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Bowers, Fredson Thayer
Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, 1587-1642, 12/2015Book Chapter
THE tragedy of revenge has been classified as a definite, small subdivision of the Elizabethan tragedy of blood; and obviously, plays likeThe Spanish Tragedy, Antonio’s Revenge, andHamletshould be set apart as a specific type from Shakespeare’sLear, Marston’sSophonisba, and Nabbes’sUnfortunate Mother. These represent the two extremes of the tragedy of blood: on the one hand a cluster of plays which treat, according to a moderately rigid dramatic formula, blood-revenge for murder as the central tragic fact; on the other, an amorphous group with no such definite characteristic, linked only by a delight in blood and
