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Revenge Play
The revenge tragedy, or revenge play, is a dramatic genre in which the protagonist seeks revenge for an imagined or actual injury. The term ''revenge tragedy'' was first introduced in 1900 by A. H. Thorndike to label a class of plays written in the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean eras (circa 1580s to 1620s).Kerrigan, John. ''Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1996. Print. Origins Most scholars argue that the revenge tragedies of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries stemmed from Roman tragedy, in particular, Seneca's ''Thyestes.''Bowers, Fredson Theyer. Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy: 1587–1642. Glaucester, MA: Peter Smith. 1959. Print. p. 41. Seneca's tragedies followed three main themes: the inconsistency of fortune ('' Troades''), stories of crime and the evils of murder (''Thyestes''), and plays in which poverty, chastity and simplicity are celebrated ('' Hippolytus''). In ''Thyestes'', Seneca portrayed the evil repercussions ...
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Thomas Kyd
Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English playwright, the author of ''The Spanish Tragedy'', and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama. Although well known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins, an early editor of ''The Spanish Tragedy'', discovered that Kyd was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his ''Apologie for Actors'' (1612). A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a ''Hamlet'' play pre-dating Shakespeare's, which is now known as the ''Ur-Hamlet''. Early life Thomas Kyd was the son of Francis and Anna Kyd. There are no records of the day he was born, but he was baptised in the church of St Mary Woolnoth in the Ward of Langborn, Lombard Street, London on 6 November 1558. The baptismal register at St Mary Woolnoth carries this entry: "Tho ...
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Julie Taymor
Julie Taymor (born December 15, 1952) is an American director and writer of theater, opera and film. Her stage adaptation of ''The Lion King'' debuted in 1997, and received eleven Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for Best Director and Costume Designer. Her film ''Frida'', about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the jukebox musical '' Across the Universe''. Early life Taymor was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Bernstein), a political science professor and Democratic activist, and Melvin Lester Taymor, a gynecologist. Taymor's interest in theatre took root early in her life. By age ten, she had joined the Boston Children's Theatre and starred in a number of productions. Being the youngest member of theatre groups became common. By 13, she was taking trips to Boston by herself every weekend, whe ...
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The Atheist's Tragedy
''The Atheist's Tragedy, or the Honest Man's Revenge'' is a Jacobean-era stage play, a tragedy written by Cyril Tourneur and first published in 1611. It is the only dramatic work recognised by the consensus of modern scholarship as the undisputed work of Tourneur, "one of the more shadowy figures of Renaissance drama." Date No firm data on the play's date of authorship has survived. Scholars have conjectured a date of authorship sometime in the first decade of the 17th century—either early in the decade, based on allusions to contemporary events like the Siege of Ostend (1601–04), or later in the decade, based on perceived links with literary works like ''King Lear'' and ''The Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois.'' Those scholars who have considered Tourneur the author of both ''The Atheist's Tragedy'' and ''The Revenger's Tragedy'' (published in 1607) have assumed that ''The Atheist's Tragedy'' must have been written first, because it seems less developed and more crude. For those wh ...
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Cyril Tourneur
Cyril Tourneur (; died 28 February 1626) was an English soldier, diplomat and dramatist who wrote ''The Atheist's Tragedy'' (published 1611); another (and better-known) play, ''The Revenger's Tragedy'' (1607), formerly ascribed to him, is now more generally attributed to Thomas Middleton. Life Cyril Tourneur was the son, or possibly the grandson, of Edward Tournor of Canons, Great Parndon (Essex), and his second wife, Frances Baker. He served in his youth Sir Francis Vere and Sir Edward Cecil. His literary activities seem to be concentrated in the period 1600–1613. In 1613 and 1614 he was employed in military and diplomatic service in the Low Countries. In 1625 he was appointed to be secretary to the council of war for the Cádiz Expedition. This appointment was cancelled, but Tourneur sailed in Cecil's company to Cádiz. On the return voyage from the disastrous expedition, he was put ashore at Kinsale with other sick men and died in Ireland on 28 February 1626. Writings A diff ...
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Thomas Middleton
Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jacobean period, and among the few to gain equal success in comedy and tragedy. He was also a prolific writer of masques and pageants. Life Middleton was born in London and baptised on 18 April 1580. He was the son of a bricklayer, who had raised himself to the status of a gentleman and owned property adjoining the Curtain Theatre in Shoreditch. Middleton was five when his father died and his mother's subsequent remarriage dissolved into a 15-year battle over the inheritance of Thomas and his younger sister – an experience that informed him about the legal system and may have incited his repeated satire against the legal profession. Middleton attended The Queen's College, Oxford, matriculating in 1598, but he did not graduate. Before he ...
