 
 e.g. Hazlitt's Dodsley, IV. p. 56 : — 
 
 Dion. Take heed for [your] life : wordly men break promise in 
 many things. 
 
 PiTn. Though wordly men do so, it never haps amongst friends. 
 
 Dion. What callest thou friends? are they not men, is not 
 this true ? 
 
 Pith. Men they be, but such men as love one another only for 
 virtue. 
 
 Dion. For what virtue dost thou love this spy, this Damon ? 
 
 Pith. For that virtue which yet to you is unknown. 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedih 21 
 
 / 
 
 The Misfortunes of Arthur (1587-8) and the revised 
 version of Tancred and Gismiind (pub. 1592) show a con- 
 siderable advance, both in quahty and quantity, many of 
 the Hnes being borrowed directly from Seneca. In The 
 Spanish Tragedy we have fairly finished stichomythia with / 
 greater originality. Marlowe's dialogue is not particu- / 
 laiiy striking, but Peele's Edtvard I gives us a remark- 
 able example. Mr. Bullen's edition, Scene XXL: — 
 
 LoNGSH. Why what remains for Baliol now to give ? 
 Baliol. Allegiance, as becomes a royal king. 
 LoNGSH. What league of faith where league is broken once 1 
 Baliol. The greater hope in them that once have fall'n. 
 LoNGSH. But foolish are those monarchs that do yield 
 A conquered realm upon submissive vows. 
 
 Shakspere has many such passages,^ of which it 
 will be enough to quote one, and that a short one. 21ie 
 Merchant of Venice, IV. 1 : — 
 
 . Bass. This no answer, thou unfeeling man, 
 To excuse the current of thy cruelty. 
 
 Shy. I am not bound to please thee with my answer. 
 
 Bass. Do all men kill the things they do not love ? 
 
 Shy. Hates any man the thing he would not kill ? 
 
 Bass. Every offence is not a hate at first. 
 
 Shy. What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice ? 
 
 Seneca is not content with elaborating brilliant dia- 
 logue in alternate lines ; he balances half, third, and 
 quarter lines. Thus in the Medea, 168-173 :— 
 
 1 See Ricliard III, passim, especially IV. 4 ; 1 Henri/ VI, 
 TV. 5 ; and 3 Ilennj VI, III. 2. 
 
ii 
 
 The Infiuence of Seneca 
 
 NvTR. rex est timendus. 
 
 Med. rex raeus fuerat pater. 
 
 NvTR. non naetuls arma ? 
 
 Med, sint licet terra edita. 
 
 NvTii. moriere. 
 
 Med. cupio. 
 
 NvTR. profuge. 
 
 Med, paenituit fugae. 
 
 Medea f ugiam 1 
 NvTR. mater es, 
 
 Med. cui slin uides. 
 
 NvTR. profugere dubitas 1 
 
 Med. f ugiam, at ulciscar prius. 
 
 NvTR. uindex sequctur. 
 Med. forsan inueniam moras. 
 
 1/ 
 
 y 
 
 Seneea'* Phil{ 
 sophy. 
 
 Hiiglies makes obvious efforts to imitate this trick of 
 style in The Misfortunes of Arthur. (See Hazlitt's Dodsley, 
 ly. 268, 277, 283, 284, 286, 303.) We have less elabo- 
 rate but more successful attempts in Tancred and Gismund 
 (Hazlitt's Dodsley, VII. 70, 73, 88, 92,) In the_o£ening 
 scenes o f Hamlet Shakspere has used a like brevity w ith. 
 B, very differeiiLeffect. The appearance of artificiality is 
 -' removed by occasional irregularity, which has the sem- 
 blance of carelessness, but is really the outcome of the 
 highest art ; and to the majesty of verse, is added the 
 naturalness of ordinary conversation. 
 
 / Seneca's reflective passages are by no means con- 
 fined to dialogue. Long speeches give him opportunity 
 for ^rhetorical expansion, and the Chorus occasionally 
 developes a philosophic theme. For the most part the 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 23 
 
 subjects of reflection are familiar commonplaces' — the 
 cares of empire, the fickleness of fortune, the uncertainty 
 of popular favour, the cruelty of war, the falsehood of 
 fame, the impetuosity of youth, the modesty of maiden- 
 hood, the evil consequences of luxury, the fatal gift of 
 beauty, the dangers of high j)laces and the safety of 
 humility, the joys of a country life and the advantages of 
 poverty. Similar reflections are frequent in tlie Eliza- 
 bethan dramatists, and I shall point out many instances 
 in which Seneca's form of expression is reproduced with 
 more or less exactness./ Shakspere deals freely in this 
 small coin of' philosophy, but he generally issues it new ^pf^oi-isms, 
 from his own mint. Aline in Cymheline, IV. 3 : — ■ 
 
 Some falls are means the happier to arise 
 
 suggests a comparison with Troas 8§6-7 : — ■ 
 
 hie forsitan te casus excelso magis 
 solio reponet. 
 
 But this may be merely a coincidence ; and the same 
 remark applies to most Shaksperean parallels with Seneca, 
 as we shall see later on. So in Julius Caesar, I. 3 : — ■ 
 
 Nop stony tower, nor walls of beaten brass, 
 Nor airless dungeon, nor strong links of iron, 
 Can be retentivie to the strength of spirit ; 
 But life, being weary of these worldly bars, 
 .^ Never lacks power to dismiss itself. 
 
 mehais 151-3 :— 
 
 ubique mors est. optume hoc cauit deus. 
 
 eripere uitain nemo non homini potest, 
 
 3,t nemo mortem ; mille ad hJ^nc aditus patent. 
 
. 24 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 We have an unacknowledged translation in The Misfor- 
 tunes of ArtJiur, I, 3 : — - 
 
 Each-where is death ! the fates have well ordain'd, 
 That each man may bereave himself of life, 
 But none of death : death is so sure a doom, 
 A thousand ways do guide us to our graves. 
 
 Marston also keeps closer to Seneca's form. 1 Anto- 
 nio and MeUida, III. 2 : — 
 
 Each man take[sj hence life, but no man death : 
 He's a good fellow, and keeps open house : 
 A thousand thousand ways lead to his gate, 
 To his wide-mouthed porch, when niggard life 
 Hath but one little, little wicket through. 
 
 Beaumont and Fletcher tell us that to death " a 
 thousand doors are open." Massinger says in The Buke 
 of Milan, I. 3 :— 
 
 There are so many ways to let out life. 
 
 and Shirley, in Love's Cruelt]), V. 1: — 
 
 A thousand ways there are to let out life. 
 
 It is curious how some of Seneca's aphorisms do duty 
 again and again in the Elizabethan drama with but slight 
 changes of form. Seneca had written in the Agamemnon: — 
 
 per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter. 
 
 This is translated by Studley : — 
 
 The safest path to mischiefe is by mischiefe open still. 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy, 25 
 
 Thomas Hughes has it in Tlic Misfortunes of Arthur, 
 1.4:— 
 
 The safest passage is from bad to worse. 
 Marston in The Malcontent, V. 2 : — 
 
 Black deed only through black deed saff^ly flies. 
 
 Shakspere in Macbeth, III. 2 : — J^ 
 
 Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill / 
 
 Jonson in Catiline, I. 2 : — 
 
 The ills that I have done cannot be safe 
 But by attempting greater. 
 
 AVebster in The IT hite Devil, II. 1 :— 
 
 Small mischiefs are by greater made secure. 
 
 Lastly, in Massinger's Duke of Milan, 11. 1 Francisco 
 
 says 
 
 All my plots . ^, 
 
 Turn back upon myself ; but I am in, 
 
 And must go on : and, since I have put off 
 
 From the shore of innocence, guilt be now my pilot ! 
 
 Revenge first wrouglit me ; murder's his twin brother : 
 
 One deadly sin, then, help to cure another! 
 
 In addition to a large stock of brilliant common- 
 places, there is in the tragedies a considerable body of 
 thought which is part of Seneca's philosophic faith. 
 The leading doctrine is that of fatalism — not the fatalism FataUm. 
 of Aeschylus, which is one with the will of the gods, and 
 makes for righteousness,^ but the absolute, hopeless __J 
 
 1 See Supplices (Paley) 1031-4 and Prometheus 526-7, ; also an 
 article on " Aeschylus as a Religious Teacher" in the Contemj)orary 
 Review for 1866, by Mr. (now Bishop) Brooke Foss Westcott, re- 
 published in his v^Jcent Essays in the History of Religio'as Thought in 
 the West, 
 
■A/>.YV^ ^ \ 
 
 26 
 
 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 
 / 
 
 fatalism of tbe Stoic school, which includes the gods 
 themselves iu its universal swa}'. 
 
 omnia certo tramite uadunt 
 
 primusque dies dedit extremum. 
 
 noa ilia deo uertisse licet 
 
 quae nexa suis currunt causis. (Oedijms 1008-1011.) 
 
 /T ^^s Nisard points out/ the Jatalism of Greek tragedy 
 Is religious ; that of Seneca is philosophic. In spite of 
 his frequent use of the traditional mythology, Seneca_is^ 
 
 hned to be sceptical. On returning to his native lan( 
 Thyestes addresses his ancestral gods with the doubts 
 ful addition, '' si sunt tamen di." In spite of the ghosts 
 in the Troas, the Chorus treat existence after death as an 
 open question, and finally come to the conclusi'm 
 
 Taenara et aspero 
 regnum sub domino limen et obsidens 
 custos non facili Cerberus ostio 
 rumores uacui uerbaque inania 
 et par sollicito fabula somnio. (413-17.) 
 
 Even where Seneca accepts the traditional mythology, 
 he attributes to the gods that envy of human pre-eminence 
 which Aeschylus disowned.^ Seneca has no faith in the 
 righteous government of the world. The Chorus in the 
 Hippolytus sing . 
 
 res humanas ordine nullo 
 
 fortuna regit, spargitque manu 
 
 munera caeca, peiora fouens. 
 
 uincit sanctos dira libido, 
 
 fraus sublimi regnat in aula. (986-90.) 
 
 1 In Etudes sur l»s Poetes Latins de la Decadence. 
 
 "' Cf. Hippolytus 1132-1152 with Aeschylus Agamemnon 727-737. 
 
 >. 
 
on Etizahethan Tragedy. 
 
 27 
 
 / Mr. Swinburne, in an tarticle on Webster in the 
 ''Siiutecnth Centmi/ for June, 1886, says, "Aeschylus is 
 above all things the poet of righteousness. * But in any 
 "wis^e, I say unto thee, revere thou the altar of righteous- 
 ness : ' this is the crowning admonition of his doctrine, 
 as its crowning prospect is the reconciliation or atone- 
 ment of the principle of retribution with the principle of 
 redemption, of the powers of the mystery of darkness / 
 with the CO -eternal forces of the spirit of wisdom, of 
 the lord of inspiration and of light. The doctrine of 
 Shakespeare, where it is not vaguer, is darker in ils 
 implication of injustice, in its acceptance of accident, 
 than the impression of the doctrine of Aeschylus. Fate, 
 irreversible and inscrutable, is the only force of which 
 we feel the impact, of which we trace the sign, in the 
 upshot of OtheUo or King Lear. The last step into the 
 darkness remained to be taken by ' the most tragic ' of 
 all English poets. With Shakespeare — and assuredly 
 not with Aeschylus — righteousness itself seems subject 
 and subordinate to the masterdom of fate : but fate itself, 
 in the tragic wor'd of Webster, seems merely the servant 
 or the synonym of chance." Seneca's fatalism is not 
 peculiar to Webster, though l^e perhaps carried it farther! 
 than any of his contemporaries. Fatalism of a more or 
 less pronounced character runs through Elizabethan 
 tragedy from the very beginning. When Heywood added 
 to the Troas (pub. 1559) a Chorus of his own composition, 
 though moulded on Seneca's style, this was one of the 
 doctrines he chose for presentation. FoUo 101 : — ^ 
 
 They sit aboue, that holde our life in line, 
 Aud what we suffer dowue they fling from hie, 
 
 y 
 
 u^.' 
 
 / 
 
X 
 
 29 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 No carke, no care, that euer may vntwine 
 The thrids, that wouen are aboue the skie. 
 
 We have tlie same note struck in Gorhuduc and The 
 Misfortunes of Arthur, the latter simply translating the 
 lines from the Oedipus quoted ahove : — 
 
 All things are rul'd in constant course : no fate 
 ^ But is foreset : the first day leads the last. 
 
 In Tancred and Gismitnd ^ve have : — 
 
 His doom of death was dated by Jjis stars, 
 And who is he that may withstand his fate ? 
 
 As to Shakspere and the later Elizabethans, 
 abundant evidence will be given hereafter. 
 
 siokim. With Seneca's fatalism is closely connected his 
 
 Stoical indifference to the accidents of life. Thyestes 
 615-18:— 
 
 nemo confidat nimium secundis, 
 nemo desperet meliora lapsis : 
 miscet haec illis prohibetque Clotho 
 stare fortunam, rotat omne fatum. 
 
 In its full extent Seneca's Stoicism went further than 
 this, and taught absolute independence of circumstances. 
 This is effectively expressed by Medea, when, hopeless 
 and friendless in a hostile land, she defies despair, ex- 
 claiming, "Medea superest" 
 
 fortuna opes auferre non animum potest. 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedy. 29 
 
 Ampliitryon expresses the same idea in Hercules 
 Fiirens 468 : — 
 
 quemcumque fortem uideris, miserum neges. 
 
 A full exposition of Stoical teaching on this point is 
 given hy the Chorus in the Thijestes (344-403), from which 
 I will quote one short extract — 
 
 rex est qui metuet nihil 
 rex est qui cupiet nihil, 
 mens regnuru bona possidet 
 hoc regnum sibi quisque dax-.^ 
 
 Along with this indifference to the accidents of Hie c<mt«^«^t/or 
 comes contempt for the final accident of death, as we note 
 in the same Chorus : — 
 
 rex est qui posuit metus 
 et diri mala pectoris, 
 
 • •• •4* ••• 
 
 qui tuto positus loco 
 infra se uidet omnia 
 occurritque suo libens 
 fato nee queritur toori. 
 
 The spirit of the last lines is breathed by all Seneca's 
 characters ; all show the same inyincible resolution in 
 face of death. Phaedra, Deianira, and Jocasta fall by 
 their own hands ; Astyanax and Polyxena meet death not ^^/^^X<X^ 
 only bravely, but eagerly ; Octavia, Cassandra, Electra, 
 and Antigone show the same masculine constancy ; death 
 
 1 This is Peiper and Richter's reading, their arrangement of the 
 lines being preferable to that of the Aldine text. 
 
/ 
 
 30 The Injiuence of Seneca 
 
 is the refuge desired by Oedipus and Hercules in shame, 
 by Theseus and Thyestes in calamity ; even Jason and 
 Aegisthus, in all else cowards confessed, show a readiness 
 for death equal to that of the bravest and best. We find 
 ^.^^his contempt for death again and again in the Eliza- 
 bethan drama, and in the villains as well as in the heroes. 
 We find it, too, often associated, as in Seneca, wifli 
 fatalism. Thus Young Mortimer in Marlowe's Edward II, 
 Y. 6, when sentence of death is pronounced upon him for 
 treason, adultery, and murder, says : — 
 
 Base Fortune, now I see, that in thy wheel 
 Tiiere is a point, to which when men aspire, 
 They tumble headlong down : that point I touched, 
 And, seeing there was no place to mount up higher. 
 Why should I grieve at my declining fall 1 — 
 Farewell, fair queen ; weep not for Mortimer, 
 That scorns the world, and, as a traveller, 
 Goes to discover countries yet unknown. 
 
 Shakspere's villains— Eichard III, Macbeth, and 
 Gloster's bastard son — die with desperate fortitude, and 
 lago receives his condemnation in sullen silence. The 
 Stoical fortitude of the heroines of Elizabethan tragedy 
 is equally remarkable. For the present let one instance 
 suffice. The Winters Tide, III. 2 :— 
 
 Leon. Look for no less than death. 
 
 Her. Sir, spare your threats : 
 
 The bug which you would fright me with I seek. 
 
 W To me can life be no commodity. 
 
 Compare Troas 583-6 : — 
 
071 Elizabethan Tragedy. 81 
 
 Andb. tuta est perire quae potest debet cupit. 
 Vl. magnifica uerba mors prope adniota excutit. 
 Andr. si uis Vlixe cogere Andromacham metu, 
 uitam minare : nam mori uotum est mihi. 
 
 Seneca's women are on a level with his men in cour- '^««««'«'^'""<» 
 age, in strength of will and mental power, whether in 
 arguing or planning, in initiation or in execution. But 
 perhaps it would be going too far to claim for Seneca 
 that he helped to bring about the different position 
 held by woman in the Eomantic drama to that she 
 occupied in Greek tragedy ; the advance is not merely 
 a literary phenomenon ; it is a change in the spirit 
 and customs of the age. The same is to be said of 
 Klein's remark that upon the Phaedra Seneca may 
 ground a claim to have created the modern tragedy i'^»'-f'-"ofdy. 
 of love, though the suggestion is not without plausibility. 
 Nisard says that the love of Phaedra is sensual love, that -^^^ 
 
 of a prostitute ; to which it may be replied that no 
 presentation of Phaedra's guilty passion would make it ""^ 
 
 pure or even worthy of sympathy. Euripides overcame 
 the difficulty by representing her passion as a divine 
 visitation beyond her own control ; Seneca makes little 
 of this, and reduces love to its merely human elements. 
 Here, again, Seneca comes nearer to the moderns, by 
 disregarding that very element of fate, which in another 
 way brings him into close connection with them. Though 
 he propounds philosophic fatalism in Chorus and dialogue, 
 Seneca makes little of it in his delineation of character. 
 His personages may utter fatalistic apothegms, and be at 
 times the victims of circumstances ; but in moral action 
 
 ^ 
 
32 
 
 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 CoHtcietise' 
 tragedy. 
 
 they give every evidence of free will. . The repentance of 
 Thyestes, the remorse of Hercules and of Deianira, the 
 hesitation of Medea, the uncertainty of Clytemnestra, the 
 anxiety of Poppaea, and the increased moral sensitiveness 
 of Agamemnon — all point to what Klein descrihes as 
 "die Uehergangsstellung der romischen Tragodie zwischen 
 der Schicksalidee der Griechen imd der Gewissenstragik 
 des von der christhchen Bussstimmung angeregten nnd 
 von Shakspeare ahgeschlossenen Siihnespiels." But all 
 these are ingenious theories supported by very slight evi- 
 dence ; we must return to the solid ground of fact. 
 
 External form. 
 
 Five Acts. 
 
 \ I 
 
 \ 
 
 w 
 
 The Chorus. 
 
 The most obvious way in which Seneca affected the 
 modern drama was in external form. From Seneca the 
 European drama in general, and English tragedy in 
 particular, received the five acts which have become the 
 ruleL_ofLjthe^iodern stage. In the Greek drama the 
 number of erreia-oSia was variable ; the division into five 
 acts was apparently established by Varro, and is noted 
 by Horace in the Ars Poetica as a rule to be strictly 
 observed ; ^ but it was the example of Seneca that 
 governed the practice of the modern stage. Seneca's 
 division into five acts separated by choruses is exactly- 
 reproduced ia our earliest tragedies— in Gorbodue, in TJie 
 Misfortunes of Arthur, and in Tancred and Gismund. The 
 usage of Seneca with respect to the Chorus is retained 
 in Gascoigne's Jocasta, in Kyd's Cornelia, in the Countess 
 
 1 See Prof. Wilkins' note (line 189), and 0, Ribbeck Eomische 
 Tragodie, p. 642. 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 
 
 33 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 of Pembroke's Antony, in Daniel's Cleopatra and Phihtas, 
 
 in JonBon's Catilw, in Lord Brooke's Alaham and 
 
 Mustapha,, and in Stirling's Monarchicke Tragedies ; but it 
 
 was ajdevice f oreign to the dramatic genius of th e English 
 
 people, and did not long keep i^s place on the populgur 
 
 stage in its original form and purpose. In The Spamsh 
 
 Tragedy Andrea and Revenge 
 
 sit down to see the mystery 
 And serve for Chorus in this Tragedy. 
 
 In Soliman am.d Perseda the same office is performed 
 by Love, Fortune, and Death. There are three choruses 
 in Faiisliis, two (three acts) in Peele's Daiyid and Beihsahe^ 
 one in Homeo and Juliet, Shakspere's Uise of fhe Chorus shakspere's 
 in Henry V is very different fto the manner of Seneca; 
 whose choruses could be cutout without any injury to 
 the plot, and in some cases might even be transferred 
 from one tragedy to another without any loss of appro- 
 priateness. Indeed the choruses of Seneca have often no 
 more relation to the conduct of the plot than the lyrics with 
 which the Eliztbethans adorned their plays. . In Henry V 
 the Chorus becomes a necessary part of the action, and 
 at the same time gives the dramatist the opportunity of 
 calling upon the spectators to eke out the historic and 
 scenic illusion by the aid of imagination : — 
 
 Think, when we talk of horses, that you gee them 
 Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth ; 
 For 'tis yoar thoughts that now must deck our kings, 
 Carry them here and there ; jumping o'er times, 
 Turning the accomplishment of many years 
 Into an hour-glass : for the which supply. 
 Admit me Chorus to this history. 
 
 I 
 
S4 The Liflucnce of Seneea 
 
 This Shaksperean usage is a notable advance on 
 classical authority, and was peculiar to the Elizabethan 
 stage. The Chorus was used in this way at a later date 
 by Fletcher and Massinger in The Prophetess; and Thomas 
 Heywood by this meaus eked out the imperfect action of 
 Jf you know not me, you know no Bodie, or TJie Tro^dles of 
 Queen FAizahith} Ea^nulph Higden in Middleton's Mayor 
 of Queenhorough, and Gower in Pericles are also much less 
 satisfactory figures than the Chorus in Henry V with its 
 Boul-stirring patriotism and magnificent verse; and while we 
 cannot but be thankful for a form of art of which we have 
 immortal examples like the chorusas of Henry V, on the 
 whole wo can hardly regret that the Chorus took the path 
 ^%TFheChorm i^^^i'l^^d out for it by the developement of the drama, and 
 disappeared from the modern stage. Seneca's use of the 
 Chorus was a plain forewarning of its ultimate fate. In 
 the early plays of Aeschylus supreme importance is 
 attached to the Chorus, which was the kernel from which 
 the drama had sprung. In Sophocles the Chorus has 
 become subordinate to the dialogue. In Euripides its 
 connection with the action is often slight ; in Seneca thisi 
 connection disappears altogether ; the Chorus is already 
 on ils way to exclusion from the play and final disuf.e. 
 
 ^the^Romn"^ Agathou had lut roduccd independent eix^oXiixa into 
 
 stage. Greek tragedy ; but the important step was taken when 
 
 the Chorus was excluded from the orchestra in the Roman 
 
 1 The Chorus is first found in the edition of 1632 ; it is not in the 
 editions of 1605-6, 
 
oil EUzahi'than Tragcchj. 85 
 
 \ 
 
 \ 
 
 theatre, and given a place on the stage. "When this 
 ■change was once effected, the jiresence of the Chorus was 
 no longer necessary to the conduct of the action. An 
 examination of the fragments of early Roman tragedy 
 shows that the Chorus sometimes stayed on the stage 
 throughout the action, sometimes went on and off accord- 
 ing to the exigencies of the plot.^ Seneca's Chonis senecx-^choms. 
 seems to have heen invariably absent during the progress ~ 
 ^ofjhe action. He completely set at defiance tlie admoni- 
 tion of Horace : — 
 
 actoris partis chorus officiumque uirile 
 dcfcndat, neu quid medios iutercinat actus 
 quod nOn proposito conducat et liaereat apte. 
 
 The wording of Hercules Fiircns 831, 
 
 dcnsa sed laeto uenit 
 clamore turba frontibus laurum gerens 
 magnique mevitas Herculis laudes cauit, 
 
 shows that the Chorus only came on the stage to fill the 
 pauses between the acts ; and it took no other part in 
 the pluy. Even where, as in the Tlu/estes, the Chorus is 
 one of the interlocutors, immediately after it is assumed 
 to be ignorant of the dialogue that has just taken place ; 
 and to make the passage at all reasonable, wo must 
 suppose that where the Chorus takes part in the action, 
 its office is performed by the Coryphaeus alone, and that 
 the other members of the Chorus are not present. Thus 
 it comes about that, in answer to the questions of the 
 
 1 See article by Otto Jahn in llermes II., p. 226. 
 
86 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Chorus (or the Coryi^haeus) the Messenger describes the 
 murder of the children of Thyestes, and expresses his 
 horror at the deed, ending his speech with the words : — 
 
 uerterit cursus licet 
 sibi ipse Titan obuium ducens iter 
 tenebrisque facinus obruat tetrum nouis 
 nox missa ab ottu tempore alieno grauis : 
 tamen uidendum est, tota patefient mala. 
 
