AUCKLAND INSTITUTE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16010, 31 August 1915, Page 5

AUCKLAND INSTITUTE

ELIZABETHAN LITERATURE

"Mvrn interest was taken in a lecture delivered by Professor H. S. Dettmann, under the auspices of the Auckland Institute, at St. Andrew's Hall, last evening. Professor Dettmann took as his subject '"The Elizabethan Debt To Rome," and dealt most interestingly with the effect of the literature of Rome upon the works of the Elizabethan dramatists. The Hon. E. Mitchelson presided.

The debt of the writers of the Elizabethan period, particularly Shakespere, to the Romans, Professor Dettmann maintained, was very much larger than was luually admitted. The British race had much in common with the Romans, for they both were empire-builders,, colonisers and practical races, and therefore it was not surprising that there had been much in the Roman literature that had appealed strongly to the Elizabethans. The writers of the age had adopted, and i-i some cases surpassed, the Roman style. Shakespere had even used whole episodes from the works of Seneca, the most eminent of the Latin writers of the Silver Age. The lecturer, who illustrated his address with many quotations from Greek, Roman rnd Elizabethan literateurs, was accorded a hearty vote of thanks..