The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 16.1562  Tuesday, 20 September 2005

From: 		Jack Heller <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: 		Monday, 19 Sep 2005 08:44:56 -0500 (EST)
Subject: 	Greek Drama Available in Elizabethan/Jacobean England

Listmembers:

I don't have access to EEBO and the STC which might help in answering 
this question: How readily available would translations of Sophocles, 
Euripides, and Aristophanes have been to Shakespeare and his 
contemporaries? I've been thinking about this after reading Oedipus at 
Colonus-which has some similarities to King Lear though I don't want to 
argue that it was a source or analogue for Shakespeare's play. However, 
it seems more likely that names from Euripides's Hippolytus would have 
become names in Midsummer Night's Dream. Of course, some dramatists, 
notably George Chapman, could read Greek texts. But I'm not ready to 
assume that Shakespeare's less Greek would have had him reading Eurpides 
untranslated.

Your comments will be appreciated.

Jack Heller

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