Plutarch

Mestrius Plutarch (cz. 46-ca. post 127) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist.

Plutarch's influence

Plutarch's writings had enormous influence on English and French literature. Shakespeare occasionally quoted — and extensively paraphrased — Thomas North's translation of several of the Lives in his plays. Ralph Waldo Emerson and the Transcendentalists were greatly influenced by the Moralia (Emerson wrote a glowing introduction to the five volume 19th century edition of his Moralia). Boswell quoted Plutarch's line about writing lives, rather than biographies in the introduction to his own Life of Samuel Johnson. His other admirers include Ben Jonson, John Dryden, Alexander Hamilton, John Milton, and Sir Francis Bacon, as well as such disparate figures as Cotton Mather, Robert Browning and Montaigne (whose own Essays draw deeply on Plutarch's Moralia for their inspiration and ideas).

Related Topics:
English - French literature - Shakespeare - Thomas North - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Transcendentalists - 19th century - Boswell - Samuel Johnson - Ben Jonson - John Dryden - Alexander Hamilton - John Milton - Sir Francis Bacon - Cotton Mather - Robert Browning - Montaigne

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