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5 - War and the Classical World

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 August 2021

By
Maggie Kilgour
Edited by
David Loewenstein  and
Paul Stevens
David Loewenstein
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania State University, University Park
Paul Stevens
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

The classics not only gave Shakespeare the images of war that he drew on in plays based on classical subjects, they also shaped his representation of war more generally. His knowledge of the place of war in the ancient world influenced his view of the ways in which that past informed his own present. Topics in this chapter include the relation of the classical past to the English present, the relation between foreign and domestic war, and the relation between war and peace. What happens when the hero comes home (the subject of Greek and Senecan tragedy): when Titus finishes killing, Antony lets his hair down, Hector relaxes with his family, Achilles withdraws into his tent, Tarquin takes a night off, or Coriolanus tries to turn politician. How also does war inform peace and, further, what is the relation between the “arts” of war and the arts of peace, especially literature?

Keywords

epicVirgilRomearmaVenus and Marswar and peace
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and War , pp. 75 - 91
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Bate, Jonathan. How the Classics Made Shakespeare, Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
Burrow, Colin. Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Cantor, Paul A. Shakespeare’s Roman Trilogy: The Twilight of the Ancient World, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2017.Google Scholar
James, Heather. Shakespeare’s Troy: Drama, Politics, and the Translation of Empire, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kahn, Coppélia. Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds, and Women, New York, Routledge, 1997.Google Scholar
Martindale, Charles, and Taylor, A. B. (eds.). Shakespeare and the Classics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miola, Robert S. Shakespeare’s Rome, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tudeau-Clayton, Margaret. Jonson, Shakespeare and Early Modern Virgil, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1998.Google Scholar

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