SENECA IN ENGLISH

The distinguished critic Christopher Ricks is the general editor of this splendid new series: volumes that select from the many translations of classic foreign authors, and provide both an introduction in English, as well as a lesson in how translation has changed over the decades. Given Seneca's importance to the style and substance of Renaissance English drama, it's not surprising that many of the Roman tragedian's translators flourished during the 16th century, when Wyatt, Kyd, Queen Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Gascoigne, and Tourneur--to name just some of the many sampled here--sought to capture the violence in Seneca's oratorical style. Though translated throughout later centuries, the occasionally bombastic playwright has flourished again only in modern versions, here represented by Eliot, Ted Hughes, and the very recent work of Kelly Cherry and Dana Gioia.