University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

The dramatic technique of Cyril Tourneur

(USC Thesis Other)

The dramatic technique of Cyril Tourneur

PDF

Download a page range

Download transcript

Copy asset link

Request this asset

Transcript (if available)

Content This dissertation has been 64-13,495
microfilmed exactly as received
DICKERSON, David Otis, 1933-
THE DRAMATIC TECHNIQUE OF CYRIL
TOURNEUR.
University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1964
Language and Literature, general
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
Copyright by
DAVID OTIS DICKERSON
196k
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
THE DRAMATIC TECHNIQUE
OP CYRIL TOURNEUR
by
David Otia Dickerson
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OP THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OP SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY
(English)
June I96I 4.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
UNIVERSITY O F SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
T H E G RA D U A TE SC H O O L
U N IV ER SITY PARK
L O S A N G E L E S , C A L IF O R N IA 9 0 0 0 7
This dissertation, written by
....................pAVID ....................
under the direction of h.%§...Dissertation Com
mittee, and approved by all its members, has
been presented to and accepted by the Graduate
School, in partial fulfillment of requirements
for the degree of
D O C T O R OF P H I L O S O P H Y
.........
^ Dean
Date..June . . . I 9 . 6 L .
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE
...
o _ / / < I
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
T A B L E O P C O N T E N T S
j CHAPTER I . ....................................... 1
INTRODUCTION . ................................ 1
Purpose .............. .... 1
! Biographical Summary and Canon , ^
! CHAPTER I I ......................................... 20
THE REVENGER«S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OF ACTION , . 20
Plot Construction............ 20
Scene Construction 36
Thematic Construction ...............
Exposition ........ ............ .. $0
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY: TECHNIQUES OP
LANGUAGE................................. 53
Dialogue Construction .......... 53
Prose-Verae Relationships ......... 66
Linguistic Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY: TECHNIQUES OF
CHARaô'P eïîizaVïoM ■......................... 91
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY: TECHNIQUES OF
I StAGlkG . . ' . ; V ............................105
I Grouping of Characters . ..................105
I Staging Techniques ............... 109
AFTERWORD................ 112
i CHAPTER III ......................................... 115
L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
ill
TEE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OF ACTION . . . 13l5,
Plot Construction o . ................. 115
Scene Construction . . » ................... 126
Thematic Construction ............ 133
Exposition.......... 139
THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDY: TECHNIQUES OP
LAtÏGÜAGE ..............
l k . 2
Dialogue Construction............ ...... , l l j . 2
Prose-Verse Relationships ......... 11^8
Linguistic Devices , ....................... l56
THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDY: TECHNIQUES OP
CHARACTERIZATION ........................... 171
THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDY: TECHNIQUES OP STAGING . . 101
Grouping of Characters ................101
Staging Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 0 l | .
APTERWORD . .................... 180
CHAPTER I V .............................................190
TOURNEUR'S PLAYS COMPARED ....................... 190
TOURNEUR AND OTHER ELIZABETHANS ................. 203
CONCLUSION............................ .... 221
i APPENDIX .............................................227
BIBLIOGRAPHY........................ o o 2 i | . 2
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Purpose
Minor Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists are usually
studied rather cursorily, and Cyril Tourneur is no excep
tion, Countless references describe briefly (with implicit
approval or disapproval), wherein Tourneur is like or un
like Shakespeare, or is in the Revenge or the Morality
tradition; others note in a few sentences his position in
the "Jacobean decadence," his methods of characterization,
plot construction, his philosophy of life, or even his mis
representation of the puritan. The very real connections
between Tourneur and his contemporaries and their dramatic
interests make it only too easy to form rather broad, fre
quently misleading, and occasionally mistaken generaliza
tions about Tourneur’s plays, their construction, and their
idramatic method. Dismissal with a sentence or at best a
(paragraph is all too frequently the fate of the minor con-
! temporaries of Shakespeare,
I In the belief that Tourneur’s plays are not only
valuable for the illumination they provide the student of
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
Elizabethan drama, but also intrinsically valuable and in
teresting in themselves, I propose in this study to under
take a thorough examination of the two plays I consider to
be entirely Tourneur’s, The Revenger’s Tragedy and The
Atheist’s Tragedy. Such a study must indeed reveal, I be
lieve, that Tourneur follows Shakespeare (and others) in
his use of imagery, characterization, plot development, and
the like. But the main emphasis will be upon the way Tour
neur’s plays work, what their meanings are, and how they
I develop and convey those meanings.
j The announced concern of this study is with "dramatic
I technique," a term which (with its approximate synonyms
I^dramaturgy" and "stagecraft"), is seldom very clearly de
fined. All three expressions seem generally understood as I
referring to any and all aspects of drama as drama. Indiv
idual studies tend to select "significant aspects" of a
work for analysis under one of these three headings, but of
course few people could be made to agree on all points as
to what features of a work are "significant" and what are
not.
Few studies of "dramatic technique" demonstrate a
serious regard for definition, but there are occasional
explanations. In his study of John Ford, Robert Davril
defines "dramatic technique" as
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
• • • the total means taken In a work to obtain
the maximum participation of the public in the ac
tion, independent of the aesthetic goals which the
dramatist, insofar as he is an artist, pursues
incidentally.1
|T. A. Dunn, in his study of Philip Massinger, gives a some
what more technical definition of ”stagecraft”:
By stagecraft, as something distinct from plot
ting, I mean the mechanics of the playwright in
the management of his stage business: the manip
ulation of the characters on the stage; the way
in which he "dresses” the stage and groups his
characters; the number of persons on the stage at
any one time; the management of exits and entrances;
the arrangements he makes for casting and for doub
ling; spectacle; situation; the way in which he uses
I his dialogue; the assignment of speeches; the use of
monologues, soliloquies, asides, interruptions;
choral and commenting passages; rhyming couplets as
a rhetorical-dramatic device, and so on; in fact,
all those features of dramatic handwri;ting which
cannot fairly be grouped under the heading of plot
ting or plotting-devices on the one hand, or under
that of style on the other. I should consider as
"stagecraft” all the purely technical means and con
ventions which the playwright adopts for the telling
of a story in dramatic form— perhaps for the transfer
of a story from a narrative to a dramatic form.2
My own use of the expression "dramatic technique" does
not emphasize the purely technical as strongly as does
Dunn’s notion of "stagecraft," nor does it, like Davril's,
entirely exclude esthetics. Since "technique" certainly
implies an interest in performance, I am primarily con-
^Le Drame de John Ford (Paris, 19^1^.), p. 39$. (My
translation).
2Philip Massinger: The Man and the Playwright (Lon
don, i9^)Tpr'76. —
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
^ I
oerned with what, in the light of existing scholarship and
of hints imbedded in the play itself, I take to be the "pro-
isented play," This is not to say, however, that I am oon-
!
earned only with the play as the casual playgoer would per
ceive it; rather, I shall include in this study all matters
important to an understanding of the action and meaning of
Ithe play. To do so will require the inclusion of a number
Iof matters--plot parallels, thematic development, imagery,
and the like--which are apprehended only semi-consciously
Iduring performance, but however imperfectly they are per-
Iceived at such a time, they are, I believe, legitimately
i
part of the play's modus operandi.
The emphasis may thus be seen to be upon what the play
I
jdoes and means, and how it works. Such things as elaborate !
; I
jbiographioal data (even if implicit in the imagery), or |
I g - i
sources (in the general sense/ «ire not within my purview.^ j
The "sources" I am interested in are those an Elizabethan
audience would have been aware of as being directly in the j
I
same tradition as the play and therefore producing much of |
its effect and meaning— such close "kin" as Everyman, Ham- |
: %or am I concerned with the play's relation to the |
"history of ideas," its literary influence, its relation
ships to contemporary medicine, science, politics, music,
art, psycholo^, economics or other "extrinsic" matters (asi
termed by Rene Wellek and Austin Warren, The Theory of Lit
erature , New York, 19l|.2), My basic concern is with the
’ ''intrinsic" qualities of the presented play, as perceived
by a student trained in Elizabethan drama.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
I “ ■ 5'
I '
! let. The Malcontent, or the Bussy plays, I shall most fre-
I ' I
I quently be concerned with the meaning of the play as it
; would seem to have been understood by an Elizabethan aud- j
I ' i
:ience, but, on the supposition that the "real meaning" of
an art-work is to be found in the sum of its perception
throughout its existence, I shall also include views of
the play as later readers have seen it.
What the reader will "see" in the play, I believe, is
particularly its "story" and "plot," and its "theme," but
he must also look for the embellishments of performance—
contemporary dramatic analogues, important image clusters
and other linguistic devices, the mechanics of the action,
the stage-placement, the use of properties, the verisimil
itude of the dialogue, characterization, and the like.
What I should like to study, then, is the play's "dramatic
presence"; this paradoxically may involve meanings found
only after long hours in the study, but I am of course con
cerned with the play as seen by a well-trained reader of
Elizabethan drama, and a concern with an author's "tech
nique" presupposes that the reader will at least attempt to
get everything out of a play that the author put into it.
Biographical Summary and Canon
Since 1929, when Allardyce Nicoll began his edition of!
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
Tourneur^ by quoting from Mnroel Schwob * a Vies imagin-
alrea--"Cyril Tourneur naquit de l'union d'un dieu inconnu
avec une prostitube"--it bas become something of an unfor
tunate custom not only to quote Schwob but also to use
something of his methods. The fact is that we know noth
ing at all for sure about Tourneur's parents, and very
little more about Tourneur himself.
As Thomas Seccombe notes.
Nothing whatever was known of the life of
Cyril Tourneur until, in a communication to
the Academy, 9 May 1891, Mr, Gordon Goodwin
gave the references to Tourneur in the Calen
dar of State Papers , , , ,5
Following up Goodwin's leads, Seccombe provided the first
biography of Tourneur in The Dictionary of National Biog
raphy, 1899» He was the first to suggest that Cyril Tour
neur was
• • , probably a near relative and possibly the
son of Captain Richard Turner or Turner, (p, 1011^.)
^Vhile it has some imperfections, Nicoll's is the
only "scholarly" edition of Tourneur ever made, and except
in the rare instance when a reference must be made to one
of the Huntington Library quartos of Tourneur, all future
references to the plays will be to Nicoll's edition:
Cyril Tourneur, %e Works of Cyril Tourneur. ed, Allardyce
Nicoll, London, CL^^9j • (this edition has just been re
printed by Russell and Russell, New York, 1963)*
^Dictionary of National Biography (London, 1899), p,
1016, this essay is unchanged in subsequent editions
(which are printed from the original plates, or by litho
graphy), and it forms the basis for the essay in the Ency
clopaedia Brittaniea from the eleventh edition (1911),
forward.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
Seccombe knew that Richard Turner was in the service of the
Cecils, that he was made water bailiff of Brill under Sir
Thomas Cecil when, in 1565» Brill and Flushing were (by
agreement with the Dutch) taken over by the British as
"cautionary towns," and that he became lieutenant-governor
of Brill in 1596. Since the governorship of the city was
given in September 1598 to Sir Francis Vere and Turner is
not listed among Vere's men, Seccombe assumes him to have I
I
idled or to have been superannuated by 1598 (p. lOlli.),
j
; However, Allardyce Nicoll cites a letter of November 30,
1 1600, written by Edward Turner from the Middle Temple, re
questing the reinstatement of his brother Richard (Works,
p, 3), The Middle Temple records indicate that Edward
Turner was the son of another Edward Turner of Canons,
Great Parndon, Essex (p. 3), and that children of both Ed
wards bore such names as Maurice, Arthur, Penelope, Joshua,
Nathaniel; Lydia, Christopher, and Demetrius, As the Great
Parndon register book does not mention Maurice and Arthur,
however, and records only One birth between 1578-1581,
Nicoll conjectures that Cyril may have been the son of one
of the Edwards, born during the apparent period of faulty
records in Great Parndon, 1578-81 (pp, 3 - 5 ) All this is
The possible parentage of Tourneur has an interesting
relationship to his own apparent knowledge of law, Churton
Collins argued in I878 (The Plays and Poems of Cyril Tour
neur, ed, J, Churton Collins, 2 vols, London, 1678 ,
Ï, xvii) of a legal reference in The Revenger's Tragedy
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
8
perhaps only slightly less suppositions than the "Imaginary
Lives," hut It Is at least "based on fact," and with the
Information we now have. It Is as close as we are likely
to got to the parentage or blrth-date of Cyril Tourneur.
I We know no more of Tourneur’s youth and education than
I of his birth. At some time, however, he must have read !
I the classics: The Revenger’a Tragedy alludes to Penelope
I and the mythical Graces; The Atheist’s Tragedy» to Tanta- |
I 7 . '
lus and the Furies.' On the bases of his classical allu-
i slons and of what we know of contemporary education. It Is
usually assumed that he knew classical drama; we can prove
from parallels and actual quotations that he was well-
I versed In the drama of his near-contemporarles, particular
ly Marston and Shakespeare,
that such "a piece of minute information, which as a mere
outsider he would have been scarcely likely to possess,
makes It not unlikely that he was a member of one of the
Inns of Court, , . Una Ellls-Permor, "The Imagery of
The Revengers Tragedle and The Atheists Tragedle." Modem
language Review, 30:^^9-301, July 1935, suggests that
dAmnnatpatA an unuauallv nreclae ac-
fourneur’s Images demonstrate an unusually precise ac
qualntance with "the administering of landed property and
with the routine of a lawyer’s office" (p, 297)* It Is
also Interesting to note that Miss Ellls-Permor believes
Tourneur must have grown up near or In East Anglia, or near
the sailing waters of Essex or Suffolk (p. 291)# I
7 I
There are other classical references In the plays, |
and Nicoll cites (Works, p, 6), a passage from The Trans- !
formed Metamorphosis in which Tourneur %akes epigrammatic
point of his exact study of the Greek vocabulary";
Pan, that was once a cleere Epltlme:
Is now transform’d to hot Eplthymle, (265-6)
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
Perhaps the first indisputable fact we do possess
about Tourneur Is that the quarto of an enigmatic satiric
poem. The Transformed Metamorphosis, printed in 1600 by
Valentine Sims, bears the words "By Cyril Turner" on its
title-page. Its publication leads us to the obvious sup
position that Tourneur knew and was influenced by the
clever, epigrammatic satire of Marston, Hall, and their
followers. Nicoll calls it "the work, evidently, of a
very young man . . «"(Works, p. 8).
But the next item must again be considered conjec
tural. In 1605 Jeffrey Charlton printed a pamphlet en
titled Laugh and lie downe; or. The worldss Folly; no
author was shown, but the dedication was signed "C. T."
Nicoll includes it in an appendix to his edition, but ob-
!
serves that the pamphlet, a satiric dream-vision, "must be j
treated in a manner the most circumspect" (p. I6). The |
next work which we can, I think, definitely attribute to
Tourneur is The Revengers Tragaedie. which George Eld pub
lished late in I6O7 with no indication of authorship. How
ever, William Archer’s playlist appended to The Old Law
(1656), and William Kirkman's lists appended to Tom Tyler
and His Wife (1661) and to Nioomede (I67I) all attribute
the play to Tourneur.
6,
6
It is well-known, of course, that a few insurgent
j scholars have attempted to prove that Thomas Middleton
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
10
Sir Francis Vera, former governor of Brill, and appar
ently the man who in 1^98 removed Richard Tumor from his
Brill position, died August 28, 1609. Entered in the
Stationers' Register October 16, 1609» and published later
the same year was A Punerall Poeme Upon the Death of the
Most Worthie and True Sovldier, Sir Francis Vere. Knight,
printed for Eleazar Edgar. No author was named on the
title-page, but the work was signed ”Cyril Tourneur” at
the end (Works, p. 21). Since it is known that Tourneur
was later associated with campaigns in the Low Countries,
his concern with the ex-governor of Brill, who "held com-
jmands both at the battle of Nieuport (1600) and at the
I
I siege of Ostend (1601)” possibly indicates his services
I there may have begun by the end of the century (Works, pp.
21-2) .
"The tragedy of the Atheist" was entered in the
Stationers' Register September l i { . , 1611, and published
under Tourneur's name as The Atheist's Tragédie; or The
honest Man's Reuenge, by John Stepneth and Richard Redmer
1 later the same year. A few months later Edward Blount
brought the Stationers "A play books beings a Trage-oomedye
Q
called. The Noble man written by Cyrill Tourneur.” But
wrote The Revenger^s Tragedy. The entire Tourneur-Middle-
ton controversy is summarized in the appendix to this
study.
q
^Works. p. 22, citing Edward Arber, A Transcript of
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
11
the manusoplpt of the play came Into the hands of William
Warhurton and was burned by his infamous cook. Nicoll,
however, has resurrected a piece of music which may have
been associated with the play's performance at court in
1612 (Works, pp. 2 i { . - 5 , 257-8)*
I Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury, died May 2 l | . , |
j !
1612, and later that year appeared The Character of Robert I
I I
I Earle of Salesburye; of the extant copies Nicoll examined, I
I one was prefaced as being by William Turneur, but signed,
I apparently, "Gvil Tourneur"; another was alternately attri
buted to Sevill and Jerril Tourneur (Works, pp, 25-7), In
I
1931 Bernard M. Wagner reported that the Bodleian copy of
the "Character" is definitely signed "Cyril Tourneur.
Samuel Tannenbaum is presumably "mystified" by the "Gvil"^^
but Nicoll argues.
This I take to be the transcriber's error;
he is no doubt puzzled by the name and confuses
Cy with G and r with v.l^
Of the copy supposedly signed "Sevill Tourneur," Seccombe
the hegisters of the Company of Stationers. . . (London,
lB75-9h), III, W *
^®"Cyril Tourneur ... 'A Character,'" Times Literary
Supplement, April 23, 1931, P. 327.
11"A Tourneur Mystification," Modern Language Notes,
h7:lhI-3, March 1932, After examining tannenbaum'a evi-
denoe, I suspect he chooses to be mystified; the "Gvil"
he reproduces can certainly be read as "Cyril."
^^orks, p. 336. Italics (of the entire passage)
jomitted.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
1 2
reasoned,
j
, , , as the tbrae letters Glr and Sev are
almost indistinguishable in the script of the
period, the presumption that the (most uncommon) !
name "Sevill” is a misreading for Cirill is
exceptionally strong (p, 101lJ.),13
The "Character" is thus pretty certainly Tourneur's, and it:
I is succeeded by another elegiac work submitted to the
i Stationers December 25, I6I6 as by Cirill Tourneur— A
G-riefe On the Death of Prince Henrie. The elegy was prin
ted in 1613 with analogous laments by John Webster and
Thomas Heywood, Nicoll remarks of the combination,
o = . the fact Is interesting since it in
dicates a bond of friendship and intimacy among
the writers of what are in all probability the
three greatest and most powerful plays of the
age outside those of Shakespeare— The Revengers
Tragaedie, The White Divel, and A Woman Kilde
with KincTnesse (Works, "pT 27).
If the preceding information about Tourneur has been
almost entirely literary,the remainder is predominately
13
This is indirectly corroborated by Nicoll, Works, p,
29. He found a reference in the. Acta of the Privy üouncil
! of England, I6I6-I7 (London, 1927)» pp. 32Ü, 3I 4 . 9, to "Sev
ill Tourneur," but the original manuscript plainly has
"Cerill."
^His name has also been associated with other works,
{On June 5» 1613, one of Henslowe's hacks, Robert Daborne,
told his master he had "'givn Cyrill Tourneur an act of y®
{Arreignment of London to write,'" Works, p. 28, citing W,
W, Greg's Henslowe Papers (London, l907), pp. 72-5* He
has frequently been named in connection with The Second
Mayden's Tragedy (see, for instance, Nicoll's note. Works,
pp. L7-9), with Charlemagne or The Distracted Emperor
(Works, p. l|-9), and with The Honesi; Mans Fortune (edT
J&haïj Gerritsen, Groningen, 1952). Each of these attri-
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
I 1 3
i political. On December 23» I613» he was granted forty-one
I shillings upon the warrant of the Lord Chamberlain "'for
his charges and paines in carrying letters for his Majes-
tie's service to Brussells,’ Nicoll assumes that "this
was merely part of his general association with the Low
Countries" (Works, p, 29)» and Seccombe felt Tourneur must
have spent much of his time there, since
Sir Horace Vere had succeeded his brother.
Sir Francis Vere, as governor of Brill, and it
is likely that Tourneur made some interest with
him, (p. 1015)
Rather than appealing to Horace Vere, however, Tourneur
seems to have turned to the Cecils; a former connection
with Francis Vere, and a current one with the Cecils are
definitely established by a new reference to Tourneur in a
letter dated August l i | . , 16%, at Nimuagen, from James
Bathurst to William Trumbull:
The party whose letter I enclosed to you,
and whose name you could not decipher, is one
Mr, Cirrill Turner, that belongs to General
Cecil and was in form^ times Secretary to Sir
Francis Vere, He told me at his first coming
to this town he had been at Brussels and re
ceived many courtesies from you. He is now
gone to the army with his Colonel; otherwise
he had written a second letter to you that
butions is doubtful, however; the first play was never
written, and the strongest connection Tourneur may have had
with the others is in a few separate scenes. Thus for
safety and convenience, but also because I am concerned
with the technique of whole plays, I am excluding all these
works from the "Tourneur canon,"
15
Seccombe, p, 101^, apparently quoting the warrant.
R ep r o d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
%
you might havo better known him.
The letter also indirectly establishes Tourneur's connec
tion with Brill, Since he was later granted an annuity of
fc60 by the government of the United Provinces, Seccombe
reasoned,
I • . • it is most probable that he was granted
this allowance in compensation for some post '
I vacated when.Brill was handed over to the States j
I in May 1616.17 |
j The Trumbull letter establishes the fact that Tourneur is |
I
! at least with the army in the Low Countries in August l 6 l l | ., !
: . ' I
I and apparently alludes to the mission to Brussels for which}
I j
the warrant was signed December 23» 1613. (And it provides
!
still another variant spelling of his name, with further
i
evidence of its undecipherability). |
Whether the "General Cecil" is Sir Thomas Cecil, the
former governor of Brill, or his son Edward, it is certain
that Tourneur "belonged" to the Cecils for most of the rest
of his life. On September 1, 1617, the Privy Council
issued a warrant ordering Tourneur brought before them; he
was apparently imprisoned at this time, for it was under
J. R. Sutherland, "Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary
Supplement, April 16, 1931* P* 307, citing fhe * ^fruaibull
Papers, TTTso. Vol. VI, no, 99."
^7p* 1015. In a petition reproduced by Nicoll, p. 31,
Tourneur's widow, "destitute of all meanes of livelyhood,"
petitioned for payment of her husband's annuities, inclu
ding this one from "the States of Holland,"
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
1$
the bond of Sir Edward Geo11 that ho was ordered released,
October l8, 1617.^®
In 19l|. 9 Abraham Feldman suggested that Tourneur wrote
a speech which Sir Edward Cecil made in 1621.^^ He later
retracted the suggestion, but noted that Tourneur was once
thought to be the author; Sir Dudley Carleton said of
Cecil's speech,December 21, 1621, '"one Turner about him |
was the true father.' Prom the petitions of Tourneur's j
I widow, we know that when Cecil in 162$ became commander of i
i '
I the action against Cadiz, he appointed Tourneur secretary !
... to the Gouncell of Warr, & allso
Secretary for the Marshalls Court . . .
^here he serve(j . « . from the 2 of August O AJ.O O O A vovy # . # # X A \/m WA*W C. W A w
162$., vnto the Zo^ of September followeing:
At w°“ tyme M** Glanvile was sent by his Ma
to execute the place as Secretary to the
Councell of Warr; w®“
for Creditt,
‘ Warr; w®^ was the only place both
;, & profitt. . . .21
Tourneur accompanied the ill-fated expedition as secretary
to the "Marshalls Court" (to Cecil himself). When the
fleet sighted Ireland on its return, the flagship. The
T Ô
Works. p. 29. As noted above, a modern transcript
reproduces the "Cerill" of the original as "Sevill."
^^"Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary Supplement. August
$, 1949, P. $0$.
PO
"Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary Supplement. August
18, 19$0, P. $17.
^^Prom Mrs. Tourneur's petition, quoted by Nicoll,
Works, p. 31. Appended to the petition was a verification
of her claims by Viscount Wimbledon (the former Sir Edward
Cecil).
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
r " ' ................................ — - .......................................
Royal Anno, had lost 13O men from disease, and it put I60
more sick men ashore at Kinsale, Ireland, December 11,
162$ (Works, p. 3 0). Tourneur was among the sick, and
apparently died a lingering death; his widow reports,
• • • vppon retourne of the ffleete into
Ireland he died there 28. ffebr, 162^,22
I leaning yo** petic^ destitute of all meanes
j of livelyhood . . . ,
I To complement our ignorance of Tourneur's life we may
also note that we do not even know whether or not his widow
ever succeeded in collecting his annuities and salaries;
i
the only other surviving reference to the litigation is a I
I
legal memorandum of six months later (October 2^, I632),
which notes that the case is still being considered (Works,
P. 32).
Nicoll reports that he traced legal records for almost
all the Tourneurs (Turnours, Tournera, Turners, etc,) in
the period without finding any new references to Cyril
Tourneur, but he did find a series of references to a
I William Turnour who seems to be most active during the
rather long periods of silence during the life of Cyril
Tourneur (p. 5), On September 1^98, William Turnour is
accusing an acquaintance of villanous dealing and hoping
for the Queen's pardon; on April 26, 1 6 0 1 * . , he is given safe
^^e would read the date as 162^/26,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
17
conduct for a viait from France to England; late in 160$ he
is protesting, from Paris, his innocence of any complicity
in the Gunpowder Plot, In I6O6 he is apparently on the
Continent in Cecil's network of spies; the following year
he is in a Venetian prison, accused of complicity with the
I Jesuits, He is "lost" until September I6IO, when he writes
I i
I to Robert Cecil (first earl of Salisbury), from Paris, In '
I
1617» Mr, Winwood of the Privy Council writes Lord Zouch at
I Dover to prevent the delivery of arms to Captain William
!
1Turnour; in the same year the Privy Council orders the
I apprehension of Cyril Tourneur (Works, pp, 32-5)»
Nicoll does not insist that William and Cyril are one
and the same, but notes that one tends to be present when
the other is absent, and summarizes—
Prom this summary record it will be apparent
how close is the correspondence in the activities
of the two men, if indeed they be two. Both have
adopted a military career, and both are in close
touch with the Cecil family. Both spend a large
part of their lives abroad, Cyril Tourneur enter
ing when William Tumour fades away. Both get in
to trouble with the authorities, while Winwood*s
condemnation of William in April l6l? might well
give the explanation of Cyril's examination before
the Privy Council in September of that year.
, , , {There] has to be added the fact that in the
Brlti^ Museum copy of the Cheupacter of Cecil,
the title on the first page gives William Tur
neur as the author, while the piece is signed on
the last page as Cyrill Tourneur (pp, 3^-6),
I In review of Tourneur's life and works we note that he
I
possessed a reasonable amount of education and considerable
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
18
poatlo promise when, apparently as a youth, he published in
1600 his The Transformed Metamorphosis. The ”0. T.” who
signed the pamphlet Laugh and Lie Down published in 160$
may have been Tourneur, and the ascription to him of The
Revenger*s Tragedy. 1607, is at least as certain as that
of any other unsigned Elizabethan play. His publication in
1609 of A Funeral Poem upon the Death of . . . Sir Francis
Vere seems to indicate his military service with the Veres
I
I in the Low Countries, and this is corroborated by the let- |
; I
I ter found by J, R, Sutherland, He published his "companion
! piece" to The Revenger’s Tragedy--The Atheist's Tragedy— in
! • I
l6ll, presenting a finer philosophical effort, but a less }
effective play. His tragicomedy The Nobleman was brought j
to the Stationers early in 1612, but is now lost. His |
Character of Robert Earle of Salesburye was apparently
written soon after the death of Robert Cecil, May 2 i | . , 1612,
but not published under Tourneur * s name until Nicoll's
edition in 1929,^^ The Griefe on the Death of Prince
Henrie was presented to the Stationers late in December
1612 and published with the accompanying elegies by John
Webster and Thomas Haywood (apparently his friends), early
in 1613,
^But Nicoll notes (Works, p, 26), that L. P, Smith,
aware that Wotton had prepared a "character" of Cecil in
1613, and finding an unsigned copy of Tourneur’s "charac
ter" among Wotton’s papers, printed it as Wotton's: The
Life and Letters, , . (Oxford, 1907)» II» l| .13 » 1 4 . 87,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
19
No further works can be attributed to Tourneur with
any certainty, and Tourneur apparently concentrated during
the remainder of his life on a career in public affairs and
the military on which he had already embarked. The Trum
bull letter of 16H{. describes him as former secretary of
Sir Francis Vere (died, 1609), and currently serving Gen
eral Cecil. He was paid in 1613 for carrying letters to
Brussels, was at some time granted an annuity for services
in Holland, was associated with the Cecils in 1621 (as
demonstrated by the reference found by B, M, Wagner), and
came to his death as a result of his accompanying Cecil to
Cadiz in 162^-26. The rest is silence, except for his
works. But it is for these, after all, that we remember
him, and it is in the best of these, his two surviving
plays, that we propose to study his "dramatic technique."
R ep ro d u ced w ith p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ith out p erm issio n .
CHAPTER II
THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP ACTION
Plot Construction
The Revenger’s Tragedy is a multiple-revenge play. |
I
Its central figure is Vendice, who seeks vengeance on the !
Duke of his district for the murder of his fiancee and the j
death of his-father. In the course of his intrigue, how- |
ever, Vendice comes to seek revenge on the Duke's son as
well, for attempting to seduce his sister. Moreover,
interwoven with Vendice's plots are complicated revenge-
plots of the ducal family involving the old Duke's son,
his bastard, his second wife, and her three sons. One of
the Duchess' sons is erroneously (but justly) executed.
Vendice and his brother-accomplice kill the old Duke and
his son, after thwarting the letter's attempt to corrupt
their sister. The Duchess is banished, and her remaining
sons and the bastard are killed. The duchy now entirely
purged of the evil ducal family, Vendice unnecessarily con
fesses his role in the murders, and the purge is completed
as he and his brother are led to execution.
I
Muriel Bradbrook says the plot-structure of The Reven-
20
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
21
ger*s Tragedy is
• • • an enlarged series of peripeteia. • • •
The narrative illustrates with ingenious variety
in how many ways a villain may be hoist with his
own petard. . . . The play might almost be
called a drame a th^se on the contrasts between
earthly and heavenly vengeance, and earthly and
heavenly justice.1
The moot important of the peripeteia^ may be listed as fol
lows: wishing to seduce Castlza, the Duke's son Lussurioso
tricks Hippolito, one of her two brothers, but unwittingly
commissions her brother Vendice as pander; Castiza laments
her poverty and longs for Vendice just as he appears dis
guised as a pander; Gratiana, Castiza's mother, agrees to
betray her daughter; Lussurioso invades the Duchess' bed
room to trap her with her lover, the Duke's bastard
Spurio, but finds her with his father; the Duchess' sons
Ambitioso and Supervacuo pretend to plead for their impri-
I soned step-brother Lussurioso, but the DiAke perceives their I
I ruse and thwarts it; attempting to get Lussurioso executed,
I the same two cause the death of their younger brother, who
I expects a pardon; the Duke hires as pander a man whose
i
^Themes and Conventions of Ellzabethyi Tragedy (Cam-
bridge, 193#), PP. 1&5-6. Her basic distinction is between
the cumulative plot arid the peripeteia, but I consider the
plot of this play one of "cumulative peripeteia," with the
reversals building in crescendo fashion.
2
"A sudden reverse of circumstances in a drama or, by
I extension, in actual affairs"— W. A. Neilson, et al., eds.
I Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Lan-
jguage. And ed. (Springfield. Massachusetts. 19%6i.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
22
I fiancee he has murdered, and goes to an assignation with
I the skull of the murdered woman; Lussurioso hires Vendice
I to kill "Piato”— an early disguise of Vendice’s; Castiza
jpretends to yield to Lussurioso'a propositions after her
; mother has repented; Lussurioso sets assassins upon
j "Plato,” but finds the body to be that of his father;
jSpurio, Ambitioso, and Supervacuo prepare to murder Lussur-
1
ioso and followers, find their plan anticipated, and fall
jupon each other; finally, the revenging "heroes" are them-
I selves executed.
These are but the major reversals; at least as many }
I I
Imore incidental ones might be listed. What Miss Bradbrook
does not observe of the plot-pattern is that it is not sim
ply an extended series of reversals, like beads on a string
: , j
but rather a crescendo. Increasing in magnitude and tempo
Iuntil the final reversal is brought home to the central j
figures. Moreover, the plot, like that of most Elizabethani
plays, works by parallels, and even by parallel reversals, |
Again, a few examples will have to suffice,
Lussurioso's ironic trick on Hippolito is unwittingly
reversed whan Hippolito recommends Vendice as a "pander,"
Because of his new position, Vendice is able to arrange a
perfectly-ironio revenge on Lussurioso’s father, and even
turn Lussurioso against his father, more surely than Ven-
jdice himself is working against his own sister.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
I 23 I
I Vendice and Hippolito, and Supervacuo and Ambitioso !
I have the problem of a "dishonest* mother to deal with, but
the motivations of the two pairs are far apart. If Ven
dice *s tempting causes his mother’s fall, he is also re
sponsible for her redemption, Supervacuo and Ambitioso
approve and imitate their mother’s hypocritical grief at
the Duke’s death, and their chief objection to her affair
with the bastard is for the shame the unequal alliance
brings upon them.
The play has two chaste women, Antonio’s wife, raped
by one of the ducal family, and Castiza, threatened by
another, Antonio seems to wish revenge but does not ac
tively seek it. He is avenged through the mis-plot of
Supervacuo and Ambitioso, Vendice and Hippolito, who seek
and achieve revenge, incidentally contributing to a more
sweeping avenging of Antonio’s wife, are executed as
criminals by Antonio’s order.
The interrelationships of Lussurioso, Vendice, and
Hippolito provide complicated multiple deceptions. Like
his father, Lussurioso has a fatal tendency to entrust him-
|self to his own worst enemy, Vendice. But with equally
'fatal results Vendice and Hippolito betray themselves to
the normative world of Antonio, Lussurioso blames "Piato"
'for the plot against Castiza; after dressing the Duke’s
jbody in the clothing for the Piato disguise, Vendice blames
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
" ^ '
"Plato” for murdering the Duke* Ultimately Vendice seems
to delude himself morally and psychologically, Hippolito
several times warns him about his tendency to get "carried
away" in his revenge plans, finally telling him in alarm,
"Brother we loose our selues" (IV,ii,22^), Vendice’a self-
deception is seen in the contrast between his wondering why
heaven does not avenge herself on the lying Lussurioso
(when the latter blames his lustful designs on "Piato"),
and his easy assumption that the thunder heard during the
murderous masque means "heauen likes the tragedy" (V.iii,
63).3
There are also multiple deceptions among the "sons" of
the ducal family. Lussurioso wants to trap Spurio with the
Duchess; Spurio wants to trap Lussurioso with Castiza,^ and
to destroy the entire court. Supervacuo and Ambitioso want
to usurp Lussurioso's inheritance. Their failure to get
Lussurioso executed still advances Spurio's goal of court
destruction, and their disillusionment with this plot.
