LIVES OF CORIOLANUS, IN NORTH'S TRANSLATION EDITED WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY R. H. CARR, B.A. TRIN. COLL. OXON. OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON PRESS 1906 PREFACE THIS volume is designed first as an introduction to the complete Lives of Plutarch in Sir Thomas North's splendid version, and secondly as an attempt to provide the student with a critical edition of the sources of Shakespeare's three Roman plays. Shakespeare's indebtedness to North is discussed in every modern edition of these plays, but no editor of North hitherto has catered directly for the Shakespearean student, by supplying lineal references from the prose to the verse text. The system adopted in the Notes is that mere references are given where Shakespeare appears to have borrowed subject-matter only, and full quotations where he appears to have followed North's actual language. An Index is appended, containing a list of the references to the plays, arranged in order under Act and Scene. All references are to the Oxford Shakespeare, edited by Mr. W. J. Craig. In the Text the spelling has been modernized throughout, subject to the preservation of all interesting or obsolete forms. The punctuation also has been revised and corrected for the sake of clearness, though the characteristic colon is preserved to the exclusion of the modern semi-colon. The reasons for this tampering with the text are two-fold. First, it is a frank concession to the reader's convenience. Black letter, long s's, and sixteenth century spelling attract the bibliophile, but too often hamper and annoy the student. Secondly, modernization helps to bring author and reader nearer together. Every book that is worth reading from other than antiquarian motives makes a truer appeal to literary taste when it is dressed in modern guise; and it may be remembered that Charles Lamb's perfect instinct demanded an old edition of the Anatomy of Melancholy but preferred a modern Shakespeare. The account of Sir T. North's life in the Introduction (§ II) owes much to the invaluable Dictionary of National Biography, supplemented as regards his problematical connexion with Peterhouse by the kindness of Dr. T. A. Walker, Fellow of that College. My acknowledgements are due also to many previous writers on North's Plutarch, especially to INTRODUCTION I. GENERAL. THE process whereby the Lives of Plutarch became accessible to English readers is one of the most attractive of literary stories. Rescued from oblivion by the eager hands of the pioneers of the Renaissance, the Parallel Lives of the old philosopher of Chaeronea were quickly circulated in the fifteenth century among men of culture in Latin versions. The earliest printed edition known is a Latin translation published at Rome in 1470. This, or a later edition in the same language, came into the hands of a famous French ecclesiastic, Jacques Amyot, about the middle of the sixteenth century, and from it he made a French translation which he published in the year 1559. The Lives, as interpreted by Amyot, won ready acceptance among French readers, and soon passed into England to form the basis of the famous English version of Sir Thomas North, part of which is reproduced in this volume. North's work is thus removed from the original Greek by no less than three separate stages. But, astonishing as it may seem, these successive processes have not impaired the vitality, or dulled the brilliance, of the original work. The soul of the book remains unaltered by its various transmigrations. It is some matter for regret, perhaps, that the Lives are so seldom read in the original. The tendency of school curricula to exclude all authors who are outside the strictly classic pale has obvious advantages on the side of syntactical and linguistic training. On the other hand, it militates against anything like a comprehensive view of literature, ignoring, as it does of necessity, so much that is of real interest and importance in Greek and Roman literature. Moreover, the qualities of Plutarch's work appeal in a special degree to the modern reader. His easy, chatty style, |
