This research project explores the range of possible relationships between poetic language and potential physical performances, with specific focus upon the translation of Greek tragedy. Dramatic dance was a crucial component of the ancient Greek theatre event. However, this Athenian tradition of simultaneously verbal and physical theatrical expression has been lost to the modern theatre. So, each poet who approaches the task of translating Greek tragedy has the opportunity to cast their own imaginative re-creation of the ancient text/body relationship in a wide variety of modes~ . The thesis is built around five case studies, considering the different dramatic poetries which characterise the translations from the Greek of Robert Browning, Gilbert Murray, Ezra Pound, Ted Hughes and Tony Harrison, and the different ways in which these might impact upon the appearance and motion of the performing body onstage. It is my contention that the work of the poet translating for the theatre impacts upon the body of the performer just as surely as it does upon their speech. These issues are examined through a combination of literary analysis, theatre-history, and personal physical practice. The physical practice takes the. form of a series of performances of choral extracts from different translations, in which I (as practitioner) attempt to demonstrate and test some of the findings and speculations contained within my text-based research. My exploration, both intellectual and corporeal, of this subject, is a personal engagement with some of the ways in which various strategies of poetic translation are capable of imposing parameters upon, or suggesting areas of development for, the performer's theatrical physicality

In this dissertation, I investigate the textual tradition of the Cretan tragedy Erofili by Georgios Chortatsis (16th century). The play, accompanied by a set of four Interludes, has survived in three manuscripts and two editions, all originating from the 17th century. All the witnesses are examined and presented thoroughly, both as autonomous texts and in comparison to each other. The examination of each witness separately sheds light not only on the history of the transmission of Erofili, but also to the production of manuscripts and printed books in Crete, the Heptanese and Venice in general. As far as the condition of the text is concerned, three witnesses preserve the most reliable texts: the second edition and the two manuscripts originating from Crete. The investigation of their relationship shows that two groups can be identified: one includes the two Cretan manuscripts and another one the three other witnesses. Νo important alterations in the plot and the sequence of events are found, so the textual variation concerns mainly the phrasing. There are indications that variation among the witnesses might have resulted from revisions by the playwright himself. The evaluation of the two groups of witnesses shows that it is not possible to consider one of them as superior, and this leads to the question which would be the most appropriate editorial method. Previous editors have followed the eclectic approach, which has many positive aspects, but cannot help the readers to realize all the stages of the transmission of the play. Since various theoretical approaches have appeared during the last decades, it has been understood that no edition can be called “definitive” and that editions following different methods can address different questions and achieve different aims. Erofili, and other texts with a rich and complicated textual tradition, can be edited in various ways and each edition can offer new insight in the history of the production, transmission and reception of the work.