Alexander in literature, theatre, and music

[amyntoros]

The following is a list of references to Alexander in literature and theatre up to the end of the nineteenth century. Some of them are complete works on Alexander and some contain only brief references. I have some of these books and/or excerpts but I’m missing others, and I know that there must be other instances where Alexander is mentioned in a book, poem or play. (I often forget to keep a record when I learn of one)

Can anybody help with further references? And if you have the actual quote it would be wonderful. (I’m not seeking anything from the 20th century at this point.)

Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321); Canto XII and Canto XIV,

The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)

Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel by Francois Rabelais (born circa 1484)

Alexander and Campaspe by John Lyly 1581 -Theatre

Paradise Lost by John Milton (1608-1674); Book IX.
Paradise Regained by John Milton; Book II, Book III, Book IV
Sonnet 08 by John MIlton

Alexander's Feast; or The Power of Music: An Ode in Honour of St. Cecilia's Day By John Dryden. (1631-1700)

The Siege of Babylon by Samuel Pordage (1633-1691) Theatre

The Rival Queens by Nathaniel Lee (1653-1692) Theatre

The Rival Kings by John Banks (Performed 1677) Theatre

Essay on Man; Prologue to the Satires by Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

An Epistle from Alexander to Hephæstion in his Sickness by Anne Kingsmill Finch, Countess of Winchilsea (Published 1713)

Campaspe: an Historical Tale by Melesina C Trench (Published 1815)

Economy of Vegetation by Charles Darwin (1809-1882) I know this isn't literature, but who can resist a brief reference to Olympias?

Alexander and Bucephalus 19th Century poem by Edith C. Rickards.

In 200 B.C. Poem by Constantine Cavafis (1863-1933)

I'm sure that there are many musical works also. So far the only one I have listed is Poro, Re Dell' Indie, an opera by Handel (1731). Help would be appreciated here as well. Marcus, haven’t you been collecting music on Alexander?

Best regards,

[marcus]

I'm sure that there are many musical works also. So far the only one I have listed is Poro, Re Dell' Indie, an opera by Handel (1731). Help would be appreciated here as well. Marcus, haven’t you been collecting music on Alexander?

Great list - will be very useful! I was aware of some of those - I hesitate to say "many", and I definitely didn't know of them all - and will keep a copy of the list. Thanks.

As far as music is concerned, it's probably not really correct to say that I've been "collecting" music on Alexander, because (a) I haven't really been looking, and (b) so far I only have one piece. However you are correct in that it was my intention to do much more.

The only music piece that I have so far come across is Handel's oratorio of Alexander's Feast which, of course, has Dryden's poem as its libretto.

What degree of reference are you talking about, here? There is the song The British Grenadiers (which is, I think, an 18th century composition), which starts off "Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules". It's the only mention of Alexander in the song ... does that count as far as your list is concerned?

ATB

[amyntoros]

What degree of reference are you talking about, here? There is the song The British Grenadiers (which is, I think, an 18th century composition), which starts off "Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules". It's the only mention of Alexander in the song ... does that count as far as your list is concerned?

Yes, The British Grenadiers will do nicely, thanks. It may be the only “one word” reference, but I think it definitely worth including. Funnily enough (although I had forgotten to include it in my list) I haven’t heard it since I was about ten but I still remember all the words.

This morning, having only slept an hour (don’t ask!) I found myself sleepily browsing the web to see if I could find any further references to Alexander and music. There are some on the Alexander the Great on the Web site along with a couple more theatre pieces. (Spalding doesn’t have many of mine, but they’re not available as individual pages on the web.)

To the theatre listings we can add:

Alexandre le Grand by Jean Racine (1639-1699)

The Tragedy of Philotas by Samuel Daniel (Published 1605) Google books has a link to the full copy here.

Opera listings from Tim’s site are:

Il re pastore (The Shepherd King) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Alessandro by George Frideric Handel (First performed 1726)

Das Alexanderfest by George Frideric Handel.

Somewhat beyond the scope of this thread, Tim also has an archived wayback link to a story called The Long Lost Tale of Alexander and the Amazon Queen. He lists it as “from a scroll found in Thessaly a la Dictys of Crete and the Chanson of Bilitis.“ Do check out the link and tell me if it doesn’t look like an online version of an April Fool’s joke. I mean, the site’s name is/was Pan Xena; the words “xena/stories” are in the link and the story reads as if it were fan-fiction. Including this in his list of Alexander literature HAS to be a joke on Tim’s part, don’t you think?!

Best regards,

[marcus]

Das Alexanderfest by George Frideric Handel.

Which is "Alexander's Feast". Strictly speaking it isn't an opera, it's an oratorio; but I won't quibble with Tim too much on that one.

Don't really know why it's listed in German, though - as far as I'm aware, Handel wrote it while he was in England, and he used Dryden's original words (i.e. in English). Still, these things always present a problem.

