The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 17.0917  Tuesday, 17 October 2006

From: 		Cheryl Newton <
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Date: 		Monday, 16 Oct 2006 12:42:02 -0400
Subject: 	Shakespeare & Marcus Aurelius

What came first, the chicken or the egg?  I've been reading Marcus 
Aurelius' Meditations, specifically because I wanted to see how familiar 
Shakespeare was with Stoicism (Horatio in Hamlet, Marcus Brutus in J 
Caesar.)  I have accumulated several pages of notes that seem to suggest 
Shakespeare was well acquainted with Aurelius, even to the point to 
using actual translated phrases.

Can anyone advise me re the likelihood or record of Shakespeare's 
classical education?

Cheryl

[Editor's Note: You might start with Ben Ross Schneider's "Shakespeare 
was a Stoic" on the SHAKSPER fileserver: 
http://www.shaksper.net/archives/files/moral.shakes-1.html, Schneider's 
"A List of Pre-eminent Ethical Treatises of the 16th Century in 
conjectural order of importance": 
http://www.shaksper.net/archives/files/ethical.treatiss.html, and John 
Velz's <I>Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition</I>: 
http://ise.uvic.ca/Library/SCT/index.html.]



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