Shakespeare's Roman Plays and Their Background

This 1910 study was among the first to treat Shakespeare's Roman plays as a unified subject worthy of dedicated analysis. MacCallum argues that these four works, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra, and Titus Andronicus, form a distinct category within Shakespeare's oeuvre, united by their engagement with Roman history, politics, and character. The book traces the literary genealogy of these plays back to their primary source, Plutarch's Lives, and examines how Shakespeare transformed his classical material through the conventions of Elizabethan drama. MacCallum pays particular attention to the influence of earlier Roman-themed works in English literature, situating Shakespeare within a tradition of engagement with antiquity. Written before modern digital archives, the book acknowledges the scholarly debts MacCallum owed to continental libraries and colleagues. This remains a foundational text for understanding how Shakespeare read, interpreted, and reimagined Roman history for his Elizabethan audience.