Views of Roman history : William Whitehead's The Roman father and historical culture in eighteenth-century Britain / Leo Shipp.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shipp, Leo, author.

Series:

Cambridge elements. Elements in eighteenth-century connections

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Whitehead, William, 1715-1785--History and criticism.

Whitehead, William.

Whitehead, William, 1715-1785. Roman father.

Romans in literature.

Whitehead, William, 1715-1785.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2026.

Summary:

"William Whitehead's The Roman Father (1750) was the most prominent Roman play in late eighteenth-century Britain, and highly revealing of how Britons engaged with Roman history. This Element begins by surveying all eighteenth-century Roman plays, and shows that they focused on what it calls 'the transhistorical Roman character', typically set against a more historically-specific depiction of Rome. It proceeds to explore The Roman Father's text, reviews, performance history, and links to other aspects of historical culture. It argues that, of the three attitudes to history present in eighteenth-century Britain – the exemplary, historicist, and sentimentalist – all three were active in the theatrical context, but took genre-specific forms. Nonetheless, the changing attitudes visible in the theatre between 1750 and 1800 testify to changing attitudes to Roman history outside the theatre too: the decline of the exemplary attitude and the transhistorical Roman character, and the increasing prevalence of historicism and sentimentalism."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Roman plays in eighteenth-century Britain

The text of The Roman Father

Written reviews

Performance history

Views of Roman history.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (Cambridge Core, viewed July 20, 2026).

Other Format:

Print version : Shipp, Leo. Views of Roman history.

ISBN:

9781009645171

100964517X

9781009645157

1009645153

OCLC:

1602526747

Publisher Number:

CIPO000401464

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license