A critical edition of the first English translation of Xenophon's enormously influential fictiona... more A critical edition of the first English translation of Xenophon's enormously influential fictionalised biography, mirror for princes, and political treatise, the 'Cyropaedia'. A substantial introduction situates the translation and translator at the heart of one of the most influential intellectual networks of the mid-sixteenth century, and tracks some of the most prominent early modern uses made of the 'Cyropaedia' by writers such as Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare and lesser known writers and dramatists.
Together, this collection of essays argues for the significance and familiarity of the ancient ne... more Together, this collection of essays argues for the significance and familiarity of the ancient near east to early modern Europe, and for the continued relevance of its texts, concepts and materials for early modern Europeans. It challenges the assumed dominance of Greece and Rome in early modern European classicism (and certainly in early modern studies today) to describe a wider, more diverse classical world engaged by the early moderns across a range of disciplines. This classical world supported new forms of humanist thought, as well as new kinds of cross-cultural encounters, particularly in the sphere of European engagements with the Levant and Islamic near east of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Individual essays address European travel encounters with the sacred and secular remains of the biblical and classical past and their textualizations in antiquarian treatises, travel reports and pilgrimage treatises; the exploration of heroic figures (female and male) from the ancient near east in contemporary contexts, especially through drama; the renewed and enriched significance of figures (e.g., Assyrians and Persians) and key loci (e.g., Babylon and Persepolis), in particular transnational, disciplinary reception traditions, and even in particularly localised readings.
La historia de la recepción de un texto suele estar en conflicto con sus orígenes. Colin Burrow n... more La historia de la recepción de un texto suele estar en conflicto con sus orígenes. Colin Burrow nota la ironía de que, a pesar del gran apoyo de aquellos en el poder, la Eneida de Virgilio es tomada y traducida por los desfavorecidos durante el Renacimiento. Lo mismo es en parte cierto para la Ciropedia de Jenofonte. Este artículo examina el lugar de la Ciropedia dentro de la tradición humanista inglesa, centrándose en traducciones inglesas del texto y de sus interpretaciones dentro de la tradición speculum principis (espejo de príncipes). Esto culmina en el momento en el que el monarca reinante, el Rey Jacobo I de Inglaterra, encuentra reflejado en Ciropedia un modelo irresistible de realeza imperial.
in Eastern Resonances, ed. Ladan Niayesh and Claire Gallien (Palgrave Macmillan)., 2019
This essay studies a copy of the first English translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia held at the H... more This essay studies a copy of the first English translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia held at the Huntington Library, its first reception during the second half of the sixteenth century, and its later reception history among the great scholars and editors of Shakespeare in the eighteenth century. It argues for a more dynamic, dialogic model of literary reception than the term ‘intertextuality’ ordinarily allows. Finally, it examines the contribution this text made to the notion of Shakespeare as a native genius, free from schoolroom classicism, arguing that Richard Farmer – main proponent of this theory in his influential Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare (1767) – has been misinterpreted: Farmer presented no lone genius but a Shakespeare engaged in a rich scholarly culture of translations and translators.
This essay studies the literary politics of the reception of Spenser and Shakespeare in contempor... more This essay studies the literary politics of the reception of Spenser and Shakespeare in contemporary Irish writing, theatre and public culture. Often conceived as a project of recovery or restitution, or as a niche interest for urban élites, the mixed fortunes and contrasting politics of Shakespeare and Spenser in twentieth-and twenty-first century Ireland testify to the still sensitive politics of settlement and plantation, as well as the blind spots of nationalism and the national model of Irish literature. Focussing primarily on the current century, this essay traces crucial lines of reception back to WB Yeats and the Irish literary revival, pausing over Frank McGuinness's important play Mutabilitie (1997), which dared to imagine and provocatively recast both Shakespeare and Spenser's habitation in Ireland. That project found little support, just months before the Good Friday agreement was signed, but it stands over and guides a significant body of work in Irish drama and poetry in ways that have yet to be fully unpacked. Yet the contrast remains between the hero and the whipping boy, a congenial Shakespeare anda cruel Spenser, in literary engagements with Tudor Ireland. Although Shakespeare has generally been heralded as an enabling or emancipatory figure for Irish writers), this essay proposes that a richer and more radical politics can be accessed by the thornier route of confronting Spenser's place in Irish culture and history. The essay concludes by outlining a recent flourishing of interest in Spenser that seeks to exploit his potential for Irish culture and politics in these new, more honest but more challenging ways.
