Shakespeare and the Uses of Antiquity

<p>Although a third of his plays are set in the ancient world and he constantly used classical mythology history and ideas Shakespeare received a simple grammar school education and did not have a scholar's knowledge of the classics.<br>The critical implications of this are the subject of Shakespeare and the Uses of Antiquity . Against a recent academic tendency to exaggerate Shakespeare's learning the authors investigate how he used his comparatively restricted knowledge to create for example an unusually convincing picture of Rome and analyse by presenting us with careful readings of specific passages the styles Shakespeare employed under the influence of classical writers especially Ovid Seneca and (in translation) Homer and Plutarch.</p>