 But immediately after the Chorus want to know the 
 reason of the darkness, and come to the conchision that 
 it must be the end of tlie world. Another suggestion to 
 overcome this difficulty is the division of the Chorus ; 
 and still another explanation of Seneca's apparent care- 
 lessness on this point is to be found in the theory that 
 the tragedies were not intended to be acted, but to be 
 read. But, seeing that Seneca, in the plays now regarded 
 as genuine, has taken the trouble to observe the rule 
 of the three actors, it seems rash to assume that he 
 committed such a glaring absurdity in the management 
 of the Chorus. However that may be, it is clear that the 
 Chorus was not supposed to be on the stage during the 
 progress of the action. This is proved by Hippolytus 
 G07-9 :— 
 
 Phae. commodes paulum precor 
 
 secretus aures. si quis est abeat comes. 
 Hipp, en locus ab omni liber arbitrio uacat. 
 
 even though 832-6 might lead us to an opposite conclu- 
 sion, for this is one of the few passages in Seneca which 
 seem to presume that the Chorus has some knowledge of 
 
on Elwabethan Tragedy. 37 
 
 the course of the action. But it would be ridiculous to 
 suppose that Phaedra preferred her shameful suit before 
 the faces of a band of Athenian citizens, and that they 
 afterwards allowed Hippolytns to be falsely accused in 
 their presence when they could give direct evidence of his 
 innocence. Medea cannot have unfolded her deep-laid 
 scheme of vengeance in the ears of an unfriendly band of 
 Corinthians, and Atreus could not- have revealed the trap 
 he was laying for his brother to the Chorus which sang 
 immediately after : — 
 
 tandem regia nobilis 
 antiqui genus Inachi, 
 frati'um conposuit minas. 
 
 A similar conclusion may be drawn from Troas 
 369-379 ; in the Agamemnon, the Hercides Oetaeus, and 
 the Octavia there are two choruses, and the same argu- 
 ment holds good. 
 
 The absence of the Chorus during the progress of me " umue,- 
 the action lessened Seneca's hold on the so-called 
 *' unities " of time and place, which w'ere not arbitrary 1 
 rules of the Greek drama, but natural consequences of \ 
 the continuous presence of the Chorus. It used to be the i 
 fashion to base the unities on the authority of the 
 Greek tragic poets and of Aristotle, but more recent 
 criticism has discovered that the unities of time and place 
 are by no means regularly observed in Greek tragedy, 
 
38 The InJIiKnice of Senecct 
 
 and Seneca has been made responsible for the cumbrous 
 system of artificiaHties which was foisted upon the French 
 I classical drama. Asa matter of fact, Seneca has no more 
 ^'espect for the unities than the Greeks. Aeschylus was 
 apparently ignorant of any necessity for continuity of 
 action ; and the observance of Sophocles and Euripides 
 is not without exceptions. Seneca makes some effort to 
 conform to the precept of Aristotle, but he is not bound 
 by any hard and fast line. As Lessing has shown,^ no 
 of lime reasonable assumption will bring the action of the 
 Thyestes within the limits of a single day ; and the Thchais 
 has a change of scene, even apart from its fragmentary 
 composition. The action of the Octet oia extends over at 
 least three days. In line 604 Nero says 
 
 quin deefcinausus proximam thalamis diem? 
 
 On the day after the marriage Poppaea recounts a 
 V dream she has had during the past night, an insurrection 
 
 caused by the divorce of Octavia is crushed, and Octavia 
 and pince. scut into cxile. The action of the Tlcmdes Octcmis begins in 
 Oechalia, then changes to Trachis, and ends on Mount 
 Oeta ; and there are journeys to and from Oechalia and 
 Trachis, which must have taken several days. Probably 
 the most obvious offences against the unities of time and 
 place are to be found in the plays wrongly ascribed to 
 Seneca ; but I have already pointed out that, for the 
 Elizabethans, this distinction did not exist. The first 
 
 1 Thcatralischo Bibliothek, Erstes Stuck (Lachmann) S. 321 3. 
 
on EUzahdhan Tragedij. 
 
 89 
 
 English tragedy, Gorhoduc, begins, as in Seneca,^ by mark- 
 ing the fact that the action opens at daybreak : — 
 
 The silent night that bringes the quiet pawse, 
 From painef ull trauailes of the wearie daie, 
 Prolonges my carefull thoughtes, and maljes me blame 
 The slowe Aurore that so, for loue or shame, 
 Doth longe delaye to shewe her blushing face ; 
 And nowe the daie renewes my griefull plainte. 
 
 These h'nes are quite in Seneca's style, and might 
 almost be a patchwork from the openings of the Octavia 
 and the Oedipus. But, as in the Hercules Oetacus, no 
 attempt is made to bring the action within the limits of 
 a single day ; armies are raised, and considerable 
 jonrneys made in the course of the tragedy. The miracle 
 plays had accustomed English audiences to absence of 
 continuity, changes of scene, and a large number of 
 actors, features which were exceptional or altogether 
 lacking in aQcient tragedy. The Elizabetlians were 
 probably not aware that Seneca observed the rule of three Three Actort. 
 actors, for only a careful examination has revealed the 
 fact that the genuine plays of Seneca are arranged for 
 three actors, the pseudo-Senecan for four. 
 
 Another maxim of the Ars Poet lea, 
 
 ne pueros coram populo Medea trucidet, 
 
 Seneca flagrantly violated. Medea kills both her children 
 on the stage, and as she flies through the* air in a winged 
 
 Sta<;e De:cncie». 
 
 1 See Hercules Fur-ens 123-138 ; Thyestes 120-1 ; Oedipus 1-5 ; 
 Agamemnon 53-6, Octavia 1-6, 
 
40 The Lhfluence of Seneca 
 
 car flings the bodies down at their father's feet. Phaedra 
 and Jocasta stab themselves coram jjo'pido. In the Thycstes 
 the precept of Horace is, from the necessities of the case, 
 observed in the letter, but the Messenger's account of the 
 sacrifice is drawn out in such sickening detail that the 
 repellent effect is but slightly decreased ; the same may 
 be said of the death of Hippolytus. Commentators have 
 generally assumed that Megara and her children are slain 
 in view of the spectators, but Lessing and Pierrot contend 
 that this is a mistake. Lessing's interpretation of the 
 scene runs thus :*' Hercules draws his bow and pierces 
 one of his children with the arrow ; the second, who 
 clasps his father's knees with his little hands and begs 
 for mercy in a piteous voice, is seized in that powerful 
 grasp, swung round in the air, and dashed to pieces on 
 the ground. While Hercules is pursuing the third, who 
 flies for refuge to his mother, the latter is caught sight 
 of, and taken for Juno. Hercules slays first his, child, 
 and then his wife. — AH this, the reader will say, must make 
 a very horrible and bloody speci,ac]e. But in this place, 
 by the help of the Roman stage, which was constructed on 
 a very different plan to ours, the poet ha3 introduced 
 a very fine scene. As Hercules pursues his children and 
 his wife, and from time to time goes out of sight of the 
 spectators, all the murders take place behind the scenes, 
 where they can only be seen by the other characters on 
 the stage, above all by Amphitryon, who each moment 
 describes all he sees, and thus informs the spectators of 
 it in as lively a fashion as if they had seen it themselves." 
 Heinsius is of opinion that the murders took place in view 
 
on EUzahethan Tragcchj. 41 
 
 of the spectators, and suggests that in this tragedy Nero 
 Sfitisfied his lust for blood in the same way as in the case 
 of the Icarus who was dashed to pieces on the stage and 
 bespattered the tyrant with his gore. The text seems to 
 bear out the view of Lessincf and Pierrot, but we mav be 
 sure that the Elizabethans were unaware of this ingenious 
 explanation, which is by no means obvious to a critical 
 reader, much less to the unlearned. 
 
 The early Elizabethans show much diversity in their ■^SilL'''^ 
 observance of stasie decencies. la Gorboduc and The 
 Misfortunes of Arthur the deaths are reported by a Mes- 
 senger ; but in contemporary tragedies intended for the 
 pjpular stage there is no such reserve. In Kin/) Camhuses 
 (c. 1561) Execution smites Sisamnes in the neck with a 
 sword " to signify his death," and " flays him with a 
 false skin " upon the command of the King, "Pull his 
 skill over his ears." Cruelty and Murder enter "with 7^ 
 bloody hands " to slay Smirdis, and after they have ^^ 
 Stabbed him, " a little bladder of viuegar is pricked " to 
 represent his blood. In Afipius and Virginia (pr. 1575, 
 acted 1563) we have the stage direction, " Here tie a 
 handkercher about her eyes, and then strike off her head;" 
 but there is no suggestion as to the means whereby this 
 feat was accomplished without injury to the actor of the 
 part ; afterwards Virginius brings in Virginia's head — a 
 precedent in stage effect which had illustrious followers. 
 Appivs and Virginia and Cainhijr.es are both closely con- 
 nected with the moralities, and it is probable that the 
 
 /f 
 
42 
 
 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 I 
 
 The M trade 
 Plays. 
 
 
 I 
 
 \ 
 
 practice of the miracle plays had considerable influence 
 uprn the Enghsh stage in this respect.^ In the York, 
 Chester, Coventry, and Towneley Mystery Plays the 
 murder of Abel and the Crucifixion take place on the 
 stage ; in the Digby Mysteries the children of Bethlehem 
 are slain on the stage, and Herod dies there. Though 
 the authors of our first regular tragedies did not imitate 
 the directness of the miracle plays in the action proper, 
 they did not hesitate to represent deeds of violence and 
 
 TheDuwh-siwiv murder on the stage in dumb-show. In Gorhoduc and The 
 \ Misforiitnes of Arthur the dumb-show is allegorical ; bu 
 in Tancred and Oismund it is sometimes realistic enougl 
 Guiscard's death was represented thus: — "After Guiscard 
 had Idndly taken leave of them all, a strangling- cord 
 was fastened about his neck, and he haled forth 
 by them. Renuchio bewaileth it, and then, enter- 
 ing in, bringeth forth a standing cup of gold, 
 with a bloody heart reeking hot in it, and then saith, 
 ut sequfitur." The speech that follows is moulded on 
 that of the Messenger in the Thyestes. Gismunda dies 
 
 A Kotexvo7ihy on thc stage, but in this point there is a marked difference 
 
 Change. . _ . 
 
 between the manuscript of 1568 and the revised edition 
 of 1591. In the first version Gismunda is disposed of 
 very quietly, the stage direction being merely "Gismonda 
 
 \/ 
 
 I 
 
 1 To the influence of the miracle plays we should perhaps also 
 ascribe the mixture of comedy and tragedy which is found in Ca/tyihyses 
 and Appius and Virginia, and which afterwards became a distinctive 
 mark of the romantic drama. Seneca has not the slightest hint of 
 comedy, not even such an approach to it as the Watchman in the 
 Agamemnon of Aeschylus and the Antigone of Sophocles, or the 
 humours of Hercules in the Alcestis of Euripides. 
 
OH EUzahethan Tragedy. . 4B 
 
 dieth " ; her father then makes a speech foreshadowing 
 his own death, and goes off the stage ; the epilogue in- 
 forms us parenthetically that he " now himself hath 
 slain." In the revised edition Gismunda's death scene 
 is considerably enlarged, and Tancred puts out his eyes I 
 and kills himself on the stage. The change is a remark- '' 
 able one, and is probably to be ascribed to the horrors of 
 The Spanish Traged'y and the authority of Marlowe, which 
 made it the rule of the English stage to follow the practice 
 _of' Seneca. Sometimes the murders are presented on the 
 stage, sometimes they are reported by the^Messenger, a TheHesscnge 
 figure^appearing with decreasing importance in Greek, 
 Eoman, and English tragedy. Shakespere represents all 
 kinds of horrors coram, populo ; but he does not disdain 
 the use of the traditional machinery, and sometimes his 
 Messengers remind us of those of Seneca. Compare, for 
 instance, Romeo and Juliet, Y.l :— 
 
 O, pardon me for biinging these ill news, 
 Since you did leave it for my office, sir. 
 
 with Hippolytus 1000-1 :— 
 
 o sors acerba et dura famulatus grauis, 
 cu)- me ad nefandos nuntium casus uocas ? 
 
 And Machcth, IV. 3 :— ^f^^^-^^ 
 
 Let not your ears despise my tongue for ever, 
 Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound 
 That ever yet they heard. 
 
 with Troas 533-5:—. 
 
 durae minister sortis hoc primum peto, 
 Ut ore quamis uerba dicantur raeo 
 . non esse credas nostra, 
 
44 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 ^'iacterf^^Y ^^^ additioii to tlie Messenger, Seneca bestowed upon 
 I English tragedy other stock characters — the confidential 
 Nurse, full of counsel and consolation ; her male counter- 
 l^art, the faithful Servant ; and the cruel Tyrant, with 
 his ambitious schemes and maxims of rule. But the 
 most important inheritance of English tragedy in this 
 
 The Ghost. X^espect was the Ghost. As Mr. J. A. Symonds says in 
 Shakspere's Predecessors, " the Ghost, imported from 
 Seneca into English tragedy, had a long and brilliant 
 career." Much could be added to what Mr. Symonds 
 has said on this point, but nothing could be said better. 
 Attention may, however, be called to the important part 
 
 i'.v«o.r7/j<!5«i)fir- played in Seneca's tragedies by supernatural agencies of 
 
 natural. n i • t t ^ • i pi 
 
 all kinds, in the mam, the use oi the supernatural was 
 a tradition received by Seneca from the Greeks ; but be 
 considerably enlarged the inheritance before he handed 
 it on to English tragedy. If all the dramas of Aeschylus 
 were extant, we might find that the author of the 
 Psychagogoi equalled or surpass Seneca in this respect ; 
 but there is an appearance of probability in the suggestion 
 of Dr. Campbell that in the Eumentdes Aeschylus carried the 
 staging of the supernatural too far for the temper of his age. 
 Sophocles and Euripides rely less than Aechylus upon 
 the use of the supernatural, and it was left for Seneca 
 to develope the impressive effects of supernatural 
 appearances and devices, and bequeath them to the 
 modern stage. It is seldom the gods of the upper air 
 whom he brings on the scene ; the atmosphere he loves 
 to breathe is that of the world below. In the Hercides 
 Furens we have a full description of all the horrors of 
 
on HUzahcthan Tragedy. 45 
 
 Tartarus, and again and again in other plays the same 
 picture is drawn on a smaller canvas. Lethe, Cocytus, 
 Styx, Acheron, and Phlegethon are Seneca's best-loved 
 streams ; Tantalus, Ixion, and Sisyphus his favourite 
 characters. The Ghost of Tantalus, drive n jby^a Fury, 
 opens the Thyestes ; the Ghost of Thyestes the Agamem- 
 non', in the Octavia the Ghost of Agrippina appears. Laius 
 is called up from the shades in the Oedipus ; the Ghosts 
 of Achilles and Hector are seen in visions in the Troas; 
 and we have another ghostly dr6am--that ofPoppaea — in 
 the Octavia. Oedipus is terrified in the Thehais by the vision 
 of the murdered Laius, and Octavia's dreams are haunted 
 by the Ghost of Brittanicu?. Atreus and Medea invoke the 
 Furies to jaid them in their revenge ; and when Medea is 
 relenting, she is spurred on by the appearance of her 
 murdered brother's spirit. It would take too long to 
 examine the vaiious ways in which these suggestions of 
 Seneca were w^orked out by ihe Elizabethan dramatists ; 
 a well-read student could easily call to mind a score of 
 parallels, I will only stay to draw attention to two less 
 obvious comparisons. Juliet is inspired with strength to 
 take the sleeping-potion by a like vision to that which 
 appeared to Medea in her moment of weakness : — 
 
 0, look ! methinks I see my cousin's ghost 
 
 Seeking out Romeo, that did spit his body 
 
 Upon a rapier's point : stay, Tybalt, stay ! 
 
 Romeo, I come ! this do I drink to thee.^ ' 
 
 ^ As to the form of the vision see also Octavia 123-7. 
 
46 The Infiience of Seneca 
 
 With the invocations of Medea and Atreus compare 
 tliat of Lady Macbeth : — 
 
 Come, you spirits 
 That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here. 
 And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full 
 Of direst cruelty ! make thick my blood, 
 Stop up the access and passage to remorse, 
 That no compunctious visitings of nature 
 Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace between 
 The effect and it !i 
 
 Besides ghosts and the Furies here invoked, two 
 other supernatural defaces used in Macbeth had been 
 previously employed by Seneca — witchcraft and oracles. 
 The latter we have in the OeiUpus and the Hercides Oetaeiis ; 
 the former in the Hercules Oetaeiis and the Medea. Klein 
 remarks that the ingredients contained in Medea's 
 '' Hexenkessel " vie in strange variety with the hotchpotch 
 that Macbeth 's witches throw into their caldron; and a 
 passage in The Tempest, V. 1 (Unes 41-60) may be com- 
 pared with Hercules Octaeus 4:67 -i(j6 SindMedea 755-772. 
 
 ^SSr*"""^ When we remember that sensational horrors presented 
 on the stage, the Ghost, and the Chorus are among the 
 most striking features of Seneca, it seems not a little re- 
 markable that these very points should be selected by a con- 
 temporary critic as the most noteworthy characteristics of 
 Elizabethan tragedy. In the Induction to A Warning for 
 
 1 So 27ij/e8t€ii 249-254 ; 3{edea 13-17 and 973-4, 
 
on ElizabetJian Tragedy. 47 
 
 Faire Women (1599) we liave the following description of 
 contemporary tragedy : — 
 
 How some damnxl tyrant to obtain a crown 
 
 Stabs, hangs, impoisons, smothers, cutteth throats : 
 
 And then a Chorus, too, comes howling in 
 
 And tells us of the wonting of a cat : 
 
 Then, too, a filthy whining ghost, 
 
 Lapt in some foul sheet, or a leather pilch, 
 
 Comes screaming like a pig half stick 'd, 
 
 And cries, Vindicta I — Revenge, Revenge I 
 
 With that a little rosin flasheth forth, 
 
 Like smoke out of a tobacco pipe, or a boy's squib. 
 
 Then comes in two or three [more] like to drovers. 
 
 With tailors' bodkins, stabbing one another — 
 
 The Warning fm- Faire Women, although it professess 
 to be only a " true and home-born tragedy," is not 
 altogether free from the faults criticised in the Induction. 
 At the opening of Act 11, Tragedy enters " with a bowl of 
 blood in her hand," and speaks the following lines : — 
 
 This deadly banquet is prepar'd at hand, 
 Where Ebon tapers are brought up from hell 
 To lead black Murther to this damned deed. 
 The ugly Screech-owl and the night-Raven, 
 With flaggy wings, and hideous croaking noise, 
 Do beat the casements of this fatal house. 
 Whilst I do bring my dreadful furies forth 
 To spread the table to this bloody feast. 
 
 The height of sensational horror is finally reached 
 in an execution on the stage. 
 
Gorhoiuc 
 
 48 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 The authors of Gorhoduc, the first EngUsh tragedy, 
 as has been ah'eady pointed out, were guilty of no such 
 offence against the decencies of the stage ; and the 
 connection of Gorhoduc with Seneca as to external form 
 and the observance of the unities has also been noticed.^ 
 Though we miss Seneca's brilhant dialogue, the resem- 
 blance in style is clear throughout. The long speeches 
 and " grave sententious precepts " are unmistakeably in 
 Seneca's manner,^ and sometimes Seneca seems to be 
 also responsible for the thought expressed. In Act II. 1 
 we have : — 
 
 Knowe ye that lust of kingdomes hath no la we ; 
 The Goddes do beare and well allowe in kinges 
 The thinges that they ^bhorre in rascall routes. 
 When kinges on sclender quarrels ron to warres, 
 And than in cruell and vnkindely wise, 
 Coramaunde theftes, rapes, murder of innocentes, 
 To spoile of townes & reignes of mightie realmes, 
 Thinke you such princes do suppose them selues 
 Subiect to lawes of kinde and feare of Gods. 
 Murders and violent theftes in priuate men 
 Are heynous crymes and full of foule reproche, 
 Yet none offence, but decked with glorious name 
 Of noble conquestes in the handes of kinges, ^ 
 
 1 See pp. 32, 39, 41. 
 
 2 Gorhoduc is praised by Sidney in the Apologie/or Foeirie " as it 
 is full of stately speeches, and well sounding Phrases, clyming to the 
 height of Seneca his stile." Sidney's entire criticism of Gorhoduc is 
 interesting, but it is too long for quotation. 
 
 3 The' last four lines are differently arranged in the various 
 editions, but this seems to be the right order. It is the reading of the 
 2nd edition (the first authorised edition), which is generally the best, 
 
on Elizahdhan Tragedy. 49 
 
 This passage appears to be an expansion of Aijamem- 
 non 265 and 270-3 :— 
 
 lex alia solio est alia priuato toro. 
 
 igmota tibi sunt iura regnorum haud noua. 
 nobis maligni iudices aequi sibi 
 id esse regni maximum pignus putant, 
 si quicquid aliis non licet, solis licet. 
 
 Compare also V. 1 :— 
 
 So giddie are the common peoples mindes, 
 
 So glad of change, more wauerynge than the sea, 
 
 with the " fliictuque magis mobile uulgus " oi Hercules, 
 Fwms 171 ; ai^d in the same scene, 
 
 And though they shuld match me with power of men, 
 Yet doubtf ull is the chaunce of battailes ioyned, 
 
 with Thebais 627-9 :— 
 
 licet omne tecum Graeciae robur trahas 
 licet arraa longe miles ac late explicet 
 for tuna belli semper ancipiti in loco est. 
 
 It would perhaps be going too far to connect the lines 
 in Act I. 2 : — 
 
 — Shall bridle so their force of youthfull heates, 
 And so restreine the rage of insolence, 
 Whiche most assailes the yonge and noble minds 
 
 with Troas 259 :— 
 
 iuuenile uitium est regere non posse impetum. 
 
50 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 But it is at any rate an instance of tlie dignified 
 expression of commonplace thought, which is one of 
 Seneca's chief characteristics. In Gorhoduc, as in Seneca, 
 we have moralisings on the impetuosity of youth, the 
 danger of pride, the fixity of fate, the fickleness of fortune, 
 the certainty of death. The mythological allusions in 
 the tragedy are to the infernal company of which Seneca 
 is so fond — Tantalus, Ixion, and the snake-clad furies. 
 The Chorus at the end of Act III is entirely in Seneca's 
 style, and to the same source may be ascribed the rhetor- 
 ical exaggeration of the speech of Videna which follows. 
 We have also Seneca's over- elaboration and formal pre- 
 ciseness, of which an example may be noted in the 
 psdantic division of the " sortes " of the rebels in the 
 the speech of Eubulus, V. 2} 
 
 ^Giiid"*^ In the Epistle Dedicatory to Tancred and Gismund 
 
 (acted by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple in 1568) 
 Wilham Wcbbe says, " The tragedy was by them most 
 pithily framed, and no less curiously acted in view of her 
 Majesty, by whom it was then as princely accepted, as 
 of the whole honourable audience notably applauded : 
 yea, and of all men generally desired, as a w^ork either 
 in stateliness of show, depth of conceit, or true ornaments 
 of poetical art, inferior to none of the best in that kind : 
 no, were the Eoman Seneca the censurer." He therefore 
 commends it •' to most men's appetites, who upon onr 
 
 » iC '■■ — — — — ' — — 
 
 1 Cf. Troas 1088-1097, 
 
on EUzuhetlian Tragedy. 61 
 
 experience we know liighly to esteem such lofty measures 
 of sententiously composed tragedies." We have here, 
 again, therefore, a tragedy composed in Seneca's style, 
 and built on his model. The dialogue especially reminds 
 US of Seneca by its occasional brilliance, and throughout 
 we have echoes of his thoughts or mode of expression. 
 Kenuchio's part in Act V. 1 is evidently modelled on 
 that of the Messenger in the Thyestes. Compare the 
 following : — 
 
 Eenuchio, is this Balerne I see 1 
 
 Doth here King Tancred hold the awful crown ? 
 
 Is this the place where civil people be 1 
 
 Or do the savage Scythians here abound ? 
 
 quaenum ista regio est? Argos et Sparte inpios 
 sortita fratres et maris gemini premens 
 fauces Corinthos, an feris Hister f ugam 
 praebens Alanis, an sub aeterna niue 
 Hyrcana tellus, an uagi passim Scythae ? 
 
 (Thyestes Q27-S\). 
 
 Then follows in each case a long and elaborate des- 
 cription of the scene and the horrible details of tbe crime. 
 Compare especially : — 
 
 Cho. damned deed ! 
 
 Ren, What, deem you this to be 
 
 All the sad news that I have to unf-old ? 
 
 Is here, think you, end of the cruelty 
 
 That I have seen I 
 Cho. Could any heavier woe 
 
 Be wrought to him, than do destroy him so 1 
 
62 Th^ Influence of Seneca 
 
 Ren. What, think you this outrage did end so well ? 
 
 The horror of the fact, the greatest grief, 
 
 The massacre, the terror is to tell. 
 Cho. Alack ! what could be more? they threw percase 
 
 The dead body to be devour'd and torn 
 
 Of the wild beasts. 
 Rek. Would God it had been cast a savage prey 
 
 To beasts and birds. 
 
 Cho. o saeuum seel us. 
 
 NvN. exhorruistis 1 hactcnus non stat ncfas, 
 
 plus est. 
 Cho. an ultra maius aut atrocius 
 
 natura recipit 1 
 NvN. sceleris hunc finem putas? 
 
 gradus est. 
 Cho. quid ultra pot uit? obiecit feris 
 
 Icuiianda forsan. corpora atque igne arcuit. 
 NvN. utinam arcuisset. ne tegat functos humus, 
 
 ne soluat ignis, auibus epulandos licet 
 
 ferisque triste pabulum saeuis trahat. 
 
 {Thyestes 743-751). 
 