ABSTRACT
Chapter title: Xenophon in English Renaissance Literary and Political Thought
Precis: T... more ABSTRACT
Chapter title: Xenophon in English Renaissance Literary and Political Thought Precis: This chapter studies the reception of Xenophon in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. A central part of the chapter concerns the Cyropaedia, the most influential of Xenophon's works during the period, from its place in the curricula of schools and universities early in the sixteenth century and its status as one of the earliest of Greek texts to be translated into English, through its contribution to English political thought and poetic theory in the middle and later years of the century, up to its surprising later elaboration through forms of romance in the 1630s. The chapter also surveys the impact of the Anabasis on English literary and historical writing, in light of the increasing visibility of the soldier-poet figure in the late sixteenth century. The Hiero is less prominent, but a curious manuscript translation of it survives, once thought to have been undertaken by Queen Elizabeth. This chapter revisits the question of its authorship by situating it in the context of other sixteenth-century English translations and translators of Xenophon's work.
A critical edition of the first English translation of Xenophon's enormously influential fictiona... more A critical edition of the first English translation of Xenophon's enormously influential fictionalised biography, mirror for princes, and political treatise, the 'Cyropaedia'. A substantial introduction situates the translation and translator at the heart of one of the most influential intellectual networks of the mid-sixteenth century, and tracks some of the most prominent early modern uses made of the 'Cyropaedia' by writers such as Sidney, Spenser, Shakespeare and lesser known writers and dramatists.
Together, this collection of essays argues for the significance and familiarity of the ancient ne... more Together, this collection of essays argues for the significance and familiarity of the ancient near east to early modern Europe, and for the continued relevance of its texts, concepts and materials for early modern Europeans. It challenges the assumed dominance of Greece and Rome in early modern European classicism (and certainly in early modern studies today) to describe a wider, more diverse classical world engaged by the early moderns across a range of disciplines. This classical world supported new forms of humanist thought, as well as new kinds of cross-cultural encounters, particularly in the sphere of European engagements with the Levant and Islamic near east of the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Individual essays address European travel encounters with the sacred and secular remains of the biblical and classical past and their textualizations in antiquarian treatises, travel reports and pilgrimage treatises; the exploration of heroic figures (female and male) from the ancient near east in contemporary contexts, especially through drama; the renewed and enriched significance of figures (e.g., Assyrians and Persians) and key loci (e.g., Babylon and Persepolis), in particular transnational, disciplinary reception traditions, and even in particularly localised readings.
La historia de la recepción de un texto suele estar en conflicto con sus orígenes. Colin Burrow n... more La historia de la recepción de un texto suele estar en conflicto con sus orígenes. Colin Burrow nota la ironía de que, a pesar del gran apoyo de aquellos en el poder, la Eneida de Virgilio es tomada y traducida por los desfavorecidos durante el Renacimiento. Lo mismo es en parte cierto para la Ciropedia de Jenofonte. Este artículo examina el lugar de la Ciropedia dentro de la tradición humanista inglesa, centrándose en traducciones inglesas del texto y de sus interpretaciones dentro de la tradición speculum principis (espejo de príncipes). Esto culmina en el momento en el que el monarca reinante, el Rey Jacobo I de Inglaterra, encuentra reflejado en Ciropedia un modelo irresistible de realeza imperial.
in Eastern Resonances, ed. Ladan Niayesh and Claire Gallien (Palgrave Macmillan)., 2019
This essay studies a copy of the first English translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia held at the H... more This essay studies a copy of the first English translation of Xenophon’s Cyropaedia held at the Huntington Library, its first reception during the second half of the sixteenth century, and its later reception history among the great scholars and editors of Shakespeare in the eighteenth century. It argues for a more dynamic, dialogic model of literary reception than the term ‘intertextuality’ ordinarily allows. Finally, it examines the contribution this text made to the notion of Shakespeare as a native genius, free from schoolroom classicism, arguing that Richard Farmer – main proponent of this theory in his influential Essay on the Learning of Shakespeare (1767) – has been misinterpreted: Farmer presented no lone genius but a Shakespeare engaged in a rich scholarly culture of translations and translators.