3
I'lTch of this is also observed by Robert Ornstein, The
Moral Vision of Jacobean Tragedy (Madison, Wisconsin,
11960),pp. 105-27. He thinks Vendice "literally forgets
'himself' in disguise (p. 111].), and that Lussurioso symbol-
iically triumphs over Vendice in that he sought to hire a
ivillain and pander and succeeded, and hired Vendice to kill
himself, and in a sense succeeded in this as well (p. Il5)«
^That Spurio immediately knows of Lussurioso's plans
I to go to Castiza apparently demonstrates the speed with
Iwhich evil news spreads at the ducal court.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
_ . . _
leading them to concentrate upon Spurio, abets Lussurioso,
The chain of events eventuating in the "Youngest Son’s"^
i
death is begun with Lussurioso*s attempt to catch Spurio ini
I
the Duchess' bedroom. Fittingly, the sons all plan to kill
one another, and these plots also go partly awry. Lussur- ;
ioso is planning to murder the other three when the reven
gers' masque enters to kill him; the remaining three find
him dead and so fall upon each other.
In act three the attempts of Ambitioso and Supervacuo
to have Lussurioso executed are interrupted while success-
seems imminent, and we are shown the highly successful
plot ("successful" in the immediate sense) of Vendice and
Hippolito to kill the Duke, In the succeeding scene Am
bitioso and Supervacuo congratulate themselves just before
learning of their abysmal failure (and of course Vendice's
self-congratulations are equally shortlived and ironic),
I It may finally be noted that each character dies
I"in the midst of his sins," The Duke goes to his death
expecting an assignation; the "Youngest Son" expects
I release, not execution; the other sons die just when they
I fancy themselves most successful; Vendice and Hippolito
I are apprehended and executed when they claim the "credit’ * '
j ^The "Duke," "Duchess," and "Youngest Son" are never
I given individual names.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
26
for the Duke*8 murder.
While the early reversals deplot the frustrations of
ambitions, lusts* sohemes* the later reversals are usually
fatal. The plot peripeteia are not only Intricately re
lated and parallel, but they rise In magnitude and tempo to
a surprising climax, demonstrating In various ways the
self-destructive qualities of evil. In the latter charac
teristic the play Is, as Hiss Bradbrook observes, thesls-
drama.
It Is this quality of thesis-drama which holds the
plot together, Peter Llsoa says.
It Is difficult to see where Tourneur has
missed a single opportunity for Ironic reversal,
and It Is the ubiquitousness of this Irony which
Imparts, even to the plot, a sense of unity, 6
Judged by "naturalistic" criteria, the plot Is In many
ways Incredible, Vendice has delayed "9, years" (lll,v,
126) since Glorlana*s death, (But the delay permits the
use of the play's chief memento morl, Qlorlana's skull, and
also denies wholehearted sympathy to Vendice as a reven
ger). From the rather scattered references, we Infer that
Vendice takes his father's recent death— from discontent
( 1,1,1 1 4. 3), because "The Duke did much delect him" (138) —
8"The Revenger's Tragedy: A Study In Irony," Philo
logical Quarterly. 3Ü:2h2-gi. April 1959.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
27
as the "last straw," requiring immediate action (at last).
He observes:
For since my worthy fathers funerall.
My life's vnnaturally to me, e'en compeld
As if I lin'd now when I should be dead, (I,i.133-5)
and he is careful to mention his father's death to the
dying Duke (III,v.l80-2). His essential revenge-motivation
is, of course, the murder of Gloriana. But that his long- '
delayed revenge should happen to coincide perfectly with |
the rape of Antonio's wife by "Youngest Son," and with the i
machinations of the bastard, stepsons, and Duchess is quite!
unlikely# Even if we understand the father's death as a
I
"precipitating cause," Vendice, as he finally kills the |
Duke, emphasizes the nine years he has waited— rather a |
long time to wait for vengeance. The conjunction of these |
several elements, however, even though unnatural, produces j
I
a logical, consistent, "synthetic" progression of events, [
and closely unites plot and theme.
The entire play appears intended as a definitive
statement on the whole problem of revenge,^ and the reven
gers are so numerous that the expository method seems
clearly to be reductio ad absurdum. Vendice and Hippolito |
"" I
seek to avenge Gloriana and their father on the Duke; laterl
they seek revenge upon Lussurioso for attempting to seduce
H. H. Adams, "Cyril Tourneur on Revenge," Journal of
[English and Germanic Philology. ^8:72-87, January l9i^9.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
28
their sister. Lussurioso wants revenge upon "Piato" (the
disguised Vendice) for falsely reporting Spurio to be in
the Duchess' bed.
On her own side the Duchess seeks revenge on her hus
band because he has not acquitted her son of the rape of
Antonio's wife, and so convinces Spurio that he must re
venge his illegitimacy upon his father by becoming her
lover. Supervacuo and Ambitioso wish revenge upon Lussur
ioso because their plot against him miscarries and kills |
; i
their younger brother. They later seek revenge upon Spurio|
! because of his "unequall" alliance with the Duchess.
Lussurioso tells Vendice that Piato's misinformation
is an attempt at revenge because Lussurioso had scorned j
i :
IPiato's suggestion to seduce Vendice's sister. Therefore, j
! j
Isays Lussurioso, both he and Vendice should avenge them-
jselves on Piato. (But since each separately understands
this report to be false, it must be understood as intrigue,
not revenge motivation). It may finally be noted that
Antonio has ample cause to seek revenge— his wife's rape
and subsequent death— but his only action is permissive:
8
allowing others to plan vengeance for his wife's death.
While much of the play's motivation stems from a de-
D
This list may be derived simply from a careful read- ;
ing of the play, but it should be noted that much of it is j
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
29
sire for revenge. It is still not the only kind present,
j As his name suggests, Lussurioso is motivated chiefly by
I lust, which has been his father's downfall, and eventually
I is his own. All the Duke's "sons" are ambitious, but Am-
Ibitioso most notably so. If Supervacuo has any particular
talent, it is for superfluous intrigue, Spurio, like so
I many Elizabethan stage bastards, is motivated by hatred; he
is at pains to explain that he allows himself to be seduced
by the Duchess because he loves her mischief, even though
t
I he hates her (I,ii,21lj.), Although the Duchess wants re-
I
'venge upon the Duke, she is also partly motivated by lust,
for she has long since singled out Spurio, and has been
sending him Jewels and money (I.ii,126-30),
Castiza's motivation derives from her essential char
acteristic, purity, while the erring Gratiana, later an
example of Christian "Grace," is motivated by greed. The
q
avenging Vendice accepts the role of pander because he
wishes to test his mother and sister; he and Hippolito
later threaten Gratiana in order to reform her.
As L. G, Salingar long ago observed (and as the
also given by it, Adams, "Tourneur on Revenge," pp, 73-9,
9
Many of the emblematic names derive from the Italian
of Plorio; this is frequently noted, but the most compre
hensive discussions occur in Nicoll's notes to the Works
(pp, 315, 328), and in R, A, Poakes* "On the Authorship of
'The Revenger's Tragedy,»" Modern Language Review, It8sl29-
38, April 1923.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
30
emblematic names demonstrate). The Revenger’s Tragedy
develops from the Morality tradition,and it is thus
easiest to divide the various motivations into two types—
relatively good and relatively evil. Vendice's actions are
not irreproachable, but they are consciously directed
against a murderer and a lecher. The Duchess' actions, on
the other hand, have two causes— her lust for Spurio, and
her anger that the Duke has not pardoned her rapist son.
■
I The pattern of relative good and evil is established
in the first scenes of the play. Our loyalties to Vendice
and his family, plus the fact that even his destructive ac
tions promote justice, lead us to assume that he and his
I
family are "good,” while the Duke and his family are ”bad.”|
IThe conclusion of the play imposes an absolute pattern,
I I
jhowever. All who destroy are destroyed, and only the non- j
(destructive survive. I
i i
i
I The plot's strength is in part due to the strength of
{individual scenes. The emblematic procession scene which
I
opens the play is of course notable. Unless see it as a
kind of surrealistic split-scene, we shall have to view the
procession as an objectification of Vendice*s obsession
"The Reveler's Tragedy and the Morality Tradition,"
Scrutiny. 6;ii02-2a« March i9^o. Citations of this essay,
however, are taken from the more accessible reprint in R.
J. Kaufmann, ed., Elizabethan Drama; Modern Essays in Grit-
licism. New York, l96l*
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
31
j with the ducal family. The tableau, serving partly as pro-
'logue^^ and partly as a telescoped version of what in other
12
plays would have to involve two scenes, portrays the
I major figures of the ducal family at the same time that
IVendice, carrying a skull, describes his grievances against
ithem. Characterization of the "hero" (or central figure)
i
i and the villains is thus achieved simultaneously, preparing
I us for immediate action against the court when Hippolito
[presents an opportunity for revenge. The rest of the
I scene, depicting Vendice's family and its grievances
I ■ -
I against the court, provides a dimension in which to place
later plots and counter-plots involving the two families.
The succeeding scene presents the entire court in an
equally striking situation, a trial-scene interesting in
its own right, and also a natural opportunity for each mem
ber of the ducal family to characterize himself by taking
one or more stands regarding "Youngest Son’s" crime. (The
entire situation, of course, characterizes the family as a
11
Inga-Stina Ekeblad, "An Approach to Tourneur’s
Imagery," Modern Language Review, 24^^89-98, October 19^9»
states that Vendice’s first lines are prefatory— "He is
speaking straight out to the audience to introduce the
dramatis personae and— moat important, their vices" (p,
il-95)* Salingar finds this another connection of the play
to the "Morality Tradition" (pp, 213-^), i
^^na Ellis-Permor, The Jacobean Drama (London, 1936),
pp, 281-3, observes that Jacobean plays written in a well-
established convention could rely upon a kind of "dramatic
shorthand,"
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
32
whole)* Both early scenes maintain a high level of inter
est through "inherent” qualities of tableau and trial, as
well as through their artful exposition.
The third act is a minor crescendo of betrayal, but
scene five is particularly effective, Vendice exults, "now
I
;9, years vengeance crowde into a minute1" (III,v,126), and
it is hard to imagine revenge more thorough. The Duke is
I
jpoisoned by kissing the skull of Gloriana, whom be poisoned
nine years before, Vendice and Hippolito identify them
selves and "Gloriana," mock the Duke, state grievances
(including their father's death), and finally force the
j
IDuke to witness the assignation between his wife and bas-
I tard son,
1 '
i Scene four of act four is one of shocks. It begins
I tempestuously with Vendice and Hippolito threatening to mur-
I
jder Gratiana and proceeds to a chilling characterization of
jVendice as the only possible person who could have led his
Imother to betray Castiza, But the supreme shock comes
1 . j
when, after the sons have "redeemed" Gratiana and returned j
to the court, Castiza enters to announce casually that she j
is "content" to become Lussurioso's mistress,
I
The last scene of the play, conventional enough per- |
haps in its "signs," murderous masque, and multiple deaths,j
presents the final coup de théêtre in the condemnation of '
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
I the revengers themselves. The dukedom Is purged both of
I
j .
; the evil ducal family and also of the instruments of re
venge who set out to achieve "good" by evil means.
The importance of the plot may be seen by comparing it
in part to the characterization and the theme. The very
first scene is concerned with the total revenge situation, |
introducing us simultaneously to the causes, means, and ob-j
jects of revenge (respectively the skull, Vendice, and the I
ducal family). It is impossible even to imagine asking a
question like "What if Hamlet had returned to Wittenburg?"
about the character of Vendice because, as his name indi
cates, he is so clearly conceived as part of the situation
at hand. What is true in the pre-figurative opening scene
is found in all later scenes. The characters have as much
an "emblematic" as à "naturalistic" role in the action;
they are as important for what they mean as for who they
are. Similarly, the plot is not so much intended to tell a
jstory as to "prove" something (and the characters are thus
not so much people as "walking proofs").
In many ways, of course, Vendice is the conventional j
"hero" and Lussurioso the conventional "villain," and this j
antithesis is useful, as in other plays, in motivating !
various elements of the plot. But the plot seems less than
usually concerned with the conflict between a hero and a j
j I
ivillain, and unusually concerned with machinations and con-|
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
3 1 4.
filet in the abstract, with the whole problem of evil*
I This logical-thematic unity gives the plot its coherence
and its "inevitability,"
Thematic considerations, again, have tbieir effect upon
I the use in the plot of suspense or surprise* Tourneur
■generally relies upon suspense* We are made to understand
jfully Vendice's and Hippolito's motivations for seeking re-|
I venge, and we watch them achieve their goal* We watch the 1
; development of the fratricidal plot of the Duchess' sons,
I
! and are permitted to forsee how it must turn out* We are
equally aware of the plottings of the other members of the
ducal family. But Tourneur has reserved a few surprises*
We may be surprised by Gratiana's willingness to betray her
'daughter, although Lussurioso's predictions may have pre
pared us for this* We may also be surprised by Lussurio
so' s finding the Duke, not Spurio, in the Duchess' bed,
and this reversal leads to the plot against Lussurioso
which will cause the "Youngest Son's" execution.
We are certainly surprised by Castiza's statement
that she is willing to be Lussurioso's mistress; and her
ruse, besides horrifyingly threatening the fall of the only
uncorrupted woman in the action, gives Gratiana an "acid
test," demonstrates the sincerity of Gratiana's repentance,
and restores our faith in the possibility of "honesty" in
women* The most important surprise, of course, is the
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
35
execution of Vendice and Hippolito at the close of the ac
tion, but this very surprising abruptness links their
deathé to the others in the play* Their execution is the
capstone to the action (and theme), and the final line,
Antonio's "Pray heauen their bloud may wash away all trea-
! son," even though it is ambiguous and probably refers to
j all the blood shed in the final scene, certainly ties the
I execution of Vendice and Hippolito to the final purgation
i of evil from the duchy.
I
I This final surprise-reversal, important as it is j
I thematically, is also important as a strong "curtain clo
ser" and reveals Tourneur's sure sense of climax, I have
jdescribed the progress of parallel revenge plots in act
! three, one ending in multiple success as the Duke dies, the
I other ending in horrible failure as the officer brings Am-
I
jbitioso and Supervacuo the severed head of their younger
brother. There are other, less sensational climaxes, IV,
iv begins with threatened matricide, briefly lowers the
tension only to raise it still higher as Castiza "agrees"
to her own seduction, allowing it finally to subside in the
reconciliation of mother and daughter, V,i ends with an
other crescendo of fratricidal plans, with Spurio, Super
vacuo, and Ambitioso separately planning to kill Lussurio
so and each other. The final scene follows a quiet,
deliberative scene and itself begins with a dumb-show. It
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
_ _
moves to the competition of the nobles in wishing longest
life to Lussurioso, shows the murder of all these, then the|
self-destruction of the step-sons and bastard. Seemingly
nothing would remain but a gradual decline in the denoue
ment as the surviving nobles bear away the bodies in a
dead march and prepare to organize a new government. But
Tourneur has reserved his greatest "climax,” one which
forms a perfect ending to the play thematically and
theatrically.
Scene Construction
Of the several notable scenes of The Revenger's
Tragedy, none excels the remarkable opening scene in which
f
Vendice in "soliloquy" describes a tableau of the ducal
family, Allardyce Nicoll finds this scene to epitomize
the play itself:
In this particular combination of remote
ness and nearness, of objective presentation
and direct engagement, of unreality and reality,
of the artificial and the emotionally intense,
appears to reside the ultimate secret of the
drama's quality,13
First presenting us with the play's basic conflict "in
little," the' scene then introduces us in succession to Ven
dice's family, describes its grievances against the ducal
I 13
"The Revenger's Tragedy and the Virtues of Anony-
jmity," in Richard Hosley, ed. Essays on Shakespeare and
I Elizabethan Drama: In Honor of llarain Craig (Columbia,
Missouri, 1962), p. 313.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
37
[family, and prepares for Vendice's departure for court,
!
Scene two quite naturally introduces us to the ducal
family, with at least eleven persons present,If scene
one has built up from one to four persons, scene two builds
.down from eleven to one, briefly characterizing the ducal
I family, and leaving the Duchess, (whose own plans will most
i
jdirectly coincide with Vendice's) to plot her own "revenge"
I(cuckoldry) upon her husband.
Act two begins with a very symmetrical scene, its al- |
most choreographic movements variously involving Castiza, j
Vendice, and Gratiana, singly and in pairs, in mounting
[tension, reaching its climax when all three are onstage,
jThe succeeding scene begins with Lussurioso and Hippolito
jplotting, builds gradually by various combinations to about
[ten persons, then allows most of these to depart gradually
1
until the Duke is left alone, III,vi is interesting for
its ironic symmetry; it begins with Ambitioso and Super
vacuo in self-congratulation, adds an officer, and then
Lussurioso, walking evidence of the step-brothers' failure.
The officer and Lussurioso leave and the scene ends with
the original pair— the important difference being that the
scene begins in victory and ends in defeat.
^Specifically mentioned are seven of the ducal fam
ily, two judges, and "officers,"
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
38
After the assembled scene (11.11) mentioned above,
there are no more scenes Involving large groups until near
the end of the play (V.l), Between II.il and V.l are
eleven generally brief scenes depicting a few characters
engaged In internecine machinations. These scenes demon-
jstrate the proliferating schemes and counter-schemes which j
! I
I almost every character Is Involved In, and I suspect that *
i I
I they determine the speed or "pace" of the play. T. S. i
! !
iEliot has observed that the play "starts off at top speed
j !
j. . , and never slackens to the end," but I suspect that I
I }
I this is only partly correct. The play Impresses me as hlt-j
I ting "top speed" only after the various elements of the |
i i
I plot are Irrevokably set into motion and the characters |
begin to move pellmell toward catastrophe. Miss Ellls-Per-|
mor describes how the opening scenes and Images anticipate
"by pictures or association the nature of the events that
follow,and I think It Is their function to etch clearly
In our minds the basic qualities and personalities of the
plot so that we do not lose sight of them amid the compli
cations to come. I.l begins rather slowly, meditatively,
as the ducal procession Is characterized. The second scene!
also begins slowly, but has a mounting centrifugal force |
15
Essays on Elizabethan Drama (New York, 1956), pp.
114-5.
I The Frontiers of Drama (New York, 1946)» p. 86.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
39
which "throws off" the counter-plots. The last "slow"
scene before the final act is, I think, II,ii, which fur
ther accelerates the counter-plots. This speed achieved,
the eleven fairly short scenes before V,i seem to move at
17
an increasingly headlong rate, with the simplicity of
{organization only making the conclusion more inevitable and
more terrible. Even the very complexity of movement and
staging in the assembled scenes (perhaps emblematic of the
all-inclusiveness of evil), will throw the simpler scenes
to follow into brighter perspective,
Samuel Schoenbaum states that since the play is depic
ting "a timeless parable of man's wickedness and God's pun-
18
ishment for sin," it uses only the conventions of Eliza
bethan revenge tragedy as background and Renaissance Italy
as setting, but no specific time or place locations. This
is of course true so far as it goes, but while the settings
17
Scenes with only a few characters will I think quite
naturally be staged more quickly, easily, efficiently, I
have the suspicion, as yet unconfirmed from my reading of
critical works in this period, that the very nature of the
Elizabethan theater, with its fluid neutrality, did not |
simply permit speed of action, but rather ^polled it, And|
it may be that the nature of the theater itself contributed]
to the celebrated "temporal compression" of Elizabethan |
drama as well. This is hinted at by Clifford Leech--John
Ford and the Drama of His Time (London, 19^7), P» 71--who
argues that the multiple setting of the medieval drama
would suggest "temporal coalescence,"
18
Middleton's Tragediest A Critical Study (New York,
1955)* p« 32, (That Schoenbaum attributes the play to Mid
dleton does not nullify much of his interpretation).
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
ko
are not locatable on the map, they are clearly distin
guished in the imagination. The action pits the family of
Vendice against that of the Duke, and the settings are
either the home of Vendice or the ducal court. Similarly,
while we do not know the month or year, we can trace the
time of the action through two or three days,
I
Like other Elizabethan plays. The Revenger's Tragedy
localizes scenes by internal clues. It begins with a
torch-light procession and, if this were not enough, Hip
polito soon refers to "Last euening predecessor unto this*
(I,i,7^). He has come from court on the present evening
(and is twice asked for court news) to his family home (it
self "not far from Court"--!,iii,103). The second scene is
localized by the court of law and the ducal family, and
probably pre-localized by references in the preceding
scene. Since court is in session, the action of scene two
presumably occurs on the morning after scene one. Only two
other scenes are set at Vendice's home. In I,iii we find
Vendice planning to return home; in II,i we see him appear
to Castiza, In IV,iv Vendice and Hippolito reform their
mother, after having announced their intentions at the end
of IV.ii. All the other scenes take place at court.
When Vendice reports back to Lussurioso in II.ii, it
is perhaps early in the second evening of the play. The
action of this scene extends throughout the night, Lussur-
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
41
ioso's Invasion of the ducal bedroom occurring about mid
night (201), and the Nobles' appearing to plead for Lussur
ioso early the next morning (239). Act three, describing
the step-brothers' attempts to have Lussurioso executed,
I occurs on this next day, for the Duke's release of his son
I is immediate. Act four also begins on this day, for the
!
jnewly-released Lussurioso is told that his father has
\"priuately ridde forth" about "two houres before noone" i
1
I and we know that the Duke has "ridde forth" to death in the
imidst of the step-brothers' plots. It may be that the dis-
Icovery of the Duke's body occurs on the afternoon or |
j
evening of the same day, although the body must be "cold
and stiff who knowes, how long?" (V.i.76).^^ It may also
be that the funeral preparations and revels ordered by Lus-
Isurioso (V,i,171-5) occur that very night, and therefore
I that the catastrophe itself comes within a very few hours. Î
! I
I
I If I am correct in interpreting the time-references in
the play, the action takes place in two "Italian" days,
measured from evening to evening. The first "day" depicts
the action from the beginning until Vendice tells Lussur
ioso that Spurio is in the Duchess' bed; the second.
19
It may be night, since Ambitioso asks "Ouer what
roofe hangs this prodigious Comet,/ In deadly fire?" (V.i.
111-2) when shown the Duke's body, but his speech may per
haps be best understood as already following Supervacuo's
subsequent advice : "Learn of our mother; lets dissemble
to,/ I am glad hee's vanisht; so I hope are you" (119-20),
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
k2
perhaps slightly stretched, depicts the remaining action.
The most important events thus take place in a single
twenty-four hour period, providing not only a pseudo-class
ical unity of action, but also a very real unity of mood
and ironic effect. The sons rise and fall within a day,
j Sin not only destroys itself, but does so quickly, Vendice
I
I speaks of crowding his revenge into a minute (III,v,126),
I and two days from the time Hippolito comes home with an
I
opportunity for revenge, he and Vendice, having purged the
court, are themselves led to execution.
The careers of other, "eviller" characters are even
shorter. If my guesses about the dramatic time are cor
rect, Lussurioso is Duke scarcely a few hours. Even more
significant as a commentary on the "wages of sin" is the
remark attributed to Spurio, but probably intended for
20
Supervacuo, "Then I proclaime ray self, now I am Duke"
20
There are other flaws in the play, as when Vendice
credits "Piato" with having said what in reality had been
spoken by an unidentified noble (V,iii,159-62 and V,i,l68-
9)* After Spurio, Ambitioso, and Supervacuo discover the
body of Lussurioso, they are clearly meant to destroy each
other. The quarto at this point (V,iii,78-81) reads as
follows ;
Spur, Then I proclaime my aelfe, now I am Duke,
ïmb. Thou DukeI brother thou liest,
Spu, Slaue so dost thoui
5, Base villayne hast thou slaine my Lord and
Maister.
Since Supervacuo has been preening himself for the dukedom
throughout the play, and since Spurio clearly recognizes
himself to be illegitimate. Spur, would seem a compositor's
mistake for Super, The action indicates that Supervacuo is
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
43
(V,llio78). This statement is true only for the length of
time it takes Ambitioso to say "Thou Dukef brother thou I
liest" (V.iii,79) and stab Supervacuo. Both the brothers
plus Spurio are dead within three lines of Supervacuo*s
first assertion. Thus the "dramatic time" of the play,
jlike the setting— almost always the cesspool of the ducal
jcourt— are integral, inseparable elements of the theme,
!
I Several of the scenes of The Revenger’s Tragedy may be
I seen superficially as "type" scenes, (But since Tourneur |
I
1 customarily does several things at once, they merely con-
jtain hints of typical Elizabethan scene types). The first
{scene of the play begins with a "dumb-show procession"; the
next begins with a trial, I.iv contains the "discovery" to
certain lords of the body of Antonio's wife in dumb-show,
II,ii is a scene of intrigue, climaxing in a crowd scene in
the ducal bedroom, Ill.iv has a letter-reading section,
and V,i a recognition section, V.iii begins with a dumb-
show and contains a masque; fully three scenes (II,ii.
killed by Ambitioso, who is killed by Spurio, who is killed
by "k** Emendations roughly to this effect have been sug
gested by four different scholars (with only one of them,
Waith, knowing of another, and he apparently knew only of
Napier), The four are Lacy Lockert, "The Greatest of Eliz
abethan Melodramas," in Hardin Craig, ed. Essays in Dram
atic Literature: The Parrott Presentation Volume (Prince
ton, 193^), pp, 103-26; C, S. Napier, "The Revenger's Trag-
edy," Times Literary Supplement. March 13» 19l7,p. 1Ü0;
Clifford Leech, Speecn-Heading in The Revenger's Trag
edy, " Review of English Studies. 17:335-6» d'uiy l91(l; Ëug-
ene Waith, "The Ascription of Speeches in The Revenger's
Tragedy" Modern Language Notes, $7:119-21, February ,
R ep ro d u ced w ith p erm issio n of th e cop yrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
^ ........ ' 44
III.v, and IV.ill) contain spying episodes,
! As already noted, the play begins with expository,
motivational scenes (l.i and in part I.ii), then moves to
I I
I centrifugal massed scenes (I.ii and II,ii) which impel many |
scenes of individual strife. Individual plots have merged i
by act five, and the final scenes are ones of denouement,
There is perhaps one instance of "off-stage action."
In I.ii we see the youngest son on trial for the rape of
Antonio's wife. Her body is "discovered" in I.iv and we
learn that she has poisoned herself after being violated.
There is no "double-time" in the usual sense, but in at
least two scenes several times are symbolically present,
I
jThe ducal procession in l.i introduces the villains against
the background of their past. This is particularly true of
the old Duke, The skull Vendice holds is that of his own
i
iformer mistress, poisoned by the Duke, A more recent past
i i
is alluded to in the death of Vendice's father, for which
the Duke is felt to be responsible also. These same times
jare "present" in III.v, where the Duke dies of poison taken
Ifrom Gloriana's skull and is reminded of the death of Ven-
21
These labels, of course, are in some ways frankly
artificial, III.v, for example, is climactic for the old ,
Duke (who dies therein), but motivational in terms of later |
action, IV.iii is also in a sense "final," for it presents ;
Gratiana as reformed and reconciled to her militantly
chaste daughter, |
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
dice’s father,
I
Two scenes, I.i and III.7, stand out above the rest.
In both Vendice is obsessively concerned with central ideas
of the play and both are focal scenes, presenting much of
the play "in little," These scenes (and others like them)
do not weaken the total play, however, which is as concerned
with theme as with action,
I ’ i
: I
Thematic Construction ^
The basic concern of The Revenger’s Tragedy is, I be
lieve, with reversal, (A list of the more important rever
sals is given under the discussion of plot), Castiza, the
only unquestionably good person actually participating in
the action, early develops a contrast between the poverty of
jthe virtuous and the wealth of the wicked. This situation,
{the reverse of "what ought to be," prevails until the end
i I
pf the play, when the wicked die and only the virtuous sur- I
vive,
i :
! The play ultimately demonstrates that evil is self
destructive, Both the Duke and Lussurioso have a fatal
tendency to confide in their worst enemy g the Duchess takes i '
as lover a man who wishes for the destruction of the entire ^
I
jcourt; her sons’ plots against Lussurioso cause the death
of their own brother, and so on. Furthermore, each evil I
character possesses a certain amount of stupidity: moral ;
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
k . e
and Intellectual blindness are made to coincide. Lussur
ioso trusts one servant whom Hippolito recommends to him,
land as a result is imprisoned for attempted patricide; but
this misfortune does not prevent him from asking Hippolito |
for another recommendation. When their plots misfire in i
I the execution of their brother. Ambitioso and Supervacuo
I
conclude, "there's none of these wiles that euer come to
good" (III.vi.117-8), but three scenes later they are plot-:
I
ting to kill Spurio, and, still later, to kill Lussurioso
(as well as each other).
Even Vendice, usually the clearest-sighted person in
the play, has his moments of blindness. He swears in IV,li
that the would-be seducer of Castiza shall surely die, but
iapparently overlooks his own complicity in the business.
As already noted, he seems to misinterpret the thunder in
IV.iii as heaven's approval of murder, and clearly "loses
ihimself" (as Hippolito observes~IV,ii,225) in his attempts
to purge the court of evil through the use of evil means.
The discussion of evil begins with the first lines of
I the play and continues through the last line, Antonio's
"Pray heauen their bloud may wash away all treason," (And
the implicit reference to the "blood of Christ" is part of
I the moral framework). Almost all the characters are
i
"evil," and the play may at times give the impression that
evil is all-conquering. Of the two pure woman in the play.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
Iv7
the wife of Antonio poisons herself after being raped, and
Castiza appears for a time (IV.iv) to be willing to beoome
Lussurioso's mistress. The play is not centrally concerned
with the war between good and evil, however, but with a far
less Hanichean concept— with the self-destructiveness of
evil itself. Peter Lisoa summarizes the thematic structure
of the play thus: "Sin begets sin begets sin; but the sin
of murder cancels all" (p. 2 1 ) . ) .
One theme of good or evil suggests another, and many
related motifs are presented. Like Castiza, Vendice speaks
of unrewarded virtue and the corrupting power of money and
lust, and his reaction is a feeling of contemptus mundi. A
silent but pervasive influence throughout the play is its
central memento mori, the skull of Gloriana,^^ If the play
is basically concerned with evil or sin, here is a symbol
of its wages.
In other dimensions of meaning the play is almost a
philosophical one about the true and the false. Vendice is
a particularly "metaphysical" character; for him to think
upon the skull of Cloriana is to apeak thus:
And now me thinkes I cold e'en chide my selfe.
For do a ting on her beauty, the her death
Shall be reuengd after no common action;
Do*s the Silke-worme expend her yellow labours
^^Partly indebted to John Peter, Complaint and Satire
in Early English Literature (Oxford, l9$6), pp. ^$6-66.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
1 ^ 8
For thee? for thee dos she vndoe herselfe?
Are Lord-shlps sold to maintains Lady-ships
For the poors benefit of a bewitching minute?
Why dos yon fellow falsify hie-waies
And put his life between the Judges lippes.
To refine such a thing, keepes horse and men
To beats their valours for her?
Surely wee're all mad people, and they
Whome we thinks are, are not; we mistake those,
Tis we are mad in scenes, they but in clothes.
(III.v.72-85)
Vendice'3 fatal error lies in thinking that he can fight
evil by evil means or assume a false identity with impun
ity, Vendice plays the role so long that he loses himself
in evil,^^ As the characters of Antonio, Gratiana, and
particularly Castiza demonstrate, the play is not simply a
rejection of the apparent, the expedient, the false, but
rather an affirmation of the real, the ultimate, the true.
Thus, while it is obviously a revenge play, it is also, as
John Peter and L, G, Salingar maintain, a kind of "late
p)i
Morality,"^ This fact is evident throughout the play,
from the emblematic names and behavior of the characters to |
i
the overabundance of thematic elements. For this reason it !
is difficult to discuss plot and characterization without
also discussing theme. All are made to coalesce; the inter
action between plot and characters is made to exhibit the
I
theme.
23
Thus the rejection of revenge here seems only slight
ly less explicit than that given by The Atheist's Tragedy,
^^Peter, Complaint, p, 268; Salingar, "Morality
Tradition," pp, 21^-7,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
ff.9
With its single-minded and perhaps excessive concern
with evil. The Revenger's Tragedy has been thought by some
(William Archer among them) to be a disgustingly immoral or|
at least amoral play. Nothing could be farther from the
truth, Robert Ornatein finds the play to be the expressioni
of a disillusioned but very orthodox mind,^^ From the veryi
Ibeginning lines Vendice calls up an implicit framework of
moral absolutes that will eventually condemn even him.
Evil is shown as being very vulnerable from the beginning,
and the function of the second half of the play is "to con
solidate and advance the ethical positives the first half
has implied" (Peter, p, 26^1* Peter Lisoa feels that the
moral attitude of the play "proceeds from a Christian point
of view (the Puritan) , . ." (p. 2 l | . 2 ) , and John Peter ex
plains the destruction of Venfloe and Hippolito thus:
In Tourneur* s eyes they are clearly guilty of
! transgressing the biblical injunctions not to
murder, to turn the other cheek, and to respect
the sovereign of the state, and it is for this
reason that he makes them disclose their guilt,
and makes Antonio order their execution. If any
proof of a moralizing attitude— to the point of
rigidity— were still needed it is here, (p, 26?)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail. It is not a novel
theme, but for an orthodox Christian it is an immutable
principle, and it is one also demonstrated by The Atheist's
2?
Moral Vision, pp. 11^-6, Allardyoo Niooll (Hoaley.
p, 313)7 considers this to be one of the "most penetrating"
observations ever made about the play.
R e p ro d u ced w ith p erm issio n o f th e cop yrigh t ow n er. F urther reproduction prohibited w ith out p erm issio n .
50
Tragedy.
Exposition
The first scene of The Revenger’s Tragedy may well be
taken as embodying most of Tourneur’s expository tech
niques. As noted above, the scene immediately introduces
us to the total revenge situation; holding the symbolic
cause of revenge in his hands, the revenger himself charac
terizes his enemies. In a few lines this remarkable scene
gives virtually all the background we need (or are to get),
iIt identifies the basic conflict as being between Vendice
(and family) and the Duke (and family), gives a main cause
1
(Gloriana’s death nine years before), a ’ ’precipitating”
I cause (the dejected death of Vendice’s father, fairly re
cently), and an enabling situation (Lussurioso’s need for
a pander).
I Even as it does these things, the first scene intro
duces the conflict of the sham against the true. Vendice
I laments that
26
! marrow-leffe age,
I Would atuffe the hollow Bones with dambd desires,
I And stead of heate kindle inf email fires,
I Within the spend-thrift veynos of a drye Duke,
I A parcht and iuicelesse luxur. (I.i.8-12)
IA later reference to the Duke's "palsey-lust” helps create
26
Sic. But it is a misprint; the Huntington Library
quartos have sharp £.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
51
the atmosphere of uzinaturalness that characterizes the
crimes of the ducal family, (The Duke himself is made to I
testify to this when he observes, "My haires are white and |
yet my sinnes are Greene" II.ii.36O). The scene continues
to describe the family situation of Vendice, but does not
forget the court, for Hippolito arrives to report, among
other things, the youngest son’s sex-crime. This infor
mation allows Castiza to reveal her uncompromising morality
and of course provides for the culprit's trial in the suc
ceeding scene; it is also consistent with the information
Vendice has already given about others in the ducal family.
The pre-characterization of the scenes reveals about as
much as we are ever to know about five members of the ducal
family.