 / 
 
 The Misfortunes / The subJect of Thc Misfortunes of Arthur, as of 
 Gorhod'uc, is taken from early British history or legend ; 
 but the treatment is entirely after Seneca's manner. 
 Hughes has borrowed not lines merely (these he has 
 borrowed wholesale), but scenes and entire speeches. 
 The first act is little more than a mosaic of extracts 
 from Seneca, pieced together with lines of Hughes's own 
 invention, cast in the style of his model. Gorlois is a 
 ghost after Seneca's own heart, and quotes a number of 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy, 53 
 
 lines from the opening speech of the Ghost of Tantahis 
 in the Thyestcs. The influence of the same play is 
 strongly marked in the following scenes, hut the model 
 chiefly followed is now rather the Agamemnon, Guenevra 
 being moulded on Clytemnestra, and Mordred on 
 Aegisthus. Other plays of Seneca are also laid under 
 contribution, and Guenevra borrows sentiments from 
 almost all Seneca's guilty heroes and heroines. Fronia 
 in Scene ii, and Conan in Scene iv repeat the lines of 
 the Nurse in the Agamemnon, Ilippohjtus, Medea, and 
 Hercules OetaeuB, and the Servant in the Thyestes ; and 
 Conan also plays the part of Seneca in the Octavia. The 
 speech of the Nuntius, which opens Act II, might be 
 suggested by the Agamemnon, though in Seneca a storm 
 is described, and here it is a battle. The dialogue 
 between Mordred and Conan in Scene ii on kingly 
 rights and duties is borrowed partly from that between 
 Seneca and Nero in the Octavia, partly from that between 
 Agamemnon and Pyrrhus in the Troas, with a few lines 
 fiom the Thyestes, the Hippohjtus, and the Thehais. In 
 Scene iii there are considerable extracts from the Hercules 
 Fureris, Oedipus, Thyestes, Thehais, and Hippolytus. In 
 Scene iv Hughes breaks away at last from his model, 
 but not entirely, and the Chorus which follows is 
 altogether in Seneca's vein. Arthur's speeches in 
 III. 1 are considerably indebted to the reflections 
 of Agamemnon in Troas 267-283, and it is not 
 until Scene iii that the author trusts entirely to his 
 own powers. Arthur's speech is full of pathos and force, 
 and the speeches that follow are also vigorous, though 
 
54 The InJJumce of Seneca 
 
 suffering from Seneca's fault of rhetorical exaggeration. 
 The last scene lias a few excerpts from Seneca, and so 
 lias the Chorus, but the latter is in the main origiual. 
 The rest of the play contains a number of borrowed lines, 
 but nothing like the proportion of the first two acts. The 
 best idea of the extent of the author's indebtedness to 
 Seneca will be gained from Appendix II, where it is set 
 ojit at length. 
 
 cictimeai Tra- ^\^q abovc traofcdles were all performed betore 
 
 ^'""^' restricted audiences, though they w^re afterwards given 
 
 to the world through the printing-press. Gorhoduc formed 
 part of the Christm-as Festivities of the Gentlemen of the 
 Inner Temple in 1561, and was acted by them on Janu- 
 ary 18th before the Queen at Whitehall ; a piratical issue 
 appeared in 1565, and an authorised edition in 1571. 
 Tancml and Gisimind was acted before the Queen at the 
 Inner Temple in 1568, and printed in 1591. The Mis- 
 fortunes of Arthur was " presented to her Majestie by 
 the Gentlemen of Grayes Inne, at her Highnesse Court 
 in Greenewich, the twenty eighth day of Februarie in 
 the thirtieth yeare of her Majesties most happy 
 Raigne ;" it was printed in the same year (1587-8). 
 These three plays, together with Gascoigne's Jocastcij 
 are the earliest known examples of classical tragedy 
 ill the English language. As such, they have an 
 interest of their own ; but they are chiefly of im- 
 portance because of the influence they exercised upon 
 plays intended for the popular stage. Later examples 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy. 65 
 
 of classical tragedy did not exercise this influence, 
 and may be dealt with very briefly. Mr. Symonds has 
 shown^ that the example of Seneca moulded the Alaham 
 and Mustapha of Fnlke Greville, Lord Brooke, printed in 
 1633, but Tvritten much earlier. It would be easy to 
 enlarge on the indebtedness of these tragedies to Seneca; 
 but they may be dismissed with the remark of Mr. 
 Symonds that " they had no influence over the develope- 
 ment of the English drama, and must be regarded in the 
 light of ponderous literary studies." This is also true of 
 the four Blonarchic'ke Tragedies of William Alexander, Earl 
 of Stirling (printed 1603-5). In tho plays of both these 
 noblemen we have long passages of meditation varied by 
 philosophic choruses and dialogues of stichomythia. 
 Seneca's influence is also paramount in the Cleopatra 
 (1594) and Fhilotas (1605) of Samuel Daniel — works of 
 much greater literary value than the preceding, for Daniel 
 has, to use the words of Mr. Saintsbury,^ an " almost 
 unsurpassed faculty of ethical verse;" But Cleopatra 
 and Fhilotas •' stand practically alone "^ in the English 
 drama as studies after the manner of the French 
 school of Seneca, and though interesting as a literary 
 curiosity, they are of no great importance either on the 
 ground of their intrinsic literary merits, or the influence 
 they exercised. 
 
 1 Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 222. 
 
 2 la a Preliminary Note on the Position of Daniel's Tragedies in 
 English Literature, in Vol. III. of Grosart's Edition of Daniel. 
 
 3 Kyd's Cornelia (as Mr. Saintsbury points out) and the Countess 
 of Pembroke's Antony were merely translations. 
 
56 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 ^^^ajj."^"^*"" The iiicain stream of English tragedy was flowing in 
 
 quite other channels. Seneca's influence was felt, but 
 the chief motive was to please a popular audience, which 
 made complete submission to Seneca's authority imposs- 
 ible. The combination of the two impulses was difficult, 
 and at first the connection between the classical and the 
 popular drama was very slight. The '• lamentable tragedy" 
 
 carnbi/sai. of Cambyses,^ probably contemporary with Gorboduc, shews 
 few marks of classical influence; it is " mixed full of^ 
 pleasant mirth," and has much in common with the 
 moralities ; but there is a curious prologue appealing 
 to the authority of Agathon and Seneca : — 
 
 The sage and witty Seneca 
 
 His words thereto did frame ; 
 The honest exercise of kings 
 
 Men will ensue. the same. 
 But contrary-wise, if that a king 
 
 Abuse his kingly seat, 
 His ignomy and bitter shame 
 
 In fine shall be more great. 
 
 The reference seems to be to Thyestes 213-7 : — 
 
 rex uelit honesta : nemo non eadcm uolet. 
 
 ubi non est pudor, 
 
 nee cura iuris, sanctitas pietas fides . 
 instabile regnum est. 
 
 ^ One cannot say positively that Camhysss was written for the 
 popular stage; but in spite of the fact that the author, Thomas Preston, 
 was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, and acted at the University 
 • before Queen Elizabeth, I am inclined to believe that, like Appius 
 and Virginia, it was performed on the " scaffold" of the miracle plays ; 
 on the title page there is no mention of its being acted on any special 
 occasion, as in the case of the early tragedies mentioned above. 
 
on EUzahetlum Tragedij. 
 
 67 
 
 Damon and Pithias (pr. 1571) also contains much that is ^'PXa* ""'^ 
 aUen to Seneca; it is a "tragical comedy" and the humours 
 of Grim the CoUier are neither tragic nor classical ; but in 
 the serious part of the drama there is an attempt — not a 
 verv successful one — to imitate the manner of Seneca. 
 The scene between Dionysius and Eubulus is pretty 
 closely modelled on that between Nero and Seneca in the 
 Octal- la, e.g. : — 
 
 Dio\. A mild prince the people despiseth. 
 
 EuB. A cruel king the people hateth. 
 
 Dion. Let them hate mo, so they fear me. 
 
 EuB. That is not the way to live in safety^ 
 
 Dion. My sword and my power shall purchase my quietness. 
 
 EuB. That is sooner procured by mercy and gentleness. 
 
 Dion. Dionysius ought to be feared. 
 
 EuB. Better for him to be well beloved. 
 
 Nero, calcat iacentem uuljjus. 
 
 Sen. inuisum opprimit. 
 
 Nero, ferrum tuetur principem. 
 
 Sen. melius fides. 
 
 Nero, decet timeri Caesarem. 
 
 Sen. at plus diligi. 
 
 (Ociavia 467-9.) 
 
 And again : — 
 
 Dion. Fortune maketh all things subject to my power. ' 
 
 EuB. Believe her not, she is a light goddess ; she can 
 laugh and low'r. 
 
 Nero, fortuna nostra cuncta permittit mihi. , 
 Sen. crede obsequenti parcius. leuis est dea. 
 
 (Ocfavia 463-4.) 
 
58 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 ''rmSr^ T/i^ Simnish Tragedy (pr. 1599, acted probably about 
 
 1588) is important from its popularity and its typical 
 •character. Some of the points of contact with Seneca 
 have been noticed already ; we have also quotations and 
 jiranslations from Seneca of no great moment/ The 
 chief significance of the play lies in its developement of the 
 bloody horrors detailed by the Ghost at the end of the 
 ^action : — 
 
 Ay, now my hopes have end in their effects, 
 When blood and sorrow finish my desires : 
 Horatio murder'd in his father's bower ; 
 Vild Serberine by Pedringano slain; 
 False Pod ringano hang'd by quaint device ; 
 Fair Isabella by herself misdone ; 
 Prince Balthazar by Bell'-Imperi-a stabb'd ; 
 The Duke of Castile and his ,\vicked son 
 Both done to death by old Hieronimo. 
 My Bell'-Imperia fall'n, as Dido fell : 
 And good Hieronimo slain by himself. 
 
 But, in spite of all this bloodshed, the distinctive 
 features of Seneca's mode of treatment are wanting. 
 
 MARLOWE. It was Marlowe's^ self-appointed task to win the 
 
 popular ear 
 
 From jigging veins of rhyming mother wits, 
 And such conceits as clownage keeps in pay 
 
 to the '* high astounding terms " of the stately classical 
 drama. In making the change — one of tremendous 
 
 1 See Appendix I. 
 
on EUzahaihan Tragedy ^ 59 
 
 importance for the English drama — he would naturally 
 select those features of classical tragedy which would 
 appeal most readily to popular favour. Seneca's bombast 
 and violence the multitude could understand ; but they 
 would not submit to his philosophical disquisitions. 
 Accordingly we find in Marlowe few of the sage 
 reflections with which Seneca adorned his plays ; 
 but we have all Seneca's horror of incident and ex- 
 aggeration of expression. What Ulrici says of 
 Marlowe accurately describes Seneca's tragic style : 
 " In his hand, the forcible becomes the forced, 
 the uncommon the unnatural, whereas the grand and 
 sublime degenerate into the grotesque and monstrous. 
 
 the tragic element almost invariably degenerates 
 
 into the horrible ; with him the essence of tragedy does 
 not consist in the fall of the truly noble, great and lovely, 
 as occasioned by their own weakness, one-sideness and 
 want of freedom, but in the annihilating conflict of the 
 primary elements of human nature, the blind struggle 
 between the most vehement/ emotions and passions."^ 
 Ulrici may be deemed a prejudiced critic ; but Mr. J. A. 
 Symonds will assuredly not be accused of any lack of 
 appreciation. He says of Tamhurlaine : " Blood flows in 
 rivers. Shrieks and groans and curses mingle with 
 heaven-defying menaces and ranting vaunts. The 
 action is one tissue of violence and horror." Mr. 
 Symonds modifies this unfavourable judgement with the 
 remark that "Marlowe has succeeded in saving his hero, 
 
 1 Shakspeare's Drmnatic Art, translated by L. Dora Schmitjs 
 (1876), I. 152. 
 
60 The Injliience of Seneca 
 
 amid all Lis ' limes,' from caricature, by the inbreathed 
 spirituality with which he sustains liis madness at 
 its height ; " and what is true to some extent of Marlowe's 
 bombast is still more true of his use of the horrible. 
 Where Seneca would be simply disgusting, Marlowe 
 reaches the topmost height of tragic power ; in Edward II, 
 V. 5, for instance, as Dr. Ward remarks, "the unutterable 
 horror of the situation is depicted without our sense of 
 the loathsome being aroused." Marlowe, indeed, 
 was immeasureably superior to Seneca, both as a poet 
 and a dramatist, and in his hands the very crudities and 
 faults of the tragic model of his age were transformed by 
 the transcendant power of genius till they often become 
 sublime and beautiful. Even where, as in the bombast 
 of Tamhiirlaine, the defect is only hidden, not removed, 
 by the genuine poetic spirit inbreathed into the whole, 
 the error was of such a character as rather to commend 
 itself than otherwise to the audience of that day, with its 
 lust for violence and horror ; and Seneca may fairly claim 
 some portion of the fame which Tamhiuiaine has won as 
 " a dramatic poem which intoxicated the audience of the 
 London play-houses with indescribable delight, and which 
 inaugurated a new epoch"^ in the history of the English 
 drama. 
 
 PEELS. Dr. Ward observes that Peele's Battle of Alcazar 
 
 " naturally suggests a comparison with Tamhwiaine, which 
 it resembles in the extravagance of expression — indeed 
 
 Shakspere's Predecessors, p. 628. 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedij, 61 
 
 the rant— with which it abounds ; " and it is perhaps 
 rather to the influence of Marlowe than of Seneca that 
 we should ascribe the resemblances to the style of the 
 Roman tragedies to be found in Peele. It should be 
 noted, however, that in the prologue to The Arraignment 
 of Far is (pr. 1684), we have already a specimen of that 
 grandiloquent blank verse with which Tamhiuiaine (pr. 
 1590, acted before 1587) caught the popular ear : — 
 
 Condemned soul, Ate, from lowest hell, 
 And deadly rivers of th' infernal Jove, 
 Where bloodless ghosts in pains of endless date 
 Fill ruthless ears with never-ceasing cries, 
 Behold, I come. 
 
 Peele is excessively fond of the infernal machinery 
 which Seneca so often brought into play, and in The 
 Battle of Alcazar he uses it again and again, without any 
 regard to its appropiateness. Take for instance the last 
 speech of the Moor : — 
 
 Mount me I will : 
 
 But may I never pass the river, till I be 
 Reveng d upon thy soul, accursed Abdelmelec ! 
 If not on earth, yet when we meet in hell, 
 Before grim Minos, Rhadamauth, and Aeacus, 
 The combat will I crave upon thy ghost. 
 And drag thee thorough the loathsome pools 
 Of Lethes, Styx, and fiery Phlegethon. 
 
 In this play Peele carried Marlowe's bombast beyond 
 incoherence into positive nonsense, as in Act I. 2: — 
 
62 The Injluerwe of Seneca 
 
 The Moor. Away, and let me hear no more of this. 
 "Why, boy, 
 
 Are we successors to the great Abdallas 
 Descended from th' Arabian Muly Xarif, 
 And shall we be afraid of Bassas and of bugs, 
 Raivhead and Bloodyhone 1 ^ 
 
 Peele has Seneca's gruesomeness without Marlowe's 
 delicacy of treatment. In David and Bethsahc Joab thus 
 dehvers himself as to the dead Absalom: — 
 
 Night-ravens and owls shall ring his fatal knell, 
 And sit exclaiming on his damned soul ; 
 There shall they heap their preys of carrion, 
 Till all his grave be clad with stinking bones, 
 That it may loathe the sense of every man. 
 
 Peele 's imitation of Seneca's dialogue has been 
 already noted. ^ 
 
 GREENE. Greene^ imitated Marlowe's bombastic style, not 
 
 very successfully, in Alphonsus, King of Arragou ; but 
 violence and extravagance of diction were alien to the 
 spirit of his muse, for of all the predecessors of Shakspere 
 he had the lightest touch and the freshest fancy, bringing 
 out with ease and naturalness the humour and pathos 
 that lie in simple folk and ordinary situations. What he 
 
 1 In this and the preceding quotation I have adopted the reading 
 of Mr. A. H. Bullen's edition. 
 
 2 See p. 21. 
 
 3 Greene took the title and the text of his prose tract, Never too 
 Late, from Agamemnon 244 : — ■ 
 
 Nam sera nunquam est ad bonos mores uia. 
 
on Elizaheth-an Tragedy. 63 
 
 did borrow of Seneca was not to his advantage. The 
 unseasonable employment of Latin mythology, which 
 Mr. Symonds notes as Greene's main stylistic defect, 
 should probably be laid to the joint account of Seneca 
 and Ovid ; Hercules especially is introduced with painful 
 frequency. The same fault is to be vseen in The First 
 Part of the Tragicall Raigne of King Selimus fpr. 1594), ^'^sseiimus. 
 which Dr. Grosart includes in his edition of Greene's 
 Works. If this play is rightly ascribed to Greene, it has 
 an interest apart from its intrinsic merits. It bears too 
 plainly the stamp of Tamburlaine not to have been written 
 after that epoch-making drama, but the frequency of 
 rhymed lines and other marks of style would fix it as one 
 of Greene's earlier plays. It contains some of the curious 
 similes after Lyly's manner which form one of the most 
 striking characteristics of Greene's earlier prose style, and 
 are also to be found, though to a very much less extent, in 
 his tragedies.^ In Sdimus we have the " subtill "Crocodile, 
 the Phoenix, the Echinaeis, the " craftie " Polypus, the 
 Ibis, the Basilisk, and the Cockatrice. All these curious 
 creatures are to be found in Greene's prose works or 
 tragedies, the Echinaeis being identified by Grosart with 
 the Echinus of Alphonsus. If we may take it as estab- 
 lished that this is an early play of Greene's, we have the 
 interesting fact that Seneca exerted considerable influence 
 upon his style in the early part of his career. An exami- 
 nation of Selimus sho^vs that the author was greatly 
 influenced by Seneca. The play opens wdth reflections 
 
 1 e. ff. Alphonsus (Grosart) Vol. xiii., p. 343, lines 308-19 ; p. 355 
 11. 618-20. 
 
64 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 on the cares and uncertainty of empire quite in the style 
 of the Eoman dramatist and philosopher. The descrip- 
 tion of the golden age may be paralleled by Hippohjtus 
 533-557 ; and the sceptical reasoning that follows by 
 Troas 380-417. Then we have Sisyphus, Ixion, and 
 "the cave of damned ghoasts" with which Seneca has 
 made us familiar, and later on we are confronted by " all 
 the damued monsters of black hell." Seneca's dialogue 
 is successfully imitated, and sometimes not only the 
 style, but the matter also is borrowed : — 
 
 Aga. Do you not feare the people's aduerse fame ? 
 Acq. It is the greatest glorio of a king 
 
 When, though his subjects hate his wicked deeds, 
 
 Yet are they forst to beare them all with praise. 
 Aga. Whom feare constraines to praise their princes deeds, 
 
 That feare, eternall hatred in them feeds. 
 Ago. He knowes not how to sway the kingly mace, 
 
 That loues to be great in his peoples grace : 
 
 The surest ground for kings to build vpon, 
 
 Is to be fear'd and curst of eueiy one. 
 
 What, though the world of nations me hate '? 
 
 Hate is peculiar to a princes state. 
 Aga. Where ther's no shame, no care of holy law, 
 
 No faith, no iustice, no integritie, 
 
 That state is full of mutabilitie. 
 Ago. Bare faith, pure vertue, poore integritie, 
 
 Are ornaments fit for a priuate man ; 
 
 Beseemes a prince for to do all he can. 
 
 Compare with this Thijestes 204-218 : — 
 
 Sat. fama te populi nihil 
 
 aduersa terret ? 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy, 65 
 
 Atr. maximum hoc regni bonum ost, 
 
 quod facta domini cogitur populus sui 
 
 quam ferre tam laudare. 
 Sat. quos cogit metus 
 
 laudare, eosdem reddit inimicos motus. 
 
 at qui fauoris gloriam ueri petit, 
 
 animo magis quam uoce laudari uolet. * 
 Atr. laus uera et humili saepe contingit uiro, 
 
 non nisi potenti falsa, quod nolunt, uelint. 
 Sat. rex uelit honesta : rxemo non eadem uolet. 
 Ate. vbicuraque tantum honesta dominanti licent, 
 
 precario regnatur. 
 Sat. ubi non e^t pudor, 
 
 nee eura iuris, sanctitaa pietas fides : 
 
 instabile regnum est. 
 Atr. sanctitas pietas fides 
 
 priuata bona sunt, qua iuuat reges eant. 
 
 Lines 1165-8 (p. 239) may be compared with Her- 
 cules Oetaeus 143-6, and 1354-5 (p. 246) with Hercules 
 Furens 517. The praises of a country Hfo on p. 270 may 
 have been suggested by Hercxdes Furens 160-4. Some of 
 the situations may also have been suggested by Seneca, 
 but this is more doubt fuL The young Mahomet, hke 
 Astyanax in the Troas, is cast down from an " ayrie 
 toure," but with this additional horror, that a '* groue of 
 steele-head speares " is prepared for his reception. In 
 spite of this refinement of cruelty, the youth meets death 
 with no less hardihood than the son of Hector : — 
 
 Thou shalt not fear me, Acomat, with death, 
 Kor will I beg my pardon at thy hands. 
 But as thou giu'st me such a monstrous death, 
 So do I freely leaue to thee my curse. 
 
66 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 The princess Solyma is equally brave ; slie prays to 
 be slain before her husband Mustaffa, that she may not 
 see his death ; Amphitryon in the Hercules Fwens asks a 
 like boon from Lycus with respect to Megara and her 
 children. 
 
 SHAKSPBRE. Shakspere uudoubtedly fell under the influence 
 both of the rhetorical drama of which Marlowe was the 
 fatherland master, and of the " tragedy of blood " which 
 is perhaps better represented by Kyd's Spanish Tragedy ; 
 but whether SLakspere was directly indebted to Seneca 
 . is a question as difficult as it is interesting. As English 
 tragedy advance s , there grows up an accumulation of 
 Seneca influence within the English drama in addition 
 to the original source, and it becomes increasingly difficult 
 to distinguish between the direct and the indirect in- 
 fluence of Seneca. In no case is the difficulty greater 
 than in that of Shakspere. Of Marlowe, Jonson, Chap- 
 man, Marston, and Massinger we can say with certainty 
 that they read Seneca, and reproduced their reading in 
 their tragedies ; of Middleton and Heywood we can say 
 with almost equal certainty that they give no sign of 
 direct indebtedness to Seneca, and that they probably 
 came only under the indirect influence through the imita- 
 tions of theii* predecessors and contemporaries. In the 
 case of Shakspere we cannot be absolutely certain 
 either way. Professor Baynes thinks that it is probable 
 that Shakspere read Seneca at school ; and even if he 
 did not, we may be sure that at some period of his 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 67 
 
 career be would turn to the generally accepted model 
 of classical tragedy, either in the original or in the 
 translation. The decision must, however, rest upon the 
 internal evidence contained in the plays themselves, and 
 while I look upon this as pointing very plainly to an ^ 
 almost certain conclusion, it can hardly be said to amount j 
 to absolute proof. A number of instances have be'^n 
 already quoted in which Shakspere might have been 
 influenced by the example of Seneca ; and others will be 
 given ; but it cannot be said that in any one case the 
 resemblance is absolutely convincing. The evidence 
 must be taken in its ciunulative force, and tbat must be 
 my excuse if I have quoted some parallels that are not 
 very obvious. Another scrap of evidence is to be found 
 in Shakspere's mythology. It might seem absurd to Mythology. 
 attach any importance to the fact that Hercules, Seneca's 
 favourite hero, is mentioned by Shakspere about fifty 
 times ; but it is at any rate not without significance when 
 an obscure character such as Lichas is referred to at the 
 same timo, as in The, Merchant of Venice, TI. 1 and Antony 
 and Cleopatra, IV. 12. The latter passage is perhaps 
 worth quoting : — ■ 
 
 The shirt of Nossus is upon me : Teach me, 
 Alcides, thou mine ancestor, thy rage : 
 Let me lodge Lichas on the horns o' the moon ; 
 And with those hands, that grasp'd the heaviest club, 
 Subdue my worthiest self. 
 
 At first sight it seems more than likely that this is 
 from Seneca ; but it might also come from Ovid, 
 
68 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Whether Shalispere used the translation of 1581 is 
 a further problem, depending on the solution of the first 
 A passage in King John, III. 4 : — 
 
 A sceptre snatch'd with an unruly hand 
 Must be as boisterously maintain'd as gain'd ; 
 And he that stands upon a slippery place 
 Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up. 
 
 is not unlike Hercules Furens 345-9 : — 
 
 rapta sed trepida manu 
 sceptra optinentur. omnis in ferro est salus. 
 quod ciuibus tenere te inuitis scias, 
 strictus tuetur ensis. alieno in loco 
 haut stabile regnum est. 
 
 If the reader decides that the resemblance is so close 
 as to imply direct connection, the conclusion may be drawn 
 that Shakspere usedthe original, and not the translation, 
 which gives quite a different rendering of the text : — 
 
 — but got with fearful hand 
 My sceptors are obtaynd : in sword doth all my safety stand. 
 What thee thou wotst agaynst the will of cytesyns to get, 
 The bright drawne sword must it defend : in forrayne countrey set 
 No stable kingdome is. 
 
 The Shaksperean "maintain " is more correct than 
 tlie professed translation ; Pierrot shows that optinentur =: 
 retinentiir, seruantur. The Shaksperean version of trepida 
 manu is more doubtful, but it is supported by some 
 authorities. Pierrot quotes a paraphrase which runs, 
 
on Etizahethan Tragedy, 
 
 69 
 
 (( 
 
 Qui genus iactat suum, aliena, laudat ; at qui sceptrum 
 rapuit, ei laborandum et uigilaiidum est, ut ui partum ui 
 retineat." 
 
