Neil Bowen on
Literary - genre of revenge tragedy
BACKDROP
In the Elizabethan and late Tudor age, the cultural idea that the burden of justice fell upon the wronged began to change, a belief upheld by the law of the Roman and later Celtic law, the blood feuds of the Anglo-Saxons and the codes of the Anglo-Normans. Finding and Serving justice being the responsibility of the state was a relatively new idea, considering, meaning all murder - including revenge law - was tried under the same law.
However, the nobility still exercised the right to duel and settle murder or affronts of honour this way, something the late Tudor and Jacobean state was trying to rectify. This was because, culturally, the idea of personal vengeance and the restoring of honour was still a sympathetic act, even with records of some courtiers and commoners using poison to sort personal matters of vengeance. This is then why so many revenge tragedies of this period spend their time with noble vengeance as the cultural ideas were as much on honour as anything else.
These plays were written not only in this cultural change, but the religious turmoil of the Bible’s expressed disdain for personal murder and revenge and their superstitious beliefs of older catholic tradition warring with new protestant beliefs - causing a deep uncertainty about the nature of the afterlife. This then made the revenge tragedies concerning honour, the afterlife and older notions of personal honour and justice popular, thought-provoking romps.
ORIGINS
Origins for the genre itself of course come from Seneca. The bloody murder of revenge, as well as ideas of stoicism (that becomes a major theme and motif particularly with Webster’s 'Duchess of Malfi') and bombastic rhetoric were important contributions to the Elizabethan and Jacobean forms.
Revenge was personal
Revenge can be prompted by the ghost or the supernatural
Revenger warned to conceal, or stop their vengeance tied with ideas of the opportune vengeance and timing
Terrible punishment awaits unnatural revenge
Innocent or deceived accomplices were used to help the revenge, but never to carry it out
Momentary hesitations could halt the revenger
Death was a last refuge for the revenger, suicide retained honour but combating misfortune is a more admirable thing
Machiavelli’s 'The Prince', first printed 1532 (five years after Machiavelli’s death, though it was probably written around 1513) is more of a treatise of power on how to be a good ruler. Italy at the time was already viewed as a corrupt nation seen to be filled with the vicious, bloodthirsty and cunning - and while Machiavelli more wrote on how as a ruler, you have to dirty your hands, his explanation of a more morally ambiguous rulership became synonymous with villainous characters.
SPANISH TRAGEDY
Thomas Kyd’s 'The Spanish Tragedy', written around 1586-9 is the foundation of Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy. Reestablishing the genre of Revenge Tragedy and not only with blood vengeance as dramatic action but made the topic of personal revenge far more pertinent. While the structure and the style of the play had a lot of similarity with the works of Seneca, it introduces many new features that are most notably used in Hamlet.
The protagonist is Hieronimo, a Spanish gentleman driven to melancholy from the death of his son, was a new kind of tragic hero - one on the brink of melancholic madness.
The antagonist Lorenzo was the first “Machiavellian” villain to premier on the Elizabethan stage, with the main causes of conflict originating from Lorenzo’s murderous lust for power
The ghost of Andrea, a spanish officer killed by the Portugese Balthazar, is prevalent throughout the play and along with the Spirit of Revenge they serve as the chorus of the play. This ghostly apparition spurring on the revenge becomes a motif of Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge - prevalent in John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge and George Chapman’s Revenge of Bussy d’Ambois.
A play within a play is performed, in which Hieronimo manages to achieve revenge for both himself as the ghostly Andrea, but this metatheatrical twist is obviously used in Hamlet. This scene also sets up the typical ending - the avenger killing the wrongdoer, and then dying themselves
A key theme of 'The Spanish Tragedy' is the questioning of the relationship between divine will, retaliatory vengeance and justice. Kyd also treated revenge as a sacred blood duty within the play - a task portrayed as incredibly difficult, treated as an almost semi-religious responsibility.
Both of Shakespeare’s revenge tragedies - 'Titus Andronicus' and 'Hamlet' are revenge styles more in the vein of Kyd, especially as Hamlet itself was also based on another play by Kyd (we think), known as Ur-Hamlet.
SHAKESPEARE AND LATER TRAGEDIES
Shakespeare, while certainly inspired by Kyd, developed and changed a few things
Shakespeare added more to the avengers’ motivation than just blood revenge
The villain’s actions before the start of the protagonist's revenge are more complex
The avenger’s madness is explored in greater detail
He focused more on the character of the revenger than the revenge itself, allowing him to explore the philosophical and moral issues within the revenger’s mind and actions