In a single scene Tourneur has adequately character-
i 27
;ized eight characters, of whom five have not yet ap
peared. He has set the tone of the play, identified cen
tral conflict and symbol, provided all the background
I necessary for the story’s continuation, and even prepared
I
for the opening action of the next scene and for the dis-
27
Five members of the ducal family, Castiza (whose
later actions are quite consistent with her first speech),
Vendice, and Hippolito. While we cannot predict Gratiana's
subsequent action, I think the attitude of Vendice and Hip
polito toward the court in this scene already reveals a
"flaw" in them— while they strongly disapprove of the
court, they are willing to accept advancement from it. It
is this involvement in evil which eventually dooms them.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
52
gulsed appearance of Vendice at the beginning of the third
scene. The second scene can turn to the immediate action
of the play and to demonstrating ways in which the ducal
family are at self-destructive cross-purposes with one an
other, I
I
Already described above is the use of large "massed"
i
! scenes to impel smaller scenes of individual intrigue, the
massed scenes of central importance handling most of the
basic exposition, with the smaller scenes tracing out their
implications in various directions. The importance of the
; expository scenes seems related to the importance of the
i"moral action" of the play; these scenes suggest themes
I which the smaller scenes will explore.
As the indications of time, place, and character iden-
|tification are internal, so are other kinds of exposition,
I Tourneur manages to do several things simultaneously— to
I develop theme, background, characterization, and symbolism
j in the same scene. Part of this may be the result of the
I
familiarity of the audience with the revenge motif, with j
i
the significance of skulls, with the presumed debauchery of;
the Italian court. But it is nevertheless true that even
a revenge play does not write itself, and while the revenge|
tradition is explicitly accepted in the first scene of the ;
play, there are also Implicit rejections present in the
elements of orthodox morality which will eventually reject I
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
53
blood revenge and demand the deaths of the revengers them
selves. Thus from th© very first scene we have an implicit
blending of two traditions— the Revenge play and the
Morality, That Tourneur can fuse them while doing the
other things already described is a partial measure of his
skill,
THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP LANGUAGE
Dialogue Construction
To a large extent The Revenger's Tragedy is intended
to expose and criticize the kind of society which produces
revengers, or in which personal revenge is necessary.
Like all other elements of the play, the dialogue is made
to serve many purposes. Since the old Duke determines
largely what the society of the duchy shall be like, his
'dialogue, besides revealing his character, reveals the
social conditions of the duchy.
In his first appearance (I,ii) the Duke is "on the
spot," torn between his wife's supplications for her son's
i
jlife and the patent expectation of the judges that justice
jwill be done. The Duke's public speeches in this scene re-
jveal a seasoned politician at work; they are diplomatic,
I calm, with a careful regard for law, order, and morality.
His next appearance further reveals his sageness, as he
quickly perceives the attempts of Ambitioso and Supervacuo
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
5 1 4 .
to have Lussurioso executed, Vendice's pre-charaoter-
ization is substantiated only at the end of this scene
(II.ii); alone, and having just ordered Lussurioso re
leased, the Duke shows an unexpected moral honesty about
himself:
It well becomes that ludge to nod at crimes.
That dos commit greater himselfe and liues:
I may forgiue a disobedient error.
That expect pardon for adultery
And in my old dales am a youth in lust:
Many a beauty haue I turned to poyson
In the deniall, couetous of all.
Age hot, is like a monster to be seen:
My hairs are white, and yet my sins are Greene,
(11,11.352-60)
While in view of his earlier rage it is natural that
the Duke should explain his willingness to release Lussur
ioso, we are quite unprepared for the clarity of his moral
self-assessment. His confession corroborates what others
ihave said about him, however, and, with other inferences
j about what is rotten in the duchy, rounds out the picture
! of the social milieu of the play.
Prom our earlier discussion it may be inferred that
The Revenger *s Tragedy is less concerned with action than
with analysis— it is a satiric Revenge-Morality, The cen
tral role of Vendice is that of diagnostician (and his
downfall is from catching the disease he diagnoses). The
play is one of **commentary,” and a striking characteristic
of the dialogue is the fact that many characters share in
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
55
the commentary (even when this seems to be "out of charac
ter"). Single speeches, particularly if they deal with |
!
moral attitudes, may sometimes reveal contradictory atti
tudes# Spurio, yielding to the seductive insinuations of
the Duchess, says, "lie call foule Incest but a Venlall
sinne" (I.ii,191). While Spurio is rather blunt and clear
sighted, a modern reader can satisfactorily explain this
line only by assigning the attitudes of the expression
"foule Incest" to the author and those of "but a Veniall
sinne" to the character. As Salingar suggests, however,
the effect Tourneur wants to achieve depends upon his being
quite orthodox about "right" and "wrong," even when depic-
28
ting an evil and perhaps confused character.
There are many more instances of this kind. Even as
the Duchess is trying to convince Spurio of the "justice"
of vengeance on his father for begetting him illegit
imately, she refers to his being
Begot against the seauenth commandement,
Halfe dambd in the conception, by the iustice
Of that vnbribed euerlasting law. (I,ii.l82-^)
I We may also compare the couplet which the Duchess and
ISpurio share near the end of the same scene:
Thence flew sweet comfort, earnest and farewell.
Oh, one incestuous kisse picks open hell. (194-5)
28
"Morality Tradition," pp. 213-4* The point is also
made by Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions, p. 72.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
56
That the last quoted line is very frequently cited as an
infernally-gloating one demonstrates the general agreement !
about the tone and effect of the scene* The Duchess and
Spurio are revelling demoniacally in their sinful dall
iance* But the lines seem to mean one thing and say an
other; they are gleefully exulting, but refer to the loss
of comfort and opening of hell* One writer calls the
29
speech "intrusive moral comment*" The "double-conscious
ness" Cf such speeches is sometimes shared by the charac
ter speaking them; Lussurioso says
Ime one of that number can defend
Marriage is good: yet rather keepe a friend*
Giue me my bed by stealth— theres true delight,
(I.iii*ll5-7)
and to the Duchess' "Why there's no pleasure sweet but it
is sinfull" (III*v*220), Spurio replies.
True, such a bitter sweetness fate hath giuen;
Best side to vs, is the worst side to heauen*
(221-2)
In a similar but different way the first speech of
!Castiza's second appearance is out of character:
How hardly shall that mayden be beset.
Whose onely fortunes, are her constant thoughts,
I That has no other childs-part but her honor.
That Keepes her lowe and empty in estate*
! Maydes and their honors are like poore beginners.
Were not sinne rich there would be fewer sinners;
Why had not vertue a reuennewe? well,
I know the cause, twold haue impouerish'd hell*
I (II.i*2-9)
i
29john Peter, "The Revenger's Tragedy Reconsidered,"
Essays in Criticism* April 1956*
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
S7
From a purely realistic point of view, the speech is too
"objective," for it prefigures many of the concerns of the |
entire scene for which it seems to serve as prologue: I
trading virtue for wealth and ease, the wealth and omni
presence of sin. 30 It seems almost to predict Castiza*s
being "beset." Such a speech has a multi-consciousness
that is characteristic only of the writer or the perceptive
reader at this point, but it is also, of course, charac
teristic of the play's methods of predictive irony and
commentary.
While the insights of Vendice*s and Castiza*s "pre
faces" to the first and second acts are inconsistent with
: their character at this point, the themes of the speeches
are perfectly consistent with everything else we learn
: about the pair. Other speeches are even more obviously the
general comments of the author rather than of the charac
ter who makes them. When his and Supervacuo*s plot to
i
kill Lussurioso backfires, Ambitioso concludes,
A murren meete 'em, there's none of these
wiles that euer come to good: I see now, there
is nothing sure in mortalitie, but mortalitie.^^
(III.Vi.117-9)
30
As already noted in part. Miss Ekeblad ("Tourneur's
Imagery," pp. 289 ff.) calls Vendice*s first speech a pro
logue, and notes a"Tendency for characters to call atten
tion to themselves, others, or the action.
31
After quoting several such "sentences," Salingar
notes, "These popular aphorisms and tags of Seneca Eng-
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
58
The speech expresses an insight Ambitioso does not possess,
for he is plotting further "wiles" a few scenes later. A
related instance occurs at the beginning of I.iv, In the
initial lines Antonio identifies his wife's body as he
"discovers" it, but most of the first seventeen lines are
a single chorus speech, an elegy for the dead lady. That
the linos are spoken by three separate characters speaking
tiiree times each, simply demonstrates the somewhat arbi
trary distribution of the commentary.
The most obvious and extensive commentary, but with
the fewest un-dramatic side-effects, occurs in the speeches
of Vendice, who is conceived of as commentator and analyst,
even of the actions in which he participates. Like his
i
personality his speeches are tense, witty, ironic, trench
ant, with a high degree of insight (into others at least).
They are the best of the play, and many of them have been
cited. But even Vendice can fall into rant:
Ah the fly-flop of vengeance beate 'em to
I peeces; here was the sweetest occasion, the
fittest hours, tp haue made my reueng familiar
with him, show him the body of the Duke his
father, and how quaintly hee died like a Pol-
! ititian in hugger-mugger, made no man acquain-
i ted with it, and in Catastrophe slaine him
j ouer his fathers brest, and oh I'me mad to
I loose such a sweete opportunity! (V,i,ll|.-9)
lished gave Marston and Tourneur a large part of the raw
material from which their more ambitious speeches are
developed" ("Morality Tradition," p, 212),
_ _ _ _ 1
ReprocJucecJ with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reprocJuction prohibitecJ w ithout p erm issio n .
59
Only on rare occasions is Hippolito given a speech
longer than two or three lines. When Vendice is onstage,
Hippolito’s function is characteristically to chime in I
briefly in agreement. When Vendice must be offstage, how
ever (to tempt Castiza, prepare the "bony lady," or change
disguises), his mantle falls to Hippolito, who then tempor
arily participates more fully in the commentary. He,
rather than Vendice, is known to the court and in the early
part of the play has a more important role when members of
the court are involved, Hippolito leads the court group of
revengers in I.iv, But when this group meets just prior to
the catastrophe, Vendice dominates the scene (V,ii), with
twenty-four lines to Hippolito’s two.
The Duchess is conceived of as selfish and lustful,
and most of her speeches are in character. Particularly
effective are those in I.ii where she insinuates herself
into Spurio’a bed. But the long, motivation-revealing
soliloquy she is given in I.ii,109-32 is not very plaus
ible, particularly since she is a minor character. The
same is true of Spurio; while most of his speeches are
blunt, with a "snarling" tone (appropriate to an Eliza
bethan stage bastard), he also is given a long, "motiva
tional" soliloquy in I.ii, 198-22( 4. that is not entirely in
character.
Quoted above was the eight-line soliloquy with which
R ep r o d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
60
Castiza begins her second appearance* It is a time when
Vendice must be off-stage and, like Hippolito, she is given
a share in the commentary* Aside from its uncharacteristic
predictive qualities, the speech is not entirely out of
character— Castiza is the most "moral" person with any
sizable participation in the action, and she later helps to
confirm and complete the regeneration of Gratiana* If her
lines tend to be rather static it is because her personal
ity is also somewhat static— perfectly and unwaveringly
pure and good* Gratiana's speeches often have more flex
ibility, because they are designed to reveal her moral
flexibility, her susceptibility to sin. After she has
"fallen," she is allowed speeches in the temptation scene
comparable in length and tone to Vendice's* After her re
formation, however, she is allowed to share in the "com
mentary," particularly regarding the error of her own ways*
The speeches of Ambitioso and Supervacuo, particularly
the later ones, reveal their general function ("treacher
ous step-brothers") more clearly than their individual
I characteristics* In early parts of the play Ambitioso is
I
I given more initiative and savoir-faire, while in V*i it is
ISupervacuo who advises feigning grief at the old Duke's
32
I death, and he actively plans the death of Spurio,
32
As already noted, something is clearly wrong with
the speech-ascription of the final scene (not that it is
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
1 61
I
I Lussurioso's function is chiefly that of creating com
plications for Vendice, though he is also an extreme exam
ple of lust. His speeches are quite consistent with these I
characteristics, hut he has in addition his father's flair |
for "politics" and a kind of diplomacy. The miscellaneous
judges and nobles have subsidiary roles, and their speeches
are mainly fawning and flattering. One of the most inter-
33
eating minor characters is "Youngest Son," Blunt, flip
pant, cynical, he dies with this jest—
My fault was sweet sport, which the world approoues,
I dye for that which euery woman loues, (III,iv,86-7)
Because of its tendency to "commentary," The Reven-
Iger's Tragedy contains a number of lengthy speeches. Yen-
I
!
dice has twenty-nine speeches between five and nine lines
in length, sixteen between ten and nineteen, and several
longer ones besides. Even Hippolito has a speech of twenty
lines; the Duchess and Antonio each have one of twenty-
four; Spurio has one of twenty-seven; Gratiana one of fif
teen, Nearly half the total lines in the first two acts
of the play occur in speeches longer than six lines. The
necessarily Tourneur's fault), and Nicoll feels that the
roles of the step-sons are reversed in V,i as well, where
Supervacuo is taking the initiative, C, S, Napier (p, l86)
believes Tourneur has simply forgotten which was which by
this point,
33
As Miss Ellis-Permor notes (Jacobean Dr^a, p. 166),
he is much like D'Amville's younger son, Sebastian, of The
Atheist's Tragedy,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
62
result la necessarily some loss to the general "conversa
tional" quality of the dialogue, but the long speeches are i
often offset by repartee, like that of II,ii.172-99, where !
Vendice reports the Duchess* adultery to Lussurioso, The
emphasis upon commentary may seem to weaken the action as
well, but, while the plot discussion should have shown that
! there is no real lack of activity, the play is not intended
to be one of pure action or "spectacle," Most of the com
mentaries provide a very effective and necessary time of
meditation on the many complications of dialogue and action.
Since the beginning speech is forty-nine lines long,
it is obvious that the play makes a rather slow start, but
even this prefatory speech is broken up by the entrance of
the ducal train and the introduction of Gloriana's skull.
These naturally require explanation, and the transition to
Vendice's motivations for revenge is a natural one. The
first speech thus introduces themes, symbols, chief charac
ters, and conflict; what it loses in verisimilitude it more
than gains in effective compression, and it does get the
action started fairly quickly. Similarly, other long
speeches, while admittedly artificial, achieve needed
motivation, emphasize principal themes, and prepare for
i
future action without seriously impairing the illusion of
conversation or the "story line,"
About 220 lines or seven per cent of the play is given
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
_ . _ _ — 63
over to soliloquies, as compared to Hamlet * s 270 lines or
I slightly less than seven per cent* Hamlet has ten solilo-
I 1
iquies, however, while The Revenger's Tragedy has eighteen i
I (including several very brief ones)* Vendice has six; Cas-!
itiza, Ambitioso, Hippolito, and the Duke have two each;
Spurio, the Duchess, Lussurioso, and Gratiana have one
each. Vendice successfully dominates the action without a
preponderance of the total soliloquies (Hamlet is given
eight of the total of ten), but one has the feeling that in
The Revenger's Tragedy the soliloquy has been over-worked
and has almost been cheapened through its extensive use by
minor characters. For a minor figure like Spurio to have
a twenty-seven line soliloquy is ludicrous, however effec
tive the speech itself may be. Somewhat more reasonable is
Castiza*s being given the introductory soliloquy at the
beginning of act two. If Castiza is "minor" with respect
: to the action, she is "major" with respect to the theme,
and the soliloquy in question discusses major themes of
the scone, as well as of the entire play.
: The distribution of soliloquies seems governed by the
jdesire to allow a great many of the characters to partici-
Ipate in the commentary and to reveal their own motivation.
iPor reasons equally related to the theme and structure, the
jplay contains numerous asides— about one-hundred lines of
conventional asides, plus a hundred more of what might be
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
64
., 34
called ”semi-asides.The total of both kinds comprises '
six to seven per cent of the play (as opposed to about one
per cent in Hamlet), and is perhaps an indication of the
play’s concern with deception and intrigue.
Although the play has many very satirical couplets,
it seems to have little if any interpolated verse. Cited
above was the tense, rapid-fire conversation of Vendice and
Lussurioso as the former describes Spurio's impending visit
to the Duchess; another possible example of repartee is the
section of mourning phrases and monosyllables of Ambitioso
and Supervacuo as they realize that they have caused their
brother's death (III.vi.99-116). The following instance,
particularly inasmuch as the alternate lines of the coup
lets are divided between Spurio and the Duchess, may be
cited as one of stychomythia;
Gold still; in vaine then must a Dutchesse woo?
Madam I blush to say what I will doo.
Thence flew sweet comfort, earnest and farewell.
Oh one incestuous kisse picks open hell.
(I.ii.192-5)
It has already been demonstrated that the play has
34
These are spoken by one person to one or more others
when all are part of a larger group, but without the inten
tion that the entire group shall hear. This is, of course,
really a "circumvented aside," or so similar instances are
described in Webster by Ounnar Boklund, The Duchess of
Malfl: Sources. Themes, Characters (Cambridge, Mass.,
1462), p. li|.7* Tourneur has simply supplied characters
with confidants to eliminate part of the necessity of com
municating directly to the audience.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
6$
some highly effective expository scenes. It also has some
very powerful set-speeches. Those Vendice makes over the
I
skull of Gloriana give the play much of its force. One of
these, beginning "And now me thinkes I cold e'en chide my
selfe," was quoted during the uiscussion of the play's
themes; but the speech, after a brief interruption by Hip
polito, continues;
Dos euery proud and self-affecting Dame
Camphire her face for this? and grieue her Maker
In 3infull baths of milke,— when many an infant
starues.
For her superfluous out-side, all for this?
Who now bids twenty pound a night, prepares
Musick, perfumes, and sweet-meates? all are husht.
Thou maist lie chast now! it were fine me thinkes.
To haue thee seene at Reuells, forgetfull feasts.
And vncleane Brothells; sure twould fright the
sinner
And make him a good coward, put a Reueller
Out off his Antick amble
And cloye an Epicure with empty dishes.
Here might a scornefull and ambitious woman
Looke through and through her selfe,— See Ladies,
with false formes
You deceiue men, but cannot deceiue wormes,
(III.V.87-1 01)
Many of the basic attitudes and symbols of the play are im
plicit in this speech, and the various themes are brought
into focus. But other, less emotional situations call
forth Vendice's set-speeches as well. The information that
Spurio is on his way to an assignation with the Duchess
motivates a speech of which the following is only part:
NightI thou that lookst like funerall Heraulds fees
I Torn down betimes ith morning, thou hangst fittly
To Grace those sins that haue no grace at all.
Now tis full sea a bed ouer the world;
There's iugling of all sides; some that were Maides
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
66
E’en at Sun set, are now perhaps 1th Toale-bookej
This woman in immodest thin appareil
Lets in her friend by water, here a Dame
Cunning, nayles lether-hindges to a dore, I
To auoide proclamation. |
Now cuckolds are quoyning, apace, apace, apace,
apace.
And carefull sisters spinne that thread ith night
That does maintains them and their bawdes ith daleI
(II.ii.143-6 1)
It is such speeches as this that focus the meaning of the
play, and give it much of its force.
Frose-Verse Relationships
Milton Crane states that prose, used in an Elizabethan
verse play, has two main functions: to set off one part of
a scene in contrast to the rest, and to set a character in
of
opposition to a verse scene in which he figures.He
notes that early Elizabethan verse drama used prose for
comic or mad scenes and for interpolated letters or formal
documents (p. 29), and adds that the most significant prose
in later Elizabethan drama was realistic in purpose (p.$2).
Crane’s generalizations describe very well the prose,
1$0 lines or less,^^ in The Revenger’s Tragedy. The high-
i of
•^^Shakespeare’s Prose (Chicago, 19^1), p. 5.
3^In addition are some thirty to forty single lines
scattered at random throughout the play, more easily ana
lyzed as prose, but generally treated as hypermetric verse.
R. A. Poakes is probably correct that they should be ana
lyzed as prose (pp. 130-^), but I have excluded the more
difficult from my analyses of both prose and verse. I have|
admitted instances of prose either when several consecutive|
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
67 I
1
est proportion of prose (some sixty lines) is given Ven
dice, whose first prose (II,i,2^0-3) is used to interrupt |
a long verse set-speech on the glories of the court in
order to explain realistically that honesty is, after all,
a "poor" profession. His next prose lines (scattered
through II,ii,75-96), are interpolated into a verse scene
in order to set terms of payment with Lussurioso, His most
extended use of prose comes in IV,ii, where he leaves the
. 1
role of "Piato" for that of "melancholy Vendice,"
Vendice also uses prose at other points where he
introduces a serious scheme into an ironic verse speech of
"commentary" or satire. Other plotters use prose for
similar purposes, Supervacuo and Ambitioso use prose
briefly to plot against Spurio in V,i,190-5, and Ambitioso
uses prose to fatalistically sum up the plot against Lus
surioso in III,V,117-9. Many of the various comments
immediately following the announcement of the old Duke's
death are prose (V,i,111-3, 117-8); Supervacuo's couplet.
Learn of our mother; lets dissemble to,
I am glad hee's vanisht; so I hope are you
(119-20)
seems the first signal that the "guard" is up once more and
I true feelings are again concealed,
i
I
The only character in the play given prose exclusively
lines were prose or when several random "prose" lines
occurred in short succession.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
68
(only eight lines) is Castiza*s foppish servant Dondolo, j
who interrupts her verse musings with his prose announce
ments (II,i.10-22). Castiza breaks off her verse to speak I
37
prose to Dondolo, then resumes it when he leaves. Only
one other character is given any extensive prose--the
"Youngest Son" alternates vigorous, realistic prose (more
like that of "melancholy Vendice" than anything else in the
play), with flippant, satiric verse.
Even if many isolated prose lines are included, the
total amount of prose in The Revenger's Tragedy is no more
than five per cent (as compared with thirty per cent in
I Hamlet). If, as Crane believes, Elizabethan plays tended
I
I to use prose for realistic effects, then the comparatively
low proportion of prose in The Revenger * s Tragedy seems to
result from its emphasis on the typical, upon "eternal
truths." The comparatively extensive use of verse forces
attention to such themes as these. For the cynical realism
of the youngest son's "Be merry, hang merry, draw and quar
ter merry, lie be mad1" (III.iv.l8), or Vendice*s
Why I would desire but this my Lord, to
haue all the fees behind the Arras ; and all the
farthingales that fal plumpe about twelue a
clock at night vpon the Rushes, (II.ii.90-2)
37
Attempting to assess the possible contribution of
Tourneur to The Honest Mans Fortune, Gerritsen says of his
general use ol^ prose, "Ithe verse speakers often speak in
prose to the regular prose speakers, but rarely otherwise"
(pp. xc-xci).
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
- . - -
Tourneur chooses to use prose. But for the multi-level
set-speeches already quoted in part, for the artificial, i
"cesspool" environment of the court and its decadent repre-i
sentatives, for the moralistic meditations on virtue, sin,
death, skulls, revenge, the false and the true, Tourneur
characteristically chooses verse.
Several critics of Tourneur have noted the compar
atively greater irregularity of the verse of The Revenger*s
Tragedy as compared with that of The Atheist*s Tragedy.
(And, using the equation of flexibility with maturity often
found in discussions of Shakespeare’s verse, they have thus
concluded that The Atheist’s Tragedy should be considered
the earlier play). Churton Collins thought Tourneur’s
versification in The Revenger’s Tragedy second only to
Shakespeare’s, and more like Shakespeare’s than that of
any other dramatist.T. S. Eliot modified this judgment
! somewhat, finding Tourneur a remarkable technical inno
vator, but placing him "after Marlowe, Shakespeare, and
Webster.
In a review of the authorship controversy, R. A.
IPoakes notes that contradictory accounts of Tourneur's
I versifying habits have resulted from the use of various
^®Works, II, xlviii-1.
^^Elizabethan Essays, pp. 121-2.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
70
editions which arbitrarily rearranged the lines,Using
Nicoll's edition, Poakes discovers that "the verse of The
Revenger*a Tragedy is much less irregular than the praise
: lavished on it would suggest," that indeed its verse
is on the whole rather stiff and formal;
there is a preponderance of end-stopped lines,
and sometimes whole speeches are written in à
regular jog-trotting metre . . . . (pp. 136-7)
It is usually the soliloquies of Vendice that are analyzed,
and these are the finest and most varied verse of the play.
Even in these, however, there is a high incidence of rhyme
and a certain formality, and in contrast to them are such
speeches as Castiza's soliloquy beginning act two, with
rigid lines, heavy pauses, and rhyme to boot, Poakes con
cludes that the typical passage in the play has, aside from
extra syllables and inverted "feet," a high degree of reg
ularity, pauses at the ends of most lines, and frequent re
inforcing rhyme (p, 137). But he believes that the play
escapes monotony by its dialogue, its alternation of prose
and verse, and by its wealth of imagery (p, 137).
Editions have treated variously "extra-metric"
lines, the scattered long lines that at times are unques
tionably prose, and lines shared by two or more speakers.
No edition before Nicoll's even approached the arrangement
of the quartos, and even his edition has some questionable
practices. Poakes notes the fact that even the quartos
themselves are inconsistent, the compositor in some cases
having oast the first line or two of a prose section as
verse before giving up and casting the rest of the passage
as prose (pp. 132-3).
.J
R ep roducecj with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow n er. Further reprocJuction prohibitecJ w ithout p erm issio n .
71
My own analysis of the verse of the first three aots^i
I
of the play reveals the following tendencies: two-thirds
of the verse has the "feel" of "regular" iambic pentameter:;
with five stresses, a masculine ending, but occasional ana-I
pestio or trochaic substitution and variation of the syl
lables in the line from nine to twelve or thirteen. An
additional one-fourth of the verse has the above charac
teristics, except for feminine ending. About nine to ten
per cent of the,lines are hypermetric— half of them short
lines in the midst of a regular passage, the other half
interspersed long lines which might be hexameter, septa-
meter, or errant prose.
Of the metric variations, only one seems significant
to the characterization of the play. The Duke and Duchess
are the only characters using the feminine ending less than
twenty per cent of the time, while Vendice uses it thirty
per cent of the time. While one might be tempted to con
clude that Vendice is the most flexible and the Duke and
Duchess the most rigid of the dramatis personae, what is
iactually indicated is that the speeches of the latter are
jthe more conventionally conceived.
!
I The comparatively high incidence of the feminine end-
' l | . l
! Analyzed were 1100 lines, omitting all obvious
prose, all "shared" lines, and virtually all single-line
speeches.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
72
ing and of hypermetric lines gives the verse of The Reven
ger's Tragedy at least an illusion of fluidity, which the
coincidence of rhyme and end-stopped lines does not fully
destroy. The following vagaries of prosody are rather
effective:
Oh she was able to ha made a Vsurers sonne
Melt all his patrimony in a kisse.
And what his father fifty yeares told
To haue consumde, and yet his sute beene cold:
But oh accursed Pallace1
Thee when thou wert appareld in thy flesh.
The old Duke poyson'd , , . , (I.i.29-35)
But even if the long lines are, as Poakes believes, inter
spersed prose, the irregularities of the following seem
merely annoying:
. . • Why do’s not earth start vp.
And strike the sinnes that tread vppon’t?— oh;
Wert not for gold and women; there would be no
damnation.
Hell would looke like a Lords Great Kitchin
without fire in't;
But ’twas decreed before the world began.
That they should be the hookes to catch at man,
(II.i.276-81)
In the following speech the feminine ending becomes the
regular (and not entirely pleasing) pattern. Vendice is
explaining where and how the lustful Lussurioso will be
jwelcomed:
I In a fine place my Lord— the vnnaturall mother.
Did with her tong so hard beset her honor.
That the poore foole was struck to silent wonder.
Yet still the maid like an vnlighted Taper,
Was cold and ohast, saue that her Mothers breath.
Did blowe fire on her cheekes; the girle departed.
But the good antlent Madam halfe mad, threwe me
I These promissing words, which I took deeply note of;
I My lord shall be most Wellcome— (II,ii.60-8)
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
73
Seven of the eight uninterrupted lines have feminine end
ings. While such "dying falls" are sometimes effective,
this is an abuse of the device. All three quotations are
from Vendice, who elsewhere has the finest lines in the
play, and thus it is evident that the "strengths" and
"weaknesses" of Tourneur’s verse go hand in hand. Prose
being, as we have seen, reserved for special purposes not
including the alternation with verse simply for variety,
Tourneur achieves variety in his verse speeches by varying
the rhythm, length, and accentuation of his verse line.
The Revenger’s Tragedy has about 230 couplets recog
nizable to the modern ear, some of them shared by two or
1 | 2
more characters. Only two scenes in the entire play do
not end with couplets, and both of these have couplets
near the end of the scene, followed by a "walk-off" pass
age— two lines in one scene, one-half line in the other.
There are several "triplets," and at least 1^0 iambic
k.2
Perhaps the beat shared couplets are those of
Spurio and the Duchess, quoted above as stychomythiaj but
V,iii,l}.3-5 has the following, shared by three speakers:
I Noble: Fourscore I hope my Lord.
IÏ Noble: And fiuescore, I.
IÏI tioble: But tis my hope my Lord, you shall nere
die.
Editions before Nicoll’s even spoiled the original couplets
by their revisions. For example, many change lowde to wide
in the following:
It is our bloud to erre, tho hell gapte lowde.
Ladles know Lucifer fell, yet still are proudel
(I,iii,8l-2)
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
1 7 1 t ;
I4.3 !
j pentameter lines ’ ’shared” by several characters. The |
! effect of such devices is an impression of careful form
throughout the play, and greater moral and satiric force in
Imany individual speeches.
An analysis of every line in the play would, I be
lieve, reveal above ninety per cent to be in the general
pattern of iambic pentameter. In view of the facts that so
much of the play is in ’ ’regular” verse, that the dialogue
is frequently commentary rather than conversation, and that
the characters are frequently subordinated to the theme, it
is rather surprising that the play has so much verisimili
tude (even though it is more nearly like the verisimilitude
of Everyman than of I Henry IV), There are jangling lines
of verse, passages where conventional prosody seems for
gotten, abuses of such devices as the feminine ending; but
what is far more memorable is the general effectiveness of
the verse, A characteristic long speech by Vendice will
The estimate of 150 shared lines is a conservative
one, based on the actual lineation of the quartos. Although
they have many faults, recent paperback editions like that
edited by James L. Rosenberg (San Francisco, Chandler Pub
lishing Company, 1962), and the version edited by Richard
Harrier in his Anchor Anthology of Jacobean Drama, II,
{(Garden City, New York, 1963), ostensibly "restore” the
jlineation of the original verse. In the quarto, for exam
ple, 1,11,314.-5 is lined: ”, , , Good onely for therr beau
ties, which washt of, no sin is ouglier/ Amb, I beseech
your grace , , , ,” But if a new line is^egun at no, the
balf-line with Ambitioso’s half-line makes one poetTc
verse. Such ”liberal” redactions of the quartos would, I
think, yield fifty to a hundred additional ’ ’shared” lines.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
75
frequently state its thesis in fairly regular iambic lines I
(perhaps couplets), develop it through varied pentameter
lines (with both masculine and feminine endings), introduce
sudden variations in the theme with a snappy short line
(frequently trimeter) or follow out implications of an idea
with one or more long lines (hexameter, septameter, or
prose). The dominant impression given by the finer
speeches of a character like Vendice is not of awkwardness
or irregularity, but of subtlety, flexibility, a precise
adaptation of means to ends. The result is a varied
poetry with much of the "naturalness" or "realism" of
prose, but retaining the beauty and form of verse.
Linguistic Devices
Apparently as a result of the flurry of interest in
the authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy (spurred, among
others, by E, H, C, Oliphant's tentative suggestion that
iiJi
the author might be Middleton but followed by Nicoll’s
edition of Tourneur including the play in question), two
articles appeared in the thirties on the imagery of The
I 4 1 | .
"The Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy," Studies
I in Philology. 23:157-68, April 19È6.
I h g
Una Ellis-Permor, "The Imagery of *The Revengers
I Tragédie' and 'The Atheists Tragédie,'" Modern Language Re-
I view, 30:289-301, July 1935» Marco K, Mincof^, "The Author-
I ship of The Revenger's Tragedy," Studia Historico-Philo-
I logica Serdicensia, 2:1«8?; 1939,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
76
Revenger's Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy, Of their
authors Inga-Stina Skeblad says.
Both critics rely largely on the method of
analysis first demonstrated by Caroline F.
Spurgeon, classifying images by subject-matter
and drawing on them for clues to the habits of
mind, the interests and the background of the
author— or authors. Their contradictory con
clusions would seem to suggest that the imagery
in the plays examined does not respond to the
kind of analysis made.M-°
Miss Ellis-Permor claims at the beginning of her study
that
• • • the subjects from which a writer thus
spontaneously draws his imagery afford an index
not only to the field of his experience but to
the degree of intensity with which the different
parts of his experience have been apprehended,
(p, 289)
She finds that The Revenger's Tragedy draws its chief
clusters of imagery from the body, especially its move
ments or diseases; from building; from domestic life; and
from nature (p, 296),^^
Of the imagery of The Revenger's Tragedy she says,
"Conspicuous among the subjects neglected or omitted are
religion and classical literature and legend" (p, 296),
; Soon, however, she quotes an image which she describes as
"Tourneur's Imagery," p. I 4. 89,
^'^Miss Ellis-Permor also (quite openly) interprets and
selects her data; for example she says that the images of
government in The Atheist's Tragedy, "some twenty in all," 1
are "perhaps the least significant," while the images of
building, five or six in all, are very significant (p,296),;
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
77
referring to ’ ’the relation of mercy and sin” (p. 298), It
may be that Tourneur's religious imagery is not that of
any single persuasion, but religious and moral imagery are !
central to the meaning of the play and its characters,^®
Even a minor character like Spurio is made to observe,
i
’ ’Had not that kisse a taste of sinne 'twere sweete” (III,
V.219), while Lussurioso consciously reverses religious
processes--his payment of Vendice (I.iii,9S-9) ia conducted
in the imagery of a Black Mass, and he observes later that
Vendice is but a novice ( ’ ’puny” ) ”in the sub till Mistery
of a woman” (I,iii,193~i|-)• There is a clear reference to
Christianity in Vendice's description of midnight;
It is the ludas of the howers; wherein
Honest saluation is betrayde to sin, (I,iii,?8-9)
Since Vendice brings into focus the meaning of the play, to
examine any lengthy speech of his is to find moral and re
ligious imagery,
«
One would have thought Miss Ellis-Permor would have
jnoted the importance of religious imagery to Tourneur’s
I field of experience as well as its degree of intensity,
jBut in fairness it should be noted that in two of her
books, The Jacobean Drama (pp, 160-1), and Frontiers of
Drama (p, 8?), Miss Ellis-Permor notes the appropriateness
}of the imagery of individual characters in the play, and
jthe way in which the undertones of a scene are frequently
I sustained by the imagery,
i ho
It might be noted in passing that Michael Higgins
finds many Calvinistic references in Tourneur: ’ ’The In
fluence of Calvinistic Thought in Tourneur’s Atheist’s
Tragedy.” Review of English Studies. 19:255-62, July 1914-3•
in later studies Calvinism and Puritanism are also found by
Ornstein, Peter, Lisca, Schoenbaum, and others.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
78
References to classical literature and legend are ad
mittedly harder to find, but Vendice makes allusions to the
mythical Occasion (I.i.108-10), to the naked graces (I.i.