 The problem of Shaksperc's relation to Seneca is 
 further complicated by questions of authorship. If we 
 could accept Tihis Amlronicus as written wholly 
 by Shakspere, all difficulty would be at an end, 
 for the Latin quotations from Seneca^ set every 
 doubt at rest. Even without this direct testimony, 
 the internal evidence is sufficiently striking. The subject 
 and stylo of the tragedy are thoroughly Senecan. It is 
 made up of 
 
 murders, rapes, and massacres, 
 Acts of black night, abominable deeds, 
 Complots of mischief, treason, villanics. (V. 1) 
 
 Andronicut. 
 
 / 
 
 No detail of physical horror is spared ; from begin- 
 ning to end the stage reeks with blood, and the characters 
 vie with one another in barbarity. Even the gentle 
 Lavinia helps to prepare the Thyestean banquet; and 
 Titus and his sons are no less eager for revenge, and no 
 less cruel in its execution, than Tamora and Aaron. The 
 style exaggerates even these heaped-up horrors, and the 
 passions are often strained to artificiality. The descrip- 
 tions of rural life and scenery, which relieve the sanguinary 
 picture to some extent, are not strange to Seneca. The 
 
 1 See Appendix I. 
 
70 The Injluence of Seneca 
 
 hunting scene (II. 2) might be suggested by the opening^ 
 of the Hippohjtusj and the hnes in II. 3 : — 
 
 The birds chant melody on every bush ; 
 The snake lies rolled in the cheerful sun ; 
 The green leaves quiver with the cooling wind, 
 
 may be compared with Hippohjtus 51b'-8: — • 
 
 hie aues querulae freriiunt 
 ramique uentis lene percussi tremunt 
 ueteresque fagi. 
 
 The description of the '' barren detested vale," the 
 scene of the murder of Bassianus and the rape of Lavinia, 
 reminds us of the place where Atreus sacrificed his 
 nephews. Thyestes 650-5 : — 
 
 arcana in imo regia recessu patet, 
 alta uetustum ualle conpescens nemus, 
 penetrale regni, nulla qua laetos solet 
 praebere ramos arbos aut ferro coli, 
 sed taxus et cupressus et nigra ilice 
 obscura nutat silua. 
 
 The trees, though summer, yet forlorn and lean, 
 O'ercorae with moss and baleful mistletoe : 
 Here never shines the sun ; here nothing breeds, 
 Unless the nightly owl or fatal raven. 
 
 For the last touch in this dark picture see Hercules 
 Furens 690-2 :— 
 
 palus inertis foeda Cocyti iacet. 
 hie uultur illic luctifer bubo gemit 
 omenque tristis resonat infaustae strigis. 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedy. 71 
 
 They told me, here, at dead time of the night, 
 A thousand fiends, a thousand hissing snakes, 
 Ten thousand swelling toads, as many urchins, 
 Would make such fearful and confused cries, 
 As any mortal body heaving it 
 Should straight fall mad, or else die suddenly. 
 
 So Thijestes G68-673 :— 
 
 hie nocte tota gemere fcralis deos 
 fama est, catenis lucus excussis sonat 
 ululantque manes, quicquid audire est metus, 
 illic uidetur : errat antiquis uetus 
 emissa bustis turba et insultant loco 
 maiora notis monstra. 
 
 Among minor dramatic devices used by Seneca we 
 may note Lavinia's plea for death, and Quintus and 
 Martius's presentiment of coming destruction (II. 3), 
 Seneca's reflective tendency is strongly marked in this 
 play, and we have a number of " brief sententious pre- 
 cepts" like those with which Seneca adorned his 
 gruesome themes. Tamora's plep, (I. 1) : — 
 
 Andronicus, stain not thy tomb with blood. 
 Wilt thou draw near the nature of the gods ? 
 Draw near them then in being merciful : 
 Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. 
 
 may be compared with the considerations urged by 
 Agamemnon on a like occasion, when Pyrrhus sought 
 to appease his father's ghost by the sacrifice of Polyxena. 
 Compare also the passage (I. 1) ; — 
 
 i- 
 
72 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 In peace and honour rest you here, my sons ; 
 
 Rome's readiest champions, repose you here in rest, 
 
 Secure from wordly chances and mishaps ! 
 
 Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells. 
 
 Here grow no damned drugs ; ^ here are no storms, 
 
 No noise, but silence and eternal sleep : 
 
 In peace and honour rest you here, my sons ! 
 
 with the Chorus m the Troas 151-6, 166-8 :— 
 
 FELIX PRIAMUS dicitc cunctae. 
 liber manes uadit ad imos 
 nee feret umquam 
 uincta Graium ceruice iugum. 
 non ille duos uidit Atridas 
 nee fallacem cernit Vlixem. 
 
 nunc elysii nemoris tutus 
 errat in umbris 
 interque pias felix animas 
 Hcctora quaerit. felix priamus. 
 
 It is remarkable that the passages which challenge 
 comparison with Seneca are the very ones in which we 
 should be readiest to recognize the hand of Shakspere. >/ 
 
 Henry vi Critical difficulties again confront us in the consider- 
 
 ation of the three parts of Hennj VI, and Richard III; but 
 the opinions of competent critics differ so widely that it 
 would be useless for me to enter into the discussion as to 
 the authorship of Henry VI, and the relation thereto of the 
 
 ^ I adhere, as elsewhere, to the text of The Camhridye Shaken, 
 peare ; " grudges " seems to me the better reading. 
 
and 
 
 on EUzahethcm Tragedy. 73 
 
 two parts of The Contention between, the two Famous Houses 
 of York and Lancaster. It would be equally unwise for me 
 to attempt to set at rest (he doubts recently raised by James 
 Russell LowelP as to the authorsliip of jR/c/iajY^ III ; Imohanim. 
 have nothing of importance to add to the evidence of 
 genninenesss, and what I have to say as to the connection 
 with Seneca would probably lead critics of different views 
 to different inferences. I am, however, concerned, not 
 with the conclusions that may be drawn, but with the fact 
 that Henry VI (especially Part iii) and Richard III have 
 much in common with Seneca. They are pervaded by 
 the ruthless spirit of violence and bloodshed, and abound 
 in the crude horrors of physical repulsiveness, such as 
 the bringing of Suffolk's mu tilated body on to the stage 
 (2 Henry VI, IV. 1), and the subsequent introduction of 
 Queen Margaret with the head in her hands (IV. 4). Iden 
 brings on the stage Cade's head {2 Henry VI, V. 1), and 
 Richard that of Somerset (3. 1. 1). All through The Third 
 Part of Henry VI, and Richard III, the slaughter is con- 
 tinuous, and accompanied by circumstances of great in- 
 hamanity, as witness the mock crowning of York before 
 his death, and the murders of Rutland and the young 
 Prince of Wales. The murder of the young princes in 
 Richard III is only narrated, and the executions in this 
 play generally take place off the stage, only Clarence 
 and Richard himself dying in sight of the audience ; 
 but the personages of the drama move in the same 
 atmosphere of blood, and Richard above all sustains 
 
 1 In an article in the Atlantic Monthly for December, 1891. 
 
74 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 to the full his character of fiendish cruelty. He has the 
 vindictiveness, the intellectual force, the undaunted spirit, 
 the ruthless cruelty, the absolute lack of moral feeling of 
 Seneca's Medea, coupled with the haughtmess of Eteocles, 
 and the bloody hyj)ocrisy of Atreus ; as with Seneca's 
 heroic criminals, his passions know no hounds — he is not 
 human, but praeternatural. And what is true, in its 
 fullest sense, of the " cacodaemon," Eichard, is true in a 
 less degree of the minor characters. Queen Margaret 
 and Clifford vie with Richard himself in merciless cruelty. 
 Edward, then Earl of March, says in 3 Hcnnj VI, I. 2 :^ 
 
 But for a kingdom any oath may be broken : 
 
 I would break a thousand oaths to reign one year. 
 
 just as Polynices, under similar circumstances, says in 
 111 eh a is 664 : — 
 
 imperia pretio quolibet constant bene. 
 
 The same exaggeration of expression is to be noted 
 in the next scene, where Clifford savs to Rutland : — • 
 
 Had I thy brethren here, their lives and thine 
 Were not revenge sufficient for me ; 
 No, if I digg'd up thy forefathers' graves, 
 And hung their rotten coffins up in chains, 
 It could not slake mine ire, nor case rny heart. 
 The sight of any of the house of York 
 Is as a fury to torment my soul ; 
 And till I root oat their accursed line 
 And leave not one alive, I live in hell. 
 
 Even the quiet Henry gives way to the prevailing 
 
&n Elizabethan Tragedy. 75 
 
 excaggeration of tone when he falls iu love, and expresses 
 his passion with the ardour of a Phaedra. 1 Henry F7, 
 V. 5 :— 
 
 Your wondrous rare description, noble earl, 
 Of beauteous Margaret hath astonish'd rae : 
 Her virtues graced with external gifts 
 Dq breed love's settled passions in my heart : 
 And like as rigour of tempestuous gasts 
 Provokes the mightiest hulk against the tide, 
 So am I driven by breath of her renown, 
 Either to suffer shipwreck or arrive 
 Where I may have fruition of her love. 
 
 'J his " wind and tifle" metaphor is a favourite cue 
 with hotli Seneca and Shakspere. In the two following 
 passages it is substantially the same. 3 Henry VI, II. 5 : 
 
 This battle fares like to the morning's war, 
 When dying clouds contend with growing light, 
 
 Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea 
 Forced by the tide to combat with the wind ; 
 Now sways it that way, like the selfsame sea 
 Forced to retire by fury of the wind : 
 Sometime the flood prevails, and then the wind ; 
 Now one the better, then another best ; 
 Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, 
 Yet neither conqueror nor conquered. 
 
 fluctibus uariis agor, 
 ut, cum hinc profundum uentus hinc aestua rapit, 
 incerta dubitat unda cui cedat malo. 
 
 (^Agamemnon 139-141.) 
 
76 The Injiuence of Seneca 
 
 In this case it seems worth while to subjoin Studley's 
 translation (pub. 1566) : — 
 
 As when here wynd, and their the streame when both their foi'ce 
 wil tiy, 
 
 From sandes alow doth hoyst and rears the seas with surges hye. 
 
 The waltring wane doth staggeryng stand not weting what to do, 
 
 But (houeryng) doubtes, whose furious force he best may yeld 
 him to. 
 
 Compare also 3 Hennj VI, II. 6 : — 
 
 As doth a sail, fiU'd with a fretting gust. 
 Command an ai-gosy to stem the waves. 
 
 with Hippolyt'us 186-9, and Tlujestes 438-9. 
 
 £ome of Seneca's leading ideas are repeatedly re- 
 produced in these plays. All the more important cha- 
 racters are tinged with Seneca's Stoical fatalism. His 
 " fatis agimur, cedite fatis" is exjoressed by King Edward 
 in 3 Henrij VI, IV. 3, with the metaphor just spoken of: 
 
 What fates impose, that men must needs abide ; 
 It boots not to resist both wind and tide. 
 
 So too Queen Margaret in 3 Hcnnj VI, Y. 4 : — 
 
 What cannot be avoided 
 'Twere childish weakness to lament or fear. 
 
 and Richard, in the course of a dialogue containing many 
 examples of Senecan stichomythia (Richard III, IV. 4), 
 says with all the impressive conciseness of the Roman 
 dramatist and philosopher — 
 
 All unavoided is the doom of destiny. 
 
on EUzahethan ^rageihj. 77 
 
 The cares and risks of high places and the benefits 
 of ohscurity are urged as frequently in these pLays as in 
 the tragedies of Seneca, and in much the same strain. 
 Queen Margaret's words in Richard III, I. 3 : — 
 
 They that stand high have many blasts to shake them. 
 
 may be compared with Hippohjtus 1136-1140, Agamemnon 
 57-9, and Oedipns 6-11. Henry resigns the crown, as he 
 says (3. IV. 6)— 
 
 that I may conquer fortune's spite 
 By living low, where fortune cannot hurt me. 
 
 Compare Hercules Furens 201-4, and Hercules Oetaeus 
 701-3. K much longer and more important passage — 
 too long for quotation — in 3 Henrij VI, II. 5, describing 
 the advantages of a shepherd's life over a king's, may be 
 compared with Hippohjtus 516-533, Thyestes 450-3, and 
 Hercules Oetaeus 647-661 ; and Henry's words on true 
 kingship (3. III. 1) remind us of Thyestes 388-390. 
 
 Another idea frequently put forward by Seneca and 
 by Shakspere is that of the presentiment of evil.^ We 
 have a fairly close parallel in Richard III, II. 3 : — 
 
 By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust 
 Ensuing dangers ; as, by proof, we sec 
 The waters swell before a boisterous storm. 
 
 ^'H^^^U^ 
 
 1 See Thyestes 417 490 and 946-973; Hercides Oetaeus 720-5. 
 We have the same idea in Romeo mid Juliet I. 4, ad fin. and III. 5 ; 
 and Richard II, II 2. 
 
78 The Infiumce of Seneca 
 
 2,i\diThjestesmiA\~ 
 
 mibtit luctus sigua futuri 
 mens ante sui presaga mali, 
 instat nautis fera temjDestas, 
 cum sine uento tranquilla tument. 
 
 To tliis may be added another commouplace of 
 morality which occurs more than once in each poet. 
 Richard III, IV. 2: — 
 
 Uncertain way of gain I But I am in 
 So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin. 
 
 Agamemnon 116 : — -. 
 
 per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter. 
 
 Theodor Vatke ^ has suggested a comparison between 
 the wooing of Lady Anne by Gloucester and that of 
 Megara by Lycus. In the same way we might seek a 
 parallel for the conjuration of the Spirit in 2 Hennj IT, 
 I. 4 in the raising of the shade of Laius ; and in the 
 same passage from the Oedipus we might endeavour to 
 discover a suggestion of the appearance of the ghosts in 
 Clarence's dream. But how wide is the galf between 
 the mythical figures of Seneca and the living spirits of 
 Shakspere; instead ot Zethus and Amphion, Niobe and 
 Agave, we have tl^e ghosts of those whom Clarence had 
 wronged, among them 
 
 A shadow like an anscei, with bright hair 
 
 »^') 
 
 Dabbled in blood ; and he squeak'd out aloud, 
 
 Jahrbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare GesellsclMft, IV. p. 64. 
 
mi Elizabethan Tragedy, 79 
 
 "Clarence is come ; false, fleeting, perjured Clarence, 
 That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury : 
 Seize on hiui, Euiies, take him to your torments ! " 
 
 The difference is so great — it is the world-wide 
 difference between art and artifice — that any sHght 
 resemblance is quite overshadowed by our sense of the 
 immeasureable superiority of Shakspere's picture. With 
 more justice, perhaps, we might compare the lament of 
 the Duchess of York {Richard III, 11. 2) :— 
 
 Alas, I am the mother of these moans ! 
 Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general. 
 She for an Edward weeps, and so do I 
 
 with that of Hecuba in Troas 1070-2 :— 
 
 quoscumque luctus fleueris, flebis meos. 
 
 sua quemque tantum, me omnium olades premit, 
 
 mihi cuncta pereunt, quisquis est Hecubae est miser. 
 
 (^ Hamlet marks the climax of the reflective tendency f«w.w. 
 
 ] in Shakspere and in the English drama, though coupled, 
 as in Seneca, with a full complement 
 
 Of carnal, bloody and unnatural acts. (V. 2.) ^ 
 
 Knight has observed that in the latter characteristic 
 Hamlet is connected with the school of Titus Andronicus ; 
 but whether this is due to an old Hamlet which was not 
 Shakspere's, or the earlier Hamlet which is referred to by 
 Nash was written by Shakspere at a time when he was 
 still under the influence of Senecan tragedy, is too large 
 a question to be discussed here. In its ultimate form 
 
80 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 the play still contains some slight reminiscences of Seneca, 
 though we shall look in vain for the " whole handfulls " 
 of tragical speeches sneered at by Nash as borrowed from 
 the Enghsh translation. In Klein's opinion the appear- 
 ance of the Ghost of Laius ni the Oedipus forms *' no 
 unworthy study " for the famous scene '^ on the platform 
 before the castle ; " but of Shakspere's ghost-scene there 
 is nothing to be found in Seneca beyond the very baldest 
 suggestion. With greater justice Mr. H. A. J. Munro ^ 
 says that 
 
 the dread of something after death. 
 The undiscover'd country from whose bourn 
 No traveller returns 
 
 has not a little in common with Hercules Furens 8GS 870 
 and Hercules Oetaeiis 152d-15Sl: — 
 
 sera nos illo referat senectus. 
 
 nemo ad id sero uenit unde numquam, 
 
 cum semel ucnit, potuit reuerti. 
 
 die ad aeternos properare manes 
 Herculem et regnum canis inquieti 
 unde non unquam remeauit ullus. 
 
 Indeed the whole of Hamlet's famous soliloquy may 
 be said to arise out of the question in Troas 380-1 : — 
 
 verum est, an timidos fabula decipit, 
 umbras corporibus uiuere conditio. 
 
 1 Journal of Philology, VI. p. 70, 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedij, 8l 
 
 Compare also IV. 3 
 
 Diseases desperate grown 
 By desperate appliance are relieved, 
 Or not at all. 
 
 with Aijanwniioii 153-5 : — ■ 
 
 Clyt. et ferrum et ignis saepa maiicinae loco est. 
 NvTR. extrema primo nemo temptauit loco. 
 Clyt. capienda rebus in raalis praocep'i uia est. 
 
 We Lave Seneca's notion of presentiment and his 
 Stoical fatahsm in V. 2 : — ^" if it be now, 'tis not to come ; 
 if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not now, yet 
 it will come : the readiness is all ; since no man has aught , ^ 'j "^Z 
 of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes ? " „^ ^ y\M^<f^^ 
 
 It is again the hand_of^ fatSj or rath^ the hand of 
 chance, that brings about the catastrophe, with its " acci- 
 dental judgements, casaal slaughters" and "purposes 
 mistook faU'n on the inventors' heads." 
 
 J As in Hamlet, the reflective element in Machdli arises MaAeh, 
 from no lack of desperate deeds. Fj-om the Murder 
 of Duncan, which is described with every detail of 
 horror, there is a continuous outpour of blood 
 until in the last scene the head of Macbeth is brought 
 on the stage. But in Macheth, as in Seneca, we have 
 a Jiorrible theme treated in such a way as to 
 gire frequent occasion for deep reflection. It should be 
 noted fLirth(^r that in Macheth Shakspere's reflective 
 
82 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 tendency is displa3'ed more after the manner of Seneca 
 tlmn in Hamlet. Hamlet's fondness for reflection is part 
 — a yerj^ important part — of his cliaracter. In Macbeth 
 the reflections are uttered not hy one character alone, 
 but by almost all ; and not in long soliloquies, but in 
 brief, pregnant sentences, quite after Seneca's manner^ 
 In some instances the ideas expressed bear considerable 
 similarity to those of Seneca. Thus I. 7 : — 
 
 We but teach 
 Bloody instructions, which being taught return 
 To plague the inventor : this even-handed justice 
 Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice 
 To our own lips, 
 
 quod quisque fecit, patitur. auctorem scelus 
 repetit suoque premitur exemplo nocens. 
 
 (Hercules Furens 739-740.) 
 
 IV. 3. : — Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak 
 Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break. 
 
 curae leues loquuntur ingentes stupent. 
 
 (Hippolytiis 615.) 
 
 Y. 3 : — I have lived long enough : my way of life 
 Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf, 
 And that which should accompany old age, 
 As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, 
 I must not look to have. 
 
 cur animam in ista luce detineam amplius 
 morerque nihil est. cuncta iam amisi bona : 
 mentem anna famam coniugem gnatos manus 
 etiara furorem. (Hercules Furens 1265-8.) 
 
on Elizahetkan Tnigedij. 83 
 
 Compare further the lines that follow 
 
 Caust thou not raiuister to a mind diseased 
 
 with the continuation of the passage in Hercules Furens : — 
 
 nemo polluto queat 
 animo mederi.^ 
 
 IV. 2 : — Things at the worst will cease^ or else climb upward 
 To what they wer-e before 
 
 with Thchais 198-9 :— 
 
 cuius haud ultra mala 
 exire possunt in loco tuto est situs. 
 
 and Oedipus 855 : — 
 
 tuto mouetur quicqurd extremo in loco est. 
 
 II. 4 : — Thou see'st, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
 Threaten his bloody stage : by the clock 'tis day 
 And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp : 
 Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
 That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
 Whon living light should kiss it 1 
 
 We have the same idea in Agamemnon 763-4 : — • 
 
 fugit lux alma et obscurat genas 
 nox alta et aether obditus tenebris latet. 
 
 and in the fourth Chorus of the TJnjestes. 
 
 Compare also the apostrophe to sleep in II. 2 with 
 
 1 The Doctor in Tivo Noble Kinsmen, IV. 3, says "I think she has 
 a perturbed minde, which I cannot minister to." 
 
84 The hfliicnce of Seneca 
 
 Hercules Fiirens 1071-1081, and note the splendid develope- 
 nient of the eulogy of the rest of the grave, already 
 remarked in Titns Androniciis ; — 
 
 Duncan is in his grave ; 
 After life's fitful fever he sleeps well ; 
 Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison, 
 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 
 Can touch him further. 
 
 Then we have II. 1 : — 
 
 Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood 
 Clean from my hand ? 
 
 quis eluet me Tanais ? aut quae barbaris 
 maeotis undis pontico incumbens mari ? 
 non ipse toto magnus oceano pater 
 tantum expiarit sceleris. (^Hi^^polytus 723-6). 
 
 quis Tanais aut quis Nilus aut quis persica 
 
 uiolentus unda Tigris aut Rhenus ferox 
 
 Tagusne hibera turbidus gaza Huens, 
 
 abluere dextram potei'it ? arctoum licet 
 
 Maeotis in me gelida transfundat mare 
 
 et tota Tethys per meas currat manus : 
 
 haerebit altum facihus. (Hercules Furens 1330-6.) 
 
 The last is a parallel which has attracted the attention 
 of many readers of Seneca and Shakspere^ and vv'as appar- 
 ently first placed on record hy Lessing in the Theatralische 
 Bihliothek (1754). It may be, too, that in this passage of 
 Seneca Shakspere found the suggestion of that blood- 
 
011 J^lizahethan Tragedy, 85 
 
 stained little hand which forms so impressive a feature 
 ill the famous sleep-walking scene. ^ 
 
 y^ King Lear is farther removed than Machetli from the King uar. 
 spirit of Senecan tragedy ; but, in addition to wholesale 
 slaughter and physical horrors such as the putting out of 
 Gloster's eyes, it contains some resemblances worth 
 noting. We have Seneca's hopeless fatalism, not only in 
 the catastrophe, but repeatedly brought forward in the 
 course of the play. Gloster in his blindness says 
 (IV. I) :- 
 
 As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods ; 
 They kill us for their sport. 
 
 Kent in IV. 3 : — 
 
 It is the stars, 
 The stars above us, govern our conditions-. 
 
 1 The idea was pi'obably suggested to Seneca by Aeschylus Choe'pUoroe 
 63-5, which is so corrupt in the sole authoritative MS. now extant that 
 only the general drift of the passage can be determined. Plumptre's 
 translation runs : — 
 
 and water streams, 
 Though all in common course 
 Should flow to cleanse the guilt 
 Of murder that the sin-stained hand defiles. 
 
 Would yet flow all in vain 
 
 That guilt to purify. 
 
 Paley in a note says " there can be no doubt that water is 
 
 'meant, the usual purification in murder." See also Sophocles Ajax 
 654-6, and the Scholiast's Note thereon, stating that it was the custom 
 of the ancients to cleanse the pollution of murder by washing the 
 hands. Cf. Ovid Fasti II. 45-6 :— 
 
 Ah nimium faciles, qui tristia crimina caedis 
 Fluminea tolli posse putetis aqua. 
 
86 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 and Edgar in V. 2 : — 
 
 Men must endure 
 Their going hence, even as their coming liither : 
 Ripeness is all. 
 
 7 
 
 Compare also III. 6 : — 
 
 When we our betters see bearing our woes, 
 We scarcely think our miseries our foes. 
 W^ho alone sutlers, suffers most i' the mind ; 
 Leaving free things, and happy shows, behmd : 
 But then the mind much suffering doth o'er-skip, 
 When grief hath mates, and bearing fellowship. 
 
 with Troas 1019-1035 ; and IV. 1 :— 
 
 To be worst, 
 The lowest and most dejected thing of fortune, 
 Stands still in esperance, lives not in fear : 
 The lamentable change is from the best, 
 The worst returns to laughter. 
 
 with Thehais 198-9 and Oedq)as 855 ah'eady quoted/ Also 
 IV. 6:— 
 
 Better I were distract : 
 So should my thoughts be sover'd from my griefs ; 
 And woes, by wrong imaginations lose 
 The knowledge of themselves. 
 
 uel sit potius 
 
 mens uaesano concita motu. 
 
 solus te iam praestare potest 
 
 furor insonttem. proxima puris 
 
 sors est manibus nescire nefas. (Hercules Furens 1100-5.) 
 
 '" - - II ' — - ■■-—---— -- - - ■ ■ ■ . - - . . — ■-.-.■ . ■ 
 
 1 See p. 83. 
 
on 'Elizabethan Tragedy, 87 
 
 We tread again on doubtful ground in Edward III, ^'^"""''^ '^^ 
 although this fine play has been ascribed to Shakspere by 
 very good authorities.^ In any case, the following com- 
 parision is interesting. Act IV.4 : — 
 
 To die is all as common as to live ; 
 
 The one in choice, the other holds in chaee : 
 
 For, from the instant we begin to live, 
 
 We do pursue and hunt the time to die : 
 
 First bud we, then we blow, and after seed ; 
 
 Then, presently, we fall ; and, as a shade 
 
 Follows the body, so we follow death. 
 
