Rome and rhetoric : Shakespeare's Julius Caesar / Garry Wills.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Anthony Hecht lectures in the humanitiesPublication details: New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, c2011.Description: 186 p. ; 21 cmISBN:
  • 9780300152180 (cloth : alk. paper)
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 822.3/3 22
LOC classification:
  • PR2808 .W58 2011
Online resources:
Contents:
Caesar: mighty yet -- Brutus: rhetoric verbal and visual -- Antony: the fox knows many things -- Cassius: parallel lives.
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.
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Holdings
Item type Current library Call number Status Date due Barcode
Circulating Philip Becker Goetz Library PR2808 .W58 2011 (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Available

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Caesar: mighty yet -- Brutus: rhetoric verbal and visual -- Antony: the fox knows many things -- Cassius: parallel lives.

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.

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