Cyril Tourneur (; died 28 February 1626) was an English soldier, diplomat and

dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

who wrote ''

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 undisput ...

'' (published 1611); another (and better-known) play, ''

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 Reven ...

'' (1607), formerly ascribed to him, is now more generally attributed to

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 Jac ...

Life

Cyril Tourneur was the son, or possibly the grandson, of Edward Tournor of Canons,

Great Parndon Great Parndon is an area and former civil parish in Essex, England, that has been absorbed by the new town of Harlow and is now an electoral ward. It had a recorded population of 18 people in 1086, rising to 41 by 1524–25. In 1622, there were ...

(

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

), and his second wife, Frances Baker. He served in his youth

Sir Francis Vere Sir Francis Vere (1560/6128 August 1609) was a prominent English soldier serving under Queen Elizabeth I fighting mainly in the Low Countries during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and the Eighty Years' War. He was a sergeant major-general ...

and

Sir Edward Cecil Edward Cecil, 1st Viscount Wimbledon (29 February 1572 – 16 November 1638) was an English military commander and a politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1601 and 1624. Life Cecil was the third son of Thomas Ceci ...

. 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 The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

. 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 Cádiz (, , ) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the Province of Cádiz, one of eight that make up the autonomous community of Andalusia. Cádiz, one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Western Europe, ...

. On the return voyage from the disastrous expedition, he was put ashore at

Kinsale Kinsale ( ; ) is a historic port and fishing town in County Cork, Ireland. Located approximately south of Cork City on the southeast coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon, and has a population of 5,281 (a ...

with other sick men and died in Ireland on 28 February 1626.

Writings

A difficult allegorical poem called ''The Transformed Metamorphosis'' (1600) is Tourneur's earliest extant work; an

elegy An elegy is a poem of serious reflection, and in English literature usually a lament for the dead. However, according to ''The Oxford Handbook of the Elegy'', "for all of its pervasiveness ... the 'elegy' remains remarkably ill defined: sometime ...

on the death of

Prince Henry Prince Henry (or Prince Harry) may refer to: People *Henry the Young King (1155–1183), son of Henry II of England, who was crowned king but predeceased his father *Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal (1394–1460) *Henry, Duke of Cornwall (Ja ...

, son of James I of England, is the latest (1613). Tourneur's other non-dramatic works include a prose pamphlet, ''Laugh and Lie Down'' (1605), some contributions to Sir

Thomas Overbury Sir Thomas Overbury (baptized 1581 – 14 September 1613) was an English poet and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalous trial. His poem ''A Wife'' (also referred to as ''The Wife''), which depicted the ...

's ''Book of Characters'' and an epicede on Sir

Francis Vere Sir Francis Vere (1560/6128 August 1609) was a prominent English soldier serving under Queen Elizabeth I fighting mainly in the Low Countries during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604) and the Eighty Years' War. He was a sergeant major-genera ...

. This poem conveys the poet's ideal conception of a perfect knight or happy warrior. Tourneur's primary dramatic work is ''The Atheist's Tragedy, or The Honest Man's Revenge'' which was published in 1611. A case has been made by Johan Gerritsen that Tourneur is the author of the first act of ''The Honest Man's Fortune'' (1613), a play from the Beaumont & Fletcher canon usually attributed to John Fletcher, Philip Massinger and Nathan Field. In addition there is a lost play, ''The Nobleman'', and the lost ''Arraignment of London'' written with Robert Daborne. Tourneur's current reputation however rests on ''The Atheist's Tragedy''. It confidently reproduces themes and conventions which are characteristic of medieval

morality play The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...

s and of Elizabethan ''

memento mori ''Memento mori'' (Latin for 'remember that you ave todie'emblems An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' are often used in ...

. It uses these conventions in the context of

Calvin Calvin may refer to: Names * Calvin (given name) ** Particularly Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States * Calvin (surname) ** Particularly John Calvin, theologian Places In the United States * Calvin, Arkansas, a hamlet * Calvi ...

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

theology. This and Tourneur's other uncontested works, show him to be "a traditional Christian moralist, with a consistent didactic bent." The play recalls Jonson's ''The Alchemist'' and ''Volpone'' in the character of Languebeau Snuffe, and may also be a response to ''The Revenge of Bussy D'Amboise.'' As regards ''The Revenger's Tragedy'', the play was published anonymously, and was first attributed to Cyril Tourneur by Edward Archer in 1656. The attribution was also made by

Francis Kirkman Francis Kirkman (1632 – c. 1680) appears in many roles in the English literary world of the second half of the seventeenth century, as a publisher, bookseller, librarian, author and bibliographer. In each he is an enthusiast for popular litera ...

in lists of 1661 and 1671. Critics supporting Tourneur's authorship attribution argued that the tragedy is unlike Middleton's other early dramatic work, and that internal evidence, including some idiosyncrasies of spelling, points to Tourneur.Gibbons, B. (2008). ''The Revenger's Tragedy'' (3rd ed., pp. xxiii-xxiv). London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. However, the consensus of modern scholarship attributes the play to Middleton, citing stylistic similarities to Middleton's other work and contextual evidence. Modern stagings of ''The Atheist's Tragedy'' remain few and far between.

Works of Tourneur

* ''The Atheists Tragedie; or, The Honest Mans Revenge'' (1611) * ''A Funeral Poeme Upon the Death of the Most Worthie and True Soldier, Sir Francis Vere, Knight..'' (1609) * ''A Griefe on the Death of Prince Henrie, Expressed in a Broken Elegie ...'', printed with two other poems by John Webster and Thomas Haywood as ''Three Elegies on the most lamented Death of Prince Henry'' (1613) * ''The Transformed Metamorphosis'' (1600), an obscure satire * ''The Nobleman'', a lost play entered on the Stationers Register (Feb. 15, 1612) as "A Tragecomedye called The Nobleman written by Cyrill Tourneur", the MS. of which was destroyed by John Warburton's cook * ''Arraignment of London'' (1613), stated in a letter of that date from

Robert Daborne Robert Daborne (c. 1580 – 23 March 1628) was an English dramatist of the Jacobean era. His father was also Robert Daborne, heir to family property in Guildford, Surrey and other places, including London, and a wealthy haberdasher by tra ...

to Philip Henslowe that Daborne had commissioned Cyril Tourneur to write one act of this play.

References

;Notes ;Sources * Gibbons, Brian, (ed). (1991). ''The Revenger's Tragedy; New Mermaids edition (2nd edition)''. New York: Norton, 1991 * * This includes Swinburne's critical assessment of the writer. * ;Other reading * Parfitt, George, ed. ''The Plays of Cyril Tourneur''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1978. * Higgins, Michael H. 'The Influence of Calvinistic Thought in Tourneur's ''Atheist's Tragedy, ''Review of English Studies'' XIX.75 (Jul 1943), 255-262. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tourneur, Cyril 1626 deaths Military personnel from Essex English Renaissance dramatists People from Essex English soldiers English diplomats Year of birth unknown