1^-8), and to the Phoenix (I.iii.lll), There seems an
appropriately-reversed reference to the faithful Penelope
in the following:
. . , you shall haue one woman knit more in
a hower then any man can Rauell agen in seauen
and twenty yeare, (II.ii.77-9)
And carefull sisters spinne that thread ith night,
That does maintains them and their bawdes ith daiel
(II.ii.160-1)
In her "Approach to Tourneur's Imagery" Inga-Stina
Ekeblad briefly pleads for and illustrates a method of
image analysis that does not try to deduce occult facts
about the author's private life, but which tries to explain
the play itself. It is obvious that Miss Spurgeon's meth
od, uncritically used, may lead to a kind of "autobio
graphical fallacy." The more legitimate approach is by
!
necessity somewhat circular--we must understand the images
to interpret the play, and vice versa. Tourneur's recur
ring images grow out of his themes and subject matter, and
Since this is not exclusively an imagery study, and
since elaborate (even if sometimes mistaken) studies of
Tourneur's images already exist, I have confined my de
tailed study of his images to the first two acts of the
play, but have traced throughout the entire play what seem
to me particularly significant image clusters— images of
appearance, of the true and the false, of the reversed or
the unnatural.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithou t p erm issio n .
79
at the same time convey his themes and subject matter*
Interpretations of these elements are of course reciprocal,
and together form part of a larger process of interpre
tation as we read and reread the play. Thus we should not
expect the images to work in a manner contrary to that of
the play, to be giving us an autobiography of the author
while we are attending to the dramatic story*
Of the general way images work in The Revenger's
Tragedy, Miss Ekeblad states that they are designed to
elicit an immediate response to thé evils demonstrated; in
T* E* Hulme's phrase, they are intent on '"handing over
sensations bodily»" (p. ^96). Many images do not refer to
the body as such, but use a verb of bodily motion to par
ticularize their effect:
A Dukes soft hand stroakes the rough head of law
And makes it lye smooth. (II.ii.291-2)
In a similar manner revenge is personified. Other imagery
is designed carefully to guide the response, as that in
;Spurio's fascinating and horrible description of the situa
tion in which he imagines he was begotten (I*ii*200-^)*
The speech has a feverish sensuality because in a sense it
i
! is Sin himself speaking, presenting the audience with an
i
!exemplum horrendum (p* ^97)* Miss Ekeblad concludes with
I a plea for a functional approach to the imagery, observing
I that it explains not the author but the play:
* * * all over the play, imagery points the
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm ission .
80
morallstlc-satlrlc structure of the play, pre
venting us from taking it at the plot-level of
melodramatic Revenge, (p. ^97)
The general emphasis of the images of the play is upon!
91
the ’ ’ unnatural,” particularly upon moral reversal. In
the world of the play incest has become merely a venial
sin (I.ii.191)» mothers are bawds to their own daughters,
brothers to their sisters. Judgement is akin to favor (I.
iv.65-61), justice speaks in gold (I.iv.67), and only a
sword is a "bribeless officer” (I.iv.62). The chief judge
is himself a criminal, white of hair but green in sin (II.
ii.352-60), desiring the sin that is robed in holiness
(III.V.1^7). His incestuous wife feels that pleasure, to
be sweet, must also be sinful (III,v.220), and her lover
observes that their ’ ’best side” ia heaven’s worst (III.v.
221-2), Honor is poor, sin is rich (II.i,6-9), and
"angels” promote evil (II,i.98-101). False faces fool
j
everyone but death (I,iv.3^-6). Lussurioso, who sought as
91
Lacy Lockert (’ ’Greatest Melodrama,” p. 121), says of
the imagery that ’ ’the very phraseology frequently suggests
[the inversion of all moral values and the perversion of
:
ature itself . , , .” A few years later, L. G. Salingar
referred to the play’s "pervasive imagery of metamorphosis,
falsification, and moral camouflage” ("Morality Tradition,”
p. 2 1 i | . ) . Later references are somewhat commonplace, but
Salingar again says, "Tourneur’s images suggest continually
that the court society he depicts has grossly perverted the
patural, accepted standards of living"— "Tourneur and the
Tragedy of Revenge,” in Boris Ford, ed.. The Age of Shakes-
eare. rev. ed, (Baltimore, Maryland, 196^), p. T^HTs
s ITolume II of the Pelican Guide to English Literature).
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
81
pander "A man that wore for euill onely good” (1.1.88),
pays him in a parody of the Mass (I.iii.9^-6), taunts him
with being a novitiate in evil (I.iii.173-4), and sends
j
him to corrupt his own mother and sister, beguile the lat- !
ter of salvation, and rub hell o’er with honey (II.ii.
I ■ I
Even light in the play is artificial. Lacy Lockert
has observed that sunlight is never mentioned (pp. 115-6).
The play begins with a torchlight tableau; Antonio’s wife
was raped "When Torch-light made an artificiall noone" (I.
iv.33), and the Duke asks Vendice to contrive an assigna
tion in an "vn-sunned lodge,/ Where-in tis night at noone”
(III.v.20-1). Gratiana is corrupted by the "comfortable
shine" of the "angels" (II.i.l^D); the "melancholy" Vendice
pretends to be blinded by the "bright vnusuall shine" of
gold (IV.ii.118-9). The hypocritically-mournful Lussurioso
is told by the toadying nobles, "My Lord it is your shine
must comfort vs," and replies, "Alas I shine in teares like
the Sunne in Aprill" (V.1,160-1). Later one noble avers,
"That shine makes vs all happy," even as another observes
that Lussurioso is frowning (V.ill.8-11).
Motherhood is reversed in the play. It is Gastiza who
sets,the example for her mother, the children who instruct
the parent in morality. The disguised Vendice urges Gra-
tiana to mcdce her own fortune by forcing Gastiza to "earn"
R ep r o d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
82
her own birth by a kind of depraved re-birth:
You tooke great paines for her, once when it was.
Let her requite it now, tho it be but some;
You brought her forth, she may well bring you home.
(II.i.113-5)
And in a bitter pun of which Donne might have been proud,
he tells her, "The daughters fal lifts vp the mothers head"
(II.i.127).
In short, all normal values are reversed. Conjugal af
fection yields to adultery, rape, incest, bastardy, fratri
cide, and threatened matricide and patricide. Religion be
comes deviltry; justice, injustice; faith, faithlessness;
sin, the greatest pleasure.
Perhaps a sub-category of the images of reversal are
those of appearance. The two motifs seem blended in the
scene where Vendice observes:
The worlds so changd, one shape into another.
It is a wise childe now that knowes her mother.
(II.i.107-8)
He resolves to "put on the knave" (I.i.101) and "turn into
another" (I.i.153), and later observes that the Duke has
jmade the fatal error of "Thinking my outward shape, and
inward heart/ Are cut out of one peice" jsicj (III.v.10-12)
and still later notes the "shifts" he is put to (IV.ii.3)
after returning to his own "shape" (IV.i.68-70).
Particularly "metaphysical" are the images from Ven
dice 's meditations on the skull. Flesh is but appearance.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r ' ' " .... ‘ ....... 83
I and he invokes "that eternal! eye/ That see's through flesh|
and all" (1.111,7^-$). The whole of his lengthy and oft-
repeated meditations is an extension of Hamlet's theme, the
falsity of appearances— "Now get you to my lady's chamber
and tell her, let her paint an inch thick, to this favor
52
she must come" (V.i*212-^)« All of women's fashionable
vanities come to this, and his conclusion is an inevitable
one:
See Ladies, with false formes
You deceiue men, but cannot deceiue wormes.
(III.v.100-1)
A further extension of the imagery of appearance is
that of clothing (making the play an early Sartor Resar-
tus ). Vendice begins this motif with his reference to the
costly three-piled flesh of the body (I.i,[|.9). He has a
long and effective (even if conventional) description of
estates turned into gowns (II.i.238-9, 2i | I | . -7), and presumes
to make his fortunes from such things as the farthingales
that fall behind the arras at midnight (II.ii.91). Even
Hippolito survives at court because of his hold on the
52
This is also noted by Donald J, McGinn, Shakes
peare's Influence on the Drama of His Age: Studied in Ham
let (New Brunswick. New Jersey. 1938). pp. llL-5. Hamlet's
concern for "appearance" perhaps begins with his perception
"That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain" (l.v.
;108). (Since no arguments are based on the authenticity of
Shakespeare's text, line references to Shakespeare's plays
are based on the widely accessible edition of G. B. Harri
son^ Shakespeare: Major Plays and the Sonnets. New York,
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
j %
; Duchess’ skirt (I.i.71-2). Antonio describes the youngest
son as a "moth to honor" who has had "long lust to eat/
Into my wearing" (I.iv.37-9)« Vendice observes that a
maiden’s "grace" (shame, salvation) will not allow her to
get good clothes (I.iii.1^-6), presents Lussurioso’s pro
posals to Gastiza in terms of best wishes and new gowns
(II.i.30-1), and pronounces the blow she gives him in re
ply, "The finest drawne-worke cuffe that ere was worne"
(II.i.50). Already cited is the Duke’s desire for sin
robed in holiness. The several emphases of the imagery
are brought to focus in the speech in which Vendice asks
his mistress’ skull,
Do’s the Silke-worme expend her yellow labours
For thee? for thee dos she vndoe herselfe?
(III.v.76 ff.)
After surveying humanity Vendice concludes.
Surely wee're all mad people, and they
Whom we think are, are not; we mistake those,
Tis we are mad in scence, they but in clothes.
Hippolito’s reply seems to pinpoint his and Vendice's own
involvement in the very evil they are trying to expose;
Faith and in clothes too we, giue vs our due.
(III.v.83-6)
Most of the image-categories discussed by Miss Ellis-
i Fermer do exist in the play.^^ One group is that dealing
53
But I cannot find or really appreciate her reference
I to the important image of the hermit crab, (described on p.
296 as occurring at IV.iv.^-l#)* I find only a reference
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
with the world of business (p, 296), The play depicts a
world in which faiths are bought and sold (III.i.7), jus
tice speaks all in gold (I.iv.67), and property is trans
mogrified into fair gowns and faces (II.i,238-^7). The
concern of Vendice’s family with advancement and the ob
session of the ducal family with buying their pleasures
create a large amount of "commercial" imagery. But it is
more significant to note that the commodities sold are
those not ordinarily given a dollars-and-cents value:
faith, justice, honor, chastity.
Another group of images deals with the law or
legality. This is clearly due in part to the facts that
: several characters are at some time or another "in trouble
with the law," and that "melancholy" Vendice poses as a
law-student. A more significant emphasis of these images,
however, is upon the whole notion of right and wrong, of
justice itself.
The building profession provides still another group.
Antonio describes his dead wife almost in terms of a
desecrated temple:
. . . a fayre comely building newly falne,
! Being falsely vndermined .... (l.iv.5-6)
Gastiza describes virtue's "ivory tower":
A vergin honor is a christall Tower,
I
i t ‘ o a "shell" in line 15.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
86
Which being weake ia guarded with good spirits,
Vntill she basely yeelds no ill inherits,
(IV.iv.165-7)
In contrast are references to "false” building. The young-I
; I
lest son says the beauty of Antonio's wife was ordained to !
be his scaffold (I.ii.71). Grati&na seems to be using a
"carpenter's image" when she asks Gastiza,
And by what rule should we square out our liues.
But by our betters actions? (II.i,171-2)
Lussurioso asks Hippolito for another pander, promising.
If there be ought in him to please our bloud.
For thy sake weele aduance him, and build faire
His meanest fortunes: for it is in vs
To reare vp Towers from cottages,(IV.i.60-3)
One of the more notable linguistic devices of the play
is its personification. This begins with the first speech,
Vengence thou murders Quit-rent, and whereby
iDhou shoust thy selfe Tennant to Tragedy ....
(I.i.1+3-1^)
When Vendice a few lines later asks Hippolito, "How go
things at Court?" (56), Hippolito replies, "In silke and
siluer brother: neuer brauer" (57). The effect of the line
seems to be the fact that it hovers between the figurative
and the literal,Of this tendency Miss Ellis-Permor
5 1 * .
Castiza's and Lussurioso's uses of the word tower
emphasize their own characteristics and basic themes of
the play,
I
An apparent misinterpretation of such lines seems to
have led Mias Bradbrook to conclude that much of the play's
meaning seems to depend upon a particular literalness, much
the opposite of Webster's "emotional overtones" (Themes and
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
87
I saysJ
There ia perhaps no Jacobean dramatist whose
personification is more difficult to distin
guish from literal usage or who more bewilder-
' ingly blends pun and image or moves from one
to the other with a more subtle appreciation |
of the intricate interplay possible between i
the two. (p. 2914.)
And she concludes that second only to Tourneur’s particular
clarity of image is ’ ’this habit of crossing the debatable
borderland between pun and image, or between personifi
cation and a literal meaning . . (p. 291].)» There are
many instances of this type, from the strangely literal-
figurative ”A man that were for euill onely good” (I.i.88),
or ’ ’ Your too much right, dos do vs too much wrong” (I.ii.
91), to the puns of
Virginity is paradice, lockt vp.
You cannot come by your selues without fee.
And twas decreed that man should keeps the key!
(II,i.176-8)
At times Vendice seems intentionally to move between
figurative and literal meanings:
Sister y'aue sentenc'd most direct, and true,
Idonventions, p, 172). But H, W, Wells finds Tourneur and
IWebster much alike in their apt use of the "radical image,"
I one which "might be expressed geometrically as a cone. On
lone end is a point of no imaginative value in itself from
! which radiate powerful lines of suggestion" fPoetic Imagery
i in Elizabethan Literature (New York, 1921].), ]^, l26-3^k
I However, kiss Éradbroolc later notes the connection in Tour-
ineur between speech and action, "so that the language is a I
Iliving part of the story," and she concludes, "Finally, his:
poetry, if not the greatest, is among the most concentrated
writing of the time: in the power of a single word or a
single image he is surpassed only by Shakespeare" (p. l8^).
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
88
The Lawes a woman, and would she were you . . , .
(I.i.126-7)
Another instance is that in which he asks the "Goddesse of
the pallace,” impudence, that he may be turned into un
blushing marble.
That this immodest season may not spy
That scholler in my cheekes, foole-bashfulnes.
That Maide in the old time, whose flush of Grace
Would neuer suffer her to get good deathsj
Our maides are wiser; and are less ashamd,
Saue Grace the bawde I seldome heare Grace nam'dj
(Ï, Hi, 13-8)
The subtle movement from literal to figurative and back
again in these speeches and countless more is one of the
most effective techniques for presenting the contrast be
tween the real and the sham, the true and the false.
Muriel Bradbrook says a side effect of Tourneur’s
’ ’occasional clumsiness” in language is the fact that his
puns ’ ’are the most awkward and ineffectual of all the Eliz
abethans, especially his obscene ones” (p. 172), Peter
Lisca disagrees, citing examples which he says ’ ’ are not the
results of brutally manipulated contexts, and they are too
much a part of the play’s web of incest and adultery to be
’ineffectual'” (p, 2l|.8), Miss Bradbrook gives no examples,
but Lisca cites the following; the pun on male in ’ ’ That
woman is all male, whome none can Enter” (II,i,12lj.), on
performance in ”0 what it is to haue an old-coole Duke/ To
be as slack in tongue as in performance” (I,ii,83-l|.), on
nose and box in ”It is the sweetest Boxe that ere my nose
I_ _ _ _ _
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
89 I
came nye" (II.1.^9), and possibly on secretary in "You
were his mid-night secretary" (I,i«li|.6). Chur ton Collins
admits, rather shamefacedly, to suspecting a pun on rim
(peritoneum) in "Any kin now next to the Rim ath sister/
56
Is mans meats" (I.iii*71-2). Richard Harrier suspects a
similar pun on verge in "Nay brother you reach out a*th
57
Verge now" (I,iii,19).
There are many, many more. The surrealistic image
suggested by the following is a wonderfully concise charac
terization of Lussurioso: "Were there as many Concubines
as Ladies/ He would not be contaynd, he must flie out" (I.
i.91-2). The effect of the scene in which the Duchess se
duces Spurio lies partly in the insinuation of her puna.
After Spurio suggests that his father could ride a horse
well the Duchess responds (with a leer, I think), "Nay set
you a horse back once, Youle nere light off" (I.ii.161-2).
There is a strangely effective literalness to Vendice's de
scription of himself to Lussurioso as "A bawde my Lord,/
One that setts bones togither" (I.iii.^9-50). A great many
56
Works. II, 157* He cites Juvenal, "Mulier nempe
ipsa videtur,/ Non persona loqui; vacua et plana omnia
dicas/ Infra ventriculum et tenua distantia rima" (Satire
III, 95-7), and Robert Nares' A Glossary . . . (London,
Ï8É2), p. I 4 . 3O, which defines rim or rym as ^^Tïïe peri
tonaeum, or membrane enclosing the intestines. ’The mem
brane of the belly.'"
57
Jacobean Drama, II, 1+12.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
9 0 I
of his speeches in this scene have an obscene double |
entendre— and are thus perfectly in character for the part }
he has assumed. He describes a father who will "slide
from the mother,/ And cling the daughter-in-law" (I.ill,
68-70), He asks, "why are men made closse?/ But to keepe
thoughts in best" (90-1), and continues, "Tell but some
woman a secret ouer night,/ Your doctor may find it in the
vrinall ith morning" (92-3). When Lussurioso suggests
that the wagging of Castiza's hair may put Vendice in mind
of something to say, Vendice replies, "No that shall put
you in my Lord" (1^^), He later explains his willingness
to accept Lussurioso's commission as pander as a desire to
prevent the job's falling to "Some slaue, that would haue
wrought effectually,/ I and perhaps ore-wrought em"
(200-1),
In the succeeding scene Castiza's disgusted order that
Dondolo "cut of a great deale of durty way" (11,1,19-20)
indicates her understanding of Dondolo's announcement of
"a man I take him by his beard that would very desireously
mouth to mouth with you" (I3-I4 .), Already cited are Ven
dice 's "The daughters fal lifts vp the mothers head" (II,i,
127) and Gratiana's speech beginning "Virginity is para
dice, lockt vp" (11,1,176-8), Vendice later reports it of
Gratiana that "golden spurs/ Will put her to a false gallop
;in a trice" (II,ii,$^-^). He tells Lussurioso, "you shall
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
I . ■ . . . . . : . . ^ 9 r i
i
I haue one woman knit more in a hower then any man oan Rauell
agen in seauen and twenty yeare" (II.ii.77-9).
In a peculiarly appropriate pun, one that several
other characters are made to repeat, Tourneur has the Duke
order his courtiers to report, as he goes to an assignation
with the "bony lady," that he is "priuately rid forth"
(III.v.131). It is characteristic of Tourneur's method
that he should have the Duke go to his death with an ob
scene pun, one ironically saying far more than the Duke .
can know. And it is thus that many of the other puns func
tion— as a kind of objective correlative of the vices
which Tourneur is embodying and denouncing. One can only
agree with Lisca that the puns, far from being ineffec
tual, are an integral part of the web of incest and in
trigue of the play. Indeed, they comprise an important
part of Tourneur's technique, focussing as they do some
of the multiple meanings the play explores.
THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP CHARACTERIZATION
One of the first and most difficult tasks confronting
I the critic of The Revenger's Tragedy is that of inter-
i
preting the character of Vendice, for therein lies the
meaning of the play. As Bowers observes, this process
: is complicated by the lack of a "normal" or "objective"
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
92 I
98 '
character to use as touchstone,^ 0, V, Boyer considers
Vendice little better than a bloody, bawdy villain, one
with no fascinating characteristics whatever, and mal
iciously revengeful in the spirit of the Corsican ven-
99
detta. Even Churton Collins finds Vendice notable for
his "appalling and unrelieved intensity, . . . savage and
devilish energy, bitter cynicism, and angry grandeur, . ,"
(Works, I, xlvii).
But it is impossible to type Vendice as an entirely
depraved character. So long as he is looking at others
(not himself), he is one of the most morally clear-sighted
persons in the play. His very first words are a moral
evaluation of the Duke, and he continues making such judg
ments throughout the play. It is clear, however, that Ven
dice is not simply a Renaissance preacher, and it is per
haps Theodore Spencer who finds his malady, in observing
that Vendice' 3 meditation on the theme "all is but dust"
does not turn him to an orthodox contemplation of the next
(World, but rather to ideas of revenge in this one,^^ He ia
very much engrossed in his desire for personal revenge, and
» Î
^^The Villain as Hero in Elizabethan Tragedy (London,
19114.), pp, lkb-50,
^%eath and Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge, Mass,,
1936), p, 2i|.Ô,
Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, 1987-16L2 (Princeton,
191^0), pTT%:
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
93 i
j
while he has a clear belief in morality, he is almost I
: totally disillusioned about believing good to be possible
in the world he lives in*^^ He has supped too much with
horrors. He praises his sister's purity,
0 Angels clap your wings vpon the skyes.
And giue this Virgin Christall plaudities,
(II.i.266-7)
and he even prays for her continued endurance in virtue.
Meet her: troupes of celestiall Soldiers gard her
heart.
Yon dam has deuills ynough to take her part.
(II.i.157-8)
He and Hippolito return home for the express purpose of
reforming their mother (IV.ii.258), and they rejoice in her
62
reformation (IV.iv.I4l 1 .- 8), but Vendice fails to "practice
his preaching," and his bitterly punning "Saue Grace the
bawde I seldome heare Grace nam'dl" (I.iii.lS) is impli
citly as powerful a denunciation of his own unregeneracy as
of anyone else's. One writer observes that Vendice loses
his moral balance (Lockert, p. 125); another, that his
nature is warped;^^ and still another that his "moral
61
i This is in part the position of Alvin Kernan, The
i Cankered Muse: Satire of the English Renaissance (New
} Haven, 1$55), pp. 221-32. kernan sees Vendice as a malcon-
Itented satirist afflicted with the diseases he is attack
ing.
62
Act V is totally concerned with happenings at court,
but the importance of this reformation scene is indicated
by its climactic placement in Act IV.
^^Percy Simpson, Studies in Elizabethan Drama (Oxford,
1955), P. 171.
L
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
r ' ‘....... ' %
I perceptions are slightly distorted at the beginning and, in
: I
the end, perverse" (Ornstein, Moral Vision, p. 110). His
implicit moral frenzy is at last worn down into a still i
moral, but detached, bitterness:
Some shock of intense disillusion and horror
has given way to the cynicism that turns all of
life into a sardonic joke. It is not the vanity
of evil alone that amuses Vindice; it is the ut
ter futility of a life in which there are only
three kinds of human beings: the completely aban
doned, the hypocritical, and the rare, impecun
ious, malcontented good. (Moral Vision, p. 110)
The Revenger * s Tragedy is a denunciation of evil, and
its message is strengthened by the fact that its hero,
while nauseated by the ubiquity of evil in the world, even
tually yields to its fascination and is himself destroyed.
But if its hero becomes an immoral person, the play itself
is not immoral. Miss Bradbrook observes.
The Revenger's Tragedy depends upon Tourneur
being quite clear about the distinction between
black and white, wrong and right. The two halves
of Vindice's character are kept sharply distinct:
it would be possible to draw a line separating
them off. (Themes and Conventions, p. 72)
A chief clue to Vendice’s degeneration is the fact that
even in the moments when he can cast off his evil dis-
iguise, the relish of evil remains. It is by this means
that Tourneur begins to raise our doubts about him "so that
we shall consent to the ending, to his execution as a
criminal" (Peter, Complaint and Satire, p. 271).
I
To type Vendice morally is not to type him drama-
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
I
tioally. If in terms of the Morality tradition he is an j
everyman gone wrong, he is also in the revenge tradition a ;
descendent of Hamlet, and probably a descendent of Mar-
ston's Malevole as well.^^ E, E, Stoll finds in Vendice a
"consolidation of malcontent, revenger, and (by playing a
part in disguise) of tool villain , , . Alvin Kernan
finds Vendice to be much like Timon and Thersites, a
tragical satirist (pp. 221-32). L. G. Salingar thinks him
a spokesman for the English lesser gentry, displaced and
made landless by the dissolution of the agricultural and
rural landed society, become men without "vocations," and
therefore become malcontents ("Morality Tradition," p.
220). Samuel Schoenbaum and his mentor Richard Barker find
strong elements of melodramatic farce in the play,^^ and
Inga-Stina Ekeblad observes that it is the function of the
strong moral scheme to hold together "the three traditional
components of Revenge Tragedy, Satiric Comedy and Morality"
("Imagery," p. ^8 9).
Vendice'3 bitter emphasis on buying and selling
^Peter, p. 21^.3, thinks Vendice "much more persuasive-
|ly conceived than Marston's Malevole, and far easier to
I comprehend as we watch him on the stage." Gunnar Boklund
! (The Duchess of Malfi, p. II 4. 8), cites both Malevole and
Vendice as conventional examples of the malcontent.
^^John Webster (Boston, 1905), p. 111.
i 66
Schoenbaum, Middleton, pp. 23-ki Barker, Thomas
Middleton (New York, 1458),p. 73.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
96
(honor, life, virtue), demonstrates his discontent with a
society in which the norms are commercial ones; his empha
sis on revenge and disguise mark him an avenging villain-
hero; his emphasis on good and evil reveal him as a Moral
ity figure. The indissoluble blend of all three makes him
and the play the great achievements that they are.
In contrast to the confusing multiplicity of inter
pretations of Vendice is the paucity of commentary on other
characters in the play. Many are willing to dismiss them
with a general comment. T. S, Eliot observes that all the
characters in The Revenger's Tragedy are "distorted to
scale" (Elizabethan Essays, p. lli|.), and Allardyce Nicoll
that they are "caricatures" or "laboratory specimens" when
compared with Shakespeare’s "'living’ characters" (Hosley,
p. 313)» More specific commentary is often of dubious
value; Peter Quennel sees a resemblance between Spurio and
6 7
Tourneur himself ; another writer feels that whatever
Tourneur’s purpose in presenting Spurio and the Duchess,
"perversity like this ought not to be brought on the
stage," and finds in the character of Castiza "a glorious
exception to the rule" that "'every woman has her
price.
^^Singular Preference (New York, 19S3), PP. 28-9.
Aft
J. A. Bastiaenen, The Moral Tone of The Jacobean and|
Caroline Drama (Amsterdam, 1930), pp. 82', 9^. i
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
97
Although Vendice is admittedly the most interesting of
the characters, the other figures in the play are striking I
as well. The ducal family is a singular and strangely con-|
1
sistent group. Congruent with the absolute moral framework|
that is implicit in the play is their awareness of two
standards of behavior. As Miss Ekeblad observes, Lussur-
ioso's
It is our bloud to erre, tho hell gapte lowde.
Ladies know Lucifer fell, yet still are proudel
(I,iii,8l-2)
shows him clearly aware of the moral order, yet still
acting against it ("Imagery," p, I 4. 9I 4J 1), The Duke wants sin
robed in holiness (III,v,1^7), the Duchess refers to an
"vnbribed euerlasting law" (I,ii,l8l|.), Spurio admits that
his best side is heaven's worst (III,v,222), and Ambitioso
tells a judge, "Your too much right, dos do vs too much
wrong" (I.ii,91).
To a high degree the characters are moral types, but
69
with individual characteristics as well. The Duchess is
strongly motivated by lust, but her ingenuity in rational
izing her own and Spurio's adultery ("vengeance" on the
puke for begetting Spurio illicitly and for failing to par-
Some do not qualify this; e,g,. H, J. C, Grierson,
Cross Currents in English Literature of the XVIIth Century.
2nd ed, (London, 195®)» p, lOlj.: ", , , one is almost back
in the earlier Morality, The characters are types— Lussur-
ioso, Ambitioso, Supervacuo, Vendice, Castiza, abstractions
of lust, ambition, revenge, and chastity,"
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
98
don the youngest son), and her singular choice of fellow-
8inner, give a lurid "justice" to her actions. Like Don
John, Spurio is a hateful Elizabethan bastard, with Don
John's snarling tone, but without his stolidness, and with
greater flexibility. Ambitioso and Supervacuo are presen
ted as somewhat indiscriminately treacherous, but with Am
bitioso usually leading the way. The youngest son, if the
worst of the Duchess’ cubs, is also the most interesting
because of his quick tongue and ready wit. He too recog
nizes his crime for what it is, but argues that since his
offense was "sport," so ought his punishment to be (1,11.
73).
Lussurioso has slightly more positive qualities than
the rest of the family— some diplomatic.ability, at least
a temporary concern for the safety of the youngest son (not
extended to the other brothers, however), willingness to
pay for services rendered, and (even if it is not a "per
sonal" quality), a dislike of prison and love of liberty
(III,ii,6-7). These qualities are counter-balanced by
lust (his own term), debauchery, and treachery. The Duke
is symbolically Vendice’s main concern, but Lussurioso,
more active and formidably dangerous, demands more of his
attention and is second only to Vendice in the fulness of
his development,
I As the only unquestionably "good" characters in the
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
i 99
I
I
action, Antonio and Castiza share several traits. Both are
: !
rigidly unoompromising and morally clearsighted (it is per
haps significant that both label the youngest son as a
"monster” in two of the three occurrences of this word in
the play, I.i.1% and I.iv.^G).^^ Both stay clear of
"evil," Castiza preferring to remain poor, and Antonio
71
willing to let heaven avenge his wife. Castiza is care
ful to test and confirm her mother's reversal of attitude,
and Antonio does not let the fact that his wife has been
avenged deter him from sending the revengers to execution
as murderers. Perhaps both are most notable for what they
are not--neither is a fully successful "objective" charac
ter, Castiza being too personally involved in the intrigue,
72
and Antonio being but rarely involved in the action,
Gratiana is a necessary foil to Castiza and to the
Duchess as well, the three comprising a complementary trio.
If the Duchess is totally evil and Castiza totally good,
Gratiana is more "normal," Although one may at first be
lieve, with Vendice, that no mother could serve as bawd to
70
The third— the old Duke's "Age hot, is like a Mon
ster to be seene" (II.ii.329).
?^But John Addington Symonds interpreted Antonio's
"You that would murder him would murder me" (V.iii.l^B) as
the epitome of cynicism--Webster and Tourneur: Four Plays
I(New York, 19^6), p, 12,
I 72
! Bowers notes (p, I3I 4. ) that normal attitudes enter
jthe play only when Antonio is present.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e cop yright ow ner. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
r - . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ]x)o ^
her own daughter, Gratiana*3 wavering is fairly convincing,
I
and her alternation between good and evil lends depth and
verisimilitude to the action. She is also a foil to Ven
dice; both are ambivalent characters, coming to opposite
ends. Her "no tongue but yours could haue bewitcht me so"
(IV.iv.^3) is both a tribute to his abilities and a denun
ciation, She seems to recognize that he has an ambivalence
akin to her own when she says,
lie giue you this, that one I neuer knew
Plead better, for, and gainst the Diuill, then you,
(IV.iv.96-7)
Hippolito’s complaint at the high point of the action,
"Why may not I pertake with you?" is perhaps sufficient
evidence of the fact that he is eclipsed by Vendice when
the latter is onstage and given a kind of neutral "chorus"
part. But his ambiguous neutrality is more normative in
several instances, as when he warns, "Brother, we loose
our selues,"^^ While overshadowed by his brother's mercur-
,ial genius, he has perhaps more actual staying power than
Vendice, It is he who has gotten a place at court,who
73
Vendice'3 reply, "You make me proud ont" (98), like
his apparently unwitting condemnation of Castiza's tempter
(IV,ii,llj.8), seems to indicate moral degeneration,
^^When Lussurioso describes his "repulsing" "Piato's"
indecent suggestions, Vendice asks, "Has not heauen an
eare? Is all the lightning wasted?" (IV,ii,173). Coming
only a little later (225) and following a clap of thunder,
Hippolito's words seem an ominous warning,
75
In the duke's chamber, no mean feat to judge from
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyrigh t ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
1 0 1 I
secures an opportunity for revenge, who reports the plot of:
Spurio and the Duchess, who is first leader of the court
revengers (with Antonio's tacit approval), who recalls Ven
dice to their work after an interlude at home, who is Ven-
dice's faithful, ubiquitous assistant, and who might per
haps have kept the secret of the murders--his "Sfoote,
brother, you begun” (V.iii.l^O) as the amazed Vendice is
seized seems to imply reproach at his brother's unnecessary
confession. He is the kind of strong "minor” character
which makes The Revenger's Tragedy the powerful play that
it is,
A review of the play will reveal an indebtedness to
several dramatic traditions. There are many of the ele
ments of the revenge tradition— the trappings (skulls, mur
der, intrigue, oaths, swords, supernatural portents), and
all the character-functions (hero, villain, tool-villain,
innocent maiden, ambivalent or debauched woman, and "con
fidant of the hero”).
But in addition there are a surprising number of
moral types, chiefly evil. However, Antonio seems a per-
I
Vendice's "But tis a maruaile thourt not turnd out yeti”
1(1,i.69), and a precarious position to judge from Hippo
lito's "Faith, I haue been shooud at, but twas still my
hap/ To hold by th' Dutchesse skirt, you gesse at that./
jWhome such a Coate keepes vp can neer fall flat” (70-2),
The suggestion of an illicit connection between Hippolito
land the Duchess is never followed up.
R ep ro d u ced with p erm issio n o f th e copyright ow n er. Further reproduction prohibited w ithout p erm issio n .
102 I
soniflcation of patience (acting on Charlemont's conclus- I
! ion that "Patience is the honest Mans reuenge," Atheist * s
: Tragedy, V,ii*303), and Castiza of Chastity (or "chas- |
Itizing chastity?"), Gratiana is ambivalent but redeemable,:
and it may be that Vendice and Hippolito are as well, be
fore they go too far (if Vendice is instrument of his
mother’s downfall, he is also the medium of her redemption) .
