SOURCE: Binns, J. W. “Seneca and Neo-Latin Tragedy in England.” In Seneca, edited by C. D. N. Costa, pp. 205-34. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, 1974.

In the following excerpt from his essay on three neo-Latin tragedies from the Elizabethan age, Binns determines the influence of Seneca upon Alabaster's Roxana.

A large number of Renaissance plays which were written in Latin survive today from all the countries of Europe.¹ In England, the plays which are extant from the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries form an interesting by-way of the Elizabethan drama.² A number of tragedies in particular remain, which, cast in Senecan mould, constitute an aspect of Seneca's influence which has been little discussed. The extent of Seneca's influence on the popular drama of the Elizabethan age continues to be debated.³

On the Latin drama of the age, the drama written by educated men, who were often members of...