Shakespeare and the Constant Romans [Hardcover]

Shakespeare's Romans are intensely concerned with constancy. Geoffrey Miles traces the Stoic origins of this Roman principle of being always the same and explores the varying forms it takes in writers such as Cicero, Seneca, and Montaigne. Building on this genealogy of constancy, Miles reads Shakespeare's Roman plays as reworkings of three figures found in Plutarch: the constant Brutus, the inconstant Antony, and the obstinate Coriolanus. The tragedies of these characters act out the attractions, flaws, and self-contradictions of constancy, and the tragicomic failure of the Roman hope that were man/ But constant, he were perfect.

Excellent...A book I wish I had read when writing aboutCoriolanusandAntony and Cleopatra; I urge it on all those writing about those plays orJulius Caesarin future....It is rare to find such a persuasive combination of tight intellectual history, insightful philosophic analysis, and lively literary criticism. --Studies in English Literature

Well argued, with copious notes and comprehensive bibliography...Shakespeare and the Constant Romansfills an important niche in the study of Shakespeare and the classical tradition. --Sixteenth Century Journal.

A solid, clearly written piece of scholarship on Stoicism and its influence, which deserves a place in university, college, and seminary libraries. --Religious Studies Review

This is a very fine study....Shakespeare and the Constant Romansclearly has many virtues. It is comprehensive in its scholarship, subtle in its readings of individual plays, and thorough in its presentation of Stoicism. --Modern Philology