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Revenge and Revenge Tragedy in Renaissance England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Ronald Broude
Ronald Broude*
Affiliation:
New York City
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Extract

When we speak of ‘revenge tragedy,’ we are often unaware of the extent to which our approach to these important Renaissance plays has been conditioned by the name we have given them. Elizabethans themselves recognized no distinct dramatic type called revenge play. The term is a modern one, made current at the turn of the century by A. H. Thorndike, and first defined at length by Fredson Bowers more than thirty years ago. As a critical term, it depends upon the modern meaning of revenge, and it simultaneously reflects and shapes both modern assumptions about the subject matter of the plays and modern prejudices about the ethical principles upon which they are assumed to be predicated.

Type
Research Article
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , Spring 1975 , pp. 38 - 58
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1975

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References

1 ‘The Relations of Hamlet to the Contemporary Revenge Play,’ PMLA, 17 (1902), 125-220; Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy (Princeton, 1940), passim, but esp. pp. 61-65.

2 New York, 1962. See especially the study of synonyms under revenge.

3 See, for example, Watson, C. B., Shakespeare and the Renaissance Concept of Honor (Princeton, 1960), pp. 127–133, 354-360Google Scholar; and Frye, Roland, Shakespeare and Christian Doctrine (Princeton, 1963), p. 256.Google Scholar

4 See, for example, Ribner, Irving, Patterns in Shakespearean Tragedy (London, 1960), pp. 15–16.Google Scholar

5 Campbell, , ‘Theories of Revenge in Renaissance England,’ MP, 38 (1931), 281–296 Google Scholar; and Bowers, pp. 3-40. For a discussion of the anti-private revenge strain in popular thought, see Prosser, Eleanor, Hamlet and Revenge, 2nd ed. (Stanford, 1971), pp. 3–35.Google Scholar

6 See, among others, Johnson, S. F., ‘The Regeneration of Hamlet,’ SQ, 3 (1952), 187–207 Google Scholar; de Chickera, Ernst, ‘Divine Justice and Private Revenge in The Spanish Tragedy ,’ MLR, 57 (1962), 228–232 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Irving Ribner, Introduction to the Revels Plays ed. of The Atheist's Tragedy (London, 1964), pp. xxxii-lxvi; and R. Broude, ‘Roman and Goth in Titus Andronicus,’ ShakS, 6 (1970), 27-34.

7 ‘The Mvrder of Iohn Brewen,’ in Kyd's Works, ed. Boas (Oxford, 1901), p. 287. S. F. Johnson has kindly drawn my attention to the interesting parallel in Richard II, 1, 1, 11. 104-106: ‘Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries… To me for justice and rough chastisement’ (Hardin Craig's ed. of Shakespeare's Works, [Glenview, Ill., 1961]).

Although the OED recognizes ‘punishment’ and ‘chastisement’ as meanings of revenge (Def. 5, obsolete), it erroneously places Kyd's example under Def. 1 (‘The act of doing hurt or harm to another in return for wrong or injury suffered; satisfaction by repayment of injuries,’) and under Def. 1 of vengeance (‘The act of avenging oneself or another, retributive infliction of injury or punishment; hurt or harm done from vindictive motives.’). The OED does not consistently give sufficient weight to the impersonal element in early occurrences of these nouns: there is no implication in Kyd's passage of the personal animus so important to the OED definitions. Several other examples cited by the OED may also be questioned, e.g., under vengeance, Def. 1, the passages from Coverdale and Purchas, where the use of vengeance clearly does not contain the element of ‘vindictive motives.’

8 ‘Of Revenge,’ Essayes.

9 Vincentio Saviolo His Practice (London, 1595), Aa.

10 Cranmer, Thomas, ‘A Sermon Concerning the Time of the Rebellion,’ in the Parker Society ed. of Cranmer's Miscellaneous Writings and Letters (Cambridge, 1846), p. 193 Google Scholar; and Latimer, Hugh, ‘Epistle for the Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity,’ in the Parker Society ed. of Latimer's Sermons (Cambridge, 1864), p. 495.Google Scholar

11 Of the 47 occurrences of the nouns vengeance and revenge given by Robert Young in his Analytical Concordance to the Bible, 22nd American ed. revised by William Stevenson (Grand Rapids, 1955), 16 occur in conjunction with the words God or the Lord, 9 are spoken by God, and 4 appear in contexts clearly indicating that the vengeance at issue is divine. In all, Young cites 103 occurrences of vengeance, revenge (noun and verb), avenge and their derivatives. The Hebrew words which they most often render are the noun neqamah (19) and the verb naqam (40). The Greek words most frequently rendered are έκδíκεîv and its derivatives (13). As The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (New York and Nashville, 1962) notes in its entry for vengeance, ‘seldom does “vengeance” in the Bible carry the connotation of “vindictiveness” or “revenge”.’ Rather, vengeance is associated with ‘the restoration of wholeness, [and] integrity to the community, by God or man. The various terms translated “vengeance” are part of the legal terminology of the Bible.’