The ducal family are all vicious types, their depravity
perhaps explained by a line of Vendice’s— "Tis no shame
to be bad, because tis common" (II,i,130), If evil is so
common as almost to have become the norm (and there are
countless other indications of this), then the emphasis of
the play must be upon extreme evil:. not merely adultery,
but incest; not lechery, but Lussurioso’s extreme incontin
ence or the Duke’8 unnatural lust; not mere pandering, but
the procuration of a maiden by her mother and brother; not
murder, but fratricide; not mere revenge, but the fiend
ishly multi-dimensional revenge upon the Duke; and, final
ly, not upon a revenger who goes free like Marston’s An
tonio or who is conveniently killed like Hamlet, but upon a
ivillain-hero-revenger who is executed at last like a common
! criminal. In exhibiting his types, particularly the many
vicious ones, Tourneur seems intent on demonstrating the
fact that even the most extremely evil persons are brought :
! :
I at last to punishment, while only the pure and the redeemed
I survive.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
103
One can only conclude that the characters of The Rev
enger's Tragedy are both the traditional figures of the
revenge play and the moral types of the Morality, It is
only this evasive explanation as "hybrids" which can ac
count for their strange ability to "hover" between one
dimensional and three-dimensional existence, to capture our
imaginations at one time as individuals and an.other as
7 A
types, S, L, Bethell believes the ability to appreciate
such apparently-contradictory situations as this is a fun
damental ability of the Elizabethan popular audience,
which could "attend to several diverse aspects of a
situation, simultaneously yet without confusion," and even
"keep simultaneously in mind two opposite aspects of a
77
situation," Alvin Kernan feels that it is the aspect of
one-dimensionality that predominates, at least in the case
of the ducal family:
It was Tourneur’s genius to perceive, in an
age when "realistic" dramatic characters had be
come the fashion and could be created by any
fairly competent writer, that the only way of
^ Allardyce Nicoll (Hosley, p, 313) uses the same kind
of explanation. He finds the first scene remarkable for
its "combination of remoteness and nearness, of objective
presentation and direct engagement, of unreality and real
ity, of the artificial and the emotionally intense , , , ,"
and describes the characters of the play as "caricatures"
or "laboratory specimens" compared to Shakespeare's, but
adds, "and yet the fact remains that hardly anyone can es
cape captivation by these grotesques; they come to assume
in our imagination a queer vibrant existence of their own,"
^'Shakespeare and the Popular Dramatic Tradition (Dur
ham, North Carolina, 19i]4)» P. 23.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
" 10l|.
satisfactorily imaging a personality given over |
to vice is to portray it in the "flat" single-
dimensional manner of the morality tradition,
(pp. 223-k)
But it is nevertheless true that most of these "types"
are carefully given a few "realistic" characteristics— Lus-
surioso is named for lust ("luxury"), but shows concern for
the youngest son, hates prison, has a nearly-fatal respect
for his father's "honor," and so on. It is also true, of
course, that respect for one's family and hatred of prison
are rather constant in human experience, so that the entire
discussion seems doomed to becoming paradoxical. The lines
in which Gratiana is torn between greed and "motherhood"
seem fairly realistic, and yet on the other hand her very
susceptibility to sin (and salvation) makes her perhaps the
most thoroughly typical character in the play— an "every-
woman!'who sins but is redeemed by faith at last, Irving
Ribner has even observed that
. . • the drama could be symbolic of life
itself. The Globe theatre , . . was designed
to represent the world, and figures who walked
across its boards were often symbols of
humanity in the large,78
78
Patterns in Shakespearian Tragedy (London, I960), p,
|5, As "antidote” to overemphasizing this, we must remember
Bethell's description of Elizabethan many-mindedness. If
the drama was "life itself," it was also brief chronicle of
I the times, sideshow, fashion-show, trysting place, and, es
pecially, diversion— much, in fact, like contemporary
drama. Also helpful are E, E, Stoll's scattered comments
about "artifice," particularly in his Art and. Artifice in
Shakespeare (Cambridge, 1933),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
_
i
But in this direction lie only fruitless discussions of the|
i
relations between "art” and "life,” We can only conclude
that Tourneur succeeds in giving his characters the illu
sion of "realism" in the midst of their very "typicality,"
but his characters certainly do not possess the almost be
wildering complexity of Hamlet and Claudius, for example,
THE REVENGER’S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OF STAGING
Grouping of Characters
Both internal evidence and the stage-directions in
dicate that The Revenger's Tragedy begins with Vendice
(probably "above") commenting on a silent tableau-proces-
sion of four of the Duke's family. It thus identifies
these five key characters immediately, placing Vendice in
the position with respect to the court (aloof critic) that
79
he will maintain throughout the play.
The four members of the Duke's family were intended to
reappear, I think, in the same role as that of their first
appearance. As I.ii begins they should, I think, appear in
the same clothing, attitudes, and relative positions as
before. The stage directions describe the "yongest brought
out with Officers for the Rape," It is apparent that the
79
This role is sustained through his many asides
throughout the play— in I,i, I,iii, II,ii, IV,ii, V,i, and
|V,iii,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
106
characters, once stationary, would fall into two groups,
!
iwith the Duke in the middle. On one side would be the j
ducal familyJ on the other, minions of the law and their !
prisoner. The conflict of the scene is between these |
groups, one of "law*’ and one of "lawlessness," with the
Duke finally throwing his influence (as he later admits,
II.ii.36O), on the side of lawlessness.
A variant of this situation is presented in II.ii.
The court is again assembled (gradually) in connection with
a'sexual offense (this time incest rather than rape); again
a member of the family falls into the hands of the law, to
be released later by the lawless Duke,
Besides working by parallel groupings, the play also
works by contrasts. Immediately following the travesty-
trial and the Duchess' and Spurio's dalliance in I.ii comes
the scene in which Castiza is severely tested but found
true. It begins with Castiza, personified virtue and pur
ity, implicitly describing the themes of the entire scene
and seeming to prefigure, not only her coming temptation,
but also her victory over it. Its progress is nearly
choreographic in movement, as Vendice deals with Gratiana
I and Castiza singly and together. The entire third act
ihaa a similar choreographic effect. Three scenes describe
I the efforts of Ambitioso and Supervacuo to have Lussurioso
i
'killed, and three others interrupt these efforts, one to
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
107
I
I show Lussurioso already freed, one to show the erroneous
execution of the younger brother, and one to show the "sue-
i ' ;
cess'* of the plot of Vendice and Hippolito, i
; i
Part of Act IV emphasizes by physical movements of the
actors essential similarities and contrasts in the plot,
IV,ii ends with Vendice and Hippolito leaving to reform
their mother. The next scene begins with this action:
Enter the Dutches arme in arme with the Bas
tard: he seerneth lasciuiously to her, after them,
enter ÜÜ^ERUAGUO, running with a rapier, hfs
brother stops him.
This short scene (twenty-five lines) is succeeded by the
following action:
Enter VINDICE and HIPPOLITO, bringing out
there Mother one Sy"one shoulder, and the other
bÿ the other, with daggers in their hands.
When Gratiana sheds repentent tears, however, Vendice says,
"Brother it raines, twill spoile your dagger, house it"
(IV.iv,S3). While both are "dishonest" mothers for a time,
the Duchess and Gratiana are at last separated conclusive
ly— one redeemed and a pattern for mothers (IV,iv,168-70),
the other banished (V,ill,12),
Another "visual" effect is the "discovery" by Antonio
jof his wife's body to "certaine Lords: and HIPPOLITO," with
I
the living players remaining clustered symbolically around
jthe body throughout the scene, sharing a "choric" speech,
pronouncing epitaphs, reading mottos, and vowing to avenge
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
^ 108
the lady. The dumb show beginning V,i and the masque which
follows are also notable visual devices,
Vendice's disguises give illustration to the roles he I
■ . I
is playing and their moral significance--to others and him-|
self. He first appears as himself at home; he appears at
court only in disguise, first as "Piato,” then "melancholy”
Vendice, He returns home twice, once in his court dis
guise (with morality to match), once in his own character
(to reform his mother). He seems to provide a walking il
lustration of the way one may lose himself in evil roles.
The evils of disguise are further emphasized by the
differences between IV,iv, which begins with Gratiana's
reformation (effected; by Vendice and Hippolito) and ends
with her vow to be a model for mothers, and V.i, which be
gins with Hippolito and the disguised Vendice "disguising"
the murdered Duke in "Piato's" clothing. The final line of
IV,iv, with its references to mirrors, seems to reinforce
the emphasis upon single or multiple identity, truth or
I falsity,
I Also notable is the number of scenes (four) in which
Vendice and Hippolito enter plotting, Vendice usually dom-
jinating the situation, Vendice's ascendance is also em-
! ;
Iphasized by the number of times Lussurioso dismisses Hip-
i • I
Ipolito in order to plot with Vendice, Hippolito accurately;
[predicts such a dismissal in II,ii,l5, 17. j
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
109
Nvuaeroua Writers have noted the manner in which the
meaning of the play is concentrated in III.v. One says,
. . • the scene that Vendici arranges here !
is the true image of lust. In his view of |
life, beauty is no more than a skull dressed j
in gorgeous coverings, the luxurious embrace
is not life clasping life but death touching
death, and the lecherous kiss is the seal on
the death warrant, (Kernan, p, 228)
Vendice’s "Now 9# years vengeance crowde into a minutel"
seems even to recognize this scene as the dead center of
the play.
Staging Techniques
The most obvious "property" of The Revenger's Tragedy
is the skull of Gloriana, made to do throughout the entire
play what the skull in Hamlet does only at the end,®® The
skull is multiple symbol--of Vendice*s motivation for re
venge,, the Duke * 8 sins, the "wages of sin" and of vanitas.
! Disguise is almost a property, demonstrating graphically
how a good or at least ambivalent character can lose him
self in evil roles.
Other properties were undoubtedly common stock of the
1 theater. There is, of course, the usual assortment of
I swords and daggers. Torches and candle-light are mentioned
several times (I,i,3î III,v,1^8-^^, 225), Several changes
what both the skull and ghost do in Hamlet, The Revenger * s!
Moreover, the skull in The Revenger's Tragedy does
” ' a l e t .
Tragedy needs no ghost; the skull is a const^t reminaer.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
110
of clothing are uaed, ’ ’Piato's” garb— perhaps including a
"greasie doublet” (V.i#75)~“is placed on the Duke's body,
iCastiza is probably offered "new gownes” (II.i.3 0) as well
i !
as jewels (IV.ii.1^6), Two sets of masque outfits must be
!
available, one for the four revengers, one for the "bro
thers” and their accomplice. Even Gloriana's skull is
! ”drest up in Tires” (III,v,i|.6), There must be parapher
nalia for the trial in I.ii and the banquet in V.iii (in
cluding at least a "furnisht Table”),
Money is of course important, changing hands at sev
eral definite points (1,111,96-100; 11,1,98-1^8; IV,ii,
HS-20), The Duke's signet ring and a letter to the young
est son from his brothers are mentioned in act three,
Spurio apparently wears an earring from the Duchess in
I.ii (1, 30), Antonio's dead wife has a prayer-book as
pillow (I,iv,19) and another in her hand (21), Perfume and
music are mentioned in III.v and the "yet bleeding head” is
important in Ill.vi, An ominous blazing star is mentioned
several times in V.iii,
The second level may have been used for spying scenes
land was probably used, I think, for the beginning scene,
IThe alcove seems to be required for the "discovery” of
I Antonio's dead wife in I.iv, Ashley Thorndike believes it
i
iwas used for discoveries of the Duke and Duchess in bed
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Ill
8l
in 11,11 and the Duke'a corpse In bed In V.I, For the
latter case, however, the dialogue— Vendice'a "So, so, he |
leanes well” (V,l,2)— seems rather to Indicate that the |
body Is leaned against one of the pillars. The former In- |
stance remains one of conjecture, since Tourneur left no
Internal or external Indications,^^
Since the title-page of the play describes the play as
appearing "As It hath beene sundry times Acted,/ by the
Kings Majesties/ Seruants," It has usually been assumed
that The Revenger's Tragedy Is a Globe play, John Cranford
Adams claims further corroboration of this In Vendice's
exultant outburst at III.v,^^5:
0 tis able to make a man spring vp, & knock his
for-head
Against yon slluar seeling,
Adams feels that this Is a rear-stage scene, and Vendice Is
referring to the Globe's sllver-palnted plaster ceiling of
83
the canopy ("heavens") over the outer stage.
^^Shakespeare's Theater (New York, 1928), p, 83,
82
But of passing Interest might be the stage direction
at 11,11,2^^,: "dissemble a flight”— aimed not at the read
er but at the actor.
The Globe Playhouse. 2nd ed, (New York, 1961), p,
b]
I 8 3
1228, Inga-Stina Eketlad, in "A Note on The Revenger^s
I Tragedy," Notes and Queries. N, S, 2:98-9» March 195^»
I feels that the genera.1 references to comets and stars
prove that the play is a Globe production, because the
Globe was noted for Its use of blazing stars.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
i ........ ^
!
AFTERWORD
Like other Elizabethan and Jacobean plays. The Reven
ger's Tragedy fuses motifs and materials of contemporary
popularity into a "new” art-work. In varying senses of the
term it is "derivative" of innumerable plays from Everyman
to Hamlet, combining elements of the revenge play, farce,
the Morality, and "tragical satire," To combine so many
apparently disparate things effectively the play has to
emphasize their primary characteristics; but the importance
in the play of multiple revenge plots, reversal and self
defeat, of moral types (luxury, grace, chastity, ambition,
vengeance, spuriousness), and of Vendice's tendency to
stand apart from and to criticize the actions of others,
all demonstrate the effect of the several traditions. The
total effect of The Revenger's Tragedy is not one of dis
crete parts, however, but of a unity which if complex is
!
: still apprehended as a single and entire whole. This is
due in part to the extent to which Vendice the play, but
in larger degree to the play’s moral unity, in plot, char
acterization, theme, and even in imagery and techniques of
1 staging,
!
! !
Some of the things done simultaneously in the play are ;
! :
perhaps worth summarizing. The play appears for a time to
be another Hoffman, but soon sets in opposition to the
revenge code an implicit framework of moral absolutes, J
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
113
established partly through the opposition of good and evil
; characters, and partly through the satiric commentary sus- |
tained by Vendice but shared by others. The evil charac- i
I
:ters are shown to be vicious but self-destroying, the good '
to be victimized and poor, but eventually victorious.
Knowing the court to be "evil," we must infer any "objec
tivity" in the play from shifting relationships in Ven
dice' s family. The "objective character" is in large part
replaced by the ambivalent one: Gratiana, who errs but is
redeemed; Vendice and Hippolito, who attempt to achieve
"good," but by evil means, and who ultimately succumb to
evil themselves.
If Vendice's behavior is condemned, then it is the
whole tradition of personal revenge that is at stake. But
the climate of rejection has been implicit throughout. The
plot of the play is a reductio ad absurdum of revenge in
trigue, Revenge has, I think, been obliquely derided by at
least two methods— by the astounding number of revenge
plots occurring simultaneously (there are few people in the
play who are not revengers), and by the absurdity of many
of these plots (the Duchess' use of revenge arguments to
justify her lust; her sons' desire for revenge on their
mother's lover for his being a bastard, or on a man who has
committed the crime of evading their attempts to murder
him; and many more). The irony of the play, in imagery and
[Particularly in the juxtaposition of scenes (as in Act
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
114
III), reinforces the moral message, with the result that
the actions of the evil characters are often almost far
cical in their futility*
If The Revenger's Tragedy is a rejection of revenge at
the moral, philosophical level, it does not substitute any
thing very positive for Vendice*s methods of operation.
There are only Antonio’s non-involvement— he is present and
offers no discouragement when several lords vow to avenge
his wife, but keeps clear of any involvement— and Castiza*s
resignation, militantly virtuous though she also is. It
may be noted, however, that a single play cannot quite com
bine all traditions, reject all wrong modes of action, and
establish all proper ones. It might thus be supposed that
The Revenger's Tragedy would require a sequel, one which
shows God rescuing the virtuous victims and vindicating
them at last through His own vengeance, just punishment of
the sinner. And this brings us, of course, to The Atheist’s
Tragedy,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
CHAPTER III
THE ATHEIST»S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP ACTION
Plot Construction
The central figure of The Atheist's Tragedy is D'Ara-
1 '
ville, who provides the money for his nephew Charlemont to
go to war, then weds his own son to Charlemont's heiress
fiancee Castabella, has Charlemont*s death falsely re
ported, gets himself named heir to Charlemont*s father
Montferrers, and has his tool-villain Borachio kill Mont-
;ferrors» Informed of the murder and disinheritance by
Montferrers* ghost, but also told, "leaue reuenge vnto the
King of kings” (II.vi.27), Charlemont returns home. He
wavers somewhat, kills Borachio in self-defense, but takes
no direct action against D'Amvillo, His hopes for "immor
tality" through his sons (cf. I.i.139-^1) shaken by his
premonition of their deaths, D'Amville tries to rape Casta
bella so that his elder son may have an "heir"; Charlemont
rescues Castabella, but later both are jailed and condemned
^He is a "villain-hero" as Boyer uses the term (Vil
lain as Hero, p. 167), but in a moral, thematic sense he"
is clearly the antagonist, as Charlemont is the protagon
ist, I take it that the title of the play refers to both
in the order of their dramatic interest— The Atheist*s
Tragédie; Or the Honest Man's Reuenge— and incidentally
D*Amvllle has more than twice as many lines as Charlemont.
11$
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' ' 116
on false charges. Distraught because of the death of both
sons, D’Amville takes the execution of Charlemont upon him
self, but, "As he raises vp the Axe, strikes out his owne
i 2 ' i
jbraines,"'^ and after a complete confession dies. Char le-
mont and Castabella are vindicated. Charlemont observes
"That, Patience is the honest mans reuenge" (V.ii.303),
succeeds to his rightful inheritance and bride (still vir
ginal because of Rousard's impotence), and succeeds,
through the widowed Castabella, to the estate of D’Amville
as well.
As the title indicates, the play describes an
atheist’s destruction and an "honest" man’s vindication.
The "honest" revenger, nearly antithetical to such figures
as Hieronimo and Hamlet, is largely a do-nothing character,
and the dramatic interest in centered in the villain-hero
and the success of his schemes. The interest rises as
D’Amville achieves success after success; and it even ap
pears, up until sixty lines before the end of the play,
that D’Amville will remain partly successful. The plot
reaches its high point in IV.iii, however, where Borachio
is killed and, more significant, D’Amville’s scheme to
I
beget a "grandchild" is frustrated. His few "successes"
after this point are rather transitory, and an ever-in
creasing tide of failure has begun. Momentarily dis-
!
2
I stage directions at V.ii.263, italics omitted.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1 117
i traught, D'Amville fears that he sees the ghost of Mont-
i '
I ferrers; two scenes later his younger son is dead. In the I
i succeeding scene D'Amville, unaware of the mounting trag- i
' I
edy, gloatingly counts the revenues from Montferrers' es
tate when Montferrers' ghost appears to announce imminent
defeat. The body of his son Sebastian is immediately
brought in, followed by the dying Rousard, His sons can
not be revived by the golden coins which he has a few
moments before called "the Starnes the Ministers of Pate"
(V.i,32), and D'Amville, with premonitions of disaster,
resolves to appeal to the "superior court" of heaven.
The final scene begins with an ominous atmosphere of
judgment as Cataplasme, Soquette, Fresco, and Snuffe are
summarily disposed of, D'Amville interrupts to request
"ludgement" for himself, and the kind he is given is unex
pectedly objective. The providential nature of his "acci
dent" with the ax is further indicated by his stamina— in
spite of his age, distraught grief, and his having struck
out his brains, he lives long enough to confess Montfer
rers' murder, vindicate Castabella and Charlemont, and also
(by renouncing nature and acknowledging both a higher power
and its justice), vindicate "heaven,
John Peter (Complaint and Satire, p. 280), and M, C,
Bradbrook (Themes and Conventions, p, I80), concur that
ID'Amville's death is meant to be taken as a miracle.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
118 I
I
The central concern of the plot of The Atheist's Trag-I
iedy is quite clearly with the rise and fall, life and
death, of "Mr, Badman.'* After D'Amville's career of sin,
(heaven is spectacularly (if tardily) vindicated, but por
tents of D’Amville's inevitable defeat have been implicit
almost from the very first,^ Believing man to be only a
higher animal, D'Amville hopes to achieve "immortality"
through his descendants. But the very first speaking en-
trance^ of his heir, Rousard, is accompanied with the terse
stage direction "sickely" (I.ii,198), and Rousard later
tells us (III,iv,73“i | - ) that his malady dates from the time
of his marriage to Castabella, Sebastian's first words
("A rapel" to describe Castabella's forced marriage to Rou
sard), reveal him as hardly in sympathy with his father
(he is scarcely in sympathy with anyone but himself)^ as
does also his release of Charlemont from prison (Ill.iii),^
This would have been even more obvious to an Eliza
bethan audience, Robert Ornstein ("The Atheist's Tragedy
and Renaissance Naturalism," Studies in Philology,
207, April 195^1-)* demonstrates how both the exposition of
D'Amville's naturalism and its refutation are taken from
contemporary tracts and opinions about the atheist,
^Rousard has two brief "walk-ons" for identification
purposes earlier in the play, but says nothing then,
6
Sebastian's disharmony with his father is perhaps
best revealed in Ill.iv, where D'Amville calls him a vil
lain for releasing Charlemont, and Sebastian replies "Y'are
my father," He similarly explains his cry of "rape" at
ithe marriage: "Sir, I confesse in particular respect to
|your selfe, I was somewhat forgetfull, Gen'rail honestie
{possess'd me" (III,ii,10-11),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1 1 9 i
i
By IV.iii D'Amville has come to recognize that his elder
son is impotent and his younger bids fair to be killed in
a scrape at any time.
There are other intimations of D'Amville's impending
defeat. It is at first apparent that Charlemont intends to
be a conventional "revenger"; he concludes III,i—
These circumstances (Vncle) tell me, you
Are the suspected author of those wrongs.
Whereof the lightest, is more heauie then
The strongest patience can endure to beare.
In the succeeding scene he is prevented from killing Sebas
tian in the name of revenge only by the timely interpos
ition of Montferrers' ghost. Earlier in the play D'Am
ville's "serious" naturalistic arguments are rendered com
monplace— almost parodied— by Levidulcia (I,iv,83 ff, )
After the murder of Montferrers in II,iv D'Amville's blas
phemies are interrupted by ominous thunder and lightning—
the same effects heralding the appearance of symbolic re
tribution (Montferrers' ghost) in II,vi. By IV,iii, while
D'Amville is far from defeated, there are enough portents
and actual reversals that his downfall seems certain.
In developing conflict between antagonist and protag
onist, the plot of The Atheist's Tragedy seems to be mid
way between plays like Macbeth and Hamlet, As an extreme
villain-hero play Macbeth does not develop protagonistic
forces fully until the end of the fourth act, while Charle-
i
[mont's prominence as protagonist begins at the end of the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
“ “ 120
second or beginning of the third act. On the other hand,
D'Amville as antagonist is allowed almost exclusive atten
tion through the first two acts, and while Hamlet begins
with the king dead and Hamlet suspicious. The Atheist's
Tragedy does not bring Charlemont to a similar position
until Ill.i. As noted above, Charlemont seems for a time
destined to begin revenge by killing a person near his
7 8
enemy, ' but in Ill.iii he is developed as a "Senecal man,'*
and throughout the remainder of the play he is a somewhat
abstract representative of patience, fortitude, forbear
ance, Although he has disordered meditations later, Char
lemont can even go to a meal with his father’s murderer,
and with his former fiancle and her husband (Ill.iv),
Like other Elizabethan plays. The Atheist’s Tragedy
develops its plot by comparisons and contracts, D’Amville
and Charlemont, Castabella and Levidulcia, Snuffe and Bor-
achio, D’Amville and Levidulcia, Sebastian and Rousard are
only the more notable complementary pairs of characters in
the play. Since D’Amville hopes for immortality through
his children it is in this hope that he receives his worst
7
His threatened killing of Sebastian has general
I sources and analogues from Thyestes on, but the immediate
ones seem to be Hoffman’s murder of Otho (Chettle’s Hoff
man), and Antonio’s of Julio (Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge),
8
Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions, p,, 183; Harold Jen
kins, "Cyril Tourneur," Review of English Studies, 17:21-
36, January 194^* Many others have quoted these two as well.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
121
defeat. He first mentions his children as being
as neere to me.
As branches to the tree whereon they grow;
And may as numerously be multiplied. (I.I.59-61)
He announces their first entrance thus;
Here are my Sonnes.—
There’s my eternitie. My life in them;
And their succession shall for euer liue.
(I.i.139-4 1)
He states in emphatic couplets at the conclusion of the
first two scenes that he will establish his own family even
if this means the total annihilation of his brother's fam
ily, While he does succeed in murdering his brother, his
vain hopes for his children, together with the vanity of
his atheism, defiance of providence, and faith in gold, are
all revealed in V.i as he is presented with the bodies of
9
his sons. The supreme irony of the plot is that it is
D'Amville's own family that is wiped out, and the heir of
the family he had tried to obliterate receives his own
rightful property and that of D'Amville as well.
D'Amville also suffers other reversals throughout the
play. The thousand crowns he gives Sebastian for fighting
Charlemont are used by Sebastian to free Charlemont from
: jail. His hopes through Borachio are lost through a mis-
[
firing pistol. His supreme reversal is of course the
Q
D'Amville is saying, "My reall wlsedome has rais'd vp
a State,/ That shall eternize my posteritie" even as Sebas
tian's body is being brought in (V,i,56-7). He is then
made to watch Rousard's death.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' 122
absolut© objectivity (as he recognizes) of the judgment the
"Star Chamber” gives him in V.ii. |
As a hypocritical intriguer, D'Amville is the source
of many of the reversals of others. In the first scene,
for example, he tells Borachio that money is the sole
source of pleasure, then a few lines later "freely” gives
Charlemont a thousand crowns,Still other characters
create reversals, Snuffe promises to serve Charlemont,
then betrays him almost instantly, Castabella reverses
Rousard's importunate wooings, observing of one of her
equivocations,
I speak't as t'is now in fashion, in earnest,
(I,iii,47)
Sebastian seems unable to do a good deed in the name of
simple goodness, but has to "blame” his father for Charle
mont 's release; it is his responsibility that Charlemont
enters in Ill.iv just as D'Amville is declaring for the
third time that Charlemont shall rot in prison. Compelled
by lust, Levidulcia is inflamed by the coldness of the new
lyweds, Rousard and Castabella (II,iii)«
10
I have cited Spencer's observation that Vendice's
convictions of transiency lead him, not to thoughts of the
next world, but to thoughts of revenge in this one, D'Am
ville is similarly unorthodox ("reversed") in some of his
reactions. His attitude toward thunder in the play is a
kind of inverted supernaturalism, and he uses an argument
of transiency as an incentive to lust: "These dead mens
bones lie heere of purpose to/ Inuite vs to supply the
number of/ The liuing" (IV,iii,170-2),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
123
As chief "victim" of the play, Charlemont is made to
suffer repeated reversals. He is betrayed by two trusted
"friends," Snuffe and D’Amville, and is even inclined to
doubt the first appearance of his father’s ghost, asking.
Left I not
My worthy Father i’ the kind regard
Of a most louing Vncle? (II.vi.^6-8)
Two other victims seem in contrast to be prophets, Mont-
ferrers suspects that to permit his son to go to war may
prove unlucky (I.ii.%6), has premonitions of a displeasing
report from the disguised Borachio (II,i.^2-^), and accur
ately predicts his own impending death (II.i.1^^-6), Cas
tabella is prophetic as well. As Charlemont leaves, she
compares her tears to rain—
And as their showers presag’d so doe my teares.
Some sad euent will follow my sad feares.
(I.ii.123-4)
And when she is forced to marry Rousard she recalls her
prophecy—
Now Charlemont1 0 my presaging teareal
This sad euent hath follow’d my sad feares.
(I.iv.135-6)
Many of the ironies of the plot are personified in
‘
Snuffe, who as a Puritan proves doubly "false," His will
ingness to betray Charlemont confirms D'Amville in atheism
11
(I,ii,223), but he is finally revealed as nothing but
11
I Perhaps Snuffe is meant to be taken as an atheist
jhimself. In IV,iii he tells Soquette, "This is the backe
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
124
”Snuffe the tallow-Chandler” (V.ii,65). In IV,iii it is
the "Puritan" who prevents the "Atheist" from going mad or |
possibly incriminating himself, rescuing him for still more i
villainy, and almost taking over the role of the dead Bor
achio, His falsity is revealed by his language, as Sebas
tian so surely notes. At Sebastian's cry of "Rape!" Snuffe
sententiously says, "Verily, his Tongue is an vnsanctified
member" (I,iv,l42), to which Sebastian replies, "Verily,
your grauitie becomes your perish'd soule, as hoary mouldi-
nesse does rotten fruit" (143-4)• Snuffe greets chaste
lovers in the "spirit of copulation," and enters a bawdy-
house in the name of purity.
The sub-plot of the play clearly parallels the main
plot in several ways. Miss Bradbrook says.
The comic relief has to be seen, I think,
in the light of a Swiftian commentary on
the main action, Cataplasma, Soquette and
Langbeau Snuffe are yahoos, and their jokes
are never meant to be less than ghastly , , . ,
(Themes and Conventions » p, I8 4)
In some scenes, Sebastian, most interesting of all the sub
plot characters (and perhaps of the entire play), is little
more than a light-hearted lecher. But he is an honest one,
land in juxtaposition to his father this honesty makes him a
kind of extreme "objective character," a Swiftian figure
1
who speaks the truth at the most awkward times.
side of the rfouse wHich the superstitious call Saint Wini
fred's Church . , (S6-7).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
125
Levidulcia'3 role provides a kind of "commentary” on
jthat of D'Amville. D'Amville confirms Borachio in believ
ing.
That Nature (since her selfe decay doth hate)
Should fauour those that strengthen their estate.
(II.iv.190-1)
Levidulcia explains how nature insures "generation" (mean
ing to her simply "copulation")—
Wise Nature (therefore) hath
Reseru'd for an inducement to our sence.
Our greatest pleasure in that greatest worke,
(I.iv.911.-6)
Both naturalists, the sensual Levidulcia and the material
istic D'Amville, run similar courses; both excuse their
misdeeds as "natural," both are successful for a time, then
are defeated and die, Levidulcia's death is somewhat more
orthodox, but even D'Amville believes at the end in a power
above. Also, Belforest is an innocent bystander hurt by
Levidulcia's misdeeds just as Castabella is by D'Amville's.
A simple description of the plot of the play should be
sufficient indication that it is not a "natural" one— a bad
man pursues his evil career until God intervenes to take
his life and vindicate the "righteous." Tourneur seems
determined to make of Charlemont another Job. Although the
final "miracle" with the ax may be somewhat surprising, we
have throughout the play become increasingly aware of the
conflict of "Heaven" against "Nature." The accumulative
[structure allows D'Amville a crescendo of crimes and blas-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
126 I
pheinies, but the undercurrent of such supernatural portents!
as the thunder and the ghost warn us of a miraculous end-
12
Ing, Seen as thesis-drama, the play works thus not by i
surprise, but by suspense. It is not a question of whether
God will punish the atheist and deliver the virtuous, but
how and when. If we see the play as thesis-drama, the con
clusion is a powerful one because it is "right"; it con
firms our suppositions about God, justice, good and evil.
The conflict has been essentially between D'Amville and
God, and only one conclusion is possible. As thesis-drama,
the play unites plot and theme, and while the sub-plot pro
vides comic relief, it also gives further illustration of
the end results of "natural" behavior.
Scene Construction
Probably the most powerful scenes of The Atheist's
Tragedy are those which most directly illustrate the theme
(but again, the most "interesting" may be those including
Sebastian), The most notable of all is IV,iii, the cli
mactic one of the play, Charlemont deprives D'Amville both
of his "instrument" and of his opportunity to beget an
heir. One of the most important qualities of the scene is
the rather obvious way in which all the characters are man
ipulated, Charlemont particularly weaves in and out of the
12
I Bradbrook, Themes, p, l 8 l j . , flatly declares it to be
thesis-drama; so also does Jenkins, p, 26,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
127
action, ’ ’chancing” to kill Borachio when the letter's pis
tol misfires, stumbling onto Snuffe and Soquette, and, with;
the disguise they abandon, frightening D'Amville away (and
apparently scaring him so badly that his fatal "distrac
tion” begins ) , The time of his entrances and exits is too
precise to be accidental; he disappears just before Snuffe
enters and he reappears Just as Snuffe proposes to "doe the
11
rest” (73-m; he hides in the charnel house just before
D'Amville and Castabella appear, to re-enter just as
D'Amville cries
Tereus-like,
Thus I will force my passage to— (190-1).
After his fortuitous rescue of Castabella, both lie down
in the charnel house--so they may be apprehended and even
tually bring about D'Amville's final downfall* Charlemont
in this scene is less a character than a deus ex machina.
Another notable scene is II.i. Borachio's set-speech
describing Charlemont's "death" at Ostend gives the scene
great power. While the scene is supposedly a wedding-
party for chaste newlyweds, it is played off against the
lustful Levidulcia, who, with some of her associates in the
sub-plot, begins and ends it. It is this "happy" scene
which D'Amville (who happy, in the success of his
13
Snuffe's later frustration when he mistakes the dead I
iBorachio for the complaisant Soquette is also caused by
!Charlemont*
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
plots), uses to report Charlemont dead and to lay the
groundwork for murdering Montferrers. The murder-scene
(II.iv) is also highly effective, both for the success of
the carefully-planned scheme and for the infernally-gloat
ing recapitulation by D'Amville and Borachio of the entire
intrigue. Also important, of course, is D'Amville's easy
assumption that the warning thunder is really "Nature's"
commendation to him for the beauty of his scheme.
Another effective scene is also a very "stagy" one,
Ill.i begins with D'Amville conducting the funerals of
Montferrers and Charlemont, It is a secular rite, with
even the epitaphs written in sonnet meter, and with only
the most conventional references to a deity. D'Amville
does all the talking. His exit is almost immediately fol
lowed by the entrance of the live Charlemont, who thus
very nearly attends his own funeral. Charlemont receives
a shock and gives one. Finding a new monument which he
naturally assumes to be his father's, he sees his own name
on it. He then sees the mourning Castabella and greets her
joyfully, only to see her shrink from him in fear, and then
; 1
report to him that she is married to another. He is final
ly left alone for his own recapitulation, as he puts his
fragments of knowledge togetherand plots revenge. Other
In Ill.i we find Charlemont "surmising" what the
; ghost has already told him in II.vi. Apparently, like Ham-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1 2 9
equally stagy but effective scenes are V,i--with its en-
I trance of the dead Sebastian and the dying Rousard, hard on*
I the heels of D'Amville’s gloating over his gold and his |
ipredictions that it will eternize his posterity— and V.ii,
with its very objective judgment.
The first scene of the play is clearly artificial, but
not ineffective. It is an efficient exposition of D'Am
ville's basic beliefs in a rather striking manner. For
about forty lines D'Amville puts leading questions to Bor
achio, who gives naturalistic answers. The orthodox
naturalism of Borachio's replies, together with the fact
that D'Amville interrupts at line forty to make a long,
I didactic correction to one of the responses, creates the
impression that Borachio has his answers by rote and the
I first part of the scene is a kind of reverse catechism,
The scene also introduces Charlemont, but significantly
;’ ’brackets" his appearance between expositions of D'Amville's
ideas.
let, he has to make sure his supernatural visitor is not a
"damned ghost,"
1 q
'^D'Amville seems to provide "answers" for others in
the play as well. Already noted is Levidulcia's use of ar
guments similar to his. In the middle section of I,i D'Am
ville catechizes Charlemont on "Family Honor," and Charle
mont uses the same arguments in I,ii to induce Montferrers
to let him go to war. Since I,iii indicates that the plan
to report Charlemont dead is entirely D'Amville's one won
ders if we are not to understand that D'Amville has taught
Borachio his stagy set-speech, Borachio begins it very
abruptly; he is asked for a report and immediately launches
into an oration.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
130
The second scene begins with an interrupted discussion
between Charlemont and Montferrers. It loses its static
quality with the entrance of D'Amville, however, and man
ages a plausible introduction of almost everyone in the
action. The introductory part of the play seems at an end
when D'Amville suborns Snuffe late in the scene; the suc
ceeding scene is a very specific one of repartee between
Rousard and Castabella.
