Editing Tragedy (section)

===Influence of Greek and Roman===
Classical Greek drama was largely forgotten in Western Europe from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the 16th century. [[Medieval theatre]] was dominated by [[mystery play]]s, [[morality play]]s, [[farce]]s and [[miracle play]]s. In Italy, the models for tragedy in the later Middle Ages were Roman, particularly the works of Seneca, interest in which was reawakened by the [[Padua]]n [[Lovato Lovati|Lovato de' Lovati]] (1241–1309).<ref name="lovati">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Lovati, Lovato de' |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia on line |publisher=Treccani |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/lovato-de-lovati |access-date=23 March 2013 |language=it-IT}}</ref> His pupil [[Albertino Mussato]] (1261–1329), also of Padua, in 1315 wrote the [[Latin verse]] tragedy ''Eccerinis'', which uses the story of the tyrant [[Ezzelino III da Romano]] to highlight the danger to Padua posed by [[Cangrande della Scala]] of [[Verona]].<ref name="muss">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Mussato, Albertino |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia on line |publisher=Treccani |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/albertino-mussato |access-date=23 March 2013 |language=it-IT}}</ref> It was the first secular tragedy written since Roman times, and may be considered the first Italian tragedy identifiable as a Renaissance work. The earliest tragedies to employ purely classical themes are the ''Achilles'' written before 1390 by [[Antonio Loschi]] of [[Vicenza]] (c.1365–1441) and the ''Progne'' of the [[Venice|Venetian]] [[Gregorio Correr]] (1409–1464) which dates from 1428 to 1429.<ref name="eb">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Drama |encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |edition=11th |volume=VIII |page=503}}</ref>

In 1515 [[Gian Giorgio Trissino]] (1478–1550) of Vicenza wrote his tragedy ''Sophonisba'' in the [[vernacular]] that would later be called Italian. Drawn from [[Livy]]'s account of [[Sophonisba]], the [[Carthage|Carthaginian]] princess who drank poison to avoid being taken by the Romans, it adheres closely to classical rules. It was soon followed by the ''Oreste'' and ''Rosmunda'' of Trissino's friend, the Florentine [[Giovanni di Bernardo Rucellai]] (1475–1525). Both were completed by early 1516 and are based on classical Greek models, ''Rosmunda'' on the ''[[Hecuba (play)|Hecuba]]'' of [[Euripides]], and ''Oreste'' on the ''[[Iphigenia in Tauris]]'' of the same author; like ''Sophonisba'', they are in Italian and in blank (unrhymed) [[hendecasyllable]]s. Another of the first of all modern tragedies is ''A Castro'', by Portuguese poet and playwright [[António Ferreira (poet)|António Ferreira]], written around 1550 (but only published in 1587) in polymetric verse (most of it being blank hendecasyllables), dealing with the murder of [[Inês de Castro]], one of the most dramatic episodes in Portuguese history. Although these three Italian plays are often cited, separately or together, as being the first regular tragedies in modern times, as well as the earliest substantial works to be written in blank hendecasyllables, they were apparently preceded by two other works in the vernacular: ''Pamfila'' or ''Filostrato e Panfila'' written in 1498 or 1508 by [[Antonio Cammelli]] (Antonio da Pistoia); and a ''Sophonisba'' by [[Galeotto del Carretto]] of 1502.<ref name="hallam">{{Cite book |last=Hallam |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M8JMAAAAcAAJ |title=Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries |date=1837 |publisher=Baudry's European Library |page=212 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="gal">{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Del Carrétto, Galeotto, dei marchesi di Savona |encyclopedia=Enciclopedia on line |publisher=Treccani |url=https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/del-carretto-galeotto-dei-marchesi-di-savona |access-date=23 March 2013 |language=it-IT}}</ref>

From about 1500 printed copies, in the original languages, of the works of [[Sophocles]], [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], and [[Euripides]], as well as comedic writers such as [[Aristophanes]], [[Terence]] and [[Plautus]], were available in Europe and the next forty years saw [[Humanism|humanists]] and poets translating and adapting their tragedies. In the 1540s, the European university setting (and especially, from 1553 on, the Jesuit colleges) became host to a Neo-Latin theatre (in Latin) written by scholars. The influence of Seneca was particularly strong in its humanist tragedy. His plays, with their ghosts, lyrical passages and rhetorical oratory, brought a concentration on rhetoric and language over dramatic action to many humanist tragedies.

The most important sources for French tragic theatre in the Renaissance were the example of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]] and the precepts of [[Horace]] and [[Aristotle]] (and contemporary commentaries by [[Julius Caesar Scaliger]] and [[Lodovico Castelvetro]]), although plots were taken from classical authors such as [[Plutarch]], [[Lives of the Twelve Caesars|Suetonius]], etc., from the Bible, from contemporary events and from short story collections (Italian, French and Spanish). The Greek tragic authors ([[Sophocles]] and [[Euripides]]) would become increasingly important as models by the middle of the 17th century. Important models were also supplied by the [[Spanish Golden Age]] playwrights [[Pedro Calderón de la Barca]], [[Tirso de Molina]] and [[Lope de Vega]], many of whose works were translated and adapted for the French stage.