Octavia: Difference between revisions

(Created page with "Anon. (1591) ==Historical Records== ===Disbursements of Christ Church, Oxford=== '''25 December 1590 to 25 March 1591.''' :To the Bachilers when they played octavia...")
 
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As Elliott notes, "This entry was also written on f. 91 and cancelled" (''REED: Oxford'', [http://archive.org/stream/oxfordREED02elliuoft#page/n535/mode/2up 2:1109]).
As Elliott and Nelson note, "This entry was also written on f. 91 and cancelled" (''REED: Oxford'', [http://archive.org/stream/oxfordREED02elliuoft#page/n535/mode/2up 2:1109]).




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==Theatrical Provenance==
==Theatrical Provenance==


Performed 1590-91 by the students of Christ Church, Oxford.
Performed 1590-91 by students of Christ Church, Oxford.




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Perhaps the most likely source for the play performed at Christ Church was ''Octavia'', the Latin tragedy included in the Senecan canon. In the play, Octavia is unhappily married to the tyrannical Nero, whose injustices  and affair with Poppaea have pushed the Roman people to the threshold of revolt. Exhorted by his tutor Seneca to change his course, Nero is unpersuaded and resolves to divorce Octavia. A riotous protest ensues, and the furious Nero responds by ordering that Rome be burned and Octavia, whom he assumes to have been an instigator of the riot, exiled and executed. The play ends with Octavia resigning herself to death.
Perhaps the most likely source for the play performed at Christ Church was ''Octavia'', the Latin tragedy included in the Senecan canon. In the play, Octavia is unhappily married to the tyrannical Nero, whose injustices  and affair with Poppaea have pushed the Roman people to the threshold of revolt. Exhorted by his tutor Seneca to change his course, Nero is unpersuaded and resolves to divorce Octavia. A riotous protest ensues, and the furious Nero responds by ordering that Rome be burned and Octavia, whom he assumes to have been an instigator of the riot, exiled and executed. The play ends with Octavia resigning herself to death.


''Octavia'' was widely available in editions of Seneca's tragedies; Thomas Nuce's English translation was first published in 1566 and again in the collected edition of ''Seneca His Tenne Tragedies'' in 1581. (Modern scholars no longer attribute the play to Seneca himself, not least on the grounds that he appears as a character in the play.) It may be that the Oxford students simply offered a performance of the Senecan play in Latin, perhaps with verses added as when Seneca's ''Hippolytus'' was staged at Christ Church (on 8 February 15920 with Latin additions by William Gager (''Panniculus Hippolyto Assutus'').  
''Octavia'' was widely available in editions of Seneca's tragedies; Thomas Nuce's English translation was first published in 1566 and again in the collected edition of ''Seneca His Tenne Tragedies'' in 1581. (Modern scholars no longer attribute the play to Seneca himself, not least on the grounds that he appears as a character in the play.) It may be that the Oxford students simply offered a performance of the Senecan play in Latin, perhaps with verses added as when Seneca's ''Hippolytus'' was staged at Christ Church (on 8 February 15920) with Latin additions by William Gager (''Panniculus Hippolyto Assutus'').  


Another candidate for the eponymous heroine could be the sister of Augustus. Samuel Brandon's ''The Tragicomedy of the Virtuous Octavia'' (published in 1598) depicts her tortured marriage to Mark Antony, his affair with Cleopatra, and his eventual suicide following the defeat at Actium. A self-declared "tragicomedy," the play ends with Octavia's determination to face her misfortune stoically: "Griefe is enchain'd with griefe, and woe with woe, / Yet must I beare it with a patient minde" (sig. F5r).
Another candidate for the eponymous heroine could be the sister of Augustus. Samuel Brandon's ''The Tragicomedy of the Virtuous Octavia'' (published in 1598) depicts her tortured marriage to Mark Antony, his affair with Cleopatra, and his eventual suicide following the defeat at Actium. A self-declared "tragicomedy," the play ends with Octavia's determination to face her misfortune stoically: "Griefe is enchain'd with griefe, and woe with woe, / Yet must I beare it with a patient minde" (sig. F5r).

Revision as of 13:20, 6 November 2016

Anon. (1591)


Historical Records

Disbursements of Christ Church, Oxford

25 December 1590 to 25 March 1591.


To the Bachilers when they played octavia           xx s.


[Marginal note:]
Expenses in
comoediis &
tragoedis


(Oxford, Christ Church Archives, xii.b.33, f. 28v; qtd. REED: Oxford, 1:213)


As Elliott and Nelson note, "This entry was also written on f. 91 and cancelled" (REED: Oxford, 2:1109).


Theatrical Provenance

Performed 1590-91 by students of Christ Church, Oxford.


Probable Genre(s)

Latin (?) Play (Harbage).


Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

Perhaps the most likely source for the play performed at Christ Church was Octavia, the Latin tragedy included in the Senecan canon. In the play, Octavia is unhappily married to the tyrannical Nero, whose injustices and affair with Poppaea have pushed the Roman people to the threshold of revolt. Exhorted by his tutor Seneca to change his course, Nero is unpersuaded and resolves to divorce Octavia. A riotous protest ensues, and the furious Nero responds by ordering that Rome be burned and Octavia, whom he assumes to have been an instigator of the riot, exiled and executed. The play ends with Octavia resigning herself to death.

Octavia was widely available in editions of Seneca's tragedies; Thomas Nuce's English translation was first published in 1566 and again in the collected edition of Seneca His Tenne Tragedies in 1581. (Modern scholars no longer attribute the play to Seneca himself, not least on the grounds that he appears as a character in the play.) It may be that the Oxford students simply offered a performance of the Senecan play in Latin, perhaps with verses added as when Seneca's Hippolytus was staged at Christ Church (on 8 February 15920) with Latin additions by William Gager (Panniculus Hippolyto Assutus).

Another candidate for the eponymous heroine could be the sister of Augustus. Samuel Brandon's The Tragicomedy of the Virtuous Octavia (published in 1598) depicts her tortured marriage to Mark Antony, his affair with Cleopatra, and his eventual suicide following the defeat at Actium. A self-declared "tragicomedy," the play ends with Octavia's determination to face her misfortune stoically: "Griefe is enchain'd with griefe, and woe with woe, / Yet must I beare it with a patient minde" (sig. F5r).


References to the Play

None known.


Critical Commentary

Boas describes the play as "pseudo-Senecan (?)" (389). He also dates the play, apparently mistakenly, to 1588.

Norland states that the play "was very likely the classical Latin play ascribed to Seneca," noting also that "Seneca's Hippolytus with additions by William Gager was performed at Oxford in 1591/2" (47).


For What It's Worth

(Content welcome.)


Works Cited

Boas, Frederick S. University Drama in the Tudor Age. Oxford: Clarendon, 1914.
Brandon, Samuel. The Tragicomoedi of the vertuous Octauia. London, 1598. STC 3544.
Norland, Howard B. Neoclassical Tragedy in Elizabethan England. Newark: U of Delaware P, 2009.
Heywood, Jasper, et al., trans. Seneca His Tenne Tragedies. London, 1581. STC 22221.
Nuce, Thomas, trans. The ninth Tragedie of Lucius Anneus Seneca called Octauia. London, 1566. STC 22229.


Site created and maintained by Misha Teramura, Reed College; updated 6 November 2016.