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revenge tragedy
revenge tragedy, a dramatic genre that flourished in the late Elizabethan and Jacobean period, sometimes known as ‘the tragedy of blood’. Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (c.1587) helped to establish a demand for this popular form; later examples are Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, The Revenger's Tragedy, and, most notably, Hamlet. Common ingredients include: the hero's quest for vengeance, often at the prompting of the ghost of a murdered kinsman or loved one; scenes of real or feigned insanity; a play-within-a-play; scenes in graveyards; scenes of carnage and mutilation; etc. Many of these items were inherited from Senecan drama, with the difference that in revenge tragedy violence was not reported but took place on stage. The revenge code also produced counterattacks, as in The Atheist's Tragedy, in Chapman's The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois, and again in Hamlet, in which the heroes refuse or hesitate to follow the convention.
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MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "revenge tragedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "revenge tragedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-revengetragedy.html MARGARET DRABBLE and JENNY STRINGER. "revenge tragedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to English Literature. 2003. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O54-revengetragedy.html |
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Revenge Tragedy
Revenge Tragedy, name given to those Elizabethan plays, of which Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy (c.1585–9) was the first, dealing with bloody deeds demanding retribution. Their sublimity could easily turn to melodrama; indeed, in a cruder form, the revenge motif underlay many of the famous melodramas of the 19th century. Among Shakespeare's plays, Titus Andronicus (c.1592) may be considered the lowest form of the Revenge tragedy and Hamlet (c.1600–1) its finest flowering. Under the same heading come such plays as Chapman's Bussy d'Ambois (c.1604), Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy (both c.1606), John Webster's The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614), and Middleton's The Changeling (1622).
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Cite this article
PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Revenge Tragedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Revenge Tragedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-RevengeTragedy.html PHYLLIS HARTNOLL and PETER FOUND. "Revenge Tragedy." The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. 1996. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O79-RevengeTragedy.html |
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