 If then we hunt for death, why do we fear it? 
 
 If we do fear it, why do we follow it ? 
 
 If we do fear, with fear we do but aid 
 
 The thing we fear to seize on us the sooner : 
 
 If we fear not, then no resolved proffer 
 
 Can overthrow the limit of our fate : 
 
 For, whether ripe or rotten, drop we shall, 
 
 As we do draw the lottery of our doom. 
 
 omnia certo tramite uadunt 
 
 primusque dies dedit extremum. 
 
 non ilia deo uertisse licet 
 
 quae nexa suis currunt causis. 
 
 it cuique ratus prece non ulla 
 
 mobilis ordo. 
 
 multis ipsum timuisse nocet. 
 
 multi ad fatum uenere suum 
 
 dum fata timent. (Oedipus 1008-1016.) 
 
 Compare also V. 1 : — 
 
 For what the sword cuts down, or fire hath spoiled, 
 Is held in reputation none of ours. 
 
 1 See Dr. Ward's History of Dramatic literature, I. 456. 
 
88 The Inflimice of Seneca 
 
 with T/j('6r/w 559-5C2 :— 
 
 quin tuae causae nocel 
 ipsum hoc quod armis uertis infestis solum 
 segetesque adustas sternis et totos fugam 
 edis per agros : nemo sic uastat sua. 
 
 Ardenof In Anleii of Feversham, another pseiido-Shaksperean 
 
 tragedy, the following may be noted. Act ILL 5 : — 
 
 Well fares the man, howe'er his cates do taste, 
 That tables not with foul suspicion ; 
 And he but pines amongst his delicates, 
 Whose troubled mind is stuff d with discontent. 
 My golden time was when I had no gold ; 
 Though then I wanted, then I slept secure ; 
 My daily toil begat me night's repose, 
 My night's repose made daylight fresh to me : 
 But since I climb'd the top bough of the tree, 
 And sought to build my nest among the clouds, 
 E.xch gentle stirry gale doth shake my bed. 
 And makes me dread my downfall to the earth. 
 
 Compare Hippohjtus 1135-1140 : — 
 
 seruat placidos obscura quies 
 praebetque somnos casa securos. 
 admota aetheriis culmina sedibus 
 duros excipiunt notos 
 insani boreae minaij 
 imbriferumque corum. 
 
 Of other plays ascribed to Shakspere, Locriiu con- 
 tains many traces of Seneca, both in style and sentiment ; 
 but it is a play demanding no special attention, either on 
 account of its date (pr. 1595) or literary merits. 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy. 89 
 
 Ben Jonson is said by Theodor Vatke^ to have '^onson. 
 specially studied Seneca ; but no anthority is given for 
 the statement. A comparison between Jonson and Seneca 
 naturally suggests itself from the character of Jonson's 
 genius, and the comparison was made by his contempor- 
 aries, both m the commendatory verses prefixed to his 
 works, and in the elegies published after his death under 
 the title of Jonsoniiis Virbhis.'^ Seneca finds a place in 
 Jonson's famous lines " to the memory of my beloved 
 master, William Shakspeare," and his name is included 
 in Sir John Daw's miscellaneous list of classical poets 
 (E2)icoene^ II, 2); Jonson gives a number of references to 
 Seneca as notes to llic Masque of Queens, and in any case 
 he might be safely assumed to have had a close acquaint- 
 ance with Seneca, for Jonson was thoroughly versed in 
 classical liteiature, in which, at that period, Seneca held 
 a prominent place. I have been unable, however, to 
 find any statement by Jonson himself that he " specially 
 studied Senoca ; " indeed, to judge from the praises of 
 Sophocles and Euripides in the Discoveries, and the fact 
 that in the enumeration of Greek and Roman dramatists 
 in the lines to Shakspere the last place is given to " him 
 of Cordova dead" without any special mark of distinction, 
 Jonson was not eager to admit that he followed in the 
 ordinary track by -accepting as his model the Eoman 
 tragedies which were within easy reach even of those who 
 had "small Latin and less Greek." If this be so, Jonson 
 
 1 Jahrhuch der Deutsehen Shakespeare GesellscJiaft, Vol. IV. p. 64. 
 
 2 See Latin, lines " In Benjaniluum Jonsonum, poetam laureatum, 
 et dramaticorum sui seculi facile principem," and Owen F^lthain " To 
 the Memory of Immortal Ben," 
 
90 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 owed more to Seneca than he cared to acknowledge, for 
 it was upon Seneca, and not upon the Greek masters, 
 that Jonson modelled his tragic style. In the preface 
 to Sejanm he sums up " the offices of a tragic writer " 
 in the phrases *' truth of argument, dignity of persons, 
 gravity and height of elocution, fulness and frequency of 
 sentence " — the characteristics, not of Greek tragedy, hut 
 of Seneca. He apologises, moreover, for " the want of a 
 proper chorus" — a want which he supplied in C'aYi7m^, 
 and also in the sketch of The Fall of Mortimer, which re- 
 mained a fragment at his death. Jonson employed the 
 Chorus not after the manner of the Greek, but of the Ro- 
 man stage, a chorus closing each of the five acts. It is evi- 
 dent, too, that in Jonson'sOaf/'Z/m', as in Seneca's tragedies, 
 the Chorus left the stage during the performance of the 
 play, and were supposed to be ignorant of the course of 
 the action, for at the end of Act IV the Chorus profess 
 to be in doubt ^s to Catiline's designs, which could not 
 have been the case if they had been present when the 
 conspiracy was formed, as would be required by the rules 
 of Greek tragedy. Whalley says in a note to Catiline: 
 "Jonson, I think, does not appear to any great advantage 
 in the choruses to this play. My friend Mr. Sympson 
 is also of the same opinion : he says, the sentiments in 
 them are not sufficiently great, nor his measures at all 
 imitative of the ancients; that variety of numbers which 
 runs through all the Greek tragic poets, seems never once 
 to have been his aim. But I imagine Seneca, not 
 Sophocles or Aeschylus, was what he copied after, and 
 'tis then uo wonder that he succeeded no better," 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy. 91 
 
 Jonson owed to Seueca something more than the ex- 
 ternal form of his tragedies ; their style and spirit are 
 Koman, not Greek. In striving- to attain the." height of 
 elocution" at which he aimed, Jonson is sometimes guilty 
 of Seneca's rhetorical exaggeration of expression ; and to 
 this fault he occasionally adds Seneca's physical 
 crudities. The dismemherment of Sejanus is 
 described with a fulness of detail which can only 
 be compared with Seneca's account of the death of Hip- 
 poly tus ; and the speeches of Cethegus in Catiline offend 
 in both the ways mentioned, though in this case Jonson 
 justified himself to some extent by making exaggeration 
 and a lust for blood distinctive of the character. Be this 
 as it may, there is an echo of Seneca's style to be discerned 
 in passages like this :— . 
 
 It likes me bcttex", that you are not consul. 
 
 I would not go through open doors, but break 'em ', 
 
 Swim to my ends through blood ; or build a bridge 
 
 Of carcasses ; make on upon the heads 
 
 Of men, struck down like piles, to reach the lives 
 
 Of those remain and stand : then is't a prey, 
 
 When danger stc^s, and ruin makes the way. (III. 1). 
 
 In "fulness and frequency of sentence " Jouson 
 assuredly did not fail ; but he missed the perfect art of 
 Shakspere, who made his reflections arise naturally from 
 the situation or the cliaracter of the speaker. In Jouson, 
 as in Seneca, the " sentences " are introduced with only 
 too obvious design.. It should further be remarked that 
 Jonson's indebtedness to Seneca can be traced much 
 nidre clearly and convincingly than that of Shakspere. 
 
92 The Injlueuce of Seneca 
 
 , When Shakspcre takes a thonglit suggested by Seneca, it 
 is crvstallized in the alembic of his wonder -workin^r 
 imagination, and comes out so changed in form as to bear 
 but sHght traces of its origin, so that we are often in 
 doubt whether the thought is not entirely Shakspere's 
 own, and the resemblance to Seneca merely accidental ; 
 when Jonson borrows, he takes Seneca's crude ore, and 
 rarely troubles to melt it down and recast it. The fol- 
 sejanus. lowing parallels from Sejanus may serve as examples : — 
 
 1.2 : — Wrath cover'd carries fate : 
 
 Revenge, is lost, if T profess my hate. 
 
 ira quae tegitur nooet, 
 professa perdunt odia uindictae locum. {Medea 153-4.) 
 
 II. 2 — Tliy follies now shall taste what kind of man 
 
 They have provoked, and this thy father's house 
 
 Crack in the flame of my incensed rage, 
 
 Whose fury shall admit no shame or mean. *» 
 
 Adultery! it is the lightest ill 
 
 I will commit. A race of a\ icked acts 
 
 Shall flow out of my anger, and o'ersprcad 
 
 The world's wide face, which no posterity 
 
 Shall e'er approve, nor yet keep silent : things 
 
 That for their cunning, close, and cruel mark, 
 
 Thy father would wish his. 
 
 certetur omni scelere et alterna uice 
 stringantur eases, nee sit irarum modus 
 pudorue. 
 
 ••« *.. «•• •>• ••• »•• 
 
 effusus omnis inriget terras cruoi- 
 supraque magnos gentium exultet duces 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy, 93 
 
 libido uicirix. inipia stupruni iu domo 
 leuissimum sit. 
 
 age iiiiime £ac quod nulla posteritas probet, 
 
 sed nulla taceat. ali({uo(l audenduin est nefas 
 
 atrox cruentum tale quod frater meus 
 
 suum psse malit. (Thyestes 25-7, 44-7, 192-5.) 
 
 The clialogue whicli follows reproduces more or less 
 closely the tyrant's maxims given by Seneca iu the 
 Thijcsks, the Thehais, and the Octavia, One example will 
 suffice: — 
 
 Whom hatred frights, 
 Let him not dream of sovereignty. 
 
 regnare non uult esse qui inuisus timet. (T/ubais 654.) 
 
 And again in the same scene (II. 2) : — 
 
 All modesty is fond ; and chiefly where 
 The subject is no less compeli'd to bear 
 f Than praise his sovereign's acts. 
 
 maximum hoc regni bonum est, 
 quod facta domini cogitur populus sui 
 quam ferre tam laudare. (Thyestes 205-7.) 
 
 IV. 5 :— How easily 
 
 Do wretched men believe, what they would have ! 
 
 quod nimis miseri uolunt, 
 hoc facile credunt. (^Hercules Furens 317-8.) 
 
 In V. 1 Sejanus says : — 
 
 My roof receiACS me not ; 'tis air I tread ; 
 And, at each step, I feel my advanced head 
 Knock out a star in heaven. 
 
94 The Influence of Senci^ 
 
 So Atreus in TJnjestes 888-9 :— 
 
 aequalis astris gradior et cunctos super 
 altum superbo uertice attingens polum. 
 
 V. 10 : — For, whom the morning saw so great and high, 
 Thus low and little 'fore the even doth lie. 
 
 quern dies uidit ueniens superbum, 
 
 hunc dies uidit fugiens iacentem, (Thyestes 613 4.) 
 
 It ^'ill be noticed above tliat the Thyestes is more, 
 frequently laid under contribution than any other play ; 
 from the same tragedy Jonson borrowed the openmg of 
 Catiline. Catiluu, in which the Ghost of Sylhx plays the same part 
 as the Ghost of Tantalus in the Thijestes; and when the 
 oath of conspiracy is taken, " the day goes back" and 
 murmurings are heard from unseen speakers, "as at 
 Atreus' feast." Further parallel passages are as under ; 
 
 I.l : — Behold, 1 come, sent from the Stygian sound, 
 
 As a dire vapoilr that had cleft the ground, 
 To ingender with the night and blast the day ; 
 Or like a pestilence that should display 
 Infection through the world. 
 
 mittor ut dirus uapor 
 telkire rupta uel grauem populis luem 
 sparsura postis. {Thyestes 87-9.) 
 
 Nor let thy thought find any vacant time 
 To hate an old, but still a fresher crime 
 Drown the remembrance ; let not mischief cease,' 
 But while it is in punishing, increase : 
 Conscience and care die in thee; and be free 
 Not heaven itself from tiiy impiety ; 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedy. 95 
 
 Let night grow blacker with thy plots, and day, 
 
 At shewing but thy head forth, start away 
 
 From this half-sphere ; and leav^e Rome's blinded walls 
 
 To embrace lusts, hatreds, slaughters, funerals. 
 
 nee uacet cuiquam uetus 
 odisse crimen : semper oriatur nouum 
 nee unum in uno, dumque punitur scelus, 
 crescat. 
 
 ••• «•• >■• tit ■•* ••• ••• 
 
 f ratris et fas et fides 
 iusque omne pereat. non sit a uestris malis 
 immune caelum, cum micant stellae polo 
 seruantque flammae debitum mundo decun, 
 nox atra fiat, excidat caelo dies, 
 misce ponates odia caedes f unera 
 arccsse et imple scelere tantaleam domum. 
 
 (Thyestes 29-32, 47-52.) 
 
 III. 1 ; — Who would not fall with all the world about him 1 
 
 uitae est avidus quisquis nonuult 
 
 mundo secum pereunte mori. (Thyestes 886-7.) 
 
 III. 2 :— Is there a heaven and gods ? and can it be 
 They should so slowly hear, so slowly see ! 
 Hath Jove no thunder? 
 
 magne regnator deum, 
 tarn lentus audis scelera ? tam lentus uides ? 
 ecquando sixeua f ulmen emittes nlanu 
 si nunc serenum est ? {Hijjpolytiis, 679-682.) 
 
 III. 2 : — He that is void of fear, may soon be just. 
 
 iustum esse facile est cui uficat pectus metu. 
 
 {pckivia 453.) 
 
>/^~ 
 
 96 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 III. 3 :— He shall die. 
 
 Shall, was too slowly said ; he's dying : that 
 Is yet too slow ; he's dead. 
 
 si noui Herculem, 
 Lycus Creonti debitas poenas dabit. 
 lentura est dabit : dat. hoc quoque est lentum : dedit,^ 
 
 {Hercules Furens 655-7.) 
 
 CHAPMAN. Chapman, like Jonson, seems to have taken Senecan 
 
 tragedy as his model. In the dedicatory letter prefixed 
 to The Bevenge of Bussy D'Anihols, he says that ''material 
 instruction, elegant and sententious excitation to virtue 
 and deflection from her contrary" are " the soul, limhs, 
 and limits of an authentical tragedy." He is excessively 
 rhetorical, sometimes to the extent of homhast ; lie 
 has also Seneca's fault of prolixity ; and he has 
 many elahorate similes such as Seneca occasionally 
 indulged in. Some of these characteristics are no douht 
 largely accounted for by Chapman's extensive reading in 
 other classical authors, and it must be confessed that his 
 indebtedness to Seneca cannot be clearly proved to any 
 great extent. There are a considerable number of passages 
 suggesting a comparison with Seneca ; but only the fol- 
 lowing seem to me sufficiently convincing to be worthy 
 of record : — 
 
 Bijrons Conspiracy III. 1 : — • 
 
 La B. You bid me speak what fear bids me conceal. 
 Byr. You have no cause to fear, and therefore speak. 
 
 1 These lines have been parodied by Moliere in a fanioi's passage 
 of L'Avare, TV, 7 ; — " Je me meurs, je suis mort, je suis enterr^." 
 
on Elizaheihun Tragedy, 97 
 
 La B. You'll rather wish you had been ignorant, 
 Than be instructed in a thing so ill. 
 
 Byr. Ignorance is an idle salve for ill ; 
 
 And therefore do not urge rae to enforce 
 What I Avould freely know, for by the skill 
 Shown in thy aged hairs, I'll lay thy brain 
 Here scatter'd at my feet, and seek in that 
 What safely thou may'st utter with thy tongue 
 If thou deny it. 
 
 La B. Will you not allow me 
 
 To hold my peace ? What less can I desire 1 
 If not be pleased with my constrained speech. 
 
 Byr. Was ever man yet punished for expressing 
 
 What he was charged 1 Be free, and speak the worst. 
 
 It will bo found that all this is taken from Oedlpm 
 524-542, except the passage beginning " I'll lay thj 
 
 brain ," which is a piece of crude bombast worthy 
 
 of Seneca himself ; the same may be said of the speeches 
 of Byron which follow the above extract. 
 
 Byron's Conspiracy V. 1 : — - 
 
 D'auv. my lord, 
 
 This is too large a licence given you** fury ; 
 Give time to it ; what reason suddenly 
 Cannot extend, respite doth oft supply. 
 
 da tempus ac spatium tibi. 
 quod ratio nequit, saepe sanauit mora. 
 
 (^Agamemnon 130-1.) 
 
 Byron s Tragedy IV. 1 : — 
 
 Where medicines loathe, it irks men to be heaVd. 
 
 \ibi turpis est medicina, sanari piget. (Oedipus 530.) 
 
98 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Byron s Tragedy V. 1 : — 
 
 Why should I keep my soul in this dark light, 
 Whose black beams lighted me to lose myself ? 
 When I have lost my arms, my fame, my mind. 
 Friends, brother, hopes, fortunes, and even my fury. 
 
 cur animam in ista luce detinoam amplius 
 
 morerque nihil est. cuncta iam amisi bona : 
 
 mentem arma famani coniugem gnatos manus 
 
 etiam furorem. (^Hercules I\rens 12Q5-S.) 
 
 To the above evidence may be added Chapman's 
 liberal use of sanguinary horrors and ghosts (in Biissy 
 D'Amhois, The Bevenge of Bnssy D'Amhois, Alphonsus 
 Emperor of Germany, and Revenge for Honour), which must 
 be attributed, directly or indirectly, to the example of 
 Seneca, 
 
 VARSTox. Of all the Ehzabethan dramatists, Marston owed 
 
 the most to Seneca, and was the readiest to acknowledge 
 his indebtedness. He quotes Seneca, both in the 
 Latin^ and in translation, and from the prose works 
 as well as the tragedies. A quotation from the Thyestes 
 finds its way into the preface to The Faivn, and 
 in the same comedy we have a line from the Oedipus 
 The Maicmtent. (Mr. Bullen's cdition, II. p. 191). In The Malcontent, 
 which the author also calls a comedy, Bilioso, essaying 
 to give comfort to Pietro, says, " Marry, I remember one 
 Seneca, Lucius Annaeus Seneca — " and Pietro rephes, 
 
 3ee Appendix I, 
 
on Wizahethan Tragedy. 99 
 
 " Out upon him ! he writ of temperance and fortitude, 
 yet lived like a Yoluptuous epicure, and died like an 
 effeminate coward ; " again, in Act V. 2, Mendoza says 
 
 Black deed only through black deed safely flies. 
 
 and Malevole retorts 
 
 Pooh ! 2^er scelera semper sc'cleribus tutum est iter. 
 
 the quotation being from Agamemnon 116. Notwith- 
 standing these sneers, we have other quotations from 
 Seneca in the same play, both in Latin and English. 
 
 He that can bear with must, he cannot die 
 
 in IV. 1 is a translation of Megara's vaunt in Hercules 
 Furens 431, " cogi qui potest, nescit mori." From the 
 same source is taken much of Maria's opposition to the 
 suit of Mendoza. Megara says in Hercules Furens 
 423-5 :— 
 
 grauent catenae corpus et longa fame 
 mors protrahatur lenta. non uincet fidem 
 uis ulia nostram. moriar Alcide tua. 
 
 So Maria in V. 2 :— 
 
 my dear'st Altof ront ! where'er thou breathe, 
 Let my soul sink into the shades beneath, 
 Before I stain thine honour ! 'tis thou has't, 
 And long as I can die, I will live chaste. 
 
 and again in V. 3 : — • 
 
 Do, urge all torments, all afflictions try ; 
 I'll die my loi-ds as long as I can die. 
 
100 Tiir hiffiience of Seneca 
 
 In HerDuks Finrns 255-6: — 
 
 prosperum ac felix scelus 
 uirtus uocatur, 
 
 we have the original of V.2: — 
 
 Mischief that prospers, men do virtue call. 
 
 and the Hues that follow, 
 
 Who cannot bear with spite, he cannot rule. 
 • The chiefest secret for a man of state 
 
 Is, to live senseless of a strengthless hate, 
 
 come from TJiehais 654-6: — 
 
 regnare non uult esse qui inuisus timet, 
 simul ista mundi conditor posuit deus 
 odium atque regnum. 
 
 Antonio and Ifc is, however, in Marston's earlier tragedies, the two 
 
 Mdlida. ' . 
 
 ■^2iYi^ oi Antonio and Mdlida^ that we find the influence 
 of Seneca most plainly manifested, as the following par- 
 allels will show.^ In Part I: — 
 
 I, 1 : — "Tis horselike not for man to know his force. 
 
 inertis est nescire quid liceat sibi. (Octavia 465.) 
 
 Mell. How covetous thou art of novelties ! 
 Ross. Pish ! 'tis our nature to desire things 
 
 That are thought strangers to the common cut. 
 
 quisquis secundis rebus exultat nimis 
 fluitque luxu semper insolita appetit.^ 
 
 {Hippolytus 209-210.) 
 
 1 One noteworthy passage has already been given. See p. 24. 
 
 2 A slight variation from the Aldine reading. 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 101 
 
 III. 1 : — Fortune my fortunes, not my mind, shall shake. 
 
 fortuna opes auferre non animum potest. (Medea 176.) 
 
 Alas, survey your fortunes, look what's left 
 Of all your forces, and your utmost hopes : 
 A weak old man, a page, and your poor self. 
 
 en intuere turba quae simus super : 
 
 famulus^ puer captiua. (Troas 516-7.) 
 
 No matter whither, but from whence we fall. 
 
 magis unde cadas quam quo refert. {Thyestes 929.) 
 
 IV. 1 : — Give me water, boy. 
 
 There is no poison in' t, I hope ; they say 
 That lurks in massy plate. 
 
 uenenum in auro bibitur. {Thyestes 453.) 
 
 And. Fortune fears valour, presseth cowardice. 
 Luc. Then valour gets applause, when it hath place, 
 
 And means to blaze it. 
 AxD. Kunquam potest non esse. 
 
 Med. fortuna fortes metuit, ignauos premit. 
 
 NvTR. tunc est probanda si locum uirtus habet. 
 
 Med. numquam potest non esse uirtuti locus. (J/eofea 159-161.) 
 
 Ill Part II the borrowing from Seneca is not quite 
 so frequent, but it is still considerable in amount. Mr. 
 BuUen detects " an Attic flavour " in a passage of 
 stichomythia in II. 1, and is momentarily reminded of 
 Creon's altercation with his son in the Antigone; as ft 
 
 1 The Aldine reading is tumulus> 
 
102 The hijluence of Seneca 
 
 matter of fact, the dialogue is borrowed directly and 
 almost entirely from Seneca : — 
 
 Pier. 'Tis just that subjects act commands of kings. 
 Pand. Command then just and honourable things. 
 
 Nero iussisque nostris pareant. 
 
 Sen. iusta imjiera. (Octavia 471 ) 
 
 Pier. Where only honest deeds to kings are free, 
 It is no empire, but a beggary.'' 
 
 ubicumque tantum honesta dominanti'licent, 
 
 precario regnatur. [Thyestes 214-5.) 
 
 Pier. Tush, juiceless graybeard, 'tis immunity, 
 
 Proper to princes, that our state exacts ; 
 
 Our subjects not alone to bear, but jfraise our acts. 
 Pand. O, but that prince, that worthful praise aspires. 
 
 From hearts, and not from lips, applause desires. 
 Pier. Pish ! 
 
 True praise the boon of common men doth ring, 
 
 False only girts the temple of a king. 
 
 Atr. maximum hoc regni bonum est, 
 
 quod facta domini cogitur populus sui ^ 
 quam ferre tarn laudare. 
 
 Sat. at qui fauoiis gloriam ueri petit, 
 
 animo magis quam uoce laudari uolet. 
 Atr. laus uera et humili saepe contingit uiro, 
 
 non nisi potenti falsa. {Thyestes 205-7, and 209-212.) 
 
 Pandulfo's reply, 
 
 'Tis praise to do, not what we can, but should. 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedy, 103 
 
 is from Odavia 466 :— 
 
 id facere laus est quod decet, non quod licet. 
 
 The act closes witli a quotation from the AgamemnoHy^ 
 and the Thyestes is laid under contribution once more in 
 the next scene, which is thoroughly Senecan ia conception 
 and execution. When the Ghost of Andrea appears 
 again at the opening of A.ct V, he introduces himself 
 very appropriately by quoting two lines spoken by the 
 shade of Agrippina in the Octavia ; and the final scene is 
 taken from the Thyestes, not only in its main idea, but iii 
 the very words of the taunts addressed by Pandulfo to the 
 sinful father who has feasted on his own son, V. 2 : — 
 
 He weeps ; now do I glorify my hands ; 
 I had no vengeance, if I had no tears. 
 
 nunc meas laudo manus. 
 nunc parta uera est palnia. perdideram scelus 
 nisi sic dolores. ' (Thyestes 1100-2.) 
 
 Thy son ? true ; and which is my most joy, 
 I hope no bastard, but thy very blood, 
 Thy true-begotten, most legitimate 
 And loved issue— there's the comfort on't. 
 
 Thy, gnatos parenti. 
 
 Atr. . fateor et quod me iuuat, 
 
 certos. ; {Thyestes 1105-6.) 
 
