ABSTRACT

Translating Classical Plays is a selection of edited papers by J. Michael Walton published and delivered between 1997 and 2014. Of the four sections, each with a new introduction, the first two cover the history of translating classical drama into English and specific issues relating to translation for stage performance. The latter two are concerned with the three Greek tragedians, and the Greek and Roman writers of old and new comedy, ending with the hitherto unpublished text of a Platform Lecture given at the National Theatre in London comparing the plays of Plautus with Sondheim’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The volume is an invaluable resource for anyone involved in staging or translating classical drama.

part 1|64 pages

Translation in English

chapter 1|15 pages

‘An agreeable innovation'

Play and translation Translation and the Classic (2008)

chapter 2|6 pages

Theobald and Lintott

A footnote on early translations of Greek tragedy Arion (2009)

chapter 3|13 pages

Benson, ‘Mushri' and the first English Oresteia

Arion (2006)

chapter 4|22 pages

Business as usual

Plautus' Menaechmi in English translation Ancient Comedy and Reception (2014)

part 2|54 pages

Processes and issues

chapter 5|17 pages

‘Good manners, decorum or the public peace'

Greek drama and the censor Modes of Censorship and Translation (2007)

chapter 6|17 pages

Vacuum or agenda

The translator's dilemma Classical and Modern Literature (2007)

chapter 7|14 pages

Transfusion or transgression

The translator as director in Medea Proceedings of the X and XI Meetings of the ECCD at Delphi

part 3|70 pages

Greek tragedy

chapter 8|15 pages

‘Enough give in it'

Translating the classical play The Blackwell Companion to Classical Receptions

chapter 9|18 pages

‘Men as they ought to be'

Sophocles in translation Brill's Companion to Sophocles (2012)

chapter 10|13 pages

The translator's invisibility

Handling irony GRAMMA (2014)

chapter 11|18 pages

Hit or myth

The Irish and Greek tragedy Methuen Drama (2002)

part 4|56 pages

Greek and Roman comedy

chapter 12|13 pages

The line or the gag

Translating classical comedy CTIA Occasional Papers (2006)

chapter 13|9 pages

Aristophanes and the theatre of burlesque

The Comparative Drama Conference, 2005

chapter 14|17 pages

Realizing Menander

Get-in at the Getty DRAMA (1997)

chapter 15|12 pages

Shtick or twist

Plautus to the musical National Theatre Platform Lecture (2004)