Hypertragedy
Hypertragedy
When English theatres reopened in 1660 following the restoration of the monarchy, Seneca remained a resource for tragedians. In particular, playwright Nathaniel ‘Mad Nat’ Lee made extensive use of senecan tropes and modes of expression. His early work Nero draws on the pseudo-Senecan Octavia, and later in his career he collaborated with John Dryden on a version of Oedipus. The use of densely figured language to express passion, resulting in a feeling of excess, may be termed ‘hypertragedy’. But this important aspect of the senecan aesthetic was entering a period of decline as developments in scenographic technology began to prioritize spectacle over speech.
Keywords: Nathaniel Lee, John Dryden, Restoration, Oedipus, Nero, regicide, gender, spectacle
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .