ABSTRACT
Diverse tragic thinkers influenced Samuel Taylor Coleridge: authors, critics, philosophers and performers. Anthony John Harding has made several scholarly contributions on the subject of Coleridge's Classical interests, most recently in the Oxford Handbook of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, but subjugates Classical literature and philosophy to religion. Comparably, Elinor Shaffer alludes to the Prometheus lecture as one of Coleridge's most underrated and least discussed works', but her primary interest is in Coleridge's dialogue with German philosophy rather than anything Coleridge has to say about Aeschylus or tragedy. Three aspects of studies in ancient drama during Coleridge's lifetime have particular relevance to understanding his knowledge: the increased attention to tragedy within academic studies of the Classics; the salience of modern vernacular tragedies influenced by Classical drama in Europe; and in Britain the neglect of the original Greek tragedies outside of academic environments.
