Appendix: The tragedians

Summary

This appendix gives an idea of the place of tragedy in the life and output of the writers of sixteenth-century tragedies mentioned in this book by indicating the other works known to have been written by them and, where this is known or applicable, mentioning their profession. The writers are listed alphabetically, and their dates of birth and death are given where these are known. Dates of publication of the plays are given in the first section of the bibliography.

Bèze, Théodore de (1519–1605)

Studied law and was also a distinguished classicist. Converted to Protestantism, he left France for Switzerland in 1548, and became Professor of Greek at Lausanne the following year. Was Calvin's representative in France, and later succeeded him as head of the Church in Geneva. Before Abraham sacrifiant Bèze had published a volume of Latin verse (Poemata, 1548) for whose licentious character he was later criticised. His voluminous later output was mostly on religious and legal subjects, for example Latin verse paraphrases of the Psalms (1566,1579), the Histoire ecclésiastique des églises réformées au royaume de France (1580), and Du Droit des magistrats sur leurs suiets (1574). He also wrote a satire, Epistola magistri Benedicti Passavantii (1553), directed at Pierre Lizet, who had written against the reformed religion.