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The Revenger's Tragedy
''The Revenger's Tragedy'' is an English-language Jacobean revenge tragedy which was performed in 1606, and published in 1607 by George Eld. It was long attributed to Cyril Tourneur, but "The consensus candidate for authorship of ''The Revenger’s Tragedy'' at present is Thomas Middleton, although this is a knotty issue that is far from settled." A vivid and often violent portrayal of lust and ambition in an Italian court, the play typifies the satiric tone and cynicism common in many Jacobean tragedies. The play fell out of favour before the restoration of the theaters in 1660; however, it experienced a revival in the 20th century among directors and playgoers who appreciated its affinity with the temper of modern times. Characters *Vindice, the revenger, frequently disguised as Piato (both the 1607 and 1608 printings render his name variously as Vendici, Vindic, and Vindice, with the latter spelling most frequent; in later literature Vendice). *Hippolito, Vindice's brothe ...
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Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century Common Era, BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to achieve Eudaimonia, (happiness, ): one flourishes by living an Ethics, ethical life. The Stoics identified the path to with a life spent practicing the cardinal virtues and living in accordance with nature. The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and that external things, such as health, wealth, and pleasure, are not good or called in themselves (''adiaphora'') but have value as "material for virtue to act upon". Alongside Aristotelian ethics, the Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics. The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and th ...
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Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens in the early 3rd century Common Era, BCE. It is a philosophy of personal virtue ethics informed by its system of logic and its views on the natural world, asserting that the practice of virtue is both necessary and sufficient to achieve Eudaimonia, (happiness, ): one flourishes by living an Ethics, ethical life. The Stoics identified the path to with a life spent practicing the cardinal virtues and living in accordance with nature. The Stoics are especially known for teaching that "virtue is the only good" for human beings, and that external things, such as health, wealth, and pleasure, are not good or called in themselves (''adiaphora'') but have value as "material for virtue to act upon". Alongside Aristotelian ethics, the Stoic tradition forms one of the major founding approaches to virtue ethics. The Stoics also held that certain destructive emotions resulted from errors of judgment, and th ...
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John Marston (playwright)
John Marston (baptised 7 October 1576 – 25 June 1634) was an English playwright, poet and satirist during the late Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods. His career as a writer lasted only a decade. His work is remembered for its energetic and often obscure style, its contributions to the development of a distinctively Jacobean style in poetry, and its idiosyncratic vocabulary. Life Marston was born to John and Maria Marston ''née'' Guarsi, and baptised 7 October 1576, at Wardington, Oxfordshire. His father was an eminent lawyer of the Middle Temple who first argued in London and then became the counsel to Coventry and ultimately its steward. John Marston entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1592 and received his BA in 1594. By 1595, he was in London, living in the Middle Temple, where he had been admitted a member three years previously. He had an interest in poetry and play writing, although his father's will of 1599 expresses the hope that he would give up such vanitie ...
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Antonio's Revenge
''Antonio's Revenge'' is a late Elizabethan play written by John Marston and performed by the Children of Paul's. It is a sequel to Marston's comic play '' Antonio and Mellida,'' and it chronicles the conflict and violence between Piero Sforza, the Duke of Venice, and Antonio, who is determined to take revenge against Piero for the death of his father and the slander of his fiancée (Piero's daughter Mellida, to whom he is bethrothed at the end of ''Antonio and Mellida''). While it has much in common with other revenge tragedies (particularly Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'')'','' it is sometimes read as a hyperbolic parody of the genre. Chambers, E. K. ''The Elizabethan Stage''. 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923. Characters * Ghost of ANDRUGIO, formerly Duke of Genoa * ANTONIO, Andrugio's son * MARIA, widow of Andrugio, mother of Antonio * LUCIO, a servant to Maria * NUTRICHE, a servant to Maria * PIERO SFORZA, duke of Venice * MELLIDA, Piero's daughter * JULIO, Piero's you ...
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Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626), also known as Lord Verulam, was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Bacon led the advancement of both natural philosophy and the scientific method and his works remained influential even in the late stages of the Scientific Revolution. Bacon has been called the father of empiricism. He argued for the possibility of scientific knowledge based only upon inductive reasoning and careful observation of events in nature. He believed that science could be achieved by the use of a sceptical and methodical approach whereby scientists aim to avoid misleading themselves. Although his most specific proposals about such a method, the Baconian method, did not have long-lasting influence, the general idea of the importance and possibility of a sceptical methodology makes Bacon one of the later founders of the scientific method. His portion of the method ...
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