The Revenger's Tragedy

The Revenger's 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. The new king's court became notorious for luxuriousness, spectacular masques and torchlight revels; 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, including, as here, elements of horror. The hero Vindice is eloquent and engagingly witty; 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. As the introduction demonstrates, the play proves highly successful in present-day performance, both professional and amateur, and in a variety of period settings.

The Editor, Brian Gibbons has been a General Editor of The New Mermaids since 1974 and also a General Editor of The New Cambridge Shakespeare since its inception. He is the author of many articles about English Drama, of two books, Jacobean City Comedy and Shakespeare and Multiplicity, and editor of editions in The New Mermaids as well as The Arden Shakespeare and The New Cambridge Shakespeare