Download or read book The Ten Tragedies of Seneca written by Lucius Seneca and published by . This book was released on 2017-09-03 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This complete collection contains a group of nine tragedies by Seneca, as well as a tenth tragedy, Octavia, but there is fairly good ground for doubting Seneca is the author of the later.Seneca, for all his rhetorical liabilities, has some very considerable literary assets. The choruses are, indeed, often prosy, malapropos and disappointing; but here and there we find in these the ring of true poetry, exquisite in its descriptions of natural scenery, genuine in its human touches, and appropriate to the dramatic situation. Such is the chorus in Hercules Furens (lines 125 ff".), in Troades (1009 ff.), in Medea (301 ff.), Agamemnon (52 ff.). He has in his recitativo passages admirable descriptions of natural scenery and simple life, as in Hippolytus (482 ff.) ; spirited expressions of lofty sentiment, as in Hercules Furens (925 ff.) ; speeches expressing deep and real passion, as throughout the first half of the Phoenissae, in Medea (199 ff), Hercules Furens (1321 if), Hippolytus (195 ff"., 566 ff., 671 ff.), Hercules Oetaeus (1377 ff.), Troades (766 ff., 888 ff.) ; and numerous sententiae, terse, epigrammatic statements of general ethical truths, which are well worth remembrance and quotation. The reader will find many echoes of Vergil, Horace, and Ovid scattered through the plays, which serve to claim the tragedies for Latin literature not- withstanding their Greek models. Looking in the other direction, we find that the influence of Seneca's tragedies upon succeeding literature, especially upon English literature in the case of pre-Elizabethan and Elizabethan drama, is very great. A glance at the bibliography following will show something of the extent and importance of this influence.