Francis Bacon described revenge as a 'kind of wild justice'. Then as
now, early modern playwrights and their theatre-going public were
fascinated by the anarchic energies that a desire for retribution
unleashes. Rather than rehearsing familiar conventions, each of these
plays presents a unique social and cultural milieu where dark fantasies
of revenge are variously played out.
In Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy a grieving father seeks public
justice for the murder of his son by envious princelings. When his
attempts are thwarted he turns a court spectacle of murder into the
'real' thing. Blackly comic in its tone and style, The Revenger's
Tragedy (anon.) presents vengeance as mimetic art, witty and cruel.
Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore represents an innovative re-working
of the genre as a brother's love for his sister leads to his spectacular
revenge on his rival, her husband, in a society in which brutal
retaliation for perceived wrong is the norm. In Webster's The White
Devil crimes of passion ignite revenge in the courts of the Italian
city states.
This student edition contains fully annotated, modernized texts of each
play together with an introduction discussing the dramatic and poetic
style of each play, focusing on its action and play of ideas.