12 The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, ed. C. T. Onions et al. (Oxford, 1966). The element of striking a balance persists in French cognates to this day, e.g., en revanche, on the other hand. The etymology of French cognates seems to have paralleled that of the English revenge and vengeance in several ways. For sixteenth-century French usage, see Huguet, Edmond, Dictionnaire de la langue française du seizième siècle (Paris, 1925-66).Google Scholar

13 de Shoreham, William, ‘De decern preceptis,’ in the Percy Society ed. of Shoreham's Religious Poems (London, 1849), p. 98.Google Scholar

14 On the forms of self-government practiced by various societies, see Phillpotts, Bertha, Kindred and Clan in the Middle Ages and After (Cambridge, 1913)Google Scholar; Treston, H. J., Poine (London, 1923)Google Scholar; Forsyth, Elliott, La Tragédie française de Jodelle à Corneille, le thème de la vengeance (Paris, 1962), pp. 17–142 Google Scholar; and the convenient selection of papers in Law and Warfare, Studies in the Anthropology of Conflict, ed. Paul Bohannan (Garden City, 1967). On self-government in England, see Kemball, John, The Saxons in England (London, 1876), p. 267 Google Scholar; Seebohm, Frederic, Tribal Custom in Anglo-Saxon England (London, 1902), pp. 254–295 Google Scholar; Jeudwine, J. W., Tort, Crime and Police in Medieval England (London, 1917).Google Scholar passim; Bowers, pp. 3-14; Mroz, Mary, Divine Vengeance (Washington, D.C., 1941), pp. 66–84 Google Scholar; and Lyon, Bryce, A Constitutional and Legal History of Medieval England (New York, 1960), pp. 83–88.Google Scholar

15 On the duel, see Bryson, Frederick, The Sixteenth Century Italian Duel (Chicago, 1938)Google Scholar; Bowers, pp. 30-34; Mroz, pp. 40-43; and Watson, pp. 69-73, 127-135.

16 In connection with this ‘subjective'justice, consider Gawain's vengeance for his slain brothers in Malory's Morte Arthur, and Talbot's instructions to his son in Shakespeare's I Henry VI, iv.vi. So little was blood revenge often concerned with ‘objective’ justice in Anglo-Saxon times, that the Dooms of Edward (m.2) specifically forbid prosecution of the blood feud against slayers of pursued criminals. On abuses of the duel, see Bowers, PP. 32-33.

17 On pre-Tudor sentiment against self-government, see Bowers, p. 12; on sixteenth-century objections to ‘private revenge,’ see Campbell, above, n.5.

18 On abuses of legal justice, see Mroz, pp. 49-65.

19 On the development of royal justice, see Maitland, F. W., The Constitutional History of England, ed. Fisher, (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 105–141 Google Scholar; Jeudwine, passim; and Sayles, G. O., The Medieval Foundations of England (London, 1950), pp. 336ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20 On the judicial combat and appeals, see Sayles, p. 336; and Maitland, p. 128. For an Elizabethan's view of these institutions, see Smith, Thomas, De Republica anglorum (London, 1583)Google Scholar, Book III, chap. 3.

21 Bowers, pp. 15-40; Mroz, passim; Watson, pp. 127ff.

22 For references to blood feuds, see the Calendar of Letters and Papers Relating to the Affairs of the Borders of England and Scotland, ed. Bain (Edinburgh, 1894), nos. 6, 41,101, and 123; and Bowers, pp. 19-20. On maintenance, see Trevelyan, G. M., English Social History (London, 1944), pp. 152–156.Google Scholar For descriptions of particular confrontations, see Neale, J. E., Queen Elizabeth I (London, 1938), pp. 147 Google Scholar; and Bowers, pp. 17ff.

23 Bowers, pp. 30ff.

24 On feuds, duels, and allied customs in literature read by Elizabethans, see Bowers, 41-61. A number of Child ballads deal with such feuds; some of them, e.g., ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray’ (no. 181), deal with affairs almost contemporary with their creation.

25 On Tudor political theory, see Allen, J. W., A History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1928), pp. 120–270 Google Scholar; Le Van Baumer, F., The Early Tudor Theory of Kingship (New Haven, 1940)Google Scholar, passim; Mroz, passim; and Campbell, , Shakespeare's ‘Histories’ (San Marino, 1947)Google Scholar, passim. For concise popular Elizabethan summations, see ‘An Exhortation Concerning Good Order and Obedience to Rulers and Magistrates’ and ‘An Homily Against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion,’ both in the official collection of homilies.

26 See, for example, Cranmer, ‘A Sermon Concerning the Time of the Rebellion’; and Latimer, , ‘A Sermon on the Gospel of All Saints,’ Miscellaneous Letters and Writings, p. 481.Google Scholar

27 Thus the Mirror for Magistrates deals with the careers of public figures relatively few of whom were commissioned justices. See also Mroz, pp. 32-39.

