Matthew Gwinne’s Nero (1603): Seneca, Academic Drama, and the Politics of Polity

Abstract

"In this essay I analyse the role of Seneca in Matthew Gwinne’s Nero: A New Tragedy, arguing that this hybrid historical tragedy exhibits a sophisticated ‘Senecan’ reception in its depiction of a tyrant whose power is rooted not only in historical ‘fact’ but also in the nefarious poetics of Senecan tragedy. From there, I suggest that an examination of the character of Seneca himself in Nero complicates classification of this play as straightforwardly ‘homiletic’, and propose that this text offers a complex response to a hot contemporary issue, the question of Divine Right and the limits of obedience-in a way that puts academic drama at the centre, rather than the periphery, of contemporary historiography and drama."