Editing Locrine (section)

==Sources and influences==
For the subject of his play, the author of ''Locrine'' drew upon a legendary pseudo-history of the founding of Britain. Just as [[Virgil]], in the ''[[Aeneid]],'' credited the founding of [[Ancient Rome]] to exiles from a defeated Troy, so later English writers such as [[William Caxton]] and [[Raphael Holinshed]], adapting the medieval pseudo-history of the [[Welsh people|Welsh]]-[[Normans|Norman]] author [[Geoffrey of Monmouth]], credited another band of Trojan exiles for the foundation of a British realm. It was this fanciful origin myth, applied to the English rather than the [[Brython]]s, that provided the foundation for ''Locrine'' ([[Locrinus]] in Geoffrey's ''[[Historia Regum Britanniae]]''). The author also drew material from the ''[[Mirror for Magistrates]].''<ref>Maxwell, p. 27.</ref>

The revenge tragedies of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] were a major influence on ''Locrine.'' In addition to the poetry of Spenser and Lodge noted above, critics have pointed to links with the contemporary dramas of [[Christopher Marlowe]], [[Thomas Kyd]], Robert Greene and George Peele. Links with contemporary plays and playwrights can be, and have been, variously interpreted as evidence of influence or evidence of common authorship.<ref>Logan and Smith, pp. 263–264.</ref><ref>Maxwell, pp. 64–71.</ref>