Revenge Tragedies

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.