OVERVIEWS AND GENERAL STUDIES

Binns, J.W. "Seneca and Neo-Latin Tragedy in England." In Seneca, edited by C. D. N. Costa, pp. 205-34. London: Rout-ledge & Kegan Paul, 1974.

Looks at three Renaissance plays written in Latin—William Alabaster's Roxana, Matthew Gwinne's Nero, and the anonymous Perfidus Hetruscus—which he believes offer a novel perspective on Seneca's influence on Elizabethan theater.

Bishop, J. David. Seneca's Daggered Stylus: Political Code in the Tragedies. Konigstein: Verlag Anton Hain, 1985, 468 p.

Analyzes the "rhetorical undercurrent" in Seneca's plays.

Braden, Gordon. "The Rhetoric and Psychology of Power in the Dramas of Seneca." Arion 9, No. 1 (Spring 1970): 5-41.

Explores the relationship between characterization and language in Seneca's plays.

——. Renaissance Tragedy and the Senecan Tradition: Anger's Privilege. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1985, 260 p.

Discusses the style of Seneca's tragedies.

Butler, Harold Edgeworth. "Drama: Seneca." In his Post-Augustan Poetry: From Seneca to Juvenal, pp. 31-78. 1922. Reprint. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1969.

A survey of Seneca's life and works, judging his influence a positive one in drama but a negative one in rhetoric.

Canter, Howard Vernon. Rhetorical Elements in the Tragedies of Seneca. Urbana: The University of Illinois Press, 1925,185 p.

Explores various types of rhetorical figures and techniques in Seneca's plays, in the context of the "rhetorical interests" of his age.

Charlton, H. B. The Senecan Tradition in Renaissance Tragedy. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1946, 205 p.

Compares Seneca's and Euripides' tragedies and traces the influence of Seneca in the drama of Italy, France, and England.

Cunliffe, John W. The Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy. 1893. Reprint. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1965, 155 p.

Investigates the themes and characters of Seneca's plays and assesses his contributions to Renaissance drama.

Curley, Thomas F., III. The Nature of Senecan Drama. Rome: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1986, 229 p.

Concludes that Seneca's plays are "non-Stoic" and that "they exhibit a self-conscious preoccupation with the nature of the theater."

Hadas, Moses. "Seneca." In his A History of Latin Literature, pp. 243-59. New York: Columbia University Press, 1952.

Important survey of Seneca's dramatic and philosophical works.

Herrington, C. J. "Senecan Tragedy." Arion V, No. 4 (Winter 1986): 422-71.

Overview of Seneca's plays, which Herrington finds to be "actable."

Holland, Francis. Seneca. New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1920, 205 p.

A respected biography of Seneca.

Kiefer, Frederick. "Seneca Speaks in English: What the Elizabethan Translators Wrought." Comparative Literature Studies XV, No. 4 (December 1978): 372-87.

Asserts that Seneca's Elizabethan translators stressed the role of fortune and just retribution in the tragedies because they "were led to accentuate those themes in the plays which had become part of their own tragic vision."

Lloyd-Evans, Gareth. "Shakespeare, Seneca, and the Kingdom of Violence." In Roman Drama, edited by T. A. Dorey and Donald R. Dudley, pp. 123-59. New York: Basic Books, 1965.

Studies how Shakespeare transformed his Senecan sources, making "tractable much that is dramatically and theatrically intractable."

Lucas, F. L. Seneca and Elizabethan Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge at the University Press, 1922, 136 p.

Critical biography outlining the traditions on which Seneca's work was based and those which, in turn, his plays influenced.

Mendell, Clarence W. Our Seneca. 1941. Reprint. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1968, 285 p.

Examines the dramatic technique and philosophical content of Seneca's plays in an effort to demonstrate the playwright's influence on early European drama.

Miller, Frank Justus. Introduction to Seneca, Volume VIII: Tragedies I, translated by Frank Justus Miller, pp. vii-xii. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979.

Stresses the historical importance of Seneca's dramas. This survey was first published in 1917.

Pratt, Norman T. Seneca's Dramas. Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 1983, 229 p.

Argues that Seneca's drama fuses several philosophic viewpoints of the author's time: "Stoic psychology and ethic with Roman pathos and the preparedness for death characteristic of Seneca's century."

Schlegel, Augustus William. "Lecture XV: Roman Theatre." In his Course of Lectures on Dramatic Art and Literature, edited by A. J. W. Morrison, translated by John Black, pp. 200-12. 1846. Reprint by AMS Press, 1965.

Evaluation of Seneca by one of the pre-eminent Romantic critics. Schlegel disparages Seneca's dramas, censuring his "display of bombast, which distorts everything great into nonsense."

Sørensen, Villy. Seneca: The Humanist at the Court of Nero, translated by W. Glyn Jones. Canongate Publishing Ltd., 1984, 352 p.

Focuses on several of the tragedies, asserting that Seneca was "more interested in the psychological motives of his characters" than Aeschylus was.

Watling, E. F: Introduction to Seneca: "Thyestes, " "Phaedra, " "The Trojan Women, " "Oedipus, " with "Octavia, " translated by E. F. Watling, pp. 7-39. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1966.

Describes Roman culture in Seneca's time and suggests ways of approaching Seneca's works today.

MAD HERCULES

Henry, Denis, and Walker, B. 'The Futility of Action: A Study of Seneca's Hercules Furens." Classical Philology LX, No. 1 (January 1965): 11-22.

Concludes that, while all Seneca's plays contain the idea of life as a preparation for death, the theme is most strongly stated in Mad Hercules.

Shelton, Jo-Ann. Seneca's "Hercules Furens": Theme, Structure and Style. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1978, 95 p.

Examines the play for evidence of Seneca's originality as an interpreter of myth.

THE TROJAN WOMEN

Fantham, Elaine. Seneca's "Troades. " Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1982, 412 p.

Provides, in addition to a translation of the text, commentary, background on Seneca and his times, and discussion of his literary progenitors and peers.

MEDEA

Henry, Denis, and Walker, B. "Loss of Identity: Medea Superest?: A Study of Seneca's Medea." Classical Philology LXII (July 1967): 169-81.

A comparison of Seneca's Medea with that of Euripides.

Lawall, Gilbert. "Seneca's Medea: The Elusive Triumph of Civilization." In Arktouros: Hellenic Studies Presented to Bernard M. W. Knox on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday, edited by Glen W. Bowersock, Walter Burkert, and Michael C. J. Putnam, pp. 419-26. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1979.

Develops the idea that Medea "is an exploration of the clash between raw, untamed nature and man's attempt to impose political and technological control over his world."

PHAEDRA

Henry, Denis, and Walker, B. "Phantasmagoria and Idyll: An Element of Seneca's Phaedra" Greece & Rome XIII (April 1966): 223-39.

States that despite being Seneca's best-known play, Phaedra has "suffered from inadequate or misdirected critical attention," largely because of comparisons to the Hippolytus of Euripides or concentration on Seneca's elaborate rhetoric.

Segal, Charles. Language and Desire in Seneca's "Phaedra. " Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986, 240 p.

Psychological interpretation of the play, integrating such elements as imagery and symbolism, character, and structure. Segal also explores the theme of the Golden Age and the relationship between language and the unconscious.

THYESTES

Poe, Joe Park. "An Analysis of Seneca's Thyestes." Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 100 (1969): 355-76.

Detailed examination of Thyestes, proposing that the main theme of the play is the "natural human impulse to violence and ultimately to self-destruction."

Additional coverage of Seneca's life and career is contained in the following source published by Gale Research: Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism, Vol. 6.