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Thomas Underdown, also spelled Underdowne (''fl.'' 1566 - 1587), was a translator. He translated the ''Æthiopian History'' of Heliodorus in 1566, and the ''Ibis'' of Ovid (1577). The ''Æthiopian History'' has been called "the ancestor in a direct line of the Novel of Adventure," and praised for anticipating every artifice of the historical novel.〔Whibdley, cited in Jonni Lea Dunn, ''The Literary Patronage of Edward de Vere, The Seventeenth Earl of Oxford'', Masters Thesis, University of Texas at Arlington, 1999〕 Underdown was an advocate for literature as a moral instrument, saying that the ''Æthiopian History'' was superior as an action story because people are punished for their misdeeds.〔Steve Mentz, ''Romance for Sale in Early Modern England: The Rise of Prose Fiction'' (Ashgate, 2006), p. 40 (online. )〕 By contrast, chivalric romance permitted pointless murder and "unlawful lust."〔Helen Moore, "Romance," in ''A Companion to English Renaissance Literature and Culture'' (Blackwell, 2003), p. 317 (online. )〕 The first (1569) edition of Underdown's translation was dedicated to Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. The book went on to exercise a widespread influence on Elizabethan drama and prose romance. In 1587, the year of the 2nd or 3rd edition, anti-theatrical propagandist Stephen Gosson already remarked that Underdown's book had "beene thoroughly ransackt, to furnish the Playehouses in London."〔Cited in Jonni Lea Dunn, ibid, 10〕 Among the early works markedly influenced by the translation is Robert Greene's ''Pandosto'' (1588), a major source for Shakespeare's ''Winter's Tale'', and Phillip Sidney's ''Arcadia'' (1581–86). So strong was the influence of Underdown's translation on Sidney that 16th century commentator Marechel referred to Sidney as the "Heliodore d'Angleterre."〔Jonni Lea Dunn, 11〕 According to Moses Hadas, in the introduction to his translation of the ''Aethiopica'', "in construction and a hundred details Sidney patiently follows Heliodorus, and the ''Arcadia'' was the principle model for Sidney's successors."〔Cited in Jonni Lea Dunn, ibid, 11〕 Although the book's influence on Shakespeare is more diffuse, elements of Underdown's translation can be traced in a number of plays, prominent among them ''Cymbeline''. ==References== 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Underdown」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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