II.i is a somewhat static scene, but with a stasis
that assumes the quality of frozen horror for some of the
characters, as they infer the death of Charlemont, The
scene is succeeded by one of drunken horseplay among the
servants and intrigue by D'Amville., II.iii is constructed
as a formal contrast between Castabella and Levidulcia; it
introduces the familiar relationship between plot and sub
plot that is exploited throughout the remainder of the
play. D'Amville's success at murder in II.iv is followed
by Levidulcia's failure at seduction in II.v. Ill.ii be
gins with Sebastian's unsuccessful suit for his allowance,
but ends with him in possession of a thousand crowns which
he plans to use "honestly," thwarting his father's plans;
as a result Ill.iv begins with D'Amville swearing to let
Charlemont rot in prison, but ends with the two talking of
"The eternall bond of our concluded loue," Act four has
the climax of the main plot and the conclusion of the sub
plot; its tragic outcome contributes to the already-strong
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
131
sense of doom surrounding D'Amville,
There are several "special" scenes, Ill.i is a funer
al scene, Ill.iii a prison scene, and IV.iii exploits vir
tually all the possibilities of its graveyard setting. As
a separate vignette, II.v is a beautifully-done bedroom
farce (based on The Decameron. 7:6). As the denouement is
one of judgment, the final scene is very appropriately set
in a court of law.
Since Elizabethan dramatists were fully aware of the
values of selection, some of the minor action is performed
offstage, Charlemont gets to and.from the war between
scenes, Borachio murders Montferrers within the trap, and
much of the sub-plot develops between scenes, particularly
the affair of Levidulcia and Sebastian. Location of scenes
is no difficult problem in the play; many events (wedding
party, funeral, graveyard meditations, courtroom actions)
carry their "locations" with them. Concerned as it is with
intrigue and ghosts, much of the action takes place at
night.
Like other Elizabethan plays The Atheist's Tragedy, if
its scenes are simply read in succession, suggests great
temporal continuity and compression. Such a reading gives
the impression of action covering three days and two nights.
So far as time references go, the events of the first scene
seem to occur within a single day. Act two begins with
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
....... 132 ;
stage directions stating that it is night, and events of
the succeeding scenes seem to occur on the same night— the
murder, Levidulcia's bedroom farce, and the appearance of
the ghost to Charlemont in the final scene of the act. Act
three presumably begins the next day with the funerals, the
day ending as D'Amville says "Come, let's to supper" at the
end of the last scene of the act. The first scene of act
four has a reference by Snuffe to the "fairness o' the
euening," and the second scene begins with the conclusion
of D'Amville's supper. It is midnight at the beginning of
IV.iii, and apparently late at night at the beginning of
the following scene (since Belforest asks if his wife has
not come in yet), and also the next, since Soquette refers
to Cataplasma's going to bed (IV.v.11-2) and Levidulcia
wonders if Belforest is in bed so that she can venture to
spend a night away from home (lV.v.l6-7). It is still
night at the beginning of V.i, although the fact that
D'Amville's servant has fallen into a fitful sleep may in
dicate that it is very late. We would assume that the
court session of V.ii would be on the following morning.
Such are the impressions given by a simple consecutive
reading of succeeding scenes, with no cross-references. It
is obvious, however, that the requirements of "real time"
are in conflict with these indications of dramatic time.
Even if we grant that Charlemont's army is close enough to
his home that he can return almost in time for the funer-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ala, other events would require considerable time— Rou-
sard's wooing of Castabella, the conception and maturing of
D'Amville's plots, and so on. Finally, Charlemont chides
Castabella that she could not wait for him "a few short
months" (Ill.i,120), apparently the time of his absence,
and D'Amville's fears that he will have no grandson pre
suppose that Rousard and Castabella have been married long
enough for a child to have been conceived (and for this to
be known or revealed). But the pace of the action tends to
overcome these indications of a long stretch of time.
Event succeeds event with great rapidity, and death and
judgment fall suddenly and without warning upon the victims.
Thematic Construction
As the title of the play indicates, any discussion of
the themes of The Atheist's Tragedy must ultimately be
within the Christian frame of reference.Robert Ornstein
feels, in fact, that the play is intended chiefly as
polemic— "a dramatic counterpart of Renaissance confuta-
17
tions of atheism . « . ." While it certainly has a few
principal themes, it would be very difficult to state an
exclusive theme of the play— as Christian polemic it pre-
^^Peter, Complaint and Satire, p. 286; H. H. Adams,
"Tourneur on Revenge,^ p. 57*
^'^Moral Vision, p. 120; so also L, C. Knights, Some
Shakespearean Themes (London, 19^9), p. 91.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1 3 % .
sents a cluster of related themes. The chief dramatic con
cern is with the rise and fall of an atheist, but the
"moral" concern is both with God's punishment of an atheist
and his rewarding an "honest" man. In his defiance of God,
D'Amville substitutes a faith in nature, and so the conclu
sion of the play shows "natural law" to be
subordinate to a divine will, and therefore
not dependable unless man's purpose in utilizing
it is a moral one. In other words, God's provi
dence is omnipotent, (Boyer, p. 166)
Further, since D'Amville places a great deal of faith in
himself, the play demonstrates man's fallibility as com-
1 8
pared to God's infallibility.
One of the primal themes of the play, then, is the
tragedy of atheism, inasmuch as God is, and is omnipotent.
In establishing these dogmas the play becomes a kind of
theodicy as well, for it vindicates "Providence," demon
strating that even if rescue is tardy, the good are deli-
19
vered and rewarded at last. Since the play as thesis-
drama has God as hero, it is partially concerned with the
attributes of God— his love of goodness, hatred of wicked
ness, and Jealous protection of his own prerogatives* D'Am
ville's gloating over his own abilities to "create" and
"perfect" a scheme and carry it to completion in spite of
x8
Also noted in part by John Peter, p, 278.
^*^Higgins, "Calvinistic Thought," p, 25#; Jenkins,
"Cyril Tourneur," p. 35»
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
135
all odds indicates his usurpation of God's prerogatives.
(He is thus guilty of a kind of Christian hubris— or the
deadly sin of Pride). Still another prerogative of God is
20
vengeance upon the wicked, and the play is thus intended
to reform, and to substitute an orthodox code of revenge
for the amoral code of contemporary revenge plays (Bowers,
p. 1^3). The substituted code of behavior is that an
nounced by Charlemont at the conclusion--patience (which
also implies fortitude). Moreover, while this is not
brought into obvious emphasis until the final act, the play
is also concerned with ideal, objective justice (Davril, p.
338). That given D'Amville is, as he recognizes, precisely
what he deserves, but hardly what he expected. God even
visits the punishment for the sins of the father upon the
heads of the sons (Deuteronomy 3:9). Rousard is hardly a
vicious type; his fatal illness dates from the day his
father successfully marries him to Castabella (and her for
tune). While on the other hand Charlemont's eventual pros
perity is partly due to his "honesty," it probably also
owes something to the fact that he is the son of
a man of such a natiue goodnesse;
As if Regeneration had been giuen
Him in his mothers wombe. (II.iv.79-81)
With God as hero, the play comprises a "dramatic refu-
20
According to H. W. Wells' Elizabethan and Jacobean
Playwrights (New York, 1939), p. 32, the play is "the drama
of God'S revenge upon murder and impiety."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
tation” of atheism. But Robert Ornstein, who finds the
play to be based on "contemporary opinion about, and refu-
21
tations of, atheism," finds it incredible but true that
the play has no formal verbal refutation of D’Amville,
Perhaps the most effective reply to this is John Peter's
observation that the dramatic action provides refutation
22
enough, but I believe a verbal refutation is provided by
several characters in the play, including D'Amville him
self, Castabella refutes several of D'Amville's specific
"natural" arguments in the "graveyard scene," then con
clude 8
I could confute you;.
But the horrour of the argument
Confounds my vnderstanding,— (IV,iii,155-7)
The reason for her refusal is, I think, that it is simply
too early in the action for the refutation of the central
character. But in the first scene of the final act, after
both sonS die, D'Amville notes the obliteration of his
posterity and asks
Can Nature be
So simple or malicious to destroy
The reputation of her proper memorie?
Shee cannot. Sure there is some power aboue
Her that controules her force, (123-7)
Tourneur seems to have chosen to place his confutation
^^"Renaissance Naturalism," pp, 195» 205,
pp
"The Revenger's Tragedy," Essays in Criticism, 6:
I 4. 85-6, October 1^56*
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
137
in the mouth of a "scientist,” the doctor whom D'Amville
summons, and who tells D'Amville that men are not bred
"from corruption like some wormes and Plies” (I3I) but are
brought forth only by men. As man is superior, so there is
a prime mover whose passive subject he is, and there must
necessarily be a power superior to nature (V.i.128-38). It
is the Renaissance notion of "hierarchy” that is described,
and I believe that D'Amville acknowledges his own confu
tation in his reply, particularly when we remember that he
has never heretofore betrayed a belief in the soul, and
that he has begun the scene in question with blasphemous
mockery of the stars—
Now to my selfe I am ridiculous.
Nature thou art a Traytour to my soule.
Thou hast abus'd my trust. I will complaine
To a supérieur Court, to right my wrong.
I'le proue thee a forger of false assurances.
In yond' Starre chamber thou shalt answers it.
(V.i.139-44)
In the next scene he is distraught, but apparently
midway between atheism and supernaturalism—
Sir; I am growne
A wondrous Studient now o' late. My wit
Has reach'd beyond the scope of Nature; yet
For all ray learning I am still to seeke.
From whence the peace of conscience should proceeds,
(V.ii.172-6)
He also retains his belief in the soul, for after seizing
the ax, he warns others away--
I'le butcher out the passage of his soule.
That dares attempt to interrupt the blow®
(V.ii.251-2)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
138 ;
D'Amville is, as Peter notes, refuted in the "slip" of the
ax, but I think Ornstein might look at D'Amville's own
speeches at this point to find a verbal refutation. When
D'Amville asks who has struck him and adds, "I thought he
was a murderer that did it," the judge replies "God for
bid" (267-8, 270-1). D'Amville replies.
Forbid? You lie ludge. He commanded it.
To tell thee that mans wlsedome is a foole.
There was the strength of naturall vnderstanding.
But Nature is a foole. There is a power
Aboue her that hath ouerthrowne the pride
Of all my proiects and posteritie;
(For whose suruiuing bloud, I had erected
This proud monument) and strucke 'em dead
Before me. For whose deathes, I call'd to thee
For ludgement. Thou didst want discretion for
The sentence. But yond' power that struck me, knew
The ludgement I deseru'd; and gaue it,—
(272-3, 282-91)
This has so far been largely a consideration of the
play assuming God to be the "hero," as in a thematic sense
he is. As the "human hero," however, Charlemont is the
regenerate man who contrasts with the unregenerate ("natur
al," "carnal") D'Amville. To demonstrate the enslavement
of natural man, Tourneur has D'Amville go mad, and makes
him carry to the extreme his theory that amassing wealth is
the only pleasure, by having him offer the doctor money
with which to bring his sons back to life. D'Amville
vaunts his "freedom" throughout and makes fun of those
"enslaved" by a belief in providence (V,i,53-7)> he be
lieves only in himself. On the other hand Charlemont, who
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
.......... 139 :
ia at times little more than a providentially-operated
puppet, who yields to the will of heaven, renounces and
becomes master of himself, is rewarded and allowed to be
"free" in the end. The belief that the wrong must inev
itably fail and the right prevail, stated somewhat obscure
ly in The Revenger's Tragedy, is virtually hammered home in
The Atheist's Tragedy.
Exposition
The Atheist's Tragedy begins with D'Amville sending
for Charlemont, twice calling him by name within three
lines of his first entrance, and four times later in the
scene. Borachio is also four times called by name in this
brief scene. While his relationship to Charlemont is
emphasized, D'Amville is not identified by name until the
second scene, but since he is at the center of the action,
we can be made to wait for his name. Characters
23
This is obviously the worst flaw in the play, seen
"naturalistically," but since it is thesis-drama, polemic,
we can hardly view it from the standpoint of psychological
realism at all.
^\fe are also made to wait for other names. Sebastian
and Rousard are twice identified before either is allowed '
to speak (I.i.l39-ij.C; I.ii.^2), but when Rousard is allowed
to speak he is summoned by name (I.ii.196). The value of
these identifications is greater for Sebastian, so that we
know who he is when without either warning or introduction
he cries "A rapel" (I.iv.l37)« Some characters whose names
we are made to wait for are (like D'Amville) notable ones.
Snuffe is not named until some fifty lines after his first
entrance, but his speech is certainly singular in tone, and
on the Elizabethan stage he must have been singular in
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1 4 . 0
throughout the play are generally called by name so fre
quently that we can scarcely avoid keeping them straight,
and after the first scene we are introduced to many of the
other characters as they, quite naturally, are introduced
to characters already onstage.
Besides mere identification, the first scene goes far
toward establishing D’Amville's role with respect to
Charlemont, and the question-and-answer exposition which
begins the scene (less striking, but surely no less arti
ficial than the exposition which begins The Revenger's
Tragedy), yields to a more dramatic kind, D'Amville's
session with Borachio establishes man as only a higher
animal and wealth as the most important thing in life. But
when Charlemont appears, D'Amville immediately emphasizes
"honor" above all else and "generously" gives him a thou
sand crowns to enable him to go to war. If D'Amville is
not already sufficiently marked as a protean intriguer,
Borachio, after Charlemont leaves, does not once comment
on the surprising readiness with which D'Amville has given
up the money, but is already ahead of D'Amville in verbal
izing the treacherous motivation for his actions. Finally,
the scene ends with both a recapitulation and a prediction
of further action—
And in my reason dwels the prouidence.
To adde to life as much of happinesse,
dress as well.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
ll+l
Let all men lose, so I increase my gaine,
I haue no feeling of anothers paine.
The remaining exposition of the play is as skillfully
done as that of the first scene, and equally "internal" to
the dramatic action. The names are clearly French, and the
nationality of the characters is established quite inciden
tally by Charlemont's reasons for going to war:
There's not a French-man of good bloud and youth.
But eyther out of spirit or example.
Is turn'd a Souldier, (I.ii.26-8)
We learn almost incidentally that Levidulcia is not Casta
bella' a real mother^S (and thus the contrast between them
is less incredible). As already noted, the various night
scenes are full of references to night, evening, torch-
carrying servants, and so on. Even Borachio'a exposition
of Charlemont'8 "death" is highly interesting in its own
right.
Disguise is carefully prepared for. We know of D'Am
ville's plan to have a "soldier" appear with Charlemont's
presumed scarf, but his later asides with Borachio refresh
our memories if we have forgotten, Snuffe dons his dis
guise before us, then leaves it behind so that Charlemont
may use it in the same way. Virtually all the information
'She says in I,iv,111-3» "I'm but her mother i' law;/
Yet if shee were my very flesh and bloud,/ I could aduise
no better for good"; in I,i she describes Castabella to
Belforest as "your daughter," while twice in I,iv he calls
her "my daughter,"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I ■ ..................... . ' . ......................................... 142
we are given is presented so "naturally" that we scarcely •
have any sense of being "filled in" on the background.
As thesis-drama, the entire play is in a sense an
exposition, but Tourneur has managed to create characters
and situations of such interest that the sermon preached by
the play, even though long, detailed, and impeccably ortho
dox, is not a dull one,
THE ATHEIST«S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP LANGUAGE
Dialogue Construction
Since The Atheist's Tragedy is thesis-drama, it is not
surprising that it begins with an exposition of the vil
lain's key ideas. After sending for Charlemont, D'Amville
imr,mediately begins stating his philosophyj his statement is
briefly interrupted by Charlemont's entrance, but resumed
with his exit. In many instances, particularly in the
first act, the play has a "talky" quality which seems in
part the inevitable corollary of thesis-drama. Charle
mont 'a discussion of honor with his father and his farewell
to Castabella, forwarding the action less than the theme,
are highly formalized. Levidulcia introduces some liveli
ness in I.ii with her characteristically-bawdy first
3peech--"01 heer's your daughter vnder her seruants lips"—
but even she has a philosophical exposition, parallel to
D'Amville's, in I.iv. The recapitulation of the plot cul-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' ' 143
minating in Montferrers’ murder, effective though it is, is
presented for thematic reasons--not to remind the audience
of events they have just seen, but to demonstrate the
extent of D’Amville’s fatal pride in his o"wn cunning.
Seen then from the standpoint of psychological real
ism, much of the dialogue of the play is "unrealistic,” or
unconvincing, and the more believable speeches are those
of the more believable (i.e., more "human" and sinful)
characters. Charlemont’s moral rigidity seems reflected in
the "stiffness" of his speeches; D’Amville's flexibility in
the verisimilitude of his. On the other hand, the speeches
of the play are successful to a high degree in performing
the functions the author intended them to. The moral char
acters have stiffly moral speeches; the immoral ones
usually have realistic, flippant, or bawdy ones.
The appropriateness of speeches to the character of
their speaker may perhaps be demonstrated by some apparent
exceptions. Borachio's philosophical remarks in I.i and
his long set-speech in II,i seem at first out of character
for so minor a figure. But Borachio is termed by Tour
neur’s dramatis personae, by himself, and by others as an
"instrument," and these speeches, if indebted (as I think)
to D’Amville, illustrate in part D'Amville’s ability to
play upon his instrument. The inconsistencies in Snuffe’s
speeches are a part of his character as well. He is a
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
-------------------------------------------------------- 1)l)l
bogus Puritan; he has had no religious experience at all,
but has seized an opportunity to escape a menial vocation.
His very vocabulary reveals him as false— he babbles a
great deal about sanctity, holiness, purity, but never once
mentions God, heaven, providence (important counter-words
in the play). His first speeches seem to betray a latent
sensualism; he greets Castabella and Charlemont with "the
spirit of copulation" (I,ii,109), and remarks of their
kissing.
Pie, fie, fie, these oarnail kisses doe stirre
vp the Concupiscences of the flesh, (I,ii,127-9)
In contrast to such a speech, betraying the naked lust
of Snuffe, the stiff artificiality of the dialogue of other
characters is given added emphasis. The kisses Snuffe
found so disturbing follow Charlemont’s stiffly-formal fare
well to Castabella:
But you (deare Mistresse) being the last and best
That speakes my farewell; like th’ imperious cloze
Of a most sweete Oration, wholy haue
Possess'd my liking, and shall euer liue
Within the soule of my true memory.
So (Mistresse) with this kisse I take my leaue,
(I,ii,88-93)
And Castabella's reply is a formal remonstrance--
0 the sad trouble of my fearefull souleI
My faithfull seruantl did you neuer heare.
That when a certaine great man went to th' warre.
The louely face of heau'n was masqu'd with sorrow.
The sighing windes did moue the brest of earth.
The heauie cloudes hung downe their mourning heads.
And wept sad showers the day that hee went hence.
As if that day presag'd some ill successe
That fatallie should kill his happinesse;
And so it came to passe, Methinkes my eyes
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
(Sweet Heau'n forbid) are like those weeping cloudes.
And as their showers presag'd so doe my teares.
Some sad euent will follow my sad feares.
(I.ii.112-2^)
Throughout the play the formality of the "good" characters
is, I think, intended to furnish a refreshing contrast to
the sometimes gross realism of Snuffe, Sebastian, Levidul-
cia and others* Tourneur seems to be capitalizing on the
contrast between the high and low styles when he has D'Am-
ville greet Snuffe in a parody of Snuffs's own idiom;
Mounsieur Languebeaul Happily encountred. The
honestie of your conuersation, makes me request
more int'rest in your familiaritie, (I,ii,1^7-60)
Another example is Gastabella's "set of wit" with Rousard
in I.iii. Left very much to her own devices, she seems
determined to "talk" her way out of the situation, ^d in
doing so sometimes mimics the suggestive language of Rou-
2é>
sard in order to evade him. She tells us she is in dead
ly earnest (I.iii.^J), and the device finally provides her
an escape (she loves him "well" but cannot love him now be
cause he is sick).
Some of the most interesting dialogue-inconsistencies
are those of Sebastian, who at times is a happy-go-lucky
26
Miss Bradbrook (Themes, p. II8) sees a possible imi
tation of the bawdry of Hamlet and Ophelia here, considers
the entire scene "a very glaring" intrusion, and calls Cas-
tabella's speeches "flippantly bawdy," It seems to me that
only one or two of Gastabella's speeches are off-color, and
these only slightly so. The whole point of the scene is
that Castabella, trying to "ease" out of this situation, is
trying to keep the "action" at the level of talk only.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
lij.6
lecher, a naturalist of Levidulcla’s "school," and at other
times (when he appears in the main plot), is part Timon or
Thersites and part "objective character," His social crit
icism is best revealed in his long tirade ending Ill.ii,
His disgust at the villainy of the officers leads him to a
condemnation of contemporary abuses taking him outside the
actual interests of the play. But his dying speech is
nothing if not natural; while his mistress has a swansong
of twenty-six lines, Sebastian exclaims "I ha't ifaith"
(IV,v,6l), and dies.
But the play also has a great number of highly-effec-
tive speeches, many of them cited in other connections, A
few instances are Borachio’s description of the siege of
Ostend, Charlemont's explosion when Castabella tells him
she has married another, the altercation between Castabella
and D'Amville in the graveyard, D'Amville’s recapitulation
of Montferrers' murder, and many more.
The Atheist's Tragedy has quite a number of lengthy
speeches. Several are notable, and dominate the scenes in
which they occur; forty-one speeches are longer than ten
lines, nine are longer than twenty, two longer than thirty.
But nearly sixty per cent of the play is given to speeches
shorter than six lines, so that the total impression is not
entirely one of static discursiveness.
There are many kinds of special linguistic devices as
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
147
well. There is scarcely any stychomythia in the strict
sense, but there is the "set of wit" in I.iii, with its
counterpart in II,ii among the drunken servants, and per
haps in the encounter between Fresco and Belforest in IV,
iv, D'Amville*8 reverse catechism of Borachio seems to
have a counterpart in the doctor's catechism of D'Amville
in V,i. There are many "set speeches"— besides Borachio's
are possibly Sebastian's prose speeches ending I,iv and
Ill.ii; D'Amville has a "public" and a "private" version of
Montferrors' murder in II,iv, and the "judgement" and
"wine" speeches in V.ii, Charlemont's include his Senecan,
stoic speech in Ill.iii, graveyard meditations in IV.iii,
and his "water" speech in V.ii, Gastabella's speech on
"mercy" in Ill.iv seems modelled on Portia's,
Like The Revenger's Tragedy, The Atheist's Tragedy
seems to "overwork" the soliloquy by using it even for
minor characters. There are seventeen soliloquies in the
play (including several very brief ones that are scarcely
more than "solitary asides"). Four each are given to Levi-
dulcia and Gharlemont, three to D'Amville, two to Sebas
tian, and one each to Castabella, Snuffe, Rousard, and
Borachio, Of the total, seven are used to end scenes,
four to begin them. There is little emphasis on the aside
in this play. If every possible instance is counted,
there are scarcely forty lines, about half of which,
appropriately, are D'Amville's.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
■ %8
Prose~Verae Relationships
In the light of Milton Crane's observations about
prose in Elizabethan drama, cited in the preceding chapter,
and in consideration of the fact that The Atheist's Tragedy
is a play with a comic sub-plot, it is to be expected that
the play would have a fairly high proportion of prose.
About one-fourth (over seven-hundred lines) is prose. Of
this amount, four-fifths is spoken by characters in the
sub-plot, and virtually all the rest is spoken by main-plot
characters ^ those in the sub-plot.
The largest amount of prose is given Snuffe, who an
nounces his desertion of Gharlemont with a couplet and
argues with Castabella in verse, but otherwise speaks
prose, Sebastian uses verse for his very first speeches to
Levidulcia, and possibly in his request for money after the
fight with Gharlemontj otherwise he speaks prose, and it is
for this harshly realistic idiom that we remember him best,
Levidulcia's speeches are about equally divided between
prose and verse; she uses prose for the lower characters,
verse for the courtly ones. She also uses verse to jest
lewdly with Rousard, argue with Castabella, and emphasize
the exemplary values of her suicide.
Fresco and Cataplasms almost always speak prose, but
the formality of the court in V,ii seems to frighten them
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
w
into attempting verse, halting as it is, Soquette and the
various servants, soldiers, and watchmen speak prose
exclusively,
D'Amville uses prose with Snuffe and the drunken ser
vants, Similarly, Belforest uses it with Fresco, Prose
provides a different kind of emphasis in D'Amville's "dis
tracted" remarks in IV,iii, and possibly in Charlemont's
graveyard meditations in the same scene. The only prose
used by Castabella and Rousard comprises the entire "set
of wit" scene (I.iii),
A study of Crane and others, or a perusal of only a
few Elizabethan plays, makes it evident that the distri
bution of prose and verse in Elizabethan plays is a conven
tional affair; the fact that it became a convention proves
some of the utility of alternating prose with verse.
Prose "distances" a comic from a serious character, or in
dicates a condescension of a serious character to dealings
with a comic one; it emphasizes a striking change in mood
for an individual character or sets an entire scene in con
trast to the rest of the play (Crane, p. $), I.iii is a
nearly-timeless vignette of pursuer and pursued; IV,i, of
lust and dalliance. Prose is especially appropriate to the
critical observations of Sebastian, who in the following is
looking less toward the dramatic action than to contempor
ary England:
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
150
Hee fought brauely, but the Officers drag’d him
villanoualy. Arrant knauesl for vsing him so dis
courteously; may the sins o' the poore people be
so few, that you sha' not be able to spare so much
out o' your gettings, as will pay for the hyre of
a lame staru'd hackney to ride to an execution.
But goe a foote to the gallowes, and be bang'd.
May elder brothers turne good husbands, and younger
brothers get good wiues; that there be no neede of
debt-bookes, nor vse of Serieants, May there be
all peace but i' the warre, and all charitie but
i' the Diuell; so that prisons may be turn'd to
Hospitals, though the Officers liue o' the bene-
uolence. If this curse might come to passe, the
world would say. Blessed be he that curseth,
(III,ii,94-105)
Even the most casual reader of Tourneur will quickly notice
great differences between the verse of The Revenger's
Tragedy and that of The Atheist's Tragedy, It may be re
called from the preceding chapter that many critics who
equate "flexibility" with "maturity" have concluded that
The Atheist's Tragedy must necessarily have been written
first and allowed to remain in manuscript until after pub
lication of The Revenger's Tragedy, A number of writers,.^"^
however, have found a significant development in thought
between the plays as published, and R, A, Poakes has found
a development in verse technique as well.
The first thing to be noted about the verse of the
later play is that it is certainly more regular. There are
fewer hypermetric lines and fewer feminine endings. Of the
27
John Peter, Robert Ornstein, and H, H, Adams, in
works previously cited, and also Inga-Stina Ekeblad, "On The
Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy," English Studies. 41:
225-40» August IVbü,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
; 1$1:
verse of the first three acts of the play, about ninety-
three per cent of the lines have the "feel” of "regular"
iambic pentameter— a masculine ending and five stresses,
but with various kinds of metric substitution within the
line. An additional four per cent of the lines have the
above characteristics, except for feminine ending. No more
than three per cent of the verse is hypermetricj a few of
the rare long lines seem to be hexameters, and there are
infrequent "short" lines.
While the feminine ending is far rarer than in The
Revenger's Tragedy, there is something of the same tendency
to overuse it. The following is one of D'Amville's
shorter speeches in entirety:
Hee was o'comming to present his seruice.
But now no more. The Cooke inuites to breakfast.
Wilt please your Lordship enter,— Noble Lady,
(I,ii.69-71)
And the following is from his "grief" over his brother:
For any thing I know,
Hee might ha' liu'd till doomesday, and ha' done
More good then either you or I, 0 BrotherI
He was a man of such a natiue goodnessej
As if Regeneration had beene giuen
Him in his mothers wombe. So harmeles.
That rather then ha' trod vpon a worme.
He would ha' shun'd the way . , . , (II,iv,76-83)
One of the more detailed studies of Tourneur finding
improving development from the verse of The Revenger's
Tragedy to that of The Atheist's Tragedy is that of Harold
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
" 1^2 '
28
Jenkins, who feels that the greater precision Miss Ellis-
Permor and others find in the imagery of the later play is
one of the symptoms of "a more laborious workmanship,” and
continues.
And the greater deliberation is reflected in
the rhythms* The tempo on the whole is slower.
And the blank verse is more regular— not be
cause the poet is less experienced but because
he is composing with more studied purpose. The
regularity is formal only; there is no monotony
of rhythm, and there is a skilful modulation of
the sense rhythm with the pattern of the verse,
(pp. 23~k)
As noted in the preceding chapter, R, A, Poakes finds the
verse of The Revenger*s Tragedy to be rather stiff and for
mal, While the verse of the later play seems superficially
more regular than that of the earlier, it is really more
complex, with a greater variety of rhythms, better fitting
of language to character, greater fluency, and wider vari
ation and sweetness. There is also, he feels, an added
power of making fine verse out of natural speech rhythms,
and some reduction of the rhymes, aphorisms, and frequent
general stiffness of the verse of The Revenger * s Tragedy
(pp. 136-8). H, H, Adams even manages an "aside” on the
issue—
, , , It is difficult to find in The Atheist's
Tragedy worse poetry than Vindice's "scaffold
speech,” , , , or than Castiza’s encomiums on
chastity, (p, 87)
28
"Cyril Tourneur,” Review of English Studies, 17!
21-36, January 191+1.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r ....— .............. , ------......
The following is part of a magnificent (and oft-quo
ted) set-apeech, but one which retains much of the natural
ness of prose and the illusion of the character of the
"soldier" who speaks it:
Hee lay in’s Armour; as if that had beene
His Coffine, and the weeping Sea, (like one;
Whose milder temper doth lament the death
Of him whom in his rage he slew) runnes vp
The Shoare; embraces him; kisses his cheeke,
Goes backe againe and fbrces vp the Sandes
To burie him; and eu'rie time it parts.
Sheds teares vpon him; till at last (as if
It could no longer endure to see the man
Whom it had slaine, yet loath to leaue him;) with
A kind of vnresolu'd vnwilling pace.
Winding her waues one in another, like
A man that foldes his armes, or wrings his hands
For grief; ebb’d from the body and descends:
As if it would sinke down into the earth.
And hide it selfe for shame of such a deede,
(II.i.91-106)
Artificial as the interwoven parentheses are, they have much
of the rhythms of "real speech," and of the waves they des
cribe,
A completely different kind of speech, one cast in
highly regular verse, but equally appropriate to character
and occasion, is the following from the distraught D’Am-
ville:
29
This is the case my Lord, My prouidence,
Eu'n in a moment; by the onely hurt
Of one, or two, or three, at most: and those
Put quickly out o’ paine too, marke mee; I
Had wisely rais’d a competent estate
To my posteritie. And is there not
29
J, A, Symonds emends to By,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
..... I
More wisedone and more charity in that;
Then for your Lordship, or your Father, or
Your Grandsire, to prolong the torment, and
The rack of rent from age to age, vpon
Your poore penurious Tenants? yet (perhaps)
Without a pennie profit to your heire.
Is't not more wise? more charitable? Speake,
(V.ii.83-9 4)
A final proof that regular verse need not be stiff or arti
ficial is Charlemont’s passionate outburst when Castabella
tells him she is married—
Married? had not my mother been a woman,
I should protest against the chastitie
Of all thy sexe. How can the Marchant, or
The Marriner, absent whole yeares (from wiues
Experienc'd in the satisfaction of
Desire) promise themselues to find their sheetes
Vnspotted with adultery, at their
Returne? when you that neuer had the sense
Of actual temptation;, could not stay
A few short months. (III.i.111-20)
The greater regularity of the verse of The Atheist's
Tragedy is complemented by a reduced use of the couplet.
There are about seventy-five in the play, some ten of which
are "shared":
Chari. Pie, superstitious? is it bad to kisse?
ôasta. May all my feares hurt me no more then this.
(I.ii.125-6)
Like the preceding, perhaps the only instance of stycho
mythia in the play, most of the couplets are used for
frankly "artificial" purposes. Many are mottos or proph
ecies (like those of Castabella already cited). Many of
D'Amville's are infernal exultations; others are satiric,
and a few somewhat "mad." The couplets are pretty evenly
I divided among characters using verse, but Charlemont has
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r r"......... - j
comparatively fewer, and D’Amville and Castabella more,
than the others. Almost two-thirds of all the scenes end
with couplets (and half of the remaining ones are predom
inately prose scenes ending with prose). Eleven couplets
are used for individual exits within a scene; several are
used to begin scenes and to begin or end soliloquies. Per
haps the most consciously artificial couplets are that of
Borachio as he begins II,iv—
Such stones men vse to raise a house vpon;
But with these stones I goe to ruine one,
and that with which the "watch" concludes act four—
0 with what vertue lust should be withstoodl
Since t'is a fire quench'd seldome without bloud.
The only interpolated verse is that of the epitaphs of
Montferrers and Charlemont, They are individualized, Mont-
ferrers' consisting of "interwoven couplets" and a conclu
ding couplet, and Charlemont's consisting entirely of coup
lets, Their artificiality seems reinforced by their
associations with the sonnet tradition, and is of course
appropriate to the scene of deception and intrigue in which
they occur. That of Montferrers follows:
Here lye the Ashes of that earth and fire:
whose heat and fruit, did feede and warme the poore:
And they (as if they would in sighes expire,
and into teares dissolue) his death deplore.
He did that good freely; for goodnesse sake,
vnforc^d; for gen'rousnesse he held so deare,
That hee fear'd none but him that did him make;
and yet he seru'd him more for loue then feare,
I So'3 life prouided, that though he did dye
A sodaine death; yet dyed not sodainely,
(III,i,20-9, italics omitted)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
............................ 156 :
Linguistic Devices
As noted in the preceding chapter, one of the most
extensive and influential studies of Tourneur’s imagery is
that of Una Ellis-Fermor, who finds in the imagery of The
Atheist’s Tragedy several outstanding preoccupations of its
author. She considers four groups of images particularly
important, one taken from building, one from kingship and
the apparatus of government, one from business and finan
cial transactions, and one from rivers and other bodies of
water. Smaller groups of images she cites include those of
clothing, sports, outdoor life, and the military (pp.
289-90).
Miss Ellis-Permor finds the images of royalty and gov
ernment most numerous and least striking, but considers
particularly important the relatively small group of
"building" images with which D’Amville refers to his fam
ily, The business images, like the other groups, are very
precise and lucid in the midst of complexity, and betray
interest in and respect toward business and financial deal
ings (pp. 290-1), She also thinks that the group of river
and water images indicates that the author was a man who
once, at least, lived in a district of rivers and their
tributaries. Since Marco K. Mincoff’s study of the images
concludes that the author was a city man, however, and
since we are studying the play and not its author primar-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
157
ily, we will ignore suggestions like these.
Compared to other poetic images of the time, those of
Tourneur are rarely vague or indefinable, and a great many
have an almost scientific precision in application; they
seem the exact illustration of a well-trained scientific
mind. Some are very precise, and lack the grandeur of
more "poetic" images, but they are still impressive, lucid,
and carefully adjusted to their referent:
The unerring precision of image after image
, , , , which never falters throughout the play,
reveals itself at last as a major characteristic
of Tourneur's habit of mind. As his poetic
imagery is close and inevitable, so is this other,
his explanatory imagery precise and delicately
accurate. (Ellis-Permor, "Imagery," p. 293)
A final characteristic Miss Ellis-Permor finds (also
noted in the preceding chapter), is Tourneur's strange
habit of crossing and recrossing the borderline between pun
and image, or personification and literal usage (p. 2941#
My own "shortcut" method of studying Tourneur's
imagery, used also with The Revenger's Tragedy, was to
categorize all images in the first three acts, then trace
through the remainder of the play the significant categor-
30
les found in the early acts. I again found some major
30^ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
predominates, were analyzed,"but three o? The Atheist's
Tragedy, because of the far greater proportion of somewhat
"image-less" prose.
