Rome and rhetoric : Shakespeare's Julius Caesar /

Renaissance plays and poetry in England were saturated with the formal rhetorical twists that Latin education made familiar to audiences and readers. Yet a formally educated man like Ben Jonson was unable to make these ornaments come to life in his two classical Roman plays. Garry Wills, focusing hi...

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Bibliographic Details
Online Access: Full text (MCPHS users only)
Main Author: Wills, Garry, 1934- (Author)
Format: Electronic eBook
Language:English
Published: New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 2011
Series:Anthony Hecht lectures in the humanities.
Subjects:
Local Note:ProQuest Ebook Central
Description
Summary:Renaissance plays and poetry in England were saturated with the formal rhetorical twists that Latin education made familiar to audiences and readers. Yet a formally educated man like Ben Jonson was unable to make these ornaments come to life in his two classical Roman plays. Garry Wills, focusing his attention on Julius Caesar, here demonstrates how Shakespeare so wonderfully made these ancient devices vivid, giving his characters their own personal styles of Roman speech. Shakespeare also makes Rome present and animate by casting his troupe of experienced players to make their strengths shine through the historical facts that Plutarch supplied him with. The result is that the Rome English-speaking people carry about in their minds is the Rome that Shakespeare created for them. And that is even true, Wills affirms, for today's classical scholars with access to the original Roman sources.--From publisher description.
Physical Description:1 online resource (186 pages)
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:9780300178494
0300178492
Source of Description, Etc. Note:Print version record.