
As an Amazon Associate and affiliate partner, Menrva Books earns from qualifying purchases. Learn more
The Revenge Tragedy flourished in Britain during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The classic ingredients of the genre are a quest for vengeance, mad scenes, a play within a play, and carnage. Each of the four plays here subverts the genre, and deals with fundamental moral questions about justice and the individual, while registering the strains of life in an increasingly fragile social hierarchy. This edition includes Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, the anonymous The Revenger's Tragedy (variously ascribed to Cyril Tourneur and Thomas Middleton), The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois by George Chapman, and Tourneur's The Atheist's Tragedy.About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.
This collection investigates the evolution and subversion of the revenge tragedy genre within the volatile social and political climate of late sixteenth and early seventeenth-century Britain. Katharine Eisaman Maus, a scholar of early modern literature, curates these four seminal texts to examine how playwrights utilized the conventions of vengeance, madness, and theatrical artifice to interrogate shifting moral frameworks. By presenting these works together, the volume highlights the tension between individual agency and the crumbling hierarchies of the era. The scholarly apparatus provides the necessary historical context to understand how these plays functioned as both entertainment and social critique.
What You Will Find
Scholars and students frequently cite this edition as a standard academic resource for its rigorous textual accuracy and insightful introductory essays. The volume is widely regarded as a foundational text for those studying the development of early modern English drama.
Page Count:
464
Publication Date:
2008-07-15
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0199540535
ISBN-13:
9780199540532
No comments yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!