Gibbons - The Revengers Tragedy

NEW MERMAIDS

General editors:
William C. Carroll, Boston University
Brian Gibbons, University of Mnster
Tiffany Stern, University of Oxford

Reconstruction of an Elizabethan Theatre by C. Walter Hodges

Bloomsbury Methuen Drama
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

www.bloomsbury.com

First New Mermaid edition published 1967
Ernest Benn Limited 1967

Second edition published 1991
A & C Black Publishers Limited 1991

Bloomsbury Publishing 2008

Reprinted 2008, 2009 (twice), 2010, 2013 (twice)

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Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

eISBN-13: 978-1-4081-4476-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

DEDICATION

In Memory of
Laurence Jagger

The Revengers Tragedy (1607) shows a brilliant court culture against a sombre background; although fashionably Italianate in appearance, the play is concerned with substantial issues in the Britain of King James I. This new kings court soon became popularly notorious for luxurious display, putting on exclusive, expensive, spectacular masques, fashionable clothes in silk and silver, glamorous feasts and torchlight revels; there were serious scandals, and poets and playwrights attacked the rumoured sexual and political corruption in high places.

By 1607 revenge tragedy had already developed as a hybrid form incorporating complex intrigue plots and elements of farce, but this play is one of a new wave (including Antonios Revenge and The Tragedy of Hoffman) increasingly interested in presenting scenes of horror. The hero Vindice is eloquent and engagingly witty, and a brilliantly fast-moving contriver of plots, but as a poet he sees the skull beneath the skin, and as a revenger he carries out some of the cruellest killings in all English Renaissance tragedy. The play proves highly successful in present-day performance, both professional and amateur, and in a variety of period settings.

The play was entered in the Stationers Register on 7 October 1607 without an author being named: Twoo plaies th one called the revengers tragedie th other. A trick to catche the old one. The play was first attributed to Cyril Tourneur in 1656 by Edward Archer in a play-list, and Frances Kirkman followed suit in two play-lists in 1661 and 1671. Most recent academic opinion however has attributed the play specifically to Thomas Middleton, on the basis of certain features of language and spelling common to The Revengers Tragedy and works by Middleton. There is no contemporary evidence for attribution to Middleton; the title-page declares that The Revengers Tragedy was performed by the Kings Men, whereas all Middletons known plays printed before 1608 were written for the companies of boy actors. The plays affinity with Marstons works, in terms of dramatic style, tone, and subject-matter, does seem close, but insufficiently conclusive for attribution to him. A case has been made for linking the plays peculiarities of spelling to those of The Atheists Tragedy, the one play firmly attributed to Tourneur. The limited strength of these authorship claims, and the absence of external evidence until 1656, suggest that the question of the plays authorship remains undecided. Readers wishing to pursue the matter of authorship in detail should consult the works by R. A. Foakes, D. J. Lake and McD. P. Jackson in the list of Further Reading. Whoever the author may have been, he shows a distinct intelligence and zest - perhaps of youth - in this unique response to a cultural moment, and a phase in the Jacobean theatre, with Hamlet, The Malcontent, Measure for Measure, Volpone and King Lear all recently performed, and A Trick to Catch the Old One recently written. The mystery of his identity, if accidentally caused, seems consonant with the mood of his play; and there is always the possibility that he had a reason for remaining anonymous.