 The rhetorical and reflective style as well as the crude 
 horrors of the two parts of Antonio and MelUda, must be 
 ascribed to the influence of Seneca. To Seneca's 
 account, too, we must set down what Mr. Bullen describes 
 
104 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 as Marston's " besetting fault of straining his style a pf-g 
 too high ; of seeking to be impressive by the use of 
 exaggerated and unnatural imagery." The description of 
 a storm in Ths First Part oj Antonio and Mellida, I. 1, 
 which in Mr. BuUen's opinion exhibits this besetting 
 sin of Marston's " to perfection," is modelled on a 
 similar description in Seneca's Agamemnon. Compare 
 the opening in each case : — 
 
 The sea grew mad, 
 His bowels rumbling with wind-passion ; 
 Straight swarthy darkness popp'd out Phoebus' eye, 
 And blurr'd the jocund face of bright-cheek'd day ; 
 Whilst crudled fogs masked even darkness' brow : 
 Heaven bad's good night, and the rocks groan 'd 
 At the intestine uproar of the main. 
 
 exigua nubes sordido crescens globo 
 nitidum cadentis inquinat Phoebi iubar. 
 
 tractuque longo litus ac petrae geraunt. 
 
 agitata uentis unda uenturis tumet, 
 
 cum luna subito conditur, stellae cadunt, 
 
 in astra pontus tollitur, caelum perit. 
 
 nee una nox est : densa tenebras obruit 
 
 caligo et omni luce subducta fretum 
 
 caelumque miscet. (Agamemnon 483-4 and 489-495.) 
 
 and again 
 
 Straight chops a wave, and in in his sliftred paunch 
 Down falls our ship, and there he breaks his neck ; 
 Which in an instant up was belkt again. 
 
 illam dehiscens pontus in praeceps rapit 
 hauritque et alto redditam reuomit mare. 
 
 (Aoaynemnon 520-1.) 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy, 105 
 
 But Marston gained something besides unnatural 
 exaggeration from his study of Seneca. Mr. Bullen 
 gives unqualified praise tc the " dignified reflections 
 tvhich Marston puts into the niDiith of the discrowned 
 Andrugio in the noble speech beginning, * Why, man, I 
 never was a prince till now.' " This, too, was suggested 
 by Seneca, as will be seen on comparison with Thyestes 
 314-390. 
 
 It mav be doubted whether Marston ever broke 
 away from the influence of Seneca, though it is certainly 
 less marked in his later plays. Mr. Bullen remarks an 
 improvement in T]ie Muhontent, which followed next to 
 Antonio and Mellida. "The moralising," he says, "is 
 less tedious, and the satire more pungent than in the 
 earlier plays. There is less of declamation and more of 
 action. The atmosphere is not so stifling, and one can \ 
 breallie with something of freedom. There are no ghosts 
 to shout ' Viudicia ! ' and lie boys to be butchered at / 
 midnight in damp cloisters; nobody has his •tongue cut A 
 out prior to being hacked to pieces."" While one may 
 atTmit the justice of these obs^rvatidns, it should not be 
 forgotten that TJie Malcontent is described by Marston 
 himself as a comedy. When he returns to tragedy in 
 ^ophonisha — a tragedy which, he promises, " shall boldly 
 abide the most curious perusal "^ — he faUs back upon 
 Seneca's ghosts and witches, his blood-curdling descrip- 
 tions of crude horrors decked out with unnatural 
 
 J See the note To the Header prefixed tp the second qua rto of The Fawn^ 
 
106 The Ivfunice of Seneca 
 
 imagery, his rhetorical artificialities and reflective 
 commonplaces. Much less, however, is borrowed direct 
 from Seneca than in the earlier plays. The description 
 of the habits and abode of the witch Erichtho is 
 taken from Lucan — a writer allied to Seneca not only 
 by close ties of relationship, but by likeness of character, 
 for his genius is essentially philosophic and rhetoiical. 
 lu tbe reflective passages, too, of Soplionii^ha, Marston 
 borrowed far less from Seneca than in the earlier plays. 
 The dialogue between Asdrubal and Carthalon at the end 
 of Act II. 3 is quite in Seneca's style, but I have only 
 detected two ideas taken directly from Seneca : — 
 
 He that forbids not ofience, he does it. 
 
 qui non uetat peccare, cum possit, iubot. (Troas 300.) 
 
 and 
 
 He for whom mischief's done, 
 
 He does it. 
 
 cui prod est seel us, 
 is fecit. (Medea 503-4.) 
 
 The Insatiate Countess is, in Mr. Bullen's opinion, not 
 Marston's, or, at any rate, not all of it. One of the reasons 
 that incline him to this conclusion is the number of pas- 
 sages imitated from Shakspere, among which he includes 
 the following (V. 1) : — 
 
 What Tanais, Nilus, or what Tigris swift, 
 
 What Rhenus ferier than the cataract, — 
 
 Although Neptolis cold, the waves of all the Northern Sea, 
 
 Should flow for ever through these guilty hands, 
 
 Yet the sanguinolent stain would extant be ! 
 
on Miizabethan Tragedy. 107 
 
 Mr. BiiUen compares this with a well known passage 
 in Mucheth, ah'eady quoted in this essay.^ The original of 
 both passages is, I think, to be found in Hercules Fmxm 
 1330-6 :— 
 
 quis Tanais aut quis ISilus aut quis persica 
 uiolentus unda Tigris aut Rhenusferox 
 Tagusue hibara turbidus gaza fluons, 
 abluere dextram poterit ? arctouni licet 
 Maeotis in me gelid a transfundat mare 
 et tota Tethys per meas currat manus : 
 haerebit altum facinus. 
 
 From the closeness of the translation in The Insatiate 
 Countess, it is evident that the author borrowed from Seneca 
 direct ; and it seems to me that the reading " Neptolis," 
 for \Yhich Mr. Bullen suggests the emendation " Neptune," 
 might safely be altered to the " Maeotis " of the original. 
 Moreover, this passage, imitated not from Shakspere but 
 from Seneca, testifies in favour of Marston's authorship, 
 and not, as Mr. Bullen thicks, against it. 
 
 In the same school as Marston's Antonio \md Mellida chettle's 
 
 Jloffinan. 
 
 must be included Chettle's HoJ'nian ; or a Eevenge for a 
 Father, which was not printed till 1631, but (as we learn 
 from Henslowe's Diarij) was written in 1602. The tragedy 
 opens before a cave at the entrance of which there is " a 
 skeleton hanging on a tree in chains, with an iron crown 
 on its head." Amid thunder and lightning Hoffman 
 addresses his murdered father's skeleton, "which rattles 
 
 1 See p. 84. " ' 
 
108 The Ivfuencc af Seneca 
 
 from the mnd in its chains." Then appears the first 
 victim of Hoffman's revenge, Prince Otho, who is bound 
 to the rock and tortured to death (on the stage) with 
 the iron crown, which has been taken from the head of 
 the skeleton, and made red hot. Hoffman, having 
 stripped the flesh off the bones, hangs the skeleton in 
 chains, by the side of that of his father, upon the tree, 
 and speaks thus : — 
 
 Come, image of bare death, join side to side ' 
 With my long-injur'd father's naked bones ! 
 He was the prologue to a tragedy, 
 That, if my destinies deny me not, 
 Shall pass those of Thyestes, Tereus, 
 Jocasta, or Duke Jason's jealous wife. 
 
 The " dismal accidents and bloody deeds, poisonings 
 and treasons " which follow bid fair to fulfil the promise 
 that Seneca's gruesome themes shall be outdone. In 
 the end, Hoffman is bound to the rock, and tortured with 
 the iron crown, made red hot ; this alone prevents him 
 from adding rape to a succession of murders, and he dies 
 regretting that he has 
 
 j • slack t revenge 
 
 I Through fickle beauty and a woman's fraud. 
 
 There are occasional reflective passages .in Seneca's 
 stvle, and some reminiscences of his ideas, but they are 
 neither striking nor important. There is a close resem** 
 blance throughout to Seneca's mode of treating his bloody 
 themes, Act IV. 3 giving a noteworthy example of the 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedij, 109 
 
 rhetorical and amplified horror which we have remarked 
 as one of Seneca's most striking characteristics. Take 
 for instance the passage : — 
 
 Thou wert as gootl, and better, (note my words) 
 Run unto the top of [some] dreadful scar 
 And thence fall headlong on the under rocks ; 
 Or set thy breast against a cannon fir'd, 
 When iron death flies thence on flaming wings ; 
 Or with thy shoulders, Atlas-like, attempt 
 To bear the ruins of a falling tower ; 
 Or swim the ocean, or run quick to hell, 
 (As dead assure thyself no better place) 
 Than once look frowning on this angel's face. 
 
 Seneca's fondness for these exaggerated comparisons 
 has been already noted. ^ 
 
 Lust's Dominion (pr, 1657), a tragedy of similar Lust's Dominmu 
 character to the preceding, but of more inept workman- 
 ship, is only of importance on account of its supposed 
 identity with Dekker's Simnish Moor's Tragedy, acted in 
 January, 1599-1600. It contains bombast in abundance, 
 and sententious reflections in Seneca's, manner, some- 
 times with an echo of his ideas. 
 
 Webster and Tourneur further developed the wEBsxERand 
 
 ^ TOURNEUR. 
 
 Tragedy of Blood (as Mr. Symonds calls it), which 
 by their time had been long familiar to English 
 
 ^ See page 19. 
 
110 The Infliionce of Sauca 
 
 audiences aud readers ; and the indirect influence of 
 Seneca acting through their predecessors in Enghsh 
 tragedy had probably more effect upon them than any 
 first-hand study of the Eoman dramatist, of which we 
 have little evidence. In The Revenger's Tragedij Tourneur 
 misquotes a single line from Seneca — the familiar 
 
 curae leues loquuntur ingentes stupent.^ 
 
 The same thought is reproduced by Webster in The 
 White Devil, II. 1 : - 
 
 Uukindness, do thy office ; poor heart, break : 
 Those are the killing griefs which dare not speak. 
 
 but it seems likely that this was a reminiscence of 
 Shakspere, and was not taken directly from Seneca, 
 The same may be said of anotherMine in the same 
 scene : — 
 
 Small mischiefs are by greater made secure. 
 
 Another idea common to Shakspere and Seneca is 
 reproduced by Tourneur in The Revenger s Tragedy, V. 3: — 
 
 He that climbs highest has the greatest fall. 
 
 A passage in the same play II. 4 : — 
 
 It well becomes that judge to nod at crimes 
 That does commit greater himself, and lives. 
 
 may be compared with Agamemnon 268 : — 
 det ille ueniam facile cui uenia est opus. 
 
 ^ See Appendix I. 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy, 111 
 
 Tonrneur has also effectively developed an idea 
 suggested in Hippohjtiis 679-682 : — 
 
 magne rcgnator deum 
 tarn lentus audis scelera 1 tara lentus uides ? 
 ccquando saoua fulmen emittes manu 
 si nunc serenum est 1 
 
 In The- Bevengers Tragedij, IV. 2 Yendice says : — 
 
 thou almighty patience ! 'tis my wonder 
 
 That such a fellow, impudent and wicked, 
 
 Should not be cloven as he stood ; 
 
 Or with a secret wind burst open ! 
 
 Is there no thunder left ; or is't kept up 
 
 In stock for heavier vengeance ? [7'hnnder] there it goes ! 
 
 The same device is employed once more in the last 
 scene. 
 
 More striking, however, than the resemblance of 
 isolated passages is the resemblance in theme and mode 
 of treatment. Webster and Tourneur, like Seneca, 
 choose themes of Inst, murder, incest, and unnatural \ 
 crime; they employ the same devices of ghosts and the 
 "hastly relics of mortality ; their tragedies breathe the 
 same atmosphere of blood. By the side of these heaped 
 up horrors, which Webster depicted with unique dramatic 
 power and psychological insight, we have something of 
 Seneca's reflective tendency, and occasionally a likeness 
 in the thoughts expressed, as may be remarked in the 
 the passages quoted above. We have Seneca's fatalism 
 in The Duchess of Malji, V. 4:— 
 
 We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied 
 "Which way please them. 
 
112 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 and Seneca's Stoicism in V. 3 of the same play: — • 
 
 Though in our miseries Fortune have a part, 
 Yet in our noble sufferings she hath none : 
 C ontempt of pain , that we may call our own. 
 
 Tourneur amplifies the same idea in The Atheist's 
 Tragedy, III. 3, in Charlemont's defiance of Sebastian and 
 bis father. To the same source we may ascribe the 
 Stoical calmness with which the characters of both 
 dramatists meet death. See, for instance, the last speech 
 of the Duchess of Malfi ; Vittoria Corrombona welcomes 
 death " as princes do some great ambassador ; " she 
 meets the weapon half-way, and sheds "not one base 
 tear." Flamineo, her villainous brother, ends his life 
 ,with a laugh, and the reflection. 
 
 We cease to grieve, cease to be fortune's slaves, 
 Nay, cease to die, by dying. 
 
 Bosola, the villain of Thi Diioh''ss of Malfi, dies with 
 hardly less constancy. Charlemout and Castabella in 
 The Atheists Tragedij seek death with equal hardihood ; 
 and in The Revenger's Tragedg Vendice accepts death for 
 himself as calmly as he dealt it out to others, v 
 
 FORD, f^ Ford abounds in his own kind of tragic horrors, and 
 he is not altogether free from crude sensationalism; in 
 yTis Pitg She's a Whore, Giovanni enters with his 
 I sister's heart upon his dagger, and Ford's plays 
 generally treat of such " strong " themes as incest, 
 adultery, and murderous revenge. But the atmosphere 
 
 vv 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy, 11^ 
 
 of his tragedies does not overpower us with the smell 
 of blood, as in the case of Webster and Tourneiir ; there 
 is often a fresher, purer air of quiet thought and natural 
 passion. Ford makes little use of the supernatural ; in 
 all probability Mother Sawyer and her familiars in The 
 Witch of Edmonton am the creations of Dekker, and the 
 only spirit to be set down to Ford's account is the quiet 
 and inoffensive ghost of Susan, which comes to the bed- 
 side of her husband and murderer, and stands there 
 without saying a word. Ford's genius was of too refined 
 a character to seek the strong and coarse effects which 
 were achieved by some of his contemporaries and 
 predecessors. Occasionally he is guilty of rhetorical 
 exaggeration, as in The Broken Heart, IV. 1 : — 
 
 In anger ! 
 In anger let him part ; for could his breath, 
 Like whirlwinds, toss such servile slaves as lick 
 The dust his footsteps print iiito a vapour. 
 It durst not stir a hair of mine, it .should not ; 
 Id rend it up by the roots first. 
 
 And again m Love's Sacrifice, IV. 2 :— 
 
 I have a sword — 'tis here — should make my way 
 Through tire, through darkness, death, and hell, and all, 
 To hew your lust-engendered flesh to shreds, 
 Pound you to mortal", cut your throats, and mince 
 Your flesh to mites : I will, — start not,-— I will. 
 
 But extravagance is pardonable in the mouths of 
 characters like Ithocles and the Duke in their respective 
 situations. 
 
114 The lujluence of Seneca 
 
 In Ford the reflective tendency is strongly marked, 
 but his manner is all his own. He had a marvellous gift 
 for expressing deep and yet simple thought, far removed 
 from Seneca's artificial and strained dialectic, which was 
 probably its far-back ancestor. Nothing could show the 
 contrast better than the comparison of Seneca's well-worn 
 maxim, 
 
 curae leues loquuntur ingentes stupent, 
 
 with the magnificent passage in which Ford enlarges on 
 the same idea. The Broke?!. Heart, V. 3 : — 
 
 0, my lords, 
 I but deceived your eyes with antic gesture, 
 When one news straight came huddling on another 
 Of death ! and death ! and death ! still I danced forward ; 
 But it struck home, and here, and in an instant. 
 Be such mere women, who with shrieks and outcries 
 Can vow a present end to all their sorrows, 
 Yet live to court new pleasures, and outlive them : 
 They are the silent griefs which cut the heart-strings ; 
 Let me die smiling. 
 
 Probably the points in which Ford drew nearest to 
 
 Seneca and in which he owes most to him (if indeed he 
 
 owes anything at all) are those previously remarked in 
 
 the case of his contemporaries. Ford, like Seneca, was 
 
 ^ fatalist. Thus Orgilus in The Broken Heart, I. 3 : — 
 
 Ingenious Fate has leapt into mine arms, 
 Beyond the compass of my brain. Mortality 
 Creeps on the dung of earth, and cannot reach 
 The xiddles which are purposed by the gods, 
 
on EUzabethan Tragcdij. 115 
 
 The same thought closes Act IV of Love's Satrifice, 
 and occurs again and again in the domestic tragedy of 
 The IVitch of Edmonton, the only part of that drama we 
 should ascribe to Ford. With this fatalism is allied the 
 idea of Stoical submission. Thus Ladv Katherine in 
 Ferkin Warbed, III. 2 :— 
 
 What our dcstiuiog 
 Have ruled out in their books we must not searoh, 
 But kneel to. 
 
 So, too, Ithocles in Tke Brolen Heart, lY. 1: — ■ 
 
 Leave to the powers 
 Above us the effects of their decrees ; 
 My burthen lies within me : servile fears 
 Prevent no great effects. 
 
 To the influence of Seneca, direct or indirect, we 
 should probably ascribe the calmness with which Ford's 
 characters meet death. Perkin Warbeck closes his life 
 with the words. 
 
 Death? pish ! 'tis but a sound: a name of air 
 
 ]he in nocent Susan in The Witch of Edmonton ; the 
 guilt y brother and sister in 'Tis Fity She's a Wiore ; 
 Ithocles, Orgilus, and Calantha in The Broken Hmrt : 
 Bianca, Fernando, and the Duke m Loves Sacrifce—aW 
 arealike in their contempt for death ; they rather seek 
 it than fear it. 
 
116 The Ivfluence of Seneca 
 
 BEAU3toi\T Beaumont and FletchePv, in The Kniqhi of the Burnimj 
 
 and ■ ^ ■■ "J 
 
 FLETCHER. jVsf/^', made ftin of tLe pliilosopliical commonplaces,^ the 
 I bombast, and the supernatm'al horrors which dramatists 
 ( like Marston borrowed from Seneca; but Beaumont and 
 I Fletcher are themselves not free from occasional exag- 
 geration of expression ;- ghosts or spirits appear in several 
 of the plays in which Fletcher had a hand,'^ 
 and in one or two the tragic effect is of a some- 
 what gruesome character. Thus in The Triampli 
 'of Death (probably by Fletcher alone), amid the whole- 
 / sale slaughter which closes the play, Gabriella tears out 
 I her husband's heart, and throws it at his uncle's feet ; 
 Uind in The Bloochj Brother (by Fletcher and Massinger), 
 ;the heads of Gisbert and Hamond are brought on the 
 j stage after their execution. Still, it must be acknow- 
 ledged that Fletcher and his chief co-adjutors, Beaumont 
 and Massinger, owe little to Seneca. Their most impor- 
 tant debt was probably the Stoical fortitude with which 
 their characters are inspired in face of death. Fletcher 
 has sometimes been credited wdth weakness in this 
 respect ;* but, so far as I can see, it is little less remark- 
 able in the plays which Fletcher wrote alone than in 
 
 1 Ralph's reflection, (V. 2), " To a resolved mind his home is 
 everywhere," is evidently a parody of Antonio and Mellida, 2nd Part, 
 II. 1, "A wise man's home is wheresoe'er he is wise" — a maxim which 
 Marston borrowed from Seneca. 
 
 2 See Fhilaster, III. 1." Set hills on hills..." and IV. 4. "Place 
 
 me, some god, upon a pyramis ;" speeches of Arbaces in A King 
 
 and no King ; and Fletcher's A Wife for a Month, IV. 4. 
 
 3 In The Lover's Progress and The Proi^hetess, by Fletcher and 
 Massinger, and in Tlie Humorous Lieutenant and The Triumph of 
 Death, by Fletcher alone. , 
 
 * See Mr. R. Boyle's note on Barnavelt, 
 
071 Ellzahethni Tragcdij. 117 
 
 tliose written in conjunction with others. In Fletcher's 
 Valmtinian, IV, 4, Aecius says : — 
 
 We must all die, 
 All leave ourselves ; it matters not where, when, 
 Nor how, so we die well. 
 
 So too Young Archas in I. 4 of The Loyal Suhjai, 
 another play written hy Fletcher alone : — 
 
 'Tis but dying, 
 And, madam, we must do it ; the manner's alL 
 
 an^ his father in IV. 5 : — 
 
 I am the same, the same man, living, dying ; 
 The same mind to 'em both, T poize thus equal. 
 
 See also the deaths of Bonduca and her daughters 
 in Fletcher's tragedy, for, as in Seneca, the women are 
 no less brave than the men. We note this as well in the 
 work which Fletcher did in co-operation with Beaumont 
 as in the later tragedies in which he had the assistance 
 of Massinger. When Philaster (III. 1) says to the dis- 
 guised Euphrasia, 
 
 Oh, but thou dost not know 
 What 'tis to die. 
 
 she replies 
 
 Yes, I do know, my lord : 
 'Tis less than to be born ; a lasting sleep ; 
 A quiet resting from all jealousy, 
 A thing we all pursue ; I know, besides. 
 It is but giving over of a gan.e 
 That must be lost. 
 
118 The Iiifiucnce of Senecd 
 
 and Ordella in Fletcher and Massinger's Thurrij and 
 Theodorct says, 
 
 'Tis of all sleeps the sweetest : 
 Children begin it to us, strong men seek it, 
 And kings from height of all their painted glories 
 Fall like spent exhalations to this centre : 
 And those are fools that fear it. 
 
 In The Double Marriage, another phiy by Fletcher 
 and Massinger, Juliana is as heroic in her contempt for 
 death as her husband, and Martia as unflinching as her 
 valiant father. 
 
 Eeflective passages in the plays passing under the 
 
 names of Beaumont and Fletcher are not numerous, and 
 
 though in some cases the thought expressed may be 
 
 interpreted as a reminiscence of Seneca, there are few 
 
 instances in which the resemblance is not just as likely 
 
 to be merely accidental. Thus, Philaster's exclamation 
 
 (III. 1. ad fin.) 
 
 Oh, where shall I 
 Go bathe this body ? Nature too unkind, 
 That made no medicine for a troubled mind ! 
 
 may be compared ^utll Hercules Furens 1330-6, " Quis 
 
 Tanais " and 1268-9, " Nemo polluto queat animo 
 
 mederi ;" but it seems useless to multiply parallels of this 
 kind. The only example I have found of direct imitation 
 TheBio^dy is in the scene between Sophia and her two sons in The 
 Bloodij Brother (I. 1), which is largely borrowed from 
 Seneca, as the following extracts will show :— - 
 
 Broihrr. 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 119 
 
 Soph. And join your hands while they are itmoreat ! 
 
 You have heat of blood, and youth apt to ambition, 
 To plead an easy pardon for what's past ; 
 But all the ills beyond this hour committed, 
 From gods or men must hope for no excuse. 
 
 dexteras matri date, 
 date dum piae sunt, error inuitos adhuc 
 fecit nocentes, omne fortunae fuit 
 peccantis in uos crimen : hoc primum nefas 
 inter scientes geritur. {l^kebais 450-4.) 
 
 and again 
 
 Why dost thou tremble, 
 And with a fearful eye, fix'd on thy brother, 
 Observ'st his ready sword, as bent against thee ? 
 I am thy armour, and will be pierc'd through 
 Ten thousand times, before I will give way 
 To any peril may arrive at thee ; 
 And therefore fear not. 
 
 quo uultus refers 
 acieque pauida f ratris .obseruas manum 1 
 adfusa totum corpus amplexu tegam 
 tuo cruori per meum fiet uia. 
 quid dubius haeres ? an times matris fidem ? 
 
 {Thehais 473-7.) 
 
 Soph, {returning the sivord) 
 
 Take it again, and stand upon your guard, 
 And, while your brother is, continue arm'd. 
 
 redde iam capulo manum, 
 adstringe galeam, laeua se clipeo ingerat, 
 dum frater est armatus, armatus mane. {Thehais 480-2.) 
 
120 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 You doubt him ; he fears you ; I doubt and fear 
 
 Both, for [the] other's safety, not my own. 
 
 Know yet, my sons, when of necessity 
 
 You must deceive or be deceiv'd, 'tis better 
 
 To suffer treason than to act the traitor ; 
 
 And in a war like this, in which the glory 
 
 Is his that's overcome. Consider, then. 
 
 What 'tis for which you strive : is it the dukedom 1 
 
 Or the command of these so ready subjects 1 
 
 Desire of wealth 1 or whatsoever else 
 
 Fires your ambition ? 'tis still desperate madness. 
 
 To kill the people which you would be lords of : 
 
 With fire and sword to lay that country waste 
 
 Whose rule you seek for ; to consume the treasures, 
 
 Which are the sinews of your government, 
 
 In cherishing the factions that destroy it : 
 
 Far, far be this from you ! make it not question'd 
 
 Whether you can have interest in that dukedom 
 
 Whose ruin both contend for. 
 
 ille te ttt ilium times, 
 ego utrumque, sed pro utroque... 
 id gerere bellum cupitis in quo e^fc optimum 
 I'inci. uereris fratris infesti dolos ? 
 quotiens neces,se est fallereaut falli a suis, 
 patiare potius ipse quam facias seel us. 
 