(When I was doing my A-Level French, we studied "Le Mariage de Figaro". My French teacher's idea of a teaching aid was to show us a recording of the opera ... set in Spain, written by a German, in Italian, and with an entirely different "angle" to the story. No wonder I barely passed my A-Level!)

ATB

[Taphoi]

In "The Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great" I have used quotations mentioning Alexander from:

Circus of Heaven from the album Tormato by the pop group Yes
A poem called I'll Never Love Thee More by James Graham, First Marquis of Montrose
Santorin, A Legend of the Aegean by James Elroy Flecker
A theatrical production called Hamlet by William Shakespeare (Act 5, Scene 1)

as well as an excerpt from Dryden's Alexander's Feast.

Nor should ancient literary works be neglected: Alexander is mentioned in the novel Clitophon & Leucippe by Achillles Tatius and there is a papyrus fragment of a lost ancient play about Alexander (Pap. Freib. 7-8: Col. I-II)...

But there are probably at least hundreds of thousands of references in total (and perhaps millions). This could be a lifetime's work for amyntoros

Best wishes,

Andrew

[amyntoros]

Das Alexanderfest by George Frideric Handel.

Which is "Alexander's Feast". Strictly speaking it isn't an opera, it's an oratorio; but I won't quibble with Tim too much on that one.

Don't really know why it's listed in German, though - as far as I'm aware, Handel wrote it while he was in England, and he used Dryden's original words (i.e. in English). Still, these things always present a problem.

Tim’s purpose with his website is to give links to other people’s pages so he is (was?) only concerned with any references that have a website. I have, however, no idea why he listed Alexander’s Feast in German because the link he gives is to a page written in French! Anyway, thanks for pointing this out to me – I should have caught it but I’m going to plead lack of sleep again.

Andrew, thanks for the information. I won’t concern myself with the Yes song right now (there’s also a song on Alexander by Iron Maiden) because if I start including twentieth century references the project will probably get completely out of hand. As it stands you’re right in that it could be a lifetime’s work, but for the moment I’m just casually collecting books, references and quotations.

I’ve been able to find and copy the James Graham and James Elroy Flecker poems and the excerpt from Hamlet. The Shakespeare reference reminded me that Alexander is a perfect subject for an Elizabethan play and I found it curious that Shakespeare had not chosen to write one. Then a couple of years ago I discovered that one of his contemporaries had written such a play which was performed before the Queen. My immediate thought is that it was Francis Bacon, but a quick search of the web fails to produce confirmation of this. AOL has a habit of eating my bookmarked web pages and I never saved the reference to file, but one of these days I’ll find it again – unless one of our Pothosians can help.

Oh, and I just recalled another theatrical reference to Alexander:

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

Best regards,

[Taphoi]

Oh, and I just recalled another theatrical reference to Alexander:
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

Alexander is also mentioned in Tamburlaine and Edward II. Marlowe was fond of Alexander!

Best wishes,

Andrew

[marcus]

Oh, and I just recalled another theatrical reference to Alexander:
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593)

Alexander is also mentioned in Tamburlaine and Edward II. Marlowe was fond of Alexander!

"Doh" to the Hamlet reference - I can't believe I forgot about that, especially as I did Hamlet for A-Level and therefore should know it very well (although it was 20-odd years ago!).

I do now recollect the Tamburlaine reference (or, rather, the fact that it exists), although I wasn't aware of there being one in Edward II. I suppose I should have known about the Faustus one, too. What a numpty!

Actually, come to think of it, isn't there also a reference in (Shakespeare's) Henry V? Flewellyn, maybe? I shall have to look it up, when I have a moment.

ATB

[marcus]

Actually, come to think of it, isn't there also a reference in (Shakespeare's) Henry V? Flewellyn, maybe? I shall have to look it up, when I have a moment.

And, indeed:

I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant you shall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon, and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth: it is called Wye at Monmouth; but it is out of my prains what is the name of the other river; but 'tis all one, 'tis alike as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both.
Fluellen, Henry V, IV.vii

Quote in Robin Lane Fox, Alexander the Great (I knew I had seen it somewhere).

ATB

[wmp]

If we're collecting Alexanders in Henry V, I think there's also a reference to him in the speech before Harfleur (fathers who are "like so many Alexanders", I think) - the "Once more unto the breach, dear friends" one...

Slighly off topic - I have a fondness for Terence Rattigan's Adventure Story. Paul Schofield played Alexander when it was first performed in the mid 50s.... I don't know if my favourite bit is Alexander climbing in the window to see the Pythia at Delphi, or Cleitus staggering back on stage with a spear through him.

[val]

Hi Amyntoros,

For what I see on the list you definitely made your homework for this Project!
As for other references I just remember a few more at the moment.

Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. (XII century, first part published in 1604 and second in 1615). It really has many quick references to Alexander, unfortunately, I don’t remember all of them, but making a quick look I found these.

Part 1, chapters: I; VI; XXXIX; XLVII; XLIX.
Part 2, chapters: LX.

Alexandreis by Gautier de Chatillon (1184-1187).

Roman d´Alexandre by Lambert le Tort and Alexandre de Bernay. Apparently, from XIII century.

Libro de Alexandre, unknown author (although some scholars claim the author is Gonzalo de Berceo). XIII century.

A César viendo la estatua de Alejandro en Cádiz (poem) by Juan de Arguijo XVI century.

Túmulo de Aquiles cuando llegó a él Alejandro, by Francisco de Quevedo (1627-1628).

Calila e Dimna, by Abdul´lah Ben Almocaffa (750 A.D). ?

The book is a beautiful collection of tales from the East which is a work from Persian author Abdul´lah Ben Almocaffa that appeared in 750 A.C, although since then It has been translated to several languages back from the Middle Ages.
The Introduction to the book has a very lovely version on how Alexander get his victory in India. However, I really don´t know much about the origin of this book and to really give accurate information I should investigate a little bit more.

[marcus]

Somewhat beyond the scope of this thread, Tim also has an archived wayback link to a story called The Long Lost Tale of Alexander and the Amazon Queen. He lists it as “from a scroll found in Thessaly a la Dictys of Crete and the Chanson of Bilitis.“ Do check out the link and tell me if it doesn’t look like an online version of an April Fool’s joke. I mean, the site’s name is/was Pan Xena; the words “xena/stories” are in the link and the story reads as if it were fan-fiction. Including this in his list of Alexander literature HAS to be a joke on Tim’s part, don’t you think?!

It is most definitely a Xena fan fiction site ... and much of it pretty poor fiction, too, from what I read! Oh dear ...

ATB

[azara]

Here is another one: I'm quoting from

http://www.irib.ir/occasions/Nezami/NezamiEn.htm

"Elias Abu Mohammad Nezami, the third great Iranian poet and acknowledged master of romantic couplets and Persian poetry was born in the year 1141 A.D. in Ganja, located in the present Azerbaijan Republic, where he started to write his great mathnavi poems known as the Khamsa (the Five Books).
Nezami died in 1204 and is buried in the Ganja city.

The fifth book of Nezami's Khamsa is Eskandarnameh which is divided into Iqbalnameh or Book of (Alexander's) Fortune and Kheradnameh or Book of (Alexander's) Wisdom, altogether comprising about 10,000 verses. In search of everlasting life and wisdom, Alexander, the Great, arrives at the blessed city or Madine'ye Fazeleh (Utopia) in which he sees neither fortifications nor patrols, law enforcement officers, or judges..."

With all the best
Azara

[amyntoros]

Don Quixote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes. (XII century, first part published in 1604 and second in 1615). It really has many quick references to Alexander, unfortunately, I don’t remember all of them, but making a quick look I found these.

Part 1, chapters: I; VI; XXXIX; XLVII; XLIX.

Part 2, chapters: LX.

Cool. I had never thought to look at Don Quixote, although it is logical that the character would make references to Alexander. Thanks.

Alexandreis by Gautier de Chatillon (1184-1187).

Roman d´Alexandre by Lambert le Tort and Alexandre de Bernay. Apparently, from XIII century.

Libro de Alexandre, unknown author (although some scholars claim the author is Gonzalo de Berceo). XIII century.

These are all Romances, right? I think I may make a separate page for the Romances which are not always immediately recognizable. There’s another one – Cassandre, a prose romance by La Calprenede (first published in English as Cassandra in 1652). I would not have known this was about Alexander except for the explanation in the introduction to my copy of The Rival Queens

Calila e Dimna, by Abdul´lah Ben Almocaffa (750 A.D). ?

The fifth book of Nezami's Khamsa is Eskandarnameh which is divided into Iqbalnameh or Book of (Alexander's) Fortune and Kheradnameh or Book of (Alexander's) Wisdom, altogether comprising about 10,000 verses.

Thanks also for these (and all the other works listed here by Pothosians). I suspect there are more Persian books which have sections on Alexander. I know also of Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings by Abolqasem Ferdowsi which rjones2818 previously described as “one” of the versions of the Persian Alexander Romance.

Best regards,

[dean]

Hello,

Just reading "Ecco Homo" by Nietzche- and there is a momentary mention of Alexander and the Gordian Knot- and your post came to mind.I have to find it hard to believe that Alexander wasn't "used" by Nietzsche instead of Caesar to give a model when describing his theory of "will to power" in the human being seeing as Alexander was Caesar's model par excellence.
Nietzsche was weeks before his final collapse while writing the book in question. I will post the chapter- when I find it again-
Best regards,
Dean