Livy in Early Jacobean Drama

Abstract

In an earlier issue of this journal (Vol. 13, 2004), I examined the reception of the Roman historian Livy in Elizabethan and Jacobean England through Philemon Holland's translation. I argued that Livy was a more controversial and thought-provoking writer in this period than has hitherto been supposed. He was admired for his elegant writing, but criticized for inventing speeches; he was a source of political wisdom, but Machiavelli had presented him as a fount of potentially threatening republican ideals; he provided examples of courage, wisdom, and justice, but also approved of cruel punishment and severity that was incompatible with Christianity. In this paper I wish to explore Livy's Jacobean legacy further, through a study of certain playwrights' responses to his political and ethical challenges. I will pay particular attention to four works: Apius and Virginia, an interlude from 1575 by a certain R.B.; another version of the same story, Appius and Virginia, by John Webster and Thomas Heywood; Heywood's Rape ofLucrece; and John Marston's Sophonisba. I will first demonstrate that Livy's Roman History was a source used by these dramatists. I will also examine the plays' political import and their attitudes towards the severity of Roman discipline. As we shall see, Livy's material was both significant and problematic: the difficulties Holland attempted to deny are readily apparent in the dramatic works.