28 On Tudor law enforcement, see Lee, W. M., A History of Police in England (London, 1901), pp. 91–101 Google Scholar; Pringle, Patrick, Highwaymen (New York, 1963), pp. 54ff.Google Scholar; and, for contemporary comment, Smith, 11, 21; and Francis Bacon, ‘Answers to Questions … Touching the Office of Constables,’ in Bacon's Works, ed. Spedding et al. (Boston, 1860-64), Vol. 15, pp. 339-346.

29 Smith, n, 20.

30 On the vendetta among biblical peoples, see Treston, passim, but esp. pp. 1-10: and Forsyth, pp. 6off.

31 Saviolo, fol. C2V.

32 How Superior Powers Ought to be Obeyed ([Geneva?], 1558), p. 190. On attitudes towards tyrannicide in the sixteenth century, see Mousnier, Roland, The Assassination of Henry IV, tr. Spencer, Joan (New York, 1973)Google Scholar, passim, but esp. pp. 63-228.

33 This idea is presented in pictorial terms in the ‘Darnley Memorial Portrait,’ attributed to Livinus de Vogelaare, and now at Holyrood, in which the infant James VI kneels at Darnley's tomb, calling upon God to avenge his murdered father. The banner under which the Protestant lords rode to Carberry Hill bore a similar picture with the words ‘Judge and revenge my caus O Lord.’

34 For the text of the Instrument, see The Trial of Mary Queen of Scots, ed. Steuart (London, etc., 1951), pp. 31-32. The major provisions of the Instrument were subsequently passed into law as 27 Elizabeth, cap. 1.

35 On crime and punishment in Renaissance England, see Smith, ii, 24; Pike, L. O., A History of Crime in England (London, 1873-76), 11, 1–166 Google Scholar; and Elton, G. R., England under the Tudors (London and New York, 1955), pp. 57–66.Google Scholar On the several forms of justice among which the Renaissance distinguished, see Apetkar, Jane, Icons of Justice (New York, 1969), PP. 54–57.Google Scholar

36 On this shift—and its repercussions in sixteenth-century English literature—see Farnham, Willard, The Medieval Heritage of Elizabethan Tragedy (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1936), PP. 213–452.Google Scholar

37 ‘Lectures on Genesis,’ in The American Edition of Luther's Works, vol. II, ed. Pelikan and Poellot (St. Louis, 1960), p. 140.

38 On the theological and civil implications of crime, see Adams, H. H., English Domestic or Homiletic Tragedy (New York, 1943), pp. 12ff.Google Scholar

39 See, for example, Luther, , Temporal Authority, Works, vol. XLV, ed. Brandt, and Schindel, (Philadelphia, 1962), 99ff.Google Scholar; and Calvin, Institutes, Book 4.20.

40 Temporal Authority, p. 101. Luther is not speaking of ‘private vengeance,’ but rather of seeing justice done.

41 The most competent investigative force, Walsingham's aggressive and astute intelligence, confined itself largely to seeking out political and religious ‘subversives.’

42 Pringle, pp. 55-56.

43 The Essayes, tr. Florio (London, 1603), 1.22, cited by Watson, p. 128. On Renaissance ambivalence regarding ‘private revenge,’ see Watson, pp. 127ff.

44 On Protestant historiography, see Tuveson, Ernst Lee, Millennium and Utopia (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1949), pp. 22–70 Google Scholar; Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium, (New York, 1961), pp. 251–306 Google Scholar; and Broude, R., ‘Vindicta Filia Temporis,’ JEGP, 72 (1973), 489–502.Google Scholar

45 See, for example, among the ballads published by R. W. Morfill, Ballads Relating to the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, Part ii, Ballads from Manuscripts, vol. ii (London, 1873), ‘The Complaint of a Christian …’ (pp. 189-190); ‘A Brief Answer …’ (pp. 180-181); and ‘A Proper New Ballad …’ (p. 92). On contemporary views—both English and Spanish—regarding the hand of God in the Armada's destruction, see Mattingly, Garrett, The Armada (Boston, 1959), pp. 387–392 Google Scholar; and Hadfield, A. M., Time to Finish the Game (London, 1964) pp. 198–217 Google Scholar, but esp. 198 and 210. The ‘Armada medals’ bore the motto Flavit et Dissipati Sunt—God breathed and they were scattered.

46 Campbell, ‘Theories of Revenge,’ pp. 238ff; Farnham, pp. 271-339; and Adams, pp. 26-53.

47 Compare, for example, the story of Bianca Maria, Countess of Celant (Marston's ‘insatiate countess’) as told by Bandello (I, 4), Belleforest (II, 20) and Painter (II, 24).

48 These passages are from, respectively, The Spanish Tragedy, II, 2, 1. 58 (Revels Plays ed.); The Revenger's Tragedy, v.iii.117 (Revels Plays ed.); and The Changeling, iv.ii.57-58 (Revels Plays ed.).

49 On Clermont, see Broude, R., ‘George Chapman's Stoic-Christian Revenger,’ SP, 70 (1973), 51–61.Google Scholar