 ■ «■ ••• •■• •■• ••• .*■' 
 
 quis tenet mentem furor ? 
 petendo patriam perdis 1 ut fiat tua, 
 uis esse nullam ? quin tuae causae nocet 
 ipsum hoc quod annis uertis infestis solum 
 segetesque adustas sternis et totos fugam 
 edis per agros : nemo sic uastat sua. 
 quae corripi igne quae meti gladio iubes 
 aliena credis ? rex sit e nobis uter 
 manente regno quaerite. {Thehais 488-494, 557-565.) 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedjj. 121 
 
 It should be noted that Mr. Ohphant, Mr. Boyle, massingeh, 
 and Mr. Bullen agree in ascribing the above passage to 
 Massinger, who is more nearl}^ allied to' Seneca than 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, his genius being, as Dr. Ward 
 remarks, " essentially rhetorical," He is not entirely 
 free from bombast,^ and in some of his plays he relies 
 for dramatic effect upon the physical horrors which 
 we have remarked as the chief characteristic of the 
 English school of Seneca. Nothing could be more 
 repulsive than the outrage done to the dead body of 
 Marcelia in The DuJce of Milan ; and the theme of 
 The Unnatural Combat is bloody and horrible enough. 
 The conclusion of the latter drama is brought about in a 
 manner worthy of the most devoted imitator of Seneca's 
 ghosts and crude horrors, the stage direction reading : — 
 "Enter the Ghost of young Malefort, naked from the 
 waist, full of wounds, leading in the Shadow of a Lady, 
 her face leprous." Soneca is mentioned two or three 
 times in different plays,"^ and I have noted one or two 
 parallels in addition to the extract from The Bloodij Brother 
 quoted above; but they are not very striking. The % 
 following passages express ideas derived from Seneca, 
 but by Massinger's time long familiar to the English 
 drama. The DuJce of Milan, I. 3 : — 
 
 The only blessing that 
 Heaven hath bestowed on us, more than on beasts, 
 
 ^ e. g. Sforza in Tlie Duhe of Milan, V. 2 ; Slave in The Virgin 
 Martyr, IV. 1. 
 
 3 7'A<J Maid of Ho^iour, IV. 3; The Roman Actor, III. 2. 
 
123 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Is, that 'tis in our pleasure wheu to die. 
 Besides, were I now in another's power, 
 There are so many ways to let out life, 
 I would not live, for one short minute, his ; 
 I was born only yours, and I will die so. 
 
 The Bashful Lover, IV. 1 :— 
 
 HoRT. Virtue's but a word ; 
 
 Fortune rules all. 
 Mat. We are her tennis balls. 
 
 Massinger is not, however, a thoroagli-goiug fatalist 
 like Ford, Webster, and Tourneur. His general attitude 
 is more correctly represented by the concluding speech 
 of Lorenzo in the play just quoted : — 
 
 Fortune here hath shown 
 Her various power ; but virtue, in the end, 
 Is crown'd with laurel. 
 
 Another mark of the influence of Seneca is to be 
 found less clearly in Massinger than in some of his con- 
 temporaries—the steadfastness with which the characters 
 meet death. This is not so characteristic of Massinger 
 as of the Seneca school proper ; but instances of it are 
 not wanting. The converts in The Christian Martyr of 
 coui*se meet death with Christian fortitude ; and the 
 calmness of Antiochus in Believe as you List is nothing 
 more than we should expect from his royal character and 
 Stoical training. It is more to the point to note that 
 Francisco, the villain in The Duke of_Milan^_mee\s death 
 
on EUzahctlian Tragedy,. 123 
 
 updannt ed ; and see also the beautiful song with which 
 Eudocia in The Emperor of the East, Y. 3 welcomes " the 
 long and quiet sleep of death." 
 
 Shirley, tlie hist of the ciant race, marks the ^^'^^^-s^*' 
 
 emancipation of English tragedy from the authority of 
 Seneca, except so far as regards the character of his 
 themes. The subjects of his tragedies are still themes of 
 lust and blood, and it would be hard to find a more 
 striking example of heaped-up horrors than the con- 
 clusion of The Traitor. Still, as Mr. Dyce remarks, " in ^ 
 only one of his plays, St. Patrick for Ireland, is super- 
 natural agency employed ; and in not one of them does 
 a ghost make its appearance." Again, Seneca's phil- 
 sophy had little or no effect upon Shirley. He was not 
 a fatalist, and his characters are far from Stoical. His 
 most determined hero, Sciarrha, says, in The Traitor, 
 IV. 2 :— 
 
 Although I never fear VI to suffer, I 
 Am not so foolish to despise a life. 
 
 — a very different sentiment to the eagerness for death 
 represented by the followers of Seneca. The Cardinal, 
 again, ends his wicked life with the despairing cry :-- 
 
 If you but waft me with a little prayer ; 
 
 My wings that flag might catch the wind ; but 'tis 
 
 In vain, the mist is risen, and there's none 
 
 To steer my wandering bark. 
 
 —a striking contrast to the fearlessness in face of death 
 
124 The Injfucncc of Seneca 
 
 shown by the desperate villains of Webster, whose style 
 Shirley is thought to have imitated in The Cardinal. 
 
 condmion. With Shirley onr survey of the drama closes. We 
 
 might go further, and inquire into the influence Seneca 
 had, at first or second hand, upon Milton's conception of 
 tragedy ; we might attempt to estnuate Dryden's indebted- 
 ness to Seneca, and examine the imitations or adaptations 
 of Seneca by Crowne, Thomson, and Glover. The 
 influence of Seneca was paramount in English tragedy till 
 far into the eighteenth century. It is little more than a 
 hundred years since Greek literature began to exert a 
 broad and steady influence on our poetry. Professor J. 
 W. Hales observes in an article on " The Last Decade 
 of the Last Century " in the current^ number of the 
 Conteniporanj Bevleiv that '• the critics and authors of the 
 eighteenth century are for ever talking about the classics ; 
 but, if we observe their remarks, we shall find for 
 the most part that they mean the Latin classics — that 
 tliey have little or no real acqiiaintance with the Greek. 
 
 If we take a glance at the classical tragedies 
 
 that were in esteem, we find they belong to the 
 school of Seneca rather than that of Sophocles." But 
 it does not seem worth while to prove this by detailed 
 examination. The importance of Seneca's influence on 
 the drama is at an end, and it only remains for us to sum 
 up its abiding results, which we find chiefly in the stage 
 traditions which have come down to our own day. 
 
 September, 1892. 
 
on Eiizahethan Traqedy, 125 
 
 Seneca's live acts are still with us, and we have a 
 curious survival from the classical drama in the operatic 
 chorus. Our conception of tragedy still leads us to 
 expect deeds of violence and blood, vividly presented in 
 highly wrought scenes, and weighted with well-expressed 
 thought. )Mr. Symonds seems to me to undervalue the 
 reflective element which the authoritvof Seneca induced in 
 Ehzabethan tragedy. He is inclined to lay it down as a 
 principle that " in proportion as a dramatist lends himself 
 to the compilation of ethical anthologies, in that very 
 measure he is an inferior master of his craft." Seeing 
 that an industrious compiler has found no less than 2,700 
 *• mottoes and aphorisms" in Shakspere, Mr. Symonds' 
 standard, if rigidly applied, would S3em to endanger the 
 fame of the greatest of the EHzabethans ; and such a 
 result is enough to call for a revision of the standard of 
 judgement. In his Guide to Greek Tragcdij, Dr. Campbell 
 has some admirable remarks showing that the element 
 of ethical reflection " enteis almost necessarily into 
 all tragedy ;" he says further that all great tragedy is at 
 once individual and universal. Seneca often loses sight 
 of the individual in the universal ; but the tendency of 
 the popular drama in England w^ould have been in the 
 opposite direction, and in correcting this tendency Seneca 
 seem to me to have done good service to the Elizabethan 
 drama, giving it permanent value, for the study as well 
 as for the stage. That Seneca misled English dramatists 
 into violence and exaggeration cannot be denied ; but 
 these are faults which have their favourable side. If 
 Ehzabethan tragedy is sometimes too sensational, 
 
126 The Iiifiwnce of Senccu- 
 
 it ia very seldom dull; and if its diction is sometimes 
 extravagant, it is rarely inadequate to the needs of 
 Uie situation, however tremeudous the tragic crisis 
 may be. What English tragedy would have been 
 without the examj^le of Seneca, it is hard to imagine ; 
 its developement from the miracle plays and moralities 
 must have been exceedingly slow ; and if the impulse 
 had come from other European nations, it would only 
 have been the influence of Seneca at second hand, in the 
 case of France with exaggerated artificiality, in the case 
 of Italy with exaggerated horrors. Even the direct 
 imitation of Greek tragedy, in all the perfection ol 
 Sophocles, might not have been an unmixed blessing ; 
 but, after all, literary criticism is concerned, not with 
 what might have been, but with what was ; and that the 
 influence of Seneca was paramount in the origin and 
 developement of Elizabethan tragedy has been proved by 
 the testimony of contemporary critics, and by the still 
 more convincing evidence oX tiie tragedies themselves. 
 
on Elizaheilian Tragedy. 127 
 
 APPENDIX I. 
 
 Latin Quotations from Seneca 
 in Elizabethan Tragedies. 
 
 Sm THOMAS MO BE. 
 
 XJbi turpis est medicina, sanari piget. (Oedipus 530.) 
 
 Humida vallis raros patitur fulminis ictus. [Hippolytus 1141-2.) 
 
 Curae leues loquuntur, ingeutes stupent. (Hlppolyhis 615.) 
 
 The last quotation also occurs in The Bctimi from 
 rarnassus, and in Tourneur's Revenger's Tragedg, majores 
 being inserted in the latter case instead of the correct 
 reading ingeutes, 
 
 THE TRUE TRAGEDY OF RICHARD III. 
 
 Quisquam regua gaudit, 6 fallex bonum. 
 
 [quisquamne regno gaudet 1 o fallax bonum. {Oedipus 6.)] 
 
 KYD'S SPANISH TRAGEDY. 
 
 Per scelus semper tutum est sceleribus iter. 
 
 [per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter. (Agamemnon 116.)] 
 
 Fata si miseros juvant, habes salutem ; 
 
 Fata si vitam negant, habes sepulchrum. (Troas 518-520.) 
 
128 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 MARLOWE'S EDWARD II, 
 
 Quern dies vidit veniens superbum, 
 
 Hunc dies vidit fugieus jacentem. {TJiyestes 613-4.) 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS. 
 
 Sit fas aut nefas... 
 
 Per Styga, per manes vehor. 
 
 [et te per undas perque tartareos lacus 
 
 per Styga per amnes igneos amens sequar. (Illj^polt/tus 1188-9.)] 
 
 Magni Dominator poli, 
 
 Tam lentus audis scelera 1 tain lentus vides 1 
 
 [magne regnator deum, 
 tam lentus audis scelera? tam lentus uidos ? (Hippoli/tus 679-80.)] 
 
 MARSTON'S ANTONIO AND MELLIDA. 
 
 Dimitto superos, summa votorura attigi. [Thyestes 891.) 
 
 Capienda rebus in mails praecep3 via est. {Agamemnon 155.) 
 
 Scelera non ulcisceris, nisi vin^is. (Thyestes 195-6.) 
 
 quisquis nova 
 Supplicia functis dirus umbrarum arbiter 
 Disponis, quisquis exeso jaces 
 Pavidus sub antro, quisquis venturi times 
 Montis ruinam, quisquis avidorum feros 
 Rictus leonum, et dira furiarum agmina 
 Implicitus horres, Antonii vocem excipe 
 Properantis ad vos. 
 
 [Thijestes 13-15 and 75-81 ruQ together, with Antonii put 
 instead of Tantcdi.] 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy^ 129 
 
 Venit in nostras manus 
 Tandem vindicta, venit et tota quidein. {ThjesUs 494-5.) 
 
 [Vincllcta tota = Thjestes.... totm in Seneca.] 
 
 Venit dies, tempusque, quo reddat suis 
 Animam squalentem sceleribus. {Octavia 641-2.) 
 
 [Venit = veniet, squalentem = Jiocentem.] 
 
 THE MALCOKTEXT. 
 
 Unde cadis, non quo, refert. 
 
 [magis unde cadas quam quo refert. {Thyestes 929.)] 
 
 Praemium incertum petit certum scelus. (77tebais 632-3.) 
 
 Per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est itev. {Agamemnon 110.) 
 
 THE FAWF. 
 
 Qui jiiuiis notus omnibus 
 
 Ignotus moritur sibi. {Thyestes 402-3.) 
 
 Fatis agimur, cedite fatis. (Oedipus 1001.) 
 
 c^^ 
 ^ 
 
130 Th Influence of Seneca 
 
 APPENDIX II. 
 
 Imitations of Seneca 
 
 IN 
 
 THE MISFORTUNES OF ARTHUB. 
 
 The pages refer to Vol. IV of Eazlitt's Dodsleij. 
 There are 37 h'nes in a full page, which will give the 
 reader some idea of the proportion of borrowed lines. 
 In some cases half or more than half the page is 
 borrowed.^ Besides the passages given, there are many 
 which seem to have been suggested by Seneca ; but I 
 have only thought those worthy of record in which the. 
 imitation is obvious. 
 
 Page 264. Let mischiefs know no mean, nor plagues an end ! 
 Let th' offspring's sin exceed the former stock ! 
 Let none have time to hate his former fault. 
 But still with fresh supply let punish'd crime 
 Increase, till time it make a complete sin. 
 
 nee sit irarum modus 
 pudorue : mentes caecus instiget furor, 
 rabies parentum duret et longum nefas 
 eat in nepotes. nee uacet cuiquam uetus 
 odisse crimen : semper oriatur nouum 
 nee unum in uno, dumque punitur scelus, 
 crescat. {Thyesies 26-32.) 
 
 On page 266 there ai'e not half a dozen original lines, 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 131 
 
 Page 264 Go to : some fact, which no age shall allow 
 
 (continued), -v-^ , ^ 
 
 JS or yet conceal — 
 
 age anime fac quod nulla posteritas probet, 
 
 sed nulla taceat. {Thyestes 192-3.) 
 
 Page 265. Attempt some bloody, dreadful, irksome fact, 
 And such as Mordred would were rather his. 
 
 aliquod audendum est nefas 
 atrox cruentum tale quod frater meus 
 suum esse malit. {lltyesks 193-5.) 
 
 Page 206. Frame out some trap beyond all vulgar guile, 
 Beyond Medea's wiles : attempt some fact, 
 That any wight unwieldy of herself. 
 That any spouse unfaithful to her pheer. 
 Durst e'er attempt in most despair of weal. 
 Spare no revenge, b' it poison, knife, or fire ! 
 
 tecum ipsa nunc euolue femineos dolos, 
 
 quod uUa coniunx perfida atque impos sui 
 
 amore caeco, quod nouercales manus 
 
 ausae, quod ardens impia uirgo face 
 
 phasiaca f ugiens regna thessalica trabe : 
 
 ferrum uenena. {Agamemnon 117-122.) 
 
 >> 
 
 The wrath that breatheth blood doth loathe to lurk, 
 cum spirat ira sanguinem nescit tegi. {Thyestea 504.) 
 
 I am disdain'd : so will I not be long. 
 That very hour that he shall first arrive, 
 Shall be the last that shall afford him life. 
 
 iam displicemus, capta praelata est mihi. 
 non praeferetur : qui dies thalami ultimus 
 nostri est futurus, hie erit uitae tuae. 
 
 {Herctdes Oetaeus 307-9.) 
 
132 The Injfncncc of Seneca 
 
 Page 266 Thougli neither seas, nor lands, nor wars abroad 
 (cvntinncd). g^gg^^g^j f^^ thy foil, yet slialt thou find 
 
 Far worse at home — thy deep-displeased spouse. 
 
 Whate'er thou hast subdued in all thy stay 
 
 This hand shall now subdue. 
 
 gesseris caelum licet 
 totusque pacem dcbeat mundus tibi : 
 est aliquid hydra peius iratae dolor 
 nuptae. quis ignis tantus in caelum furit 
 ardentis Aetnae ? quicquid est uictum tibi 
 hie uincet animus. {Hercules Oetaeus 285-290.) 
 
 » 
 
 jj 
 
 What's this 1 my mind recoils and irks these threats : 
 Anger delays, my grief gins to assuage, 
 My fury faints, and sacred wedlock's faith 
 Presents itself. Why shunnst thou fearful wrath? 
 Add coals afresh : preserve me to this venge. 
 
 quid hoc 1 recedit animus et ponit minas, 
 iam cessit ira. quid miser langues dolor 1 
 perdis furorem, coniugis sanctae fidem 
 mihi reddis iterum. quid uetas flammas ali ? 
 quid frangis ignes 1 hunc mihi serua impel urn. 
 
 {Hercules Oetaeus 310-314.) 
 
 At least exile thyself to realms unknown, 
 And steal his wealth to help thy banish'd state ; 
 For flight is best, O base and heartless fear ! 
 Theft? Exile ? Flight ? all these may fortune send 
 Unsought ; but thee beseems more high revenge. 
 
 uel mycenaea domo 
 coniuncta socio profuge furtiua rate, 
 quid timida loqueris f urta ct exilium et f ugas 1 
 sors ista fecit, te decet maius nefas. 
 
 {Agamemnon 122-5.) 
 
on Ellzahethan Tragedy. 133 
 
 Page 266 Come, spiteful fiends, come, heaps of furies fell. 
 
 (continued). 
 
 Not one by one, but all at once 1 my breast 
 
 Page 267. Raves not enough : it likes me to be fill'd 
 With greater monsters yet. 
 
 dira furiarum coliors 
 discorsque Erinnys ueniat et geminas faces 
 Megaera quatiens. non satis magno meum 
 ardet furore pectus, impleri iuuat 
 maiore monstro. {Thyestes 250-254.) 
 
 J, My heart doth throb. 
 
 My liver boils : soniewh'at my mind portends, 
 Uncertain what ; but whatsoever, it's huge. . 
 
 nescio quid animus maius et solito amplius 
 
 supraque fines moris humani tumct 
 
 instatque pigris manibus. baud quid sit scio, 
 
 sed grande quiddam est. (Thyestes 267-270.) 
 
 „ Omit no plague, and none will be enough. 
 
 nullum rclinquam facinus et nullum est satis. 
 
 {Thyestes 256.) 
 
 „ Wrong cannot be reveng'd but by excess. 
 
 scelera non ulcisceris 
 nisi uincis. {Thyestes 195-6.) 
 
 ,) Fron. Is there no mean in wrong ? 
 
 GuEN. Wrong claims a mean, when fix'st you offer wrong 
 The mean is vain when wrong is in revenge. 
 
 Thy. sceleris est aliquis modus. 
 
 Atr. sceleri modus debetur, itbi facias scelus, 
 
 non ubi rcponas. {Thyestes 1055'7») 
 
13'i The Ivjiucncc of Seneca 
 
 Page 267 Great harms cannot be hid : the grief is small, 
 
 (continued), mi. • i • t -l \£ 
 
 J hat can receive advice, or rule itseli. 
 
 leuis est dolor qui capere consilium potest 
 
 et clepere sese, magna non latitant mala. (Medea 155-6,) 
 
 „ Hatred concealed doth often lap to hurt, 
 
 But once profess'd, it oft'ner fails revenge. 
 
 ira quae tegitur nocet, 
 professa perdunt odia uindictae locum, {Medea 1534.) 
 
 „ Unlawful love doth like, when lawful loathes, 
 
 inlicita amantur, excidit quicquid licet. 
 
 {Hercules Oetaeus 360.) 
 
 Page 268. Fron. How can you then attempt a fresh offence 1 
 GuEN. Who can appoint a stint to her offence ? 
 
 KvT, piget prioris et nouum crimen struis 1 
 Cly, res est profecto stulta nequitiae modus. 
 
 {xigameinnon 150-151.) 
 
 „ Whom Gods do press, they bend ; whom man annoys. 
 
 He breaks. 
 
 caelestis ira quos premit, miseros facit, 
 
 humana nullos. {Hercules Oetaeus 444-5.) 
 
 )) 
 
 Your grief is more than his deserts. 
 
 Each fault requires an equal hate : be not severe, 
 
 Where crimes be light. As you have felt, so grieve. 
 
 maior admisso tuus 
 alumna dolor est : culpa par odium exigat. 
 cur saeua modice statuis ? ut passa es dole, 
 
 {Hercules Oetaeus 447-9.) 
 
on EUzahthan Tragedy, 135 
 
 Page 269, Well, shame is not so quite cxil'd, but that 
 I can and will respect your sage advice. 
 
 non omnis animo cescit ingenuo pudor : 
 
 paremus altrix. {Hippolytus 255-6.) 
 
 The love, that for his rage will not be rul'd, 
 Must be restrain'd : fame shall receive no foil. 
 
 qui regi non uidt amor 
 uincatur. haud te fama maculari sinam. 
 
 {Ilippolytus 256-7.) 
 
 Her breast, not yet appeas'd from former rage, 
 Hath chang'd her wrath which, wanting means to work 
 Another's woe (for such is fury's wont), 
 Seeks out his own, and raves upon itself. 
 
 nOndum tumultu pectus attonitum caret 
 
 mutauit iras quodque habet proprium furor, 
 
 in se ipse saeuit. {^Hercules Furens 1226-8.) 
 
 Thereby the rather you deserve to live 
 For seeming worthy iji yourself to die. 
 
 dignam ob hoc uita reor 
 quod esse temet autumas dignam nece. {Hijypolytus 261-2.) 
 
 „ Death is decreed, what kind of death, I doubt : 
 
 Page 270. Whether to drown or stifle up this breath, 
 Or forcing blood to die with dint of knife. 
 
 decreta mors est ; quaeritur fati genus, 
 laqueone uitam finiam an forro incubem 1 
 
 (FRppoIytus 263-4.) 
 
186 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Page 270 All hope of prosperous liap is gone.. My fame, 
 (con mue ). ]\f y* f .^j j]^^ ^y gpouse — no goocl is left luilost ! 
 
 cuncta jam amisi bona : 
 mcntem arma famam coniugem. (^Hercules Farens 1266-7.) 
 
 » 
 
 » 
 
 }? 
 
 »> 
 
 Myself am left : there's left hoth seas and lands, 
 And sword, and fire and chains, and choice of harms. 
 
 Medea superest, hie mare et terras uides 
 
 ferrumque et ignes et deos et fulmina. (Medea 166-7.) 
 
 Who now can heal 
 My maimed mind 1 It must be heal'd by death. 
 
 nemo polluto queat 
 animo mederi. morte sanandum est scelus. 
 
 (Hercules Furens 1268-9.) 
 
 Alone you may not die, with me you may. 
 
 perire sine me non potes, rnecum potes. (Thehais 66.) 
 
 They that will drive th' unwilling to their death, 
 Or frustrate death in those that fiiin would die, 
 OfFeiid alike. 
 
 qui cogit mori 
 nolentem in aequo est quique propei'antem itipedit. 
 
 {Thehais 98-99.) 
 
 Ang. But will my tears and mournings move you nought? 
 GuEN. Then is it best to die when friends do mourn. 
 
 Thes. lacrimae nonne te nostrae mouent ? 
 
 Phae. mors optima est perire lacrimant duin sui. 
 
 {Hippolytus 888-9.) 
 
on EUzahethan Tragedy. 137 
 
 Page 270 Each-wliere is death ! the fates ha^e well ordam'd, 
 {coninue ). rpj^^^ Qa,Q\i man may bereave himself of life, 
 But none of death : death is so sure a doom, 
 A thousand ways do guide us to our graves. 
 
 ubique mors est. optume hoc cauit deus. 
 
 eripere uitam nemo non homini potest, 
 
 at nemo mortem : mille ad hanc aditus patent. 
 
 {Thelcm 151-3.) 
 
 „ Who then can ever come too late to that. 
 
 Whence, when he is come, he never can return? 
 
 Or what avails to hasten on our ends. 
 
 And Ions: for that which destinies have sworn ! 
 
 nemo ad id sero uenit unde numquam, 
 cum semel uenit, potuit reuerti. 
 quid iuuat dirum properare fatum? 
 
 [Hercules Furens 869-871.) 
 
 Page 271. Death is an end of pain, no pain itself. 
 
 de fine poenae loqucris, ego poenam uolo. {Thytstes 246.) 
 
 )> 
 
 Is 't meet a plague for such excessive wrcng 
 Should be' so short ? Should one stroke answer all ? 
 \SoUloqiixzes\ And would'st thou die ? well, that contents 
 
 the laws : 
 What, then, for Arthur's ire? What for thy fame. 
 Which thou hast stain'd? What for thy stock thou 
 
 sham'st ? 
 Not death nor life can alone give a full 
 Revenge : join both in one — die and yet live. 
 Where pain may not be oft, let it be long. 
 Seek out some lingeiing death, whereby thy corpse 
 May neither touch the dead nor joy the quick, 
 pie, but no common death : pass nature's boui;ds, 
 
188 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 itane ? tam magnis breues 
 poenas sceleribus soluis atque uno onmia 
 pensabis ictu ? moreris : hoc patri sat est. 
 quid deinde matri, quid male in lucem editis 
 gnatis, quid ipsi quae tuum magna luit 
 scelus ruina flebilis patriae dabis 1 
 Boluenda non est ilia quae leges ratas 
 natura in uno uertit Oedipode nouos 
 commenta partus, snpplicis cadem meis 
 nouetur. iterum uiuere atque iterum mori 
 liceat renasci semper, ut totiens noua 
 supplicia pendas. utere ingenio miser, 
 quod saepe fieri non potest fiat diu. 
 mors eligatur longa. quaeratur uia 
 qua nee sepultis mixtus et uiuis tamen 
 exemptus erres. morere sed citra patrem. 
 
 (Oedipus 957-972.) 
 
 Paf'e 271 The mind and not the chance doth make th' unchaste. 
 
