Abstract
This article synthesises historical scholarship on early modern friendship and classical republicanism to argue that Cicero, through the ideal of ‘republican friendship’, exerted a much greater influence over early modern understandings of Roman history than has previously been realised. Exploring Roman plays by William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, with reference to other classical dramas, it examines how dramatists used the Ciceronian ideal of republican friendship to create a historical framework for the political changes they were portraying, with Jonson using it to inform a Tacitean perspective on Roman history and Shakespeare scrutinising and challenging the nature of republican friendship itself.
Highlights
Resume Cet article propose une synthese de la critique historique sur l’amitieet le republicanisme classique dans l’ere de la premiere modernite, demontrant qu’atravers l’ideal de ‘l’amitierepublicaine’, Ciceron a exerceune influence bien plus importante sur la perception de l’histoire romaine acette epoque que ce qui a eteenvisagejusqu’ici
The classical tradition formed one influential way of conceptualising friendship.[4]. This was especially the case when considering the relationship between friendship and politics, because the republicanism of Cicero, upon whose writings much early modern thought about friendship was based, linked this classical strand of friendship discourse to political ideas of equality, liberty and social harmony, forming the cornerstone of ‘republican friendship’
Focusing on the relationship between Ciceronian friendship and political republicanism is important, because this conjunction of classical conceptions of male friendship and republicanism has been more often mentioned than thoroughly investigated by early modern scholars
Summary
Classical conceptions of friendship were very influential in early modern England.[16]. While John Wilkinson’s translation of Aristotle emphasised proportionality over equality, John Tiptoft’s rendition of De Amicitia retained Cicero’s insistence upon equality between friends.[25] Early modern English readers could access many similar ideas to Aristotle’s theory of friendship through Cicero’s work, albeit with a Roman republican colouring. An active civic model of republican friendship, drawing on Cicero as well as Aristotle, emphasised the equality of citizens and the importance of political engagement, which early modern English writers used to suggest an ideal of friendship’s positive political role, whether in a constitutional republic like Rome’s or in the ‘monarchical-republican’ elements of early Elizabethan England. The following section examines plays set in early imperial Rome, scrutinising how republican friendship was portrayed under the monarchical and tyrannical structures of the empire, while the s section ‘Republican friendship in plays on the Roman Republic’ explores whether any traces of the Ciceronian ideal of active republican friendship can be found in plays about the late Roman republic
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