This essay studies the literary politics of the reception of Spenser and Shakespeare in contempor... more This essay studies the literary politics of the reception of Spenser and Shakespeare in contemporary Irish writing, theatre and public culture. Often conceived as a project of recovery or restitution, or as a niche interest for urban élites, the mixed fortunes and contrasting politics of Shakespeare and Spenser in twentieth-and twenty-first century Ireland testify to the still sensitive politics of settlement and plantation, as well as the blind spots of nationalism and the national model of Irish literature. Focussing primarily on the current century, this essay traces crucial lines of reception back to WB Yeats and the Irish literary revival, pausing over Frank McGuinness's important play Mutabilitie (1997), which dared to imagine and provocatively recast both Shakespeare and Spenser's habitation in Ireland. That project found little support, just months before the Good Friday agreement was signed, but it stands over and guides a significant body of work in Irish drama and poetry in ways that have yet to be fully unpacked. Yet the contrast remains between the hero and the whipping boy, a congenial Shakespeare anda cruel Spenser, in literary engagements with Tudor Ireland. Although Shakespeare has generally been heralded as an enabling or emancipatory figure for Irish writers), this essay proposes that a richer and more radical politics can be accessed by the thornier route of confronting Spenser's place in Irish culture and history. The essay concludes by outlining a recent flourishing of interest in Spenser that seeks to exploit his potential for Irish culture and politics in these new, more honest but more challenging ways.
ABSTRACT
Chapter title: Xenophon in English Renaissance Literary and Political Thought
Precis: T... more ABSTRACT
Chapter title: Xenophon in English Renaissance Literary and Political Thought Precis: This chapter studies the reception of Xenophon in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. A central part of the chapter concerns the Cyropaedia, the most influential of Xenophon's works during the period, from its place in the curricula of schools and universities early in the sixteenth century and its status as one of the earliest of Greek texts to be translated into English, through its contribution to English political thought and poetic theory in the middle and later years of the century, up to its surprising later elaboration through forms of romance in the 1630s. The chapter also surveys the impact of the Anabasis on English literary and historical writing, in light of the increasing visibility of the soldier-poet figure in the late sixteenth century. The Hiero is less prominent, but a curious manuscript translation of it survives, once thought to have been undertaken by Queen Elizabeth. This chapter revisits the question of its authorship by situating it in the context of other sixteenth-century English translations and translators of Xenophon's work.
... of the tsar allowed travel to the borders of Persia and encouraged merchants and envoys such ... more ... of the tsar allowed travel to the borders of Persia and encouraged merchants and envoys such as the much-lauded Anthony Jenkinson to ... Take this representative example from the 1577 edition of Pietro Martire d'Anghiera's The History of Trauayle in the West and East Indies ...
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Books by Jane Grogan
Individual essays address European travel encounters with the sacred and secular remains of the biblical and classical past and their textualizations in antiquarian treatises, travel reports and pilgrimage treatises; the exploration of heroic figures (female and male) from the ancient near east in contemporary contexts, especially through drama; the renewed and enriched significance of figures (e.g., Assyrians and Persians) and key loci (e.g., Babylon and Persepolis), in particular transnational, disciplinary reception traditions, and even in particularly localised readings.
Papers by Jane Grogan
Chapter title: Xenophon in English Renaissance Literary and Political Thought
Precis: This chapter studies the reception of Xenophon in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. A central part of the chapter concerns the Cyropaedia, the most influential of Xenophon's works during the period, from its place in the curricula of schools and universities early in the sixteenth century and its status as one of the earliest of Greek texts to be translated into English, through its contribution to English political thought and poetic theory in the middle and later years of the century, up to its surprising later elaboration through forms of romance in the 1630s. The chapter also surveys the impact of the Anabasis on English literary and historical writing, in light of the increasing visibility of the soldier-poet figure in the late sixteenth century. The Hiero is less prominent, but a curious manuscript translation of it survives, once thought to have been undertaken by Queen Elizabeth. This chapter revisits the question of its authorship by situating it in the context of other sixteenth-century English translations and translators of Xenophon's work.
Individual essays address European travel encounters with the sacred and secular remains of the biblical and classical past and their textualizations in antiquarian treatises, travel reports and pilgrimage treatises; the exploration of heroic figures (female and male) from the ancient near east in contemporary contexts, especially through drama; the renewed and enriched significance of figures (e.g., Assyrians and Persians) and key loci (e.g., Babylon and Persepolis), in particular transnational, disciplinary reception traditions, and even in particularly localised readings.
Chapter title: Xenophon in English Renaissance Literary and Political Thought
Precis: This chapter studies the reception of Xenophon in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England. A central part of the chapter concerns the Cyropaedia, the most influential of Xenophon's works during the period, from its place in the curricula of schools and universities early in the sixteenth century and its status as one of the earliest of Greek texts to be translated into English, through its contribution to English political thought and poetic theory in the middle and later years of the century, up to its surprising later elaboration through forms of romance in the 1630s. The chapter also surveys the impact of the Anabasis on English literary and historical writing, in light of the increasing visibility of the soldier-poet figure in the late sixteenth century. The Hiero is less prominent, but a curious manuscript translation of it survives, once thought to have been undertaken by Queen Elizabeth. This chapter revisits the question of its authorship by situating it in the context of other sixteenth-century English translations and translators of Xenophon's work.