 (continued X 
 
 mens inpudicam facere non casus solet. (IIi2-)2')olytus 74-3.) 
 
 Then is your fault from fate ; you rest excus'd. 
 None can be deemed faulty for her fate. 
 
 fati ista culpa est. nemo fit fato nocens. (Oedipus 1041.) 
 
 « 
 
 » 
 
 Impute mishaps to fates, to manners faults. 
 
 nam monstra fato, moribus scelera inputes. 
 
 (Hippolytus 149.) 
 
 A mighty error oft hath seem'd a sin. 
 
 saepe error ingens sceleris optinuit locum. 
 
 (Hercules Fur ens \1\.x>.^ 
 
Oh EUzahethan Tragedy. 139 
 
 Page 272, The hour, which erst I always feared most 
 The certain ruin of luy desperate state, 
 Is happened now ! why turn'st thou (mind) thy back ? 
 Why at the first assault dost thou recoil ? 
 Trust to 't, the angry heavens contrive some spite, 
 And dreadful doom t' augment thy cursed hap. 
 Oppose to each revenge thy guilty head, 
 
 quod tempus animo semper ac mente horrui, 
 adest profecto rebus extremum meis. 
 quid terga uertis anime 1 quid primo impetu 
 deponis arma 1 crede perniciem tibi 
 et dira saeuos fata moliri deos. 
 oppone cunctis uile suppliciis caput. (Agamemnon 227-232.) 
 
 Page 273. What shouldst thou fear, that see'st not what to hope? 
 
 qui nil potest sperare, desperet nihil. {Medea 163.) 
 
 cui ultima est fortuna, quid dubium timet? 
 
 (Agamemnon 147.) 
 
 ,, He safely stands, that stands beyond his harms. 
 
 cuius baud ultra mala 
 exire possunt in loco tuto est situs. (Thebais 198-9.) 
 
 a 
 
 Thine (death) is all that east and west can see ; 
 For thee we live, our coming is not long ! 
 Spai'e us but whiles we may prepare our graveSi 
 Though thou wert slow, we hasten of ourselves, 
 The hour that gave did also take our lives. 
 
 tibi crescit omne, 
 et quod occasus uidet et quod ortus. 
 parce uenturis. tibi mors paramur, 
 9is licet segnis, properamus ipsi. 
 prima quae uitam dedit hora, carpit> 
 
 {Heresies Furens 8T4-8,} 
 
140 The In thence of Seneca 
 
 Page 273 My fear is past, and wedlock love hath won. 
 Retire we thither yet, whence first we ought 
 Not to have stirr'd. Call back chaste faith again. 
 The way that leads to good is ne'er too late : 
 Who so repents is guiltless of his crimes. 
 
 amor iugalis uincit ac flectit retro, 
 remeomus illuc, unde non decuit prius 
 abire. sed nunc casta repetatur fides, 
 nam sera nuniquam est ad bonos mores uia. 
 quern paenitet pecasse, poenac est innocens. 
 
 (Agamemnon 240-244.) 
 
 Page 274. Nor love nor sovereignity can bear a peer. 
 
 nee regna socium ferre nee taedae sciunt. 
 
 (Agamemnon 260.) 
 
 „ Why dost thou still stir up my flames delay'd 1 
 
 His strays and errors must not move my mind : 
 A law for private men binds not the king. 
 What, that I ought not to condemn my liege, 
 Nor can, thus guilty to mine own offence ! 
 Where both have done amiss, both will relent : 
 He will forgive that needs must be forgiven. 
 
 Aegisthe quid me rursus in praeceps rapis 
 iramque flammis iam residentem excitas ? 
 permisit aliquid uictor in captam sibi : 
 nee coniugem hoc respicere nee dominam decet. 
 lex alia solio est alia priuato toro. 
 quid quod seueras ferre me leges uiro 
 non patitur animus turpis admissi memor. 
 det ille ueniam facile cui uenia est opus. 
 
 (Agamemnon 261-8.) 
 
on UliZiihctUan Tragcihj. 141 
 
 Page 274 A judge severe to us, mild to hijuself. 
 
 (continued). 
 
 nobis maligni iudices aequi sibi. (Agamemnon 271.) 
 
 His is the crime, whom crime stands most in stead. 
 
 cui prodest scehis, 
 is fecit. (Medea 503-4.) 
 
 Well should she seem most guiltless unto thee, 
 Whate er she be, that's guilty for thy sake. 
 
 ,tibi innocens sit quisquis est pro te nocens. (Medea 506.) 
 
 Page 275. His ways be blind that maketh chance his guide. 
 
 caeca est temeritas quae petit casum ducem. 
 
 (Agamemnon 146.) 
 
 The safest passage is from bad to worse. 
 
 per scelera semper sceleribus tutum est iter. 
 
 (Agamemnon 116.) 
 
 » 
 
 « 
 
 » 
 
 He is a fool that puts a mean in crimes. 
 
 res est profecto stulta nequitiae modus. (Agamemnon\b\.) 
 
 So sword and fire will often sear the sore. 
 
 et ferrum et ignis saepe medicinae loco est. 
 
 (Agamemnon 163.) 
 
 Extremest cures must not be used first. 
 
 extrema primo nemo temptauit loco. (Agamemnon 154.) 
 
142 The Infiuence of Seneca 
 
 Page 275 In desperate times the headlong way is best. 
 
 (cuntlaued). 
 
 capienda rebus in malis praeceps uia est. 
 
 (^Aganiemno)i 155.) 
 
 Page 27G. Mi.'schief is sometimes safe, but ne'er secure, 
 
 scelus ali(i[ua tutum, nulla securum tulit. (Hippoli/tus 169.) 
 
 Cox. The wrongful sceptre'.s held with trembling hand. 
 MoR. Whose rule wants right, his safety's in his sword. 
 
 rapta sed trepida manu 
 seeptra optinentur. omnis in ferro est salus. 
 
 [Hercules Furens 34&-6.) 
 
 1} 
 
 Con. The kingliest point is to aflect but right. 
 
 MoR. Weak is the sceptre's hold that seeks but right. 
 
 Sat. rex uelit honesta : nemo non eadem uolet. 
 Atk. ubicumque tantum honesta dominanti licent, 
 
 precario regnatur. [Thyestes 213-5.) 
 
 Page 277. Moil. 8he is both light and vain. 
 
 Cox. She noteth though. 
 
 MoR. She feareth states. 
 
 Cox. She carpeth, ne'ertheless. 
 
 MoR. She's soon suppress 'd. 
 
 Sex. leuis atque nana. 
 
 Nero. sit licet, multos notat. 
 
 Sex. excelsa metuit. 
 
 Nero. non minus carpit tamen. 
 
 Sex. facile opprimetur. (Ociavia 596-8.) 
 
on EUzahetlian Tragedy^ 143 
 
 Page 282. Cox. Nought should be rashly vow'd against your sire. 
 
 MoR. Whose breast is free from rage may soon b' ad^dsed. 
 
 Con. The best redress from rage is to relent. 
 
 MoR. 'Tis better for a king to kill his foes. 
 
 Sex. in nihil propinquos temere constitui decet. 
 Nero, iustum esse facile est cui uacat pectus metu. 
 SiiN. magnum timoris remedium dementia est. 
 Nero, extinguere hostem maxima est uirtus ducis. 
 
 {Octavia 452-5.) 
 
 Page 283. Con. The subjects' force is great. 
 
 Mop Greater the king's. 
 
 NvTR. uis magna populi est. 
 
 Oct. principis maior tameu. 
 
 (Octavia 190.) 
 
 » 
 
 ji 
 
 The more you may, the more you ought to fear. 
 
 hoc plus uerere quod licet tantum tibi. (Octavia 462.) 
 
 MoR. He is a fool that feai'eth what he mav. 
 
 Con. Not what you may, but what you ought is just. 
 
 Nero, inertis est nescire quid liceat sibi. 
 
 Sex. id facere laus est quod decet, noa quod licet. 
 
 {Octavia 465-6.) 
 
 MoR. The laws do licence as the soveleign lists. 
 Cox. Least ought he list, whom laws do licence most. 
 
 Pyr. quodcumque libuit facere uictori, licet. 
 Agam. minimum decet libere cui multum licet. 
 
 {Troas 344-5.) 
 
144 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Page 283 Mor. The fates have heav'd and rais'd my force on high. 
 (coniinued). ^^^ rpj^^ gentler should you press those that are low. 
 
 quocjue te celsum altius 
 superi leuarunt, mitius lapsos preme. (Troas 704-5.) 
 
 Page 284. Mor. My will must go for right. 
 
 Con. If they assent. 
 
 Mor. My sword shall force assent. 
 
 Con. No, gods forbid ! 
 
 Nkro. statuam ipse. 
 
 Sen. quae consensus efficiat rata. 
 
 Nero, despectus ensis faciet. 
 
 Sen. hoc absit nefas. (Oclavia 472-3.) 
 
 „ Whom fates constrain, let him forego his bliss ; 
 
 But he that needless yields unto his bane, 
 When he may shun, doth well deserve to lose 
 The good he cannot use. 
 
 quem fata cogunt hie quidem uiuat miser, 
 
 at si quis ultro se malis offert uolens 
 
 seque ipse torquet, perdere est dignus bona 
 
 quis nescit uti. {Hlppolytus 448-451.) 
 
 Page 285. Nor to destroy the realm you seek to rule. 
 Your father rear'd it up, you pluck it down. 
 You lose your country, whiles you win it thus : 
 To make it yours, you strive to make it none. 
 
 ne precor ferro erue 
 patriam ac penates neue, quas regere expetis 
 euerte Thebas. quis tenet mentem furor ? 
 petendo patriam perdis ? ut fiat tua, 
 uis esse nullam ? {Thehais 555-9.) 
 
on Elizahefhan Trogedij. 145 
 
 Page 285 Must I to gain renown incur my plague, 
 """" ^ Or hoping praise sustain an exile's life? ^ 
 
 ut profugus errem semper ? ut patria arcear 
 
 opemque gentis hospes externae sequar ? (Tkebais ^8&-7,} 
 
 No. 'Tis my hap that Britain serves my turn ; 
 That fear of me doth make the subjects crouch ; 
 That what they grudge they do constrained yield. 
 
 munus deorum est ipsa quod seruit mihi 
 
 Roma let senatus quodque ab inuitis preces 
 
 huinilesque uoces exprimit nosiri nietus. (Octavut 504-6.) 
 
 Then is a kiniydom at a wished stav, 
 
 When whatsoever the sovereign wills or nills, 
 
 Men be compeU'd as well to praise as bear. 
 
 maximum hoc regui bonum est, 
 ♦juod facta domini cogitur populus sui 
 quam ferre tam laudare. {Thijfsf''s 205-7.) 
 
 ^ These lines have the following pasted over them : — - 
 
 The first art m a kingdom is to scorn 
 The envy of the realm. 
 
 ars prima regni est posse te inuidiam pati. 
 
 {^Hercules Fnrens 357.) 
 
 He cannot rule 
 That fears to bo envid. What can divorce 
 Envy from sovereignty 1 
 
 regnare non uult esse qui inuisus timet. 
 
 simul ista mundi conditcr poauit deus 
 
 odium atque regnum. (TJiebais 651-6.) 
 
146 Tlie Influence of Seneca 
 
 Page 285. Con. But whoso seeks true praise and just renown, 
 Page 280. Would rather .seek their praising hearts t}ian tongues. 
 
 MoR, True praise may liappen to tlie basest groom ; 
 
 A forced praise to none but to a prince. 
 
 I wish that most, that subjects most repine. 
 
 Sat. at qui fauoris gloriam ueri petit, 
 
 animo magis quam uoce laudari uolet. 
 
 Arii. laus uera et humili saepe contingit uiro, 
 
 non nisi potenti falsa, quml nolunt, uelint. 
 
 {Thyestes 209-212.) 
 
 „ And better were an exile's life, than thus 
 
 Disloyally to wrong your sire and liege. 
 
 melius exiliiim e.st tibi 
 (juam reditus iste. [Thebais 617-8.) 
 
 „ But cease at length ; your speech molests me much. 
 
 My mind is fixM : give Mordred leave to do 
 What Conan neither can allow nor like. 
 
 desiste tandem iam grauis nimium mihi 
 instare. liceat f acere quod Seneca improbat. 
 
 (Oc^ma 600-601.) 
 
 Page 288. No danger can be thought both safe and oft. 
 
 nemo se tuto diu 
 periculis ofterre tarn crebris potest. 
 
 (^Hercules Furens 330-331.) 
 
 Whom chance hath often raissVI, chance hits at length. 
 
 quem saepe transit casus aliquando inuenit. 
 
 {Hercules Furens 332.) 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedy. 147 
 
 Page 289. Tf conquerors ought 
 
 To seek for peace, tlie conquered must perforce. 
 
 pacem reduci uelle uictori expedit, 
 
 uicto necesse est. (Hercules Furenff 372-3.) 
 
 ,, What cursed war.s (alas) were those, wherein 
 
 Eoth sou and sire should so oppose themselves! 
 Him whom you now, unhappy man, pursue, 
 If you should win, yourself would first bewail. 
 
 quale tu id bellum putas, 
 iu quo execrandum uictor adinittit uefas 
 si gaudet? hunc quern uincere infelix cupis 
 cum uiceris, lugebis. {Thebais 638-641.) 
 
 Page 290. Trust me, a huge and mighty kingdom 'tis 
 
 To bear the want of kingdom, realm, and crown, 
 
 immane regnum est posse sine regno pati. (Thyesies 470.) 
 
 Wherefore think on the doubtful state of wars. 
 Where war hath sway, he keeps no certain course : 
 Sometimes he lets the weaker to prevail, 
 Sometimes the stronger troops : hope, fear, and rage 
 With eyeless lot rules all uncertain good. 
 Most certain harms be his assured haps. 
 
 fortuna belli semper ancipiti in loco est. 
 
 quodci;mque Mars decernit : exaequat duos 
 
 licet inpares sint gladiu.s et spes et nietus 
 
 sors caeca uersafc. praemium incertum petit, 
 
 certum scelus. [Thebaic 629-633.) 
 
 „ CtAW. And fear you not so strange and uncouth wars ? 
 
 MoR. Ko, were they wars that grew from out the ground I 
 
 NvTR. non inetuis arma ? 
 
 Med. sint licet terra edita. {Medea 169.) 
 
148 TJie Influence of Seneea 
 
 Page 290 He falleth well, that failing fells his foe. 
 
 (rvntiiumi). 
 
 felix iacet, quicumque, quos odit, premit. 
 
 [Hercules Oehieun 353.) 
 
 Page 2i>l. Small manhood were to turn niy back to chance. 
 
 haud est uirile terga fortunae dai'e. {Oedhputs 86.) 
 
 ,, T bear no breast so unprepar'd for hai*ms. 
 
 non inparatum pectus aerumnis gero. {Ilippolytus 1003.) 
 
 „ Even that I hold the kingliest point of all, 
 
 To brook afflictions well : and by how much 
 The more his state and tottering empire sags. 
 To tix so much the faster foot on ground. 
 
 regium hoc ipsum reor 
 aduersa capere quoque sit dubius magis 
 status et cadentis imperi moles labat 
 hoc stare certo pressius fortem gradu. {Oedipus 82-85.) 
 
 „ No fear but doth forejudge, and many fall 
 
 Into their fate, whiles they do fear their fate. 
 
 inultis ipsum timuisse nocet. 
 
 multi ad fatum uenere suum, 
 
 dum fata timent. (Oedipits 1014-16.) 
 
 „ Yea, worse than war itself is fear of war. 
 
 peior est bello timer ipse belli. {7'hyestes 572.) 
 
 „ All things are rul'd in constant course : no fate 
 
 But is foreset : the first day leads the last. 
 
 omnia certo tramite uadunt 
 
 primusque dies dedit extremum. [Oedipiis 1008-9.) 
 
on ^lizahetlum Tragechf» 149 
 
 Page 292. He either must destroy, or be destroy 'd ; 
 
 The mischief's in the midst ; catch he that can, 
 
 aut perdet, aut peribit. in medio est scelus 
 
 positum occupanti. [TJii/entefs 203-4.) 
 
 „ Like as the craggy rock 
 
 Resists the streams and flings the waltering waves 
 Aloof, so he rejects and scorns my words. 
 
 ut dura cautes undique intractabilis 
 resistit undis et lacessentes aquas 
 longe remittit, uerba sic spernit mea. 
 
 {Hipiyolytus 588-590.) 
 
 Page 295. A troubled head : my mind revolts to fear, 
 And bears my body back. 
 
 nunc contra in metus 
 reuoluor, animus haeret ac retro cupit 
 corpus rcferre. {Thyestas 418-420.) 
 
 Page 298. false and guileful life. crafty world ! 
 Page 299. How cunningly convey'st thou fraud unseen I 
 
 Th' ambitious seemeth meek, the wanton chaste : 
 
 Disfi^uised vice for virtue vaunts itself. 
 
 ^o> 
 
 o uita fallax. obditos sensus geris 
 
 animisque pulcram turbidis faciem induis. 
 
 pudor inpudentem celat audacem quies, 
 
 pietas nefandum. {Hijypolytus 926-9.) 
 
 No place is left for prosperous plight : mishaps 
 Have room and ways to run and walk at will. 
 
 prosperis rebus locus 
 ereptus oomis, dira qua ueniant habent. (2'roas 432-3.) 
 
150 The Injivxnce of Serteca 
 
 Page 302. Death only frees the guiltless from annoys. 
 
 mors innocentem sola fortunae eripit. [Oedipus 955.) 
 
 „ Who so hath felt the force of greedy fates, 
 
 And 'dur'd the last decree of grisly death, 
 Shall never yield his captive arms to chains, 
 Nor drawn in triumph deck the victor's pomp. 
 
 quisquis sub pedibus fata, rapacia 
 et puppem posuit liminis ultimi, 
 non captiua dabit bracchia uinculis 
 nee pompae ueniet uobile ferculum. 
 
 {Hercules Oetaeun 107-110.) 
 
 ,, My youth (1 gi-a.nt) and prime of budding years, 
 
 Putt\l lip with pride ajid fond desire of praise, 
 Poreweening nought what perils might en.sue, 
 'Adventured all and raught to will the reins : 
 But now this age requires a sager course, 
 And will, advis'd by harms, to wisdom yields. 
 Those swelling spirits, the self-same cause which first 
 Set them on gog, even fortune's favours quail'd. 
 
 fateor aliquando inpotens 
 regno ac superbus altius memet tuli, 
 sed fregit illos spiritus haec quae dare 
 potuisset alii causa fortunae fauor. (Troops 275-8. y 
 
 Page 303. 'Tis safest then to dare, when most you fear. 
 
 tutissimum est inferre cum timeas gradura, 
 
 {Hi'pfolytus 730. 
 
 „ Cador. Then may you rule. 
 
 Arthur. When I may die. 
 
 Cador. To rule is much. 
 
 Arthur. Small, if we covet nought. 
 
on Elkahethan Tragedy. 151 
 
 Tant. pater, potes regnare. 
 
 Thy. cum possim mori. 
 
 Tant. summa est potestas. 
 
 Thy. nulla si cupias nihil. 
 
 {Thyestes 442-3.) 
 
 Page .304. Trust me, bad things have often glorious names. 
 
 mihi crede, falsis magna nomiiiibus placent. 
 
 ( Thyestes 448.) 
 
 Page 305. Rome puffs us up, and makes us too — too fierce. 
 
 There, Britons, there we stand, whence Eome did fall. 
 
 Troia nos tumidos facit 
 nimium ac feroces? stamus hoc Danai loco 
 unde ilia cecidit. (Troas 273-5.) 
 
 „ Thou, Lucius, mak'st me proud, thou heav'st my mind ; 
 
 But what? Shall I esteem a crown ought else 
 Than as a gorgeous crest of easeless helm. 
 Or as some brittle mould of glorious pomp, 
 Or glittering glass which, while it shines, it breaks ? 
 All this a sudden chance may dash, and not 
 Perhaps with thirteen kings, or in nine years : 
 All may not find so slow and lingering fates. 
 
 tu me superbum Priame tu tumidum facis, 
 ego esse quicquam sceptra nisi uano putem 
 f ulgore tectum nomen et falso comam 
 uinclo decentem ? casus haec i-apiet breuis 
 nee mille forean ratibus aut annis decem. 
 non omnibus fortuna tarn lenta inminet. 
 
 {Troas 279-284.) 
 
 Page 311. A hopeless fear forbids a happy fate. 
 
 miserrimura est timere cum speres nihil. {Troas 434.) 
 
152 The Influence of Seneca 
 
 Page 311 All truth, all trust, all blood, all bands be broke ! 
 
 (continued), 
 
 fratris et fas (it fides 
 iu.sque omne pereat, [Thyestes 47-48.) 
 
 Page 312. For were it light, that ev'n by birth myself 
 Was bad, I made my sister bad : nay, were 
 That also light, I have begot as bad. 
 
 hoc leue est quod sum nocens, 
 feci nocentes. hoc quoque etiamnunc leuo est, 
 peperi nocentes. [Thehais 367-9.) 
 
 Page 313. Care upon care, and every day n new 
 
 Fresh rising tempest tires the tossed minds. 
 
 alia ex aliis cura fatigat 
 
 uexatque animos noua tempestas. [Agamemnon 62-6.;.) 
 
 „ Who strives to stand in pomp of princely port. 
 
 On giddy top and culm of slippery court. 
 Finds oft a heavy fate ; whiles too much known 
 To all he falls unknown unto himself. 
 
 stet quicumque uolet potens 
 aulae culmine lubrico : 
 
 illi mors grauis incubat, 
 
 qui notus nimis onmibus, 
 
 ignotus moritur sibi. {Thyesies 391-2, 401-3.) 
 
 „ My slender bark shall creep anenst the shore, 
 
 And shun the winds that sweep the waltering waves. 
 Proud fortune overslips the safest roads. 
 Page 314. And seeks amidst the surging seas those keels, 
 
 Whose lofty tops and tacklings touch the clouds, 
 
on Elizahethan Tragedy. 153 
 
 striiigat tenuis litora puppis 
 nee magna meos aura phaselos 
 iubeat medium scindere pontum. 
 transit tutos fortuna sinus 
 medioque rates quaerit in alto 
 quarum feriunt suppara nubes. 
 
 {Hercules Oetcmis 698-703.) 
 
 Page 3 J 4: With endless cark in glorious courts and towns, 
 :o I ,; . . rj^j^^ ti-Qubled hopes and trembling fears do dwell. 
 
 turbine magno spes sollicitae 
 
 urbibus errant trepidique metus. (Hercules Furens 163-4.) 
 
 Page 315. Who forbiddeth not offence, 
 
 If well he may, is cause of such offence. 
 
 qui non uetat peccare, cum possit, iubet. {Troas 300.) 
 
 Page 317. Declare ! we joy to handle all our harms. 
 
 prose(iuere: gaudet aerumnas meus dolor 
 
 tractare totas. (Troas 1076-7.) 
 
 „ Small griefs can speak, the great astonish'd stand. 
 
 curae leues loquuntur ingentes stupent. [Hi^jpolytus 615.) 
 
 ,, Gil. What greater sin could hap, than what be pass'd? 
 
 What mischiefs could be meant, more than were 
 wrought 1 
 NxiN. And think you there's to be an end to sins 1 
 
 Noj crime proceeds : those made but. one degree. 
 
 Chor. an ultra maius aut atrocius 
 
 natura recipit ? 
 Nvnt. sceleris hunc finem putay ? 
 
 gradus est. {Thyestes lib 7.) 
 
154 2'he Infiuencc of Seneca 
 
 Page 325. He was the joy and hope, and hap, of all, 
 
 The realm's defence, the sole delay of fates ; 
 He was our wall and fort : twice thirteen years 
 His shoulders did the Briton state support. 
 
 columen patriae mora fatorum ^ 
 
 tu praesidium Phrygibus fessis 
 
 tu murus eras umerisque tuis 
 
 stetit ilia decern fulta per annos. {Troas 128-131.) 
 
 Page 332. Where each man else hath felt his several fate, 
 I only pine, oppress'd with all their fates ! 
 
 sua quemque tantum, me omnium clades premit. 
 
 {Troas 1071.) 
 
 Page 333. The hot-spurr'd youth, that forc'd the forward steeds, 
 Whiles needs he would his father's chariot guide, 
 Neglecting what his sire had said in charge : 
 The fires which first he flung about the poles, 
 Himself at last, most woful wretch, inflam'd. 
 
 ausus aeternos agitare currus 
 
 immemor metae iuuenis paternae 
 
 quos polo sparsit furiosus ignes 
 
 ipse recepit. {Medea 602-605.) 
 
 Page 334. We could not join our minds — our fates we join'd. 
 
 non licuit animos iungere, at certe licet 
 
 iunxisse fata. {Uippolytus 1192-3 ) 
 
 ,, They lov'd to live that, seeing all their realm 
 
 Thus topsy-turvy turn, would grudge to die. 
 
 uitae est auidus quisquis nou uult 
 
 muudo secum pereunte mori, {Thyestes 886-7.) 
 
on Elizabethan Tragedy. 155 
 
 Page 339. Whoe'er received such favour from above, 
 That could assure one day unto himself l 
 
 nemo tam diuos habuit fauentes, 
 
 crastinum ut possit sibi polliceri. (Thyestes 619-620.) 
 
 „ Him whom the morning found both stout and strong, 
 
 The evening left all grovelling on the ground. 
 
 quern dies uidit ueniens superbum, 
 
 hunc dies uidit fugiens iacentem. {Thyestes 613-4.) 
 
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