Лучшие книги Сирила Тернера

“‘The Revenger's Tragedy’ is an intense tragic burlesque. Its hero, Vindice, desires to avenge the death of his betrothed. Operating in disguises he provokes discord among his enemies so that they plot against each other. This play depicts a morally corrupt world where the desire for justice is contaminated by the obsession for revenge. The characters take pleasure in watching adultery, incest and murder. The play's chief moral spokesman, Vindice, is at the same time enamoured of and disgusted by, the luxury of the court.”

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.

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.

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.