Two acts of The Revenger's Tragedy, in which verse
)e of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
... 158 :
areas of agreement with Miss Ellis-Fermor, and some minor
ones of disagreement. It will be remembered that she be
lieves Tourneur to have no religious imagery, and little if
any classical or mythological imagery. It is true that the
play has only a minimum of religious imagery, much of which
has no real religious feeling, Snuffe draws imagery from
the Bible and from "Puritan cant," but never alludes to
God, D'Amville’s few religious images are hypocritical, as
in the formal piety of his funeral for Montferrers and
Charlemont. Even Charlemont’s imagery is not strikingly
religious. He alludes to "heaven" and "God," of course,
but his more elaborate moral images tend to be "governmen-
tal"--in prison, after chiding himself for criticizing
heaven for allowing his hardships, he turns to thoughts of
self-governance, of being king of the microcosm of him
self (III.lii,42-9).
Gastabella’s more orthodox imagery is only slightly
less abstract. She would consider it a violation of faith
to break her contract of love (I,iv,36-8); it would be pro
fanation (I.iv.42-5). She tells D’Amville that mercy and
justice derive from God (III,iv,5-13)* and urges him to be
as near heaven in goodness as in place (III.iv,15-7). She
exhorts D'Amville in the graveyard scene, arguing that the
highest freedom need not include freedom to sin (IV.iii,
147-9), calls man "nature's masterpiece" (151-5), and in
vokes both heaven and earth to punish atheism (I78-8 2).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
159
In V.ii she rejoices that death will destroy the canker of
sin (iS^)o
Classical or mythological imagery is rarer, but defin
itely present, Levidulcia compares marriage to an impotent
husband to the torments of Tantalus (I,iv,102-5)# and des
cribes Sebastian to the "frightened” Fresco as a fury (II,
v.lll), D'Amville compares Montferrers and Charlemont to
the Herculean pillars, as they are the non ultra in moral
ity (III,i,50-2), He hypocritically wishes that Mont
ferrers might rise again like the Phoenix (III,i,i|.2-3) com
pares himself to Tereus as he attempts to rape Castabella
(IV.iii,190-1), and urges the doctor to cure his sons and
thus excel Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna (V,i,8^-5),
Two more images seem drawn from popular mythology or con
temporary encyclopedias, Levidulcia disgustedly concludes
that the cold, faint-hearted Fresco was begotten between
the north pole and the congealed passage (II,v,50-2),
D'Amville compares the shrieks of his dying son to those
of mandrakes (V,i,69),
Since the play depicts the rise and fall of a "natur
alist," one of its major groups of images is natural. Even
if we bypass for a time the frequent occurrences of words
like nature, natural, or unnatural, we are still struck by
the frequency with which almost every character draws
images from "nature," It is true that some of the images
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
; * 160 !
are conventional, but the extraordinary number of such
images and their frequent subtlety and precision prevents
one from explaining them as purely "conventional*" Bor
achio early asserts the unity of human and animal nature
(I,i.16-9), and the function of many images throughout the
play is to corroborate this assertion*
One of the techniques of such images is the "human
izing" of nature. The most notable of this group is the
extended image by which Borachio, in a speech cited above,
describes the full-stomached and weeping sea, which em
braces and kisses the "slain" Charlemont and "wrings its
waves" in grief (I,i,86-106). D'Amville argues that Nature
has feelings (II.iv.6l-2), and interprets the thunder dur
ing his review of Montferrers' murder as congratulatory
(II.iv.177-88). He refers to the night's sable garment
(II.iv.lj.5), and later, in momentary distraction, denounces
"that bawd the sky" (IV,iii,2[|4-5)•
An even larger group of images describes human beings
in "naturalistic" terms. Singularly appropriate is Sebas
tian's comparison of Snuffe to rotten fruit (I.iv.l^J-^).
Later, Sebastian says that love is as momentarily de
licious but as short-lived as mushrooms (IV.v.33-6).
Snuffe compares Castabella to jewels (I.ii.175-6; 185-6).
Belforest describes streams and currents of blood (I.iv.
7-8), Levidulcia, rivers of blood and oceans of tears
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
............................................................ ‘ 161 i
(IV.V,66-7 8), and D'Amville, the rivers of his veins (V.ii.
219). Most of these images derive from the “naturalists”
of the play. Levidulcia derives lust from coldness as heat
from rubbed snow (II.iii.SO-3), and compares morality to
water (II.iii.lS7). D'Amville speaks of the "season” of
heaviness (I.ii.20), of his mountain of sins (IV.iii.291-
1 ^ . ) , and describes his "grief” for Montferrers as a "great
wind” laid by his shower of tears (II.iv.92-^). The most
revealing of all such images, however, is his description
of his children;
And for my children; they are as neere to me.
As branches to the tree whereon they glow;
And may as numerously be multiplied.
As they increase, so should my prouidence;
For from my substance they receiue the sap.
Whereby they liue and flowrish, (I,i,59~6iî.)
A sub-category of the preceding is that describing
human beings in animal terms. Belforest's calling Fresco
a dog is conventional (IV.iv.l4- 6), but D'Amville has a num
ber of animal epithets. Feigning displeasure at the report
of Charlemont's death, he twice calls Borachio a screech
owl (II.i,12lj.-5; II.iv.33), and once a dog (II.iv.32).
Later he exultingly calls him a "louely night-Raven” (II.
iv.106-7), He says Montferrers would not hurt a worm (II,
ii.81-3), and pretends to wish Montferrers might rise like
the Phoenix (III.i.L(.2-3). He calls the executioner whose
ax he takes a "shag-haired cur” (V.ii.2^6).
One more "natural” image is notable. Borachio is so
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' ^ 162
thoroughly ’ ’converted” to D'Amville’s philosophy that he
believes immortality, if it exists, involves enduring for
the "length of nature” (I.i.29-30)*
In direct and, I believe, in conscious contrast to the
images of "naturalized” humanity are many of Gastabella's
images, describing human beings in "heavenly" terms. Some
of these are traditional piety, as when she advises D'Am
ville to be nearer heaven in goodness (III,iv.1^-7)» An
other pious image rejects both nature and life itself—
death is good, as it will root out the canker of sin (V.ii.
l^l|.). Perhaps the most precise of her "heavenly” images
is that in which she formally compares the heavenly signs
portending the death of a great man to the signs in her
eyes portending "some sad euent” for Charlemont (I.ii.
113-2^). Castabella is specifically contrasted to D'Am
ville in their use of the natural term green. D'Amville
explains that the advantage of his getting Charlemont's
inheritance is being able to guide Charlemont's "green"
improvidence and make him ripe (III.iv.^1-60). Castabella
thinks it better for her and Charlemont to die in their
"green" age, before their virtue withers or becomes cor
rupt (V.ii.l47-Sl).
It has long been recognized that a most significant
image for understanding D'Amville's moral progress is
his references to the "stars.” God is symbolized as "him
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
163 I
they call the Supreaiae of the Starres”; Montferrers is
killed on a starless night, and D'Amville's final appeal to
the "Starre Chamber” implies an admission of God's exis-
31
tence, J, M, S. Tompkins, working from Bradbrook's sug
gestions and those of others, finds in D'Amville's belief
or disbelief in the stars a measure of his orthodoxy*^^
D'Amville's several blasphemies include at least two in
stances of mocking the stars— reviewing Montferrers' murder
he denies their importance, even when "warned” by thunder;
as he counts the revenues from Montferrers' estate, he
argues that the real ministers of fate are "stars” of gold
(V.i.lB ^ , ) Tompkins finds in D'Amville's second mockery
of the stars
• • • the signal for the suspended judgement
of God to fall. The ghost of his brother
threatens him; servants enter with the body of
one son, and the other is drawn forth on a bed
to die. In rage and despair the atheist rushes
on to his end, (p, 318)
In the early starless scenes, the black night is "beauteous
Mistresse of a murderer," but the starlit sky of the grave
yard scene is a treacherous bawd (IV.iii.2^^-$0), The
Star-Chamber image, both pun and metaphor, shows a complete
33
reversal of feeling; the "stars" are now his "judges,"
31
Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions, pp. 176-9.
^^"Tourneur and the Stars," Review of English Studies,
22:315-9, October 191^6,
.^^That D'Amville always blasphemes against the stars
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
------- - 164 !
Since D'Amville is what we would call a materialist,
one of the important image-groups in the play is drawn
from commercial and financial dealings. In the first scene
D’Amville asks Borachio if it is not true that "pleasure
onely flowes/ Vpon the streame of riches" (33-4), to which
Borachio replies, "Wealth is Lord/ Of all felicitie,"
This belief explains D’Amville’s rather extensive use of
commercial imagery, and Tourneur uses it for other charac
ters as well. His image belying his words, D’Amville
tells Gharlemont that honor is an interest he prizes above
the principal of wealth (I,i,99-100), Later, suborning
Snuffe to betray Charlemont, he asks an interest in
Snuffe’8 familiarity (I,ii,158-60), and Snuffe wants to
insinuate into D'Amville’s credit (I.ii,151-2), and ex
change services for favor (162-3), After Snuffe tells
D’Amville that Castabella exceeds a jewel, being both for
ornament and use, D’Amville adds that she is unprofitably
kept without use (I,ii,l67)» His burial of Montferrers be
gins with imagery of repaying both principal and interest
of "earth’s lendings," (III,i.3-7), but his real sentiments
are revealed when he is calling his projects to account
(IV,ii,35) hy his reference to the murder of Montferrers as
a "prosperous" one (46), He retains this frame of mind
when he calls the imaginary ghost of Montferrers "a most
rather than against God probably results from the stric
tures against oaths and blasphemy on the Elizabethan stage.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r ■ ,,,
dogged vaurer” (IV.iii.2^3-^).
The imagery of Charlemont’s agreement with Snuffe
lends an ominous prophetic quality—
Sir, I will take your friendship vp at vse.
And feare not that your profit shall he sraallj
Your interest shall exceeds your principall.3%
(I.ii.154-6)
As he leaves Castabella he asks her not to tax him with
weakness to ask that he stay, or herself with immodesty to
desire to go with him (I.ii.100-3). Castabella later tells
Rousard that he would tax her of indiscretion in asking her
to entertain an incapacitated servant (I.iii.5-7)» The
financial imagery extends into the sub-plot as well. Seb
astian tells D'Amville that want of money makes him as mad
as the possession of it does a usurer (III,ii.15-7)» and
Fresco announces the impending catastrophe to the charac
ters in the sub-plot—
Wil’t not be a chargeable reckoning, think
you; when heere are halfe a dozen fellowes com-
ming to call vs to accompt, with eu’rie man a
seuerall bill in his hand, that wee are not
able to discharge. (IV.v.44-7)
Akin to the commercial imagery, and one of the most
striking image-series in the play, is that of building with
which D'Amville, usually, refers to his establishment of
"temporal eternity" in building an inheritance for his
^^As it turns out, of course, Snuffe’s self-interest
does exceed his "principles."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
166 ;
family. The plot to murder Montferrers and disinherit
Charlemont is "laying a foundation" (II.i.137-8). Obser
ving the drunken servants, he exults that his plot rises
"according to the model" (II,ii.35-6). Borachio begins the
murder scene.
Such stones men vse to raise a house vpon;
But with these stones I goe to ruine one.
(II.iv.3-4J
After the murder, D'Amville refers to one of the stones—
Vpon this ground lie build my Manour-house;
And this shall be the chiefest corner stone,
(II.iv.118-9)
D'Amville intends from the beginning that his building, if
necessary, shall be at the expense of others. He ends the
first and second scenes thus;
Let all men lose, so I increase my gaine,
I haue no feeling of another's paine.
This marriage will bring wealth. If that succeeds,
I will increase it though my Brother bleed.
After the funerals for Montferrers and Charlemont, he
reviews the kind of building he has been doing--
T'is done. Thus fair accomplements, make foule
Deedes gratious. Charlemont1 come now when t'wut.
I'ue buryed vnder these two marble stones
Thy liuing hopes; And thy dead fathers bones.
(III.i.57-60)
Pears for his sons and his "building obsession" lead D'Am
ville to attempt to rape Castabella. He asks her.
Would it
Not grieue thee, that a Stranger to thy bloud
Should lay the first foundation of his house
Vpon the ruines of thy family?
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I . . . . . . . . ‘ 167
And she replies, rather than commit incest, better that
the heire
Of him that was my Fathers enemie.
Raise his eternall monument vpon
Our ruines .... (IV.iii.129-31, 133-6)
D’Amville's final building image notes the collapse of all
he has tried to build in the sighs of the dying Rousard:
His gasping sighes are like the falling noise
Of some great building when the ground-worke breakes.
On these two pillars stood the stately frame.
And architecture of my loftie house.
An Earthquake shakes 'em. The foundation shrinkes,
(Vol.92-6)
As Inga-Stina Ekeblad observes,
... the building-image is used to emphasize
the de casibus theme of the rise and fall of the
wicked man. ["Imagery," p. I4.93)
One other image-group is worthy of note. As Levi
dulcia prepares to stab herself, her imagery of rivers,
fountains, and oceans defies comparison to the deeds and
attitudes it purports to describe. Miss Ellis-Permor says,
"There is, of course, no question but that Tourneur's art
here is conscious and deliberate" (Frontiers, p. 91n).
Levidulcia's imagery seems an "objective correlative" of
her own confusion.
Several terms occur so often that they become counter
words, The most obvious is nature, a term D'Amville uses
sixteen times and other characters a total of eighteen.
■ ^ " ^ In addition are some twenty indirect references to
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
loo i
Heaven is mentioned twenty-two times, mainly by Charlemont i
and Castabella; God is named nine times and alluded to at
least a dozen times more. D'Amville sneeringly refers to
Providence several times, and rather frequently mentions
fate, eternity, night, darkness, and so on.
We saw at some length the tendency of The Revenger's
Tragedy to a strange use of language hovering between the
literal and figurative, the personified and the pun. The
Atheist's Tragedy is even more extreme in using this de
vice, The following are drawn somewhat at random from
various speakers in the first act. When D'Amville asks
Charlemont if he is not going to war, the following ensues;
Char, My inclination did intend it so,
P*Am, And not your resolution?
Chari, Sir; taxe not me for his vnwillingnesse.
By the command of his authoritie.
My disposition's forc'd against it selfe,
(I,i,73-4, 83-5)
About to leave, Charlemont entrusts Castabella to Snuffe's
care—
Char, Deare Sir, you are the man whose honest trust
My confidence hath chosen for my friend,
I feare my absence will discomfort her.
You haue the power and opportunitie
To moderate her passion. Let her griefe
Receiue that friendship from you; and your Loue
Shall not repent it selfe of courtesie,
Lang, Sir, I want words and protestation to in-
I nature (including pronouns except relatives) and two uses
ot unnatural, Bradbrook states flatly that D'Amville uses
I nature thirty-two times (Themes, p, 175). I can find only
sixteen uses of the word Itself and fourteen indirect
references.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
................................................... 1 6 9 ....:
sinuate into your credit; but in plainnesse
and truth, I wil quallifle her griefe with
the spirit of consolation, (I,ii.l^^-^3)
Later D’Amville tells Borachio what he has done to Charle
mont 5
, , , I propounded him
Employment fix’d vpon a. forraine place.
To draw his inclination out o’ th’ way.
(I.ii,227-9)
Belforest plays the role of "Old Gapulet" in such speeches
as the following;
If shee resist; all mildness set apart,
I will make vse of my authoritie.
(I.iv.21-2)
To cut off eu’ry opportunitie.
Procrastination may assist her with;
This instant night shee shall be marryed.
(I.iv.25-7)
The most obvious movement between literal and figurative
and between several possible meanings is in the use of the
term nature. She is frequently D’Amville’s "goddess" as
she is Edmund’s, in King Lear. The term also refers to
"natural process," "natural phenomena," and "human nature."
As in The Revenger’s Tragedy, the bawdy puna of The
Atheist’s Tragedy emphasize by illustration the very "sins"
the play is meant to denounce. D’Amville thinks Castabella
unprofitably kept without use (I.ii.187), and Rousard tells
her he is best fitted for chamber work (I.iii.8-9). Many
of Levidulcia’s puns, appropriately, are "lusty" ones. She
tells Snuffe the passage to a woman is through her blood
I(I.iv.67-8), is interested in the "bedfellowship" of her
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' ...... 170 :
new son-in-law (II.i,l63)» and urges him to please his wife
hardly (166), make her groan (II.iii.36), never to give
back, and to make her yield (II.v,18-9). She admires
Fresco's brawny flesh and hairy skin (II.v.33-^), and ap
proves Sebastian's suggestions to take advantage of pri
vateness and perform a service within the compass of two
sheets (62-I4 .) by dancing the beginning of the world after
the English manner (66-7). Interrupted by her husband,
Levidulcia almost betrays herself by double entendres. She
tells Belforest the "angry" Sebastian was about to draw his
naked weapon upon her, and would have done something to her
had not Belforest appeared (II.v.103-6). In this scene
Fresco has the last word, however; as he sneaks away by
the back door, he observes that Levidulcia's "fore-door" is
both common and dangerous (li^-5).
The first scene of act four relies upon obscene
double entendres to describe doings in Cataplasms's house.
The imagery of the medlar tree, the bachelor's button^ and
the horned snail is transparent, and the "music lesson" of
Cataplasms and Sebastian is an analogue to the "dance"
Sebastian suggests to Levidulcia. Again Fresco has the
last word, as he tells the judge in V.ii that the "poor"
Cataplasms has been forced to rent out her fore-rooms and
lie backwards (25-6). Finally, even D'Amville indulges
himself in a bawdy pun. Urging Castabella to walk with him
in the graveyard— where he plans to beget a "grandson" upon
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
[ ^......... 171
her— he tells her he has something to speak "privately” to
her (IV.11.63).
THE ATHEIST’S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP CHARACTERIZATION
As the title Indicates, The Atheist's Tragedy Is pri
marily concerned with an atheist. To make his story both
orthodox and complete, the author must not only show the
atheist's rise and fall, but also his supercession by an
"honest" (righteous) man. It Is for the latter reason, of
course, that Charlemont Is Important to the moral line of
the play,
Robert Ornsteln has shown that D'Amville, who rejects
the supernatural and considers man a higher animal. Is a
rather typical Renaissance naturalist as revealed In con
temporary expositions by La Prlmaudaye, Potherby, Mornay,
and Du Valr:
, , , a man of scientific outlook who viewed
the universe as a purely material entity governed
by physical laws of cause and effect, and who,
being of an empirical turn of mind, would not ac
cept the mysteries of religion oven when confirmed
by speculative reason, ("Naturalism," pp, 194^7)
P, T, Bowers observes,
, , , to the Elizabethan audience anyone who
was not a Christian was automatically an atheist,
, , , D'Amville, however. Is a renegade Chris
tian, an apostate, and as such was awarded the
fullest possible terror and loathing by an age
to which atheist was a word of fear and unutter
able detestation , , , , To D'Amville's atheism
Tourneur adds the sin of avarice, heartily
loathed by the Elizabethan, and rounds out the
[ portrait by gilding the Illy with a touch of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
incest, (pp. 139-^0)
If we grant these Elizabethan premises but view D'Am
ville from the standpoint of psychological realism, we find
a man searching for an immortality-surrogate through estab
lishment of a material dynasty which will carry on his name
"to the length of nature," But we also see that at extreme
moments D'Amville's building mania merges with his "athe
ism," in an impious faith in his own "creative" abilities
and a symbolic usurpation of God's rightful prerogatives.
It is thus no accident that both Charlemont and Castabella
call D'Amville a devil (III.ii,63; IV.iii,112),
If D'Amville has devilish (and "Machiavellian") pride,
cunning, and malevolence, he also has human-infernal sel
fishness, He is apparently incapable of love. His concern
for his sons is simply an extension of self-concern— they
represent "immortality" to him. In contrast Montferrors,
brief as his appearance is, is gravely, tearfully concerned
for Charlemont, D'Amville interrupts the farewells of the
two, and his first words after greetings are in cynical
ridicule of Montferrers' emotion: "What, ha' you washed
your eyes wi' teares this morning?" D'Amville talks of
family reputation, but never of family affection. He re
jects Sebastian's "honesty" when it is counter to his own
interests. His fears for Sebastian's life and Rousard's
health simply lead him to think of begetting an heir.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
173 i
ostensibly Rousard's but really his own. While it is
natural to assume that he is grieved when his sons die, the
grief and distraction actually depicted seem almost entire
ly motivated by the destruction of his own selfish dynas
tic hopes. He is made to watch his elder son die, but even
as this occurs is defending his own wisdom. His self-con
tainment makes him a more terrible figure and makes his
downfall, dramatized by his loss of self-confidence and re
sultant terrors of "Black Beelzebub,/ And all his hell
hounds," the more exemplary and effective. Again, his be
havior at this point confirms contemporary conceptions of
the atheist— a little fear makes him a theist again.
Although D'Amville is partly conceived as a character
in a Morality, he has considerable liveliness and a great
deal of force. In contrast is the rather static Charle
mont, He is intended to be all that D'Amville is not, but
it is often difficult to prefer the sedentary Charlemont to
his more dynamic uncle. His first speeches are sententious
to abstraction, referring to his inclination, disposition,
spirit, necessity, reputation, and his father's authority.
Moreover, he has in the early scenes an almost inordinate
concern for his precious reputation. His father must per
mit him to go to war for reputation's sake (I.i.ll^; I,ii,
16-22), His early concern for reputation is apparently
greater than his love for Castabella (I.ii.ll+l-S)— and his
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
■ ' ■ ■' nh \
resolve at the end of the play to tempt his stars no longer
and marry immediately, before burying his relatives, may
indicate a "conversion” from his earlier obsession. He
partly explains his unwillingness to believe in his fath
er's ghost—
I would not leaue
The warre, for reputation's sake, vpon
An idle apprehension; a vaine dreame.
(II.Vi,67-9)
Charlemont early appears as a "stiff" character also be
cause his farewell speech to Castabella seems "prepared,"
Its very imagery is that of oratory (perhaps carried over
from the formal argumentation with his father earlier in
the scene), and the stiffness of the entire speech con
trasts with the more honest simplicity of Castabella's fare
well, The result of such "first impressions" is that
Charlemont seems to be something of a prig. The reasons
for this seem to be Tourneur's desire to set him apart as
"better" than most of the others, his practical non-in
volvement in the action until the third act, and the poss
ible result that Tourneur's early conception of Charlemont
is rather abstract— his thematic qualities and his "repu
tation" are uppermost in Tourneur's mind,
Charlemont does not seem intended to be perfect, how
ever, as his early obsession with reputation may indicate.
H, Adams, "Tourneur on Revenge," p. 87,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ^ . . . ' . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 5 ;
He sleeps on watch as a soldier (chiefly to permit the
■37
ghost’s appearance, of course)»"^' His faith wavers when he
is thrown into prison, and he at first intends to be re
venged in spite of the ghost's admonitions. He even kills
a man (in self-defense),
H, H, Adams (pp, 79-80) sees in Charlemont a develop
ment of the "do-nothing” revenger presented by The Reven
ger’s Tragedy in Antonio, Tourneur delayed the complete
expression in Charlemont because he did not quite know how
to go about describing a "static revenger," but found it in
Chapman’s example of the Senecal man who stoically waits
and endures his enemies’ actions, Adams thinks Clermont
D’Ambois the "unmistakable model" for Charlemont: "each
man abhors unreasonable action, and each calmly accepts
adverse fortune" (p, 83), Both are imprisoned unjustly
and both stoically accept their fate; in adversity they ex
plain how they have mastered the microcosm of themselves
by means of reason. They use similar imagery to describe
ghosts, and to prepare for death (pp, 83-0),
Clifford Leech-3® considers the identification of
,
iit<
I
38, , ,
Bradbrook, however, sees Charlemont as "the most
definitely soldierly of all Elizabethan heroes” (Themes, p,
183).
"The Atheist’s Tragedy as a Dramatic Comment on
Chapman’s iBussy Plays," Journal of English and Germanic
Philology, 02:020-30, OcToïiir"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
i I
Charlemont and Clermont partly correct but oversimplified,
Clermont is at the center of the play in which he appears;
Charlemont is not, Clermont is much more active and even-
tually does exact revenge. Thus Adams' term "static reven
ger" does not fit Clermont, Both writers should note the
39
earlier observation of Michael Higgins, who argues that
Charlemont is not a classical stoic like Clermont because
he is never all-in-all sufficient: "Charlemont's patience
is an expression of his confidence in the immutable de
crees of Cod ..." (p. 259).
Thus Charlemont is a Christian stoic, who is patient^^
and brave, but does not commit D'Amville's sin of placing
an inordinate and impious faith in his own abilities. He
is allowed to be human, for he is given "flaws" in the
midst of his perfections. As a good man pitted against the
demonic D'Amville, he is a Morality figure; as a "revenger"
he is intended to reform the entire popular revenge
ethic,If he is stiff and abstract, it is partly because
^‘ ^"Calvinistic Thought," pp, 2^8-60,
^^His patience is not entirely passive. He quickly ac
cepts the thousand crowns from Sebastian, immediately
claims "just advantage" of D'Amville's confession, and
finally resolves not to let even a triple funeral of rela
tives interfere with hie plans to wed Castabella,
^^Leech argues that "a man waiting despondently for
Heaven to intervene is hardly a revenger of any sort"
("Dramatic Comment," p, 538n), but it is nevertheless ob
vious that Tourneur makes careful use of the entire revenge
jtradition, even .if it is only to "correct" it and its
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
177 I
few "good" men in literature are convincing, and partly be
cause his dramatic function is to glorify not himself but
God, For this reason his inflexibility is the mark of
Tourneur's success— or at least of his orthodoxy.
Castabella is also somewhat abstract for the same rea
son that Charlemont is— she is too ideal. Her wrongs
parallel Charlemont's and she is just as patient as he is
(in fact, before he is, by Il.iii). She is usually a more
positively "orthodox" character. While his faith in provi
dence wavers and he plans revenge, she submits to a forced
marriage; she says she could refute D'Amville (and partly
does), and, up to the final scene, her references to God
and heaven are more frequent and more "normative" than
Charlemont's,
She is also a foil character for Levidulcia (and vice
versa), but the parallelism is far more complex than an ab
stract relationship of "lecherous mother" versus "chaste
daughter," Levidulcia need not be old— she is not Casta
bella’ s real mother (I,iv,111-2), and she feels a strong
natural affinity for Sebastian (IV,v,1^-9)— and is perhaps
a rather young woman married to that most amusing of men,
the old cuckold. At any rate, Levidulcia goes outside of
marriage to satisfy her desires, while Castabella, forcibly
married to a man whose impotence becomes notorious, and
[.underlying ethic.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
confronted with the man she loves and whom she had intended
to marry, positively avoids him, except when her husband is
present,It would be only natural for Castabella to take
the course Sebastian recommends— to take revenge for her
forced marriàge, and satisfy her desire for Charlemont,
The whole point is obviously that she does not do the "nat
ural" thing like Levidulcia, but does the "moral" thing
(not "revenging" herself by the methods of the Duchess in
The Revenger’s Tragedy), If she is treated something like
a chattel (another of Charlemont's material rewards) at the
end of the play, she is allowed some outstanding scenes.
Her evasion of Rousard in I,iii demonstrates her ability
to live by her wits, and her various appeals for deliver
ance from the forced marriage in I.iv reveal her determin
ation and ingenuity. Her resistance and partial refutation
of D'Amville in III,iv make her a strong figure in that
central scene,
Levidulcia, as already noted, is also a foil for D'Am-
1^2
Castabella's exits become rather notable. When
Charlemont is reported dead she says only "0 God" and im
mediately leaves (II,i,111), In Ill.i she apologizes to
heaven as Rousard's wife for crying over Charlemont's
grave; when Charlemont appears she refuses to kiss him,
then leaves at the first opportunity. After pleading im
portunately for his release in III,iv, she again leaves the
moment he appears, and when she re-enters, it is with her
husband; a meal is begun at the end of this scene; she is
I absent at its conclusion in IV,ii. She remains willingly
alone with Charlemont for the first time after her marriage
only after he rescues her in the graveyard scene.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
! ^ 179 ;
iville. Both act on their own doctrines of Nature, regard
less of morality or anything else; hers is based on
"blood”; his, on reason. Both recognize the error of
their ways and the justice of their deaths
The most interesting characters of The Atheist*s
Tragedy are in many ways those of the sub-plot.Sebas
tian is both the most "alive” of all the play's characters
(one who, like Mercutio, threatens to get out of hand), and
also nearest to being an "objective character," He too is
something of a "naturalist," but a human one because both
good and evil are mixed in his "personality," He speaks
the truth and pays debts of honor, even if doing so incon-
. veniencea him; but his complementary faithlessness and pro
miscuity in love are the causes of his death,
^^Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions, pp, l80-2,
^Churton Collins' statements on Tourneur's sub-plot
characters reveal some of the worst characteristics of
nineteenth-century criticism. He thinks Soquette and Fres
co "below contempt," and says, "Cataplasma would be intol
erable even in the haunts over which she presides, and Seb
astian's wit is as stale as his paramour's love, Langbeau
Snuffe is his only attempt of any merit in this walk, but
he is at best a vulgar caricature superfluously elaborated
and impertinently introduced, a concession, doubtless, to
the groundlings, who had, however, been taught to laugh at
better things" (Works, I, xliv-v), A more perceptive read
ing of the play is M, C, Bradbrook's; she finds the clown
ing unusually successful and adds, "Unless Tourneur's own
disgust is felt behind the treatment of Langbeau Snuffe,
Cataplasma and Soquette, the force of the subplot is lost.
The obscenity is not there for its own sake; it is placed
in a definite relationship to the main plot, as in the con
trast between Levidulcia and Castabella in 3»3'' (Themes and
Conventions, p, ^8),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r î8oi
i
The portrait of Snuffe, the phoney Puritan, is an ex
treme satiric one, but it is done with fine consistency.
He maintains the same flat tone of false "plainnesse and
truth" throughout, and is objectively termed "rotten" (in
the only occurrences of the word in the play), both early
and late in the action, Sebastian compares him to rotten
fruit in I,iv, and the judge in the last scene says Bel
forest, in making a "puritan" of a chandler, "did but paint
a rotten post;/ Or couer foulenesse fairely , , ," (70-1),
Other characters may be mentioned more briefly, Mont
ferrers does not appear for long, but his notions of
fatherhood provide an effective contrast with those of his
brother, Borachio is a fairly typical tool-villain, but an
"instrument" so in tune with D’Amville that the latter can
"play upon" him quite effectively, Belforest's few appear
ances firmly establish strengths of character and mind
which make him something more than the purely conventional
deceived husband.
If most characters in the play seem somewhat abstract
ejid wooden, it is because the most important personage in
the action does not really appear. As thesis-drama, the
play at least indirectly has God as its hero, and the most
important qualities of its characters are not those of
"personality," but of morality. It blends Morality,
Revenge play, and satire, but the strongest element seems
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
........ 181 j
to be the Morality, D'Amville is an impious man struck
down by God; Charlemont, a patient anti-revenger; Sebas
tian, a satirist with fatal flaws of his own. In every
case, it is God who is in control, and only the good sur
vive and are rewarded,
THE ATHEIST'S TRAGEDY; TECHNIQUES OP STAGING
Grouping of Characters
The most important character-groups in The Atheist's
Tragedy are of course the three families who dominate the
action of both plots. At the end all three are consoli
dated in the union of Charlemont and Castabella; the rest
are dead. Among these families are complementary groupings
of fathers, sons, fathers and sons, besides the contrast of
Levidulcia and Castabella,
The play's first scene first relates D'Amville to Bor-
^^Aside from Levidulcia, "mothers" are conspicuously
absent from the play. There are various reasons, of course,
for making Montferrers and D'Amville widowers. The play is
concerned with the rise and fall of a family dynasty, and
it is easier both morally and dramatically not to have two
more women to dispose of, since one family is obliterated
and the other threatened with annihilation. Moreover, the
family relationship, viewed largely through D'Amville, is
a dynastic concern (a family is "built"), not an affection
ate "human" unit. Obviously it is hard to conceive of
D'Amville with a wife— particularly if the attempted rape
of Castabella is retained. As it is concerned with "God
head," the play seems more concerned-with paternity than
maternity, but the result is certainly a rather strange de-
jpiction of motherhood. As Kernan observes of another char-
lacter, the only mother in the play is a "rutting bitch,"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
achio, then to Charlemont, and only at the end of the scene;
to his sons. The second scene then begins with Montfer
rers' family and successively adds those of D'Amville and
Belforest, It is the only time all of these characters are
together, but the scene effectively sets the families in
relationship to each other.
Different scenes or separate portions of a single
scene often make striking or even emblematic arrangements
of characters. II,i makes a social separation, the main
plot and sub-plot characters entering at different doors;
as already noted, the entire scene (Castabella's wedding
party), is "framed" by Levidulcia, who dominates its begin
ning and end. Castabella is allowed only to moan "0 God"
as she leaves the stage with the report of Charlemont's
death in II,i, so that her soliloquy with her reappearance
in Il.iii is lent a special poignancy. The same scene be
gins with Castabella's "chaste" soliloquy, but it ends with
Levidulcia's lustful one.
The manipulation of characters throughout the second
act and part of the third is notable, II,iv is concerned
with murder. II,v is a bedroom larce, with entrances and
exits as complex as those of II,iv, but for a far more
trivial purpose; it is followed by a martial, ghostly scene
in II.vi, then by a funeral in Ill.i. Sebastian dies at
the end of act four, but act five begins with the self-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
...... -......... 183 1
congratulations of his over-confident father. The intro
ductory scenes are dominated by D'Amville and Borachio,
who begir. the first scene and close the second with their
plotting,
Charlemont's and Castabella's exits and entrances were
described in earlier sections, and those of other charac
ters are also significant. The fortuity of many of the en
trances and exits throughout the play creates the impres
sion that the characters and their a ctiona are controlled
by an outside force. What Snuffe is supposed to be is
different from what he is and does. He is described as
Belforest'3 chaplain, but after D'Amville bribes him he ap
pears only once again alone with Belforest--even then ser
ving D'Amville's interests— but is frequently seen with
D'Amville, Snuffe seems to avoid Charlemont after betray
ing him; he pretends, like D'Amville, to fear Charlemont as
a ghost in III,ii, but he tells D'Amville in IV,iii that
there are no ghosts, and his exit-speech immediately after
Charlemont's appearance seems to indicate that he is beat
ing a politic retreat:
No, T'is prophane. Spirits are inuisible,
T'is the fiend 1' the likeness of Charlemont,
I will haue no conuersation with Sathan,
(III,ii.30-2)
Sebastian's absences are rather notable. He is sel-
jdom found with his father, particularly after his cry of
["rape," "Honest" Sebastian is the only absentee from the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r ........ '.................. ■ ..leï]
rather sickening "family reunion" in Ill.iv,
The stoic Charlemont can endure a tender dinner with
his murderous uncle in III.lv, but the naïve Charlemont
who begins the play is not once but twice presented with
"trustworthy friends" who immediately betray him. After
the harsh judgment of sub-plot characters in V.ii, it is
perhaps significant that the next to enter for judgment is
D’Amville, not Charlemont and Castabella. Throughout the
play Tourneur groups his characters for the most striking
"moral" effect, and they are so manipulated as to prove
that God alone controls events and orders them according
to his purposes.
