Introduction

This Introduction asks whether it is still relevant to discuss the circulation of Greek texts in early modern England, suggesting that we are at a stage where it is more urgent to enquire what a Greek text and a Greek source meant then. It also suggests that we need a new vocabulary to describe this phenomenon, including how ideas of Greekness came about, and how they may now be pinned down textually and culturally. Finally, it asks how classical receptions affected the construction of early modern drama by comparing and contrasting Greek with Roman models, or silently subsuming refined intertextual dialogues across different genres, languages, and cultural milieux.