Seneca's Tragedies, Vol. 1 of 2: With an English Translation —— With an English Translation

-----

ISBN: 9781331150039 出版年：2018 页码：590 Frank Justus Miller Forgotten Books

He started from the Stoic system, but in him its barren austerity was toned down, the harshness softened, its crotchets laid aside; nor did he disdain additions from other systems. His paramount pur pose is the forcible and eloquent presentation and advocacy of moral principles conducive to the benefit of the individual and of society. A group of nine tragedies has also come down to us, assigned by tradition to Senecan authorship. A tenth tragedy, the Octavia, has been transmitted with the other nine, but there is fairly good ground for doubting its authenticity.1 As to the nine, there is no good reason for not considering them the work of Seneca the Philosopher. They agree in general with the philosophical principles and spirit of the prose works, exhibit the same stylistic peculiarities (allowing for the natural difference between prose essay and dramatic poetry) and by their clear stylistic agreement among themselves can readily be accepted as the work of one hand. It should in fairness be said, however, that all critics are not in agreement as to the assignment of all the nine tragedies to Seneca.