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Chapter 5 - Tudor Plutarch

from Part II - Plutarch in Renaissance France and England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2022

Rebecca Kingston
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
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Summary

Chapter 5 explores the distinct dynamics of Plutarch reception in England prior to the famous 1579–1603 translations of Thomas North (1535–1604). In England at this time, Plutarch’s work was read largely through a Ciceronian lens. I reflect on the vernacular translations of Plutarch’s moral essays by Thomas Wyatt (1503–1542), Thomas Elyot (1490–1546), Thomas Blundeville (1522–1606), Richard Taverner and Queen Elizabeth I (1533–1603) as well as explore the place of Plutarch in Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). I argue that prior to the translations of Thomas North, Plutarch was read predominantly in England as a thinker whose political insights were secondary to his moral ones. While the increasing precariousness of the English realm into the latter sixteenth century changed the tone of political thought, the English never read their Plutarch in the vernacular with the same attention to the nature of public office and the public realm in the way prevalent in France earlier in the century.

Type
Chapter
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Plutarch's Prism
Classical Reception and Public Humanism in France and England, 1500–1800
, pp. 195 - 232
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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  • Tudor Plutarch
  • Rebecca Kingston, University of Toronto
  • Book: Plutarch's Prism
  • Online publication: 22 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009243490.007
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  • Tudor Plutarch
  • Rebecca Kingston, University of Toronto
  • Book: Plutarch's Prism
  • Online publication: 22 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009243490.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Tudor Plutarch
  • Rebecca Kingston, University of Toronto
  • Book: Plutarch's Prism
  • Online publication: 22 September 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009243490.007
Available formats
×