Abstrakt
Louis MacNeice translated Aeschylus’ Agamemnon in such a way that some were reminded of T.S. Eliot’s play
Murder in the Cathedral. Both plays were staged in the mid-1930s in England, and the authors corresponded
with each other. At first sight, this is the story of a minor figure imitating greater stylishness. A closer analysis,
however, reveals that Eliot drew largely on Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. This is new, yet on second thoughts, not
surprising: being obsessed by heritage and tradition, Eliot was surely a fervent reader of classical tragedies,
perhaps even a fine connoisseur. Nevertheless, there is another story, lurking in the background so to say, this
time about a great poet indebted to a subtle and sensitive mind.
Bibliografia
Allison 2010: J. Allison, Letters of Louis MacNeice, London 2010.
Armitage/Clark 1973: C.M. Armitage, N. Clark, A Bibliography of the Works of Louis MacNeice, Edmonton 1973.
Dawe 1963: R.D. Dawe, Inconsistency of Plot and Character in Aeschylus, “Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society” 9, 1963, 21–62.
Duggan 2004: A.J. Duggan, Edward Grim, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online), 2004.
Eliot 1937: T.S. Eliot, Murder in the Cathedral, London 1937 (third ed.).
Eliot 1962: T.S. Eliot, Collected Plays, London 1962.
Eliot 2009: T.S. Eliot, Letters I: 1898–1922, London 2009 (revised ed.) Green 1960: P. Green, Some Versions of Aeschylus: A Study of Tradition and Method in Translating
Classical Poetry, in: P.G., Essays in Antiquity, London 1960, 185–215.
Leech 1969: C. Leech, Tragedy, New York 1969.
Lewis 1934: W. Lewis, Men Without Art, London 1934.
Lucas 1959: D.W. Lucas, The Greek Tragic Poets, London 1959 (second ed.).
MacNeice 1938: L. MacNeice, Modern Poetry: A Personal Essay, Oxford 1938.
MacNeice 1949: L. MacNeice, Autumn Journal: A poem, London 1949.
MacNeice 1965: L. MacNeice, The Strings Are False, London 1965.
MacNeice 2007: L. MacNeice, Collected Poems, London 2007.
MacNeice 2008: L. MacNeice, The Agamemnon of Aeschylus, London 2008 (first published in 1936, reissued in the Faber Finds-collection).
Malamud 1992: R. Malamud, T.E. Eliot’s Drama: A Research and Production Sourcebook, New York 1992.
Popp 1971: H. Popp, Das Amoibaion, in: W. Jens (ed.), Bauformen der griechischen Tragödie, München 1971, 221–75.
Rose 1963: W.K. Rose, The Letters of Wyndham Lewis, London 1963.
Scott-Kilvert 1954: I.S. Scott-Kilvert, Melpomene in the West, “Times Literary Supplement”
8.1954, 537–538.
Spender 1976: S. Spender, T.S. Eliot, New York 1976.
Stallworthy 1995: J. Stallworthy, Louis MacNeice, London 1995.
Taplin 1977: O. Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus: The Dramatic Use of Exits and Entrances in Greek Tragedy, Oxford 1977.
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