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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. Gloucester, 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 repercussi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Thomas Heywood, in his ''Apologie for Actors'' (1612), attributed the play to Kyd. 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: "Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 (musical), The Lion King'' debuted in 1997 and received eleven Tony Awards, Tony Award nominations, with Taymor receiving Tony Awards for her Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical, direction and Tony Award for Best Costume Design, costume design. Her 2002 film ''Frida (2002 film), Frida'', about Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, was nominated for five Academy Awards, including a Academy Award for Best Original Song, Best Original Song nomination for Taymor's composition "Burn It Blue". She also directed the 2007 Jukebox musical, jukebox musical film ''Across the Universe (film), Across the Universe'', based on the music of the Beatles. Early life Taymor was born in Newton, Massachusetts, Newton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Elizabeth (née Bernstein), a political science professor and Democratic activist, and Melvin Lester Taymor, a gynecol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 Little is known of Cyril Tourneur's early life. It has been suggested that he was either son of Edward Tournor of Canons, Great Parndon (Essex), or his grandson via Captain Richard Turnor, water-bailiff and subsequently lieutenant-governor of Brill in the Netherlands. However, the literary scholar Allardyce Nicoll concluded "the evidence connecting him with the Turnors of Great Parndon is of the slightest", further observing that he had "discovered not a shred of proof for associating him with any others of the numerous Turner families of this time. Turners, of course, abounded in the late sixteenth century as they abound to-day". Allardyce noted that the alleged connection of Cyril Tourn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 broth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy that flourished in ancient Greece and Rome. The Stoics believed that the universe operated according to reason, ''i.e.'' by a God which is immersed in nature itself. Of all the schools of ancient philosophy, Stoicism made the greatest claim to being utterly systematic. The Stoics provided a unified account of the world, constructed from ideals of logic, monistic physics, and naturalistic ethics. These three ideals constitute virtue which is necessary for 'living a well reasoned life', seeing as they are all parts of a logos, or philosophical discourse, which includes the mind's rational dialogue with itself. Stoicism was founded in the ancient Agora of Athens by Zeno of Citium around 300 BC, and flourished throughout the Greco-Roman world until the 3rd century AD, and among its adherents was Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Along with Aristotelian term logic, the system of propositional logic developed by the Stoics was one of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 vanit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antonio's Revenge
''Antonio's Revenge'' is a late English literature#Elizabethan era, Elizabethan play written by John Marston (playwright), 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 tragedy, revenge tragedies (particularly William Shakespeare, Shakespeare's ''Hamlet'')'','' it is sometimes read as a hyperbolic parody of the genre.Edmund Kerchever Chambers, 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 se ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of natural philosophy, guided by the scientific method, and his works remained influential throughout 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 based in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
