Ethics from the Classroom: Elizabeth I’s Translation of Cicero’s “Pro Marcello”

Abstract

Elizabeth I’s translation of Cicero’s Pro Marcello can be situated at the meeting point between her translation activity as part of her cursus studiorum and her meditation on Latin classics in the years of her maturity. Cicero was among the established models of Latin writing, and the recent trend of educational humanism that had played such a major role in English culture had given a new impulse to the study of his works: Roger Ascham listed him with Varro, Sallust and Caesar as the peak of Latin writing in prose. Here it is posited that this translation served as both a linguistic exercise and a meditation on politics, allowing the translator to reflect on a number of keywords that were central to her political practice.