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Revenge Tragedy
Revenge tragedy (sometimes referred to as revenge drama, revenge play, or tragedy of blood) is a theoretical genre in which the principal theme is revenge and revenge's fatal consequences. Formally established by American educator Ashley H. Thorndike in his 1902 article "The Relations of ''Hamlet'' to Contemporary Revenge Plays," a revenge tragedy documents the progress of the protagonist's revenge plot and often leads to the demise of both the murderers and the avenger himself.Thorndike, A. H. "The Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge Plays." ''Modern Language Association''. 17.2 (1902): 125-220. Print. The genre first appeared in early modern Britain with the publication of Thomas Kyd's ''The Spanish Tragedy'' during the latter half of the 16th century. Earlier works, such as Jasper Heywood's translations of Seneca (1560s) and Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's play '' Gorbuduc'' (1561), are also considered revenge tragedies. Other well-known revenge tragedies incl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 repercussio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omens
An omen (also called ''portent'') is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. It was commonly believed in ancient times, and still believed by some today, that omens bring divine messages from the gods. These omens include natural phenomena, for example an eclipse, abnormal births of animals (especially humans) and behaviour of the sacrificial lamb on its way to the slaughter. Specialists, known as diviners, variously existed to interpret these omens. They would also use an artificial method, for example, a clay model of a sheep liver, to communicate with their gods in times of crisis. They would expect a binary answer, either yes or no, favourable or unfavourable. They did these to predict what would happen in the future and to take action to avoid disaster. Though the word ''omen'' is usually devoid of reference to the change's nature, hence being possibly either "good" or "bad", the term is more often used in a forebodin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Troades (Seneca)
''Troades'' () is a '' fabula crepidata'' (Roman tragedy with Greek subject) of c. 1179 lines of verse written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Characters *Hecuba, queen of Troy, wife of Priam *Chorus of Trojans * Talthybius, Greek herald *Agamemnon, Greek king * Calchas, Greek seer * Helena, "Helen of Troy" * Pyrrhus, son of Achilles *Andromache, wife of Hector *''senex'' (old man) * Ulysses, Greek Hero *Astyanax, son of Andromache and Hector *''nuntius'' (messenger) *Polyxena, daughter of Hecuba and Priam (silent role) Plot The siege of Troy is done and the city is now smouldering ruins. The victorious Greeks have gathered the rich spoils of Troy upon the shore, among these the Trojan women who await their lot to be assigned to their Greek lords and taken to the cities of their foes. But now the ghost of Achilles has risen from the tomb, and demanded that Polyxena be sacrificed to him before the Greeks shall be allowed to sail away. And Calchas, also, bids that Astyanax be slain, for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hercules (Seneca)
''Hercules'' or ''Hercules furens'' (''The Mad Hercules'') is a '' fabula crepidata'' (Roman tragedy with Greek subject) of c. 1344 lines of verse written by Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Characters * Juno, Sister and wife of Jupiter, and queen of heaven *chorus, Of Thebans *Amphitryon, Husband of Hercules' mother * Megara, Wife of Hercules and daughter of Creon * Lycus, Usurper of the throne of Thebes *Hercules, Son of Jupiter and Alcmena, but the reputed son of Amphitryon *Theseus, King of Athens and friend of Hercules Plot Lycus was exiled for his crimes by Creon the father-in-law of Hercules and king of Thebes. Hercules being at that time away in the underworld, where he had gone to seek out Cerberus as the final labour assigned him by Eurystheus through Juno's hatred. Here he found Theseus, who had made a descent into the regions of Pluto in company of Pirithous with the intention of carrying off Proserpine. Lycus seized his opportunity, and aided by conspirators, slayed Creon tog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Quarto
The earliest texts of William Shakespeare's works were published during the 16th and 17th centuries in quarto or folio format. Folios are large, tall volumes; quartos are smaller, roughly half the size. The publications of the latter are usually abbreviated to Q1, Q2, etc., where the letter stands for "quarto" and the number for the first, second, or third edition published. Plays Eighteen of the 36 plays in the First Folio were printed in separate and individual editions prior to 1623. ''Pericles'' (1609) and ''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' (1634) also appeared separately before their inclusions in folio collections (the Shakespeare Third Folio and the second Beaumont and Fletcher folio, respectively). All of these were quarto editions, with two exceptions: ''The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York'', the first edition of ''Henry VI, Part 3'', was printed in octavo form in 1595, as was the 1611 edition of ''The most lamentable tragedy of Titus Andronicus''. In chronological order, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fredson Bowers
Fredson Thayer Bowers (April 25, 1905 – April 11, 1991) was an American Bibliography, bibliographer and scholar of Textual criticism, textual editing. Life Bowers was a graduate of Brown University and Harvard University (Ph.D.). He taught at Princeton University before moving to the University of Virginia in 1938. Bowers served as a Commander (United States)#Naval rank, commander in the United States Navy during World War II leading a group of Cryptanalysis, codebreakers. In 1947 he led a group of faculty and interested local citizens in founding the Bibliographical Society of the University of Virginia, of which he served as president for many years. He founded its annual publication, ''Studies in Bibliography'', which became a leading journal in the field. Bowers was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958. In 1969 he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Bibliographical Society (of London). He retired in 1975 and at the time of his death, he was Linden Kent Professor of Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Problem Play
The problem play is a form of drama that emerged during the 19th century as part of the wider movement of realism in the arts, especially following the innovations of Henrik Ibsen. It deals with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context. Critic Chris Baldick writes that the genre emerged "from the ferment of the 1890s... for the most part inspired by the example of Ibsen's realistic stage representations of serious familial and social conflicts." He summarises it as follows: The critic F. S. Boas adapted the term to characterise certain plays by William Shakespeare that he considered to have characteristics similar to Ibsen's 19th-century problem plays. As a result, the term is also used more broadly and retrospectively to describe any tragicomic dramas that do not fit easily into the classical generic distinction between comedy and tragedy. Early "problem pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pastoral
A pastoral lifestyle is that of shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. It lends its name to a genre of literature, art, and music (pastorale) that depicts such life in an idealized manner, typically for urban audiences. A ''pastoral'' is a work of this genre, also known as bucolic, from the Greek , from , meaning a cowherd. Literature Pastoral literature in general Pastoral is a mode of literature in which the author employs various techniques to place the complex life into a simple one. Paul Alpers distinguishes pastoral as a mode rather than a genre, and he bases this distinction on the recurring attitude of power; that is to say that pastoral literature holds a humble perspective toward nature. Thus, pastoral as a mode occurs in many types of literature (poetry, drama, etc.) as well as genres (most notably the pastoral elegy). Terry Gifford, a prominent literary theorist, defin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
City Comedy
City comedy, also known as citizen comedy, is a genre of comedy in the English early modern theatre. Definition Emerging from Ben Jonson's late-Elizabethan comedies of humours (1598–1599), the conventions of city comedy developed rapidly in the first decade of the Jacobean era, as one playwright's innovations were soon adopted by others, such that by about 1605 the new genre was fully established. Its principal playwrights were Jonson himself, Thomas Middleton, and John Marston, though many others also contributed to its development, including Thomas Heywood, Thomas Dekker, John Day, and John Webster. Once the companies of boy players—the Children of Paul's and the Children of the Chapel—had resumed public performances from 1600 onwards, most of their plays were city comedies. The closest that William Shakespeare's plays come to the genre is the slightly earlier ''The Merry Wives of Windsor'' (c. 1597), which is his only play set entirely in England; it avoids the caust ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Condell
Henry Condell ( bapt. 5 September 1576 – December 1627) was a British actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. With John Heminges, he was instrumental in preparing and editing the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare, published in 1623.Pogue, Kate. ''Shakespeare's Friends''. Greenwood Publishing Group (2006) pp. 129-136 Life and career Condell's early life is obscure. It appears that he may have been from East Anglia, as his will mentions 'my Cosen Gilder late of newe Buckenham’. According to Edmond: The only Henry Condell so far discovered at a suitable date in that part of England was the son of a Robert Condell of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich, a fishmonger, and his wife, Joan, née Yeomans, of New Buckenham, a market town not far from Norwich. Henry Condell, presumably their son, was baptized at St Peter on 5 September 1576. Traditionally, he is associated with the "Harry" who appears in the cast list for Richard Tar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Heminges
John Heminges (bapt. 25 November 1566 – 10 October 1630) was an actor in the King's Men, the playing company for which William Shakespeare wrote. Along with Henry Condell, he was an editor of the First Folio, the collected plays of Shakespeare, published in 1623. He was also the financial manager for the King's Men. Life Heminges was baptised at St Peter de Witton Church, Droitwich, Worcestershire, on 25 November 1566. Sent to London at the age of twelve, he was apprenticed for nine years to the City Grocer John Collins, becoming a freeman of the Grocers' Company on 24 April 1587. On 10 March 1588 he received a licence to marry Rebecca Knell (née Edwards), the widow of William Knell, an actor with the Queen's Men who had been killed at Thame, Oxfordshire, in 1587 by John Towne, a fellow actor. Heminges and his sixteen-year-old wife settled in the parish of St Mary Aldermanbury, and had at least thirteen children there between the years 1590 and 1613. Heminges's association ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Edward Blount
Edward Blount (or Blunt) (1562–1632) was a London publisher of the Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline eras, noted for his publication, in conjunction with William and Isaac Jaggard, of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623. He was baptised in London on 31 January 1562; the Stationers' Register states that he was the son of Ralph Blount or Blunt, merchant tailor of London, and apprenticed himself in 1578 for ten years to the stationer William Ponsonby. Blount became a "freeman" (a full member) of the Stationers' Company on 25 June 1588. Among the most important of his publications are Giovanni Florio's Italian-English dictionary and his translation of Montaigne, plus Marlowe's ''Hero and Leander'' (1598), and the ''Six Court Comedies'' of John Lyly (1632). He himself translated ''Ars Aulica, or the Courtier's Arte'' (1607) from the Italian of Lorenzo Ducci, and ''Christian Policie'' (1632) from the Spanish of Juan de Santa María. Though best remembere ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