Staging Techniques
The Atheist’s Tragedy uses a rather typical group of
properties, and some fairly complicated "stage business" is
implicit or described. Perhaps the first thing to be
noticed is its exploitation of the theater itself. John
Cranford Adams says the inner stage, first level (the
"study") with its trapdoor was used to stage Montferrers*
murder and the first appearance of his ghost (pp. 209,
213n). Avoiding undue speculation and controversy, we may
note that either the fore- or rear-stage trapdoor seems to
be required in both cases, and also for the charnel house
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' 18$
in IV,ill,Adams thinks the ’ ’study” and its curtains
were used for the ’ ’discovery” of the servant and money in
V,i (p. 114. 1),^^ and argues, with less justification, that
the inner stage, second level (the ’ ’chamber” ), with its
door and rear hangings, was used for Levidulcia's. "bed
room farce” in II,v, A door and arras are required, but it
seems at least possible that the door to the main stage and
the curtains to the "study” might have served just as well.
Perhaps the upper-stage is alluded to (but not used) in
IV,V, where Soquette makes arrangements for Snuffe to
"steals vp into the little matted chamber o' the left
hand” (IV,v,8),
A number of properties are used, D'Amville gives
Snuffe a ring in I,ii, He gives Charlemont a thousand
crowns in I,i, and gives another thousand to Sebastian in
III,ii (which Sebastian gives Charleraont--to give back to
D'Amville— in III,iii), The revenues from Montferrers'
estate are present in V,i, There are numerous weapons, and
^^Nicoll believes the charnel house on the Elizabethan
stage was "most probably” located in the inner stage (Works,
P. 330).
^^While it is not clear just how she gets D'Amville to
the forestage, it is clear that Miss Ellis-Permor imagines
him there in the latter part of this scene, to permit a
more effective entrance of Sebastian's body; she says,
’ ’ However abrupt the stage direction ('Enter servant with
the body of Sebastian') or the modern entry, the deep Jaco
bean stage would give an entry slow and solemn enough for
a pause of horrified realization most potent in effect"
(Jacobean Drama, p, I68),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r ”‘ ' ■ ... ...1861
the principal male characters may always have gone armed.
Sebastian has a rapier in II,v (when Levidulcia tells him
to draw his rapier and rush out of her chamber as if ang
ry), in Ill.ii (when he fights Charlemont), in Ill.iii
(when he gives it to the jailer), and in IV,v (when he is
killed by Belforest), Belforest and Charlemont obviously
have rapiers in the instances mentioned, and Belforest
probably threatens Fresco with one in IV,iv, Charlemont
must have a full military outfit in II,vi (and another may
be used to give him a military burial in Ill.i), He pre
sumably kills Borachio with the sword in IV,ii, for his
next entrance describes him as entering with sword drawn.
The "musquetier" in II,vi needs a musket, for he tells us
he has shot the ghost through (7$)« D'Amville gives the
misfiring pistol to Borachio in IV.ii, Whether or not
Levidulcia always carries a dagger, she seems to require
one for her suicide in IV,v (although she may have used one
of the rapiers), and "the watch" require bills in the same
scene.
The play has night scenes and "convivial" ones, II,i
begins with stage directions describing music and a banquet
in the nightj healths are drunk, drums and trumpets sound,
and D'Amville calls for more lights to see his brother
home. The servants are still drinking in II,ii, and they
and Fresco require lights in the succeeding three scenes,
;V,i begins with music and lights.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
........................ : ..187
Besides Charlemont’s military garb, several other out
fits are required, Borachio is disguised as a soldier in
II.i, presumably in the fashion D'Amville ordered at the
end of I.iij the scarf, at least, is specifically mentioned,
Snuffe’s disguise of sheet, hair, and a board in IV.iii
also aids Charlemont, Whether or not Cataplasma's house
is really fitted out with "falls and tires," the staging
of IV,i requires something for Soquette's needlework, and
a lute and book. Other properties Include the letters
D'Amville sends Belforest in I.ii, stones in II,iv, and
numerous skulls in IV.iii, The cloud D'Amville takes as a
ghost in IV.iii is probably meant to be understood as a fig
ment of his disordered imagination. There are still more
stage effects, some of them rather complicated. Thunder
and lightning are described in II,iv and II,vi. Since
Charlemont counts the hours at the beginning of IV.iii,
the bell is presumably used to sound them (J, C, Adams, p,
372), A bed may be implicit in II,v, set in Levidulcia's
bedroom, and one is positively required for the entrance
of the dying Rousard in V,i, Bearers for bodies and some
thing to bear them on are implicit in two scenes, D'Am
ville says "Set downe the Body" at the beginning of Ill.i,
orders his sons' bodies brought in in V.ii, and "hearses"
are specifically mentioned in the latter scene. The funer
al scene also requires three "volleys" (and someone to fire
them), and something to be used as the monuments for Charle-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
................. '... 188 j
mont and Montferrers (perhaps the pillars). The final
scene requires special properties; Charlemont "Leaps vp
the Scaffold" (V.ii,li^ij.) and "CASTABELLA leapes after him"
(1^5)* The judges occupy an elevated position, for D'Am
ville "ascends" to join them and later "descends" to speak
to Charlemont, The scene also requires, obviously, glasses
of water and wine and an executioner's ax.
Other "stage business" is implicit in the action and
dialogue. Four characters must "shed tears"--Montferrers
and Castabella in I.ii, D'Amville in II,iv, and Levidulcia
in IV,V, Kisses are required in I.ii, I.iii, and I.iv,
Embraces seem necessary in Ill.iii, and at the end of the
play the vindicated Charlemont and Castabella embrace and,
with God's blessings, "live happily ever after,"
AFTERWORD
The Atheist's Tragedy is a play filled with sensa
tional action, improbabilities, and perhaps a few absurd
ities if we see it from a "human" point of view; but if we
so view it, we have missed the whole point of the play.
The absurd mishap with the executioner's ax is to be taken
as the direct intervention of God, like the thunder at var
ious points and the mischances of the "graveyard scene,
’ ^^How D'Amville knows Charlemont is going to be walk-
in the graveyard is never explained— except that it appar-
jently is "infernal" knowledge.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
- % 8 T
The play is intended as a pronouncement on the punishments ;
for sins and the rewards for virtue. The list of sins
reads like any biblical denunciation— there are atheism, ;
pride, malice, murder, hypocrisy, lying, lust, adultery,
fornication, threatened incest arid revengefulness, and
probably more. The "virtues” may seem less interesting,
but they include bravery, chastity, fidelity to oaths
(including marriage vows), patience, forbearance. The
patient Charlemont and Castabella are meant to be walking
illustrations of Martin Luther's favorite text— "The just
shall live by faith"— and Tourneur contrives the action
of the play so as to demonstrate the fact that their faith
was perfectly justified. The wicked are punished and the
righteous rewarded, Tourneur has dramatized a sermon, but
the continuing interest in the play is some indication of
the effectiveness with which he did this "impossible" task.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
CHAPTER IV
!
TOURNEUR‘S PLAYS COMPARED
The Revenger's Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy are
virtually unique among Elizabethan Revenge plays in that
both reject personal revenge as immoral. The Revenger's
Tragedy, a more "objective” play, implicitly derides re
venge by means of the triviality of the revenge motivation
given the Duchess, Spurio, Lussurioso, Ambitioso, and
Supervacuo; it shows the degeneration of its revenging
hero and executes him at last like a common criminal; it
presents in Antonio a man who has perhaps stronger reasons
for revenge than any other character,^ yet who does nothing
in his own behalf, who waits patiently, then reaps the re
wards when the guilty are punished. The condemnation of
revenge in the "sequel” to the play. The Atheist's Tragedy,
is quite explicit; the protagonist is "reconciled” to the
murderer of his father; the very ghost of the murdered man
is the instrument by which the protagonist is told not to
seek revenge,
- I
Vendice has lost a sweetheart, but Antonio has lost
! a wife,
^ 190
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
191
The nost striking similarity between The Revenger*s
Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy is thus their near-
continuity as a single argument against revenge. Written,
as L, G, Salingar has shown, in the Morality tradition,
both plays depict, the.destruction of the wicked and the
eventual prosperity of the righteous. Vendice and Hippol-
ito are classed among the wicked because, in achieving re
venge, they become as bad as the evil characters they op
pose j Charlemont is classed among the righteous precisely
because he does not take revenge into his own hands. At
the conclusion of the earlier play Antonio (whom many
writers see as the "pilot study" for Charlemont), has Ven-
dice and Hippolito seized as "villains," telling them
You that would murder him would murder me,
(V.iii.lLt.8)
and expressing the hope that their deaths will cleanse the
.duchy of treachery:
Pray heauen their bloud may wash away all treason.
(V.iii.l72)
Similarly Charlemont at the conclusion of the later play
formally summarizes theme and action:
Onely to Heau'n I attribute the worke.
Whose gracious motiues made me still forbeare
To be mine owne Reuenger. Now I see.
2
Already cited is John Peter's opinion,"Revenger's
Tragedy Reconsidered," p. 11^2, that Tourneur clearly con
siders the brothers "guilty of transgressing the biblical
injunctions not to murder, to turn the other cheek, and to
respect the sovereign of the state . . . ."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
192 1
That, Patience is the honest mans reuenge»
(V.ii.300-3)
The thematic continuity of both plays is frequently
remarked. Harold Jenkins finds in both the same hatred of
vice, and clear development of thought from one to the
other ("Tourneur,” pp. 29, 36). Inga-Stina Ekeblad finds
the same moral attitude (based on Christian morality) in
both,3 Miss Bradbrook concludes that both are "built upon
the same plan" (Themes, p. 17lt-); Samuel Schoenbaura, even as
he analyzes The Revenger's Tragedy as if it were Middle
ton’s, observes that it "is telling a timeless parable of
man's wickedness and God’s punishment for sins" (Middleton,
p. 32). (He might note how perfectly the description fits
The Atheist’s Tragedy as well). Miss Ellis-Permor says.
The Atheists Tragédie is a later comment
upon the imagined world which is revealed in
The Revengers Tragédie without comment, even
with complete subjection and identification of
the poet’s mood with the unbroken mood of the
world he watches, (Jacobean Drama, pp. 158-9)
H. H. Adams provides one of the more elaborate series
of reasons for seeing in the plays a sequence of arguments
against revenge. He cites Tourneur as the first to exper
iment with many revengers in a single play, and says that
he "was exploring the entire idea of revenge, attempting to
illustrate it in all its aspects" (p. 7 i | . ) . In The
o
"On the Authorship of The Revenger’s Tragedy," Eng
lish Studies, ^1:225-^0, August i960.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
■ . ^ 193
Atheist*a Tragedy, he believes, "Tourneur set himself the
task of dramatizing the conclusion he had already reached
in The Revengers Tragaedie" (p. 79)o He concludes that
Tourneur's plays consciously present "a study of revenge in
its entirety" (p, 8 7), It might finally be noted that in
presenting the do's and the don't's of revenge, the two
plays are biblical not only in theme but also in method--
Por the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous:
but the way of the ungodly shall perish, (Psalm 1:6)
That both plays are the expression of the same person
ality is assumed by such diverse writers as T, S, Eliot and
Harold Jenkins; Allardyce Nicoll says somewhat more
cautiously.
In spite of the differences, there must be
many readers of The Revengers Tragaedie and
The Atheist's Tragédie who find there some
thing ot the same dark and ironical attitude-
towards life, (Works, p, 19)
Others find in both plays the same attitude of their author
toward drama, using it as he does to express moral truth,^
There is also the same atmosphere of sex and death,
, , , a consistent association of the sexual
and the macabre, a lingering over "fulsome lusts",
and assignations in graveyards and with skulls,°
^Bradbrook, Themes, pp, I66, 18^; Ekeblad, "Author
ship," p, 2^#,
^Ekeblad, "Authorship," p, 23$,
^Ornstein, Moral Vision, p, 110,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
19i|. I
Snuffe's embrace of the dead Borachio unites the two motifs
as fully, and, in a different way, as perversely, as the
old Duke's embrace of the "bony lady," Both plays have an ;
ironic outlook that is consistently sustained in the midst
of other achievements--
What The Revenger's Tragedy and The Atheist's
Tragedy have in common is a deeper irony of moral
retribution which governs each play, and which at
the climax of each play— the skull-scene and D'Am
ville's death, respectively— fuses comic and tra
gic material, farce and morality,7
Finally, an apparent difference— that in "tone" or the
attitude of the author--between the plays is neatly dis
posed of by Robert Ornstein;
More than likely the latter play simply chron
icles a return to the orthodoxy that was Tour
neur's fundamental position after a temporary dis-'
illusionment , , , , (Moral Vision, p, ll8)
Ornstein believes, in fact, that the "polemical intention
and achievement" of the later play prove its production by
the writer of The Revenger's Tragedy;
Indeed, , , , Tourneur's success as a melo-
dramatist is the chief clue to his failure as
a didacticist, (p, 106)
Another similarity is the manner in which a high pro
portion of the characters in the earlier play are mirrored
in the later. It has already been noted that Antonio seems
an early version of Charlemont, Both reject revenge, and
even in the earlier play the rejection is implicitly on
n
Ekeblad, "Tourneur's Imagery," p, l + 9 i ] . n .
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
195
moral grounds; in both plays the injured but honest man is
vindicated by ’ ’ heaven," and succeeds to the estate and
position of the injurer (H. H. Adams, pp. 79-81). While
D'Amville does not have a precise counterpart, H. H. Adams
notes that his atheism seems a logical development of Ven-
dice’s implicit mistrust of heaven, in view of the fact
that he will not wait for providence to act (p. 00).
Churton Collins considered Tourneur’s women characters
to be much alike, and observed,
Levidulcia and Gratiana, cast in the same
mould, have pretty much the same character,
and Castabella assumes the same attitude to
ward Levidulcia in the one play as Castiza
assumes towards Gratiana in the other.8
Part of this is overstated. If Castabella condemns Levi
dulcia, it is only by being what she is. Castiza's condem
nation, on the other hand, is quite outspoken and several
times repeated. It is nevertheless true that Castiza and
Castabella are much alike; as their names indicate, both
are studies of chastity. Castiza, who has a slighter role
and a more abstract "personality," is, in Miss Ellis-
Permor's opinion, "a preliminary study for the far more
fully thought-out Castabella of the later play ..." (Jac
obean Drama, p. 163), Collins’ remarks on the "mothers" of
Û
Works, I, lii. Collins also says, "His four princi
pal female figures, Castabella, Castiza, Levidulcia, and
Gratiana, differ merely in name, and what slight difference
there is between them would seem to arise simply from the
difference of the circumstances in which they are placed."
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
i ' *. 196
the plays are more accurate. Both Levidulcia and Gratiana
act selfishly, setting bad examples for their daughters;
both are "redeemed” through violence, although they do not
come to the same end, Levidulcia seems also to owe some
thing to the Duchess of the earlier play; both are lustful
step-mothers, both verbalize their feelings with striking
garrulity, and both frequently use (usually for a seductive
purpose) obscene double entendres, A result of the simi
larities among the last three characters has already been
noted— "motherhood" is depicted in both plays as strikingly
perverse, A final thematic contrast should be cited. The
Duchess seduces Spurio partly because of lust and partly
as "revenge" for her husband’s tardy deliverance of her
criminal son. As Sebastian notes, Castabella has even more
adequate reason for "revenge" on her husband, besides her
very genuine and strong love for Gharlemont, but she does
not take it. The contrast is, I think, too strong to be
accidental.
The "Youngest Son" of the earlier play is flippantly
depraved, with the occasional ability to express bluntly-
phrased insights on the world about him. He seems a clear
anticipation of Sebastian, as Miss Ellis-Permor notes (Jac
obean Drama, p, I 6 3 ) , Sebastian is far more striking, but
his character seems in almost every case simply an elabo
ration of what was hinted at in the "Youngest Son," Sebas-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
197
tian is lustful and frankly promiscuous, with the tendency
frequently to criticize both the action of the play and
life in contemporary England, It must be added that while
Sebastian is a more fully developed "Youngest Son" he also
impresses us as coming from the same hand that delineated
Vendice; both see some of the maladies of the worlds they
live in, but both are fatally "sick" themselves.
Strictly speaking, Snuffe does not have a counterpart
in The Revenger's Tragedy, but his character is consistent
with Vendice's derision of the Puritan,^ and as a social
climber (like Malvolic), he has perhaps a strained parallel
in the foppish Dondolo, Another possible parallel (also
strained) is that between Hippolito and Borachio; both are
conceived of chiefly as instruments.
There are also striking linguistic parallels between
the plays, including fairly elaborate statements of iden
tical or highly similar themes, and repetition of similar
or identical imagery. Of the five rather unusual groups
of images Miss Ellis-Permor considers central in The Reven-
9
It is of course true that derision of the Puritan
was fairly commonplace in Elizabethan literature, A study
of this tendency in the drama is that of Aaron M, Myers,
Representation and Misrepresentation of the Puritan in
Elizabethan Drama, Philadelphia, 1931» But the quality
6t the study is perhaps revealed by such statements as
this--"Languebeau Snuffle [sic] , , , is probably the foul
est and most grossly misrepresented of all Puritan Char
acters" (p, 22),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
1 9 8
ger'a Tragedy, she finds that "three unusual and unconnec
ted groups, building, business transactions and river and
stream imagery" ("Imagery, p. 296) are also prominent in
The Atheist's Tragedy. She notes also that the building
images are similar in emphasis, in
. , . the laying of the foundation, the rais
ing of a building, a building standing firm,
undermined and falling and a fallen building
or monument (p. 296),
and that the business images are grouped around tenant-
landlord relations, estate management, property transfer,
dowries, capital, money-changing, bonds, bankruptcy, and
the like (p. 296). While she objects somewhat to the bio
graphical emphasis of Miss Ellis-Permor's study, Inga-Stina
Ekeblad agrees that a study of both plays reveals "a firm
integration, a unity of aim, of the imagery with the
dramatic structure and technique" ("Imagery," p. ^98).
Besides the parallels in imagery, perhaps sufficiently
illustrated in the preceding chapters, there are extended
parallel speeches,D'Amville remarks of "honesty"—
For if Charitie
Be an essentiall part of Honestie,
And should be practis'd first vpon our selues;
Which must be graunted; then your honest man
As Robert Ornstein (Moral Vision, p. 106) observes.
The Atheist's Tragedy is rarely compared carefully to The
Revenger's Tragedy, I suspect that if the two were com-
pared with half the zeal with which The Revenger'a Tragedy
is compared to the Middleton canon, there would be many
more parallels noted.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
199
That's poors, is most dishonest, for hee is
Vncharitable to the Man, whom hee
Should most respect, (I,i.l{.0-6)
These seem to recall Vendice's comments from the earlier
play;
•Tis honestie you vrge; what's honestie?
'Tis but heauens beggar; and what woman is so
foolish to keeps honesty.
And be not able to keepe her-selfe? (II,i,2014.- 6)
Why are there so few honest women, but be
cause 'tis the poorer profession? (II,i,250-1)
Again, when Sebastian in The Atheist's Tragedy expresses
the hope that Castabella, being "raped” by Rousard, will
cuckold him, he says, among other things—
Let the Chambers be matted, the hinges oyl'd,
the curtains rings silenced, and the chamber
maid hold her peace at his own request, that
he may sleeps the quietlier, (I,iv,156-8)
This seems to recall a part of Vendice's observations;
Now tis full sea a bed ouer the world;
Theres iugling of all sides; some that were Maides
E'en at Sun set are now perhaps ith Toale-booke;
This woman in immodest thin appareil
Lets in her friend by water, here a Dame
Cunning, nayles lether-hindges to a dore
To auoide proclamation.
Now Cuckolds are a quoyning, apace, apace, apace,
apace,
(II,ii,152-9)
Dugdale Sykes long ago noted a significant parallel between
the expectations of Vendice and Castabella that heaven will
punish impiety, Vendice says.
Why do's not heauen turne black, or with a frowne
Vndoo the world— why do's not earth start vp.
And strike the sinnes that tread vppon't?
(II,i,275-7)
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 0 0 I
0 thou almighty patience, tia my wonder
That such a fellow, impudent and wicked.
Should not be clouen as he stood:
Or with a secret winde burst open!
Is there no thunder left, or 1st kept vp
In stock for heauier vengeance? (IV,ii*219-2 1 4. )
And when D'Amville admits his atheism as he is trying to
rape Castabella, she says,
0 patient Heau'nl Why doest thou not expresse
Thy wrath in thunderbolts; to teare the frame
Of man in pieces? How can earth endure
The burthen of this wickednesse without
An earthquake? Or the angry face of Heau'n ..
Be not enflam'd with lightning? (IV,iii,177-82)
Many more verbal parallels simply emphasize similar
ities already discussed— of theme, characterization, and
12
the like. Other similarities are less tangible; the
business of Snuffe's mistaking Borachio's body for Soquette
resembles the treatment given the body of the old Duke (to
gether with his fatal assignation), and Snuffe's fear in
the same instance of committing sodomy seems to recall the
imagery of Vendice as he first greets Lussurioso:
How dost sweete Musk-cat?
"Cyril Tourneur: 'The Revenger's Tragedy': 'The
Second Maiden's Tragedy,'" Notes and Queries, 88:225-9»
September 1919, (The numbering is oHanigect to agree with
Nicoll's edition,not, of course, available to Sykes),
12
In his study of Heutilet's influence, D, J, McGinn
argues a relationship between the two speeches of Vendice
expressing amazement that heaven does not punish Lussurioso
for his lies about the attempted seduction of Castiza, and
Gharlemont's formal summation on patience and revenge, "In
both passages," McGinn thinks, "the playwright implies that
to God alone belongs vengeance" (p, 37).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
[ 201 ;
When shall we lie togither? (I%lii.36-7)
and that of Lussurioso (also parodying the sacrament) as
he pays Vendice:
So thou'rt confirmed in mee
And thus I enter thee* (I.iii.96-7)
The report circulated of the old Duke after he has gone to
the fatal assignation— that he is "priuately rid forth”--
recalls something of D'Amville's reasons for getting Casta
bella into the churchyard— he has something to speak
privately to her. Finally, this very scene seems almost
to be predicted by Vendice's remarks to Lussurioso claiming
acquaintance with
Druncken procreation, which begets so many drunckards;
Some father dreads not (gonne to bedde in wine) to
slide from the mother.
And cling the daughter-in-law, (I,iii.66-8)
The preceding chapters have revealed still other
parallels. Both plays have a tendency to trivialize the
soliloquy by giving it to minor characters; both overuse
the feminine ending; both abound in puns and strangely-
literal figures of speech. Other points of resemblance
they share with most Elizabethan plays— their use of tem
poral compression in plot construction, their strong
expository scenes, and their pre-characterization.
There are, of course, major differences between the
plays. The most obvious is that they are intended to pre
sent opposite "poles" of the same situation: one shows the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 0 2
immorality of revenge; the other, the morality of the re
jection of revenge. There are striking differences between
the types of verse used in the two plays ; that of one is
sometimes so irregular as to approach free verse; that of
the other is metrically regular, with its variations occur
ring in the "internal melody," There is a difference in
technique— the earlier play is rather dispassionate, "objec
tive" in its presentation of good and evil characters, so
that the spectator has to attend to the imagery, to in
cidental references, to the action itself, and the inter
relationships of the characters in order to derive a "stan
dard" whereby to judge the dramatis personae; the later
play, on the other hand, provides stage effects to demon
strate God's displeasure with the atheist, and repeatedly
stresses the immorality of revenge. The earlier play
gives the spectator almost too little help; the later,
almost too much. Finally, it can hardly be doubted that
the earlier play is more interesting and more effective as
drama, Harold Jenkins concedes that The Revenger's Tragedy
is the masterpiece in drama, but demonstrates that The
Atheist's Tragedy is Tourneur's masterpiece in thought
("Cyril Tourneur," p. 21). H, H, Adams shows that the
later play is a dramatic failure simply because it provides
the orthodox answer to the problem of the earlier play;^^
^^"Cyril Tourneur on Revenge," p, 87, One of the
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
203
to sit patiently and wait for God to exact revenge is
hardly a dramatic pastime.
But the similarities between the two plays are far
more notable, A number of the characters are highly sim
ilar, some of the early ones appearing to be preliminary
studies for the later. The plots are similar, and much of
the imagery is identical both in subject-matter and method
of operation. Most notable is the fact that the plays,
taken together, comprise a unified statement on what was
apparently a major ethical problem of the time, and what
was certainly one of the most popular themes on the Eliza
bethan stage,
TOURNEUR AND OTHER ELIZABETHANS
Renaissance scholarship has found a high proportion of
mutual indebtedness among Elizabethan and Jacobean drama
tists, and Tourneur is no exception to this tendency.
Since both his surviving plays belong to the Revenge trad
ition, and since the most influential of all Elizabethans
was Shakespeare, we may expect Tourneur's plays to have
drawn heavily upon Hamlet. The Atheist's Tragedy, with its
murderous uncle, its innocent maiden used as a pawn, its
points made at length by Una Ellis-Permor's Frontiers of
Drama is the practical impossibility of achieving truly
^religious" drama; the result is either "religious" or
"dramatic," not both. She says, "The Atheist's Tragedy is
the helpless victim of a reading or lire wnich ne can hard-
;ly transmute at all into dramatic form" (p. 9).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
............ ........... ' 20g
ghost, and its revenge-for-father motif, has the most ob
vions relationship to Hamlet. The Revenger's Tragedy, per
haps composed in part before the period of Hamlet's great
est influence on its author, does not parallel the Shakes
peare play so closely, but there are definite resemblances
between Vendice and Hamlet:^^ both have a scathing clear
sightedness, an ability to blister withi their words, and
Vendice’a disgust with Gratiana inevitably recalls Hamlet’s
with Gertrude (Nicoll, Works, p. ?)• There are verbal par
allels as well, D, J, McGinn (pp. IO3-I 4.) finds them in the
scenes of both sons with their mothers. Gratiana asks,
”What, will you murder me?” and ”Am not I your mother?”
(IV,iv.^, 1 3). Hamlet tells Gertrude, "Would it were not
sol— you are my motherl” (III.iv,l6), and she asks, ”Thou
wilt not murder me?” (III.iv.21). The reformed Gratiana
prays "0 you Heavens I take this infectious spot out of my
soul” (IV.iv.59)» and the conscience-smitten Gertrude
tells her son,
0 Hamlet, speak no morel
Thou turn’st mine eyes into my very soul;
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct. (Ill,iv.68-91)
The abuses provoking the remarks must have been notorious,
but Hamlet observes.
Collins thought Hippolito modelled on Claudio of
Measure for Measure as Vendice ”is possibly modelled on
Hamlet— but there all resemblance ceases” (Works, I, xli);
but Nicoll calls Vendice the ’ ’lineal descendant of Hamlet”
(Works, p. 8),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I . . . . . . . . . . . 2 0 T
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice
And oft 'tis seen the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law (III,iiio^7-60),
while in The Revenger's Tragedy justice speaks all in gold ;
and is near-kin to favor, and only the revenger's sword is
an "unbribed officer."
Vendice's remarks about "honesty" in the world also
seem to recall those of Hamlet and Rosencrantz:
For to be honest is not What's the news?
to be ith world .... None, my lord, but that the
(I.i.103) world's grown honest.
Then is Doomsday near. But
your news is not true,
(II.ii,2^0-^)
Vendice's pretended doubts about killing the drunken.
"Piato," with Lussurioso'a replying order to "let him reele
to hell," recall Hamlet's resolve to kill his uncle "When
he is drunk asleep" or in a similar condition, so that "his
heels may kick at Heaven/ And that his soul may be as
damned and black/ As Hell, whereto it goes" (III.iii,89-
95)» The remarks of Vendice and Hamlet to the skulls are
highly similar—
Here's an eye. Here hung
Able to tempt a great- those lips that I
man— to serue God, have kissed I know
A prety hanging lip, that not how oft,
has forgot now to dissemble; . . . Now get you
............... .. to my lady's cham-
Dos euery proud and selfe- ber and tell her,
affecting Dame let her paint an
Gamphire her face for this, inch thick, to
and grieue her Maker .... this favor she
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 0 6
(III,iv.58-60, 87-8) must come • • •
(V.1,207-8, 212-4)
Other possible links with Hamlet are the charnel-
house atmosphere and use of the skull throughout the later
play; but in the later play the skull replaces both skull
and ghost in Hamlet, as momento mori and a spur to revenge.
There are also many reminiscences of King Lear, Ven
dice' s "Let the wind go whistle/ Spout raine, we fear thee
not" (III.iv,64-5) recalls Lear's "Blow, winds, and crack
your cheeksI Ragel Blowl/ You cataracts and hurricanoes,
spout, . ,/ Spout, rainI" (III.ii.1-2, 14)» The place of
the old Duke'8 fatal assignation;
In some fit place vaylde from the eyes ath Court
Some darkned blushlesse Angle, that is guilty
Of his fore-fathers lusts .... this vn-sunned
lodge
Where-in tis night at noone . . . (III.v.15-7» 20-1),
recall Edgar's words to Edmund— "The dark and vicious place
where thee he got/ Cost him his eyes" (V.iii,172-3), Ven
dice' s reference to Gloriana's eyes--"When two-heauen-
pointed Diamonds were set/ In those vnsightly Rings" (I.i.
22-3)— recalls Edgar's description of Gloucester--"My
father with his bleeding rings,/ Their precious stones new
lost . . ." (V.iii.169-9 0). Finally, Vendice's "fly-flop
of vengeance" may recall Gloucester's "As flies to wanton
15
Most of the Hamlet parallels are from McGinn, pp.
114- 5, 154- 6.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
207
boys are we to the gods,/ They kill us for their sport"
(IV.i.38-9).^^
Other Shakespeare plays are echoed as well* Lussur
ioso' s "talke to me my Lords/ Of sepulchers and mighty
Emperors bones— " (V,i,l53“i 4 - ) recalls Richard II's "Let's
talk of graves, of worms and epitaphs ..." (Ill.ii,
17
lii.5)» Vendice's words to Hippolito after they have
"reformed" their mother recall Othello's to Brabantio and
the watch:
Wet will make yron blush^® Keep up your bright
and change to red: swords, for the dew
Brother it raines, twill will rust them,
spoile your dagger, (I,ii.60)
house it. (IV.iv.^2-3)
Perhaps an equally-extensive indebtedness of Tourneur
is, as already noted, to Marston, E, E, Stoll believes
that the two "are more alike than any two other dramatists
of the Elizabethan age":
Tourneur cultivates Marston's lively dialogue,
his more complicated intrigue with its startling
and horrible reversals, and his satirical char
acterization* He reproduces the preconcerted
feigning of the villain and tool-villain, the
disguise of the revenger . . . without the "an
tic disposition" of Antonio or Hamlet, the
However strained some of the Lear parallels may be,
all are advanced by L. L. Schücking,''"ËTne Enleihe Shakes-
peares bei Cyril Tourneur," Englische Studien. $[0:80-10$,
1916*
^^Nicoll, Works, p* 7»
^®In some copies, "Wee will make you blush. . .
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
............. 2 0 8 I
treacherous masque at the close, and the reven
ger’s frisky, anticipatory glee. He carries for
ward the same religious point of view and develops
further the Marstonian omens and portents. He
adopts Marston's exclamatory manner— his appeals
to Heaven, personifications and apostrophes. Nay,
he copies such details as the Marstonian self-
conscious references to rhetorical matters and to
tragedy, (Webster, pp, 106-7)
To catalog all the similarities of detail, particularly the
stock devices of Revenge Tragedy which Tourneur seems to
have taken from Marston in particular, would be tedious,
but perhaps a few will be instructive. There are the im
penetrable disguises of Antonio before Piero and others,
and of Vendice before his own mother and sister; there are
the protracted torture of Piero and the old Duke, and the
long delay in revenge— Vendice waits nine years, while
Piero waits twenty or more; there is the final masque for
19
revenge. Finally, and perhaps most important, it must be
noted that Vendice, as Malcontent-Revenger-Oritic, derives
largely from Marston’s Malevole (Stoll, Webster, pp, lOB,
110 n).
The precise extent of Marston's influence is difficult
19
Parallels with Marston are variously noted by Stoll,
John Webster, pp, 106-13; by Peter, Complaint and Satire,
pp, 239-ij.O; by Bowers, Elizabethan Revenge tragedy, p, 13S:
hy Bradbrook, Themes and Conventions, p« l6S; by Salingar,
"Morality Tradition,", p, 337; by Nicoll, Works, p, 7; by
Percy Simpson, "The Theme of Revenge in Elizabethan Trag
edy," p. 171; and by Eduard Eckhardt, Das Englische Drama
der Spâtrenaissance! (Shakespeares NaoKfolger) (Berlin and
Leipzig, l92<5), pp. 109-11,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
209
to gauge. He is perhaps the dominant influence on Tourneur
from the time of The Transformed Metamorphosis to The Rev
enger's Tragedy, and he seems to have provided revenge
devices Tourneur might have taken from almost any other
dramatist. Attempts have been made to prove that Tourneur
is more indebted to Marston than Shakespeare (or vice
versa), but perhaps it is better to conclude, with Eduard
Eckhardt, "Seine dramatischen Lehrmeister waren Shakes
peare und Marston" (p. 111),
The scholars who believe Middleton wrote The Reven
ger *s Tragedy have made little if any effort to demonstrate
an influence of Middleton upon The Atheist's Tragedy, (in
deed, the whole notion of "influence" is anathema to
20
them), but have produced an impressively-long list of
"parallels" between The Revenger's Tragedy and the accepted
Middleton canon. Many of the parallels are entirely uncon
vincing, and some seem to indicate an influence of Tourneur
upon Middleton, but a,few reminiscences of Middleton plays
may safely be advanced, Vendice's corruption of certior
ari, sasarara, is similar to that in The Phoenix, sur»i;tr-
rara, Vendice hesitates to continue tempting his mother,
saying "I e'en quake to proceed, my spirit turns edge";
20
Robert Ornstein (Moral Vision, p. 106), has argued
that while the parallels cited by such scholars "may sug
gest Influence or imitation, they do not establish a
single authorship,"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I 210
Ithis recalls The Phoenix» "our duties shall turn edge upon
our crimes." References to "writing the Duke Cuckold" re
call The__Phoen^’ s "he'll one day write me cuckold."
Richard Barker and Samuel Schoenbaum have offered an
extensive list of "parallel passages" between The Reven-
The following are
pi
some of the more convincing ones.
ger's Tragedy and Middleton's plays,
21
That forty Angells can make
foure score diuills.
(II.i.101)
A piteous tragaedy, able
to make
An old-mans eyes bloud-
shot.
(V.iii.90-1)
Why say so mad-man, and
cut of a great deale
of durty way ....
(II.i.19-20)
my spirit tumes
edge.
(II.i.122)
A right good woman in
these dayes is changde
Into white money with
lesse labour farre.
(II.ii,31-2)
Nay doubt not tis in
graine.
But angels make them
admirable devils.
(The Family of
love, I.il.l3L)
. . . here's a sight
Able to make an
old man shrinkl
(A Mad World, My
Masters, Ill.i'i'.
... to be short,
and cut off a great
deal of dirty way.
(A Mad World, I,
1.7i|.-5)
Our duties shall
turn edge upon
our crimes,
(Phoenix, V.i,205)
. . . he does deter
mine to turn her
into white money.
(Phoenix, I.iv.
245-6)
. . . nay, 'tis in
grain; I warrant it
21
Barker, Thomas Middleton, pp. 167-9; