Thomas Middleton

Cyril Tourneur

Locating the play in relation to the best recent criticism and exploring it's complexities with a contemporary eye furhters the reputution of these marvellous student editions.

The Revenger's Tragedy

John Webster

Gāmini Salgādo

Following the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign in the early seventeenth century, the new court of King James was beset by political instability and moral corruption. This atmosphere provided fertile ground for the dramatists of the age, whose plays explore the ways in which social decadence and the abuse of power breed resentment and lead inexorably to violence and bloody retribution. In Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, the debauched son of an Italian Duke attempts to rape the virtuous Gloriana - a veiled reference to Elizabeth I. Webster's The White Devil depicts a sinister world of intrigue and murderous infidelity, while The Changeling, perhaps Middleton's supreme achievement, powerfully portrays a woman bringing about her own unwitting destruction. All three are masterpieces of brooding intensity, dominated by images of decay, disillusionment and death.

Three Revenge Tragedies

New to this edition of "The Revenger's Tragedy "are an examination of the dark brilliance of the hero Vindice and the placement of the play in the context of contemporary debates about justifying rebellion against tyranny. New material on the play's borrowing from several Shakespeare plays is included, as well as a new source discovered in 2005. The stage history now contains accounts of several new productions and the film version by Alex Cox.

The Revengers Tragædie

Nathan Field

John Fletcher

Francis Beaumont

Philip Massinger

A Critical Edition of Ms. Dyce 9 (1625)

The Honest Mans Fortune

Written by Cyril Tourneur and first published in 1611, "The Atheist's Tragedy, or the Honest Man's Revenge" is a classic Jacobean era revenge play. In this drama we find the story of D'Amville, a wealthy French nobleman and our titular atheist. D'Amville is a cynical, ruthless, and Machiavellian character who conspires to have his brother, the Baron Montferrers, killed and ruin his nephew, Charlemont, in order to gain the son's inheritance. With a complex three-level plot structure "The Atheist's Tragedy" would incite much critical analysis since its publication, specifically with regard to the plays place in the evolution of Jacobean tragedy and the revenge play. One can compare Tourneur's work here to "The Revenger's Tragedy," which some believe to actually be authored by Tourneur and not Thomas Middleton, as well as other revenge tragedies including Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy," and George Chapman's "The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois;" all instrumental works in the development of this form of drama.

Cyril Tourneur

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