Сирил Тернер - циклы книг | Бумажные издания

This collection of four revenge tragedies is the first in a series of Shakespeare in context volumes, which considers the plays of William Shakespeare as part of the intellectual climate of his day and here presents his Hamlet with Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, Cyril Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, and Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy. The first part of the general introduction explores Renaissance revenge tragedy's relationship to Seneca's revenge drama and traces the development of the genre; the second part presents the reader with the theatrical climate of the times and gives an overview of the actual stage and its possibilities. The four plays and their playwrights are individually introduced, and all texts are newly edited, annotated, and modernized. A short section of contemporary views on revenge and a glossary at the end of the book should prove helpful for students exploring the revenge tragedy sub-genre.

Following Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, 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, who explored the ways in which social decadence and the abuse of power breed resentment, leading inexorably to violent retribution. In Cyril 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. John Webster’s The White Devil depicts a sinister world of intrigue and murderous infidelity, while The Changeling, perhaps Thomas 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.