Sophocles' Antigone in Early Modern English Drama

This book offers the first comprehensive account of the reception of Sophocles' Antigone in early modern English drama, with particular attention to Thomas Watson's Latin translation of the play and Thomas May's first extant adaptation in English. Despite the tradition of other female tragic figures such as Hecuba, Iphigenia, or Medea, Antigone is the only Greek tragic woman to whom two English authors devoted an eponymous play. The volume investigates the reasons for the privileged reception of Sophocles' Antigone in early modern England in comparison with other Greek tragedies. By situating Watson's and May's versions within their respective cultural, theoretical, literary, and political contexts, the book offers a fresh reappraisal of these undervalued works and argues that Sophocles' Antigone attained particular prominence in early modern English drama owing to the play's relevance to contemporary events and debates. Adopting a historicist approach within reception studies and combining it with intellectual history, the volume addresses two challenges posed by Watson's and May's Antigones. First, by blending Sophocles' tragedy with other classical sources and contemporary models, they challenge modern assumptions about translation and adaptation, thereby revealing the flexibility of the early modern conception of these practices. Second, by engaging with topical debates and potentially alluding to contemporary events, the two plays mobilize the intrinsic political implications of Sophocles' Antigone in ways that both align with and destabilize post-Idealist interpretations of the tragedy. In Watson's and May's versions, the myth of Antigone resonates with topical themes in early modern England such as the extent of sovereignty, Natural Law, and forms of rebellion to established authority, including martyrdom. As direct and declared engagements with the Sophoclean play, these plays provide ideal case studies for examining the close relationship between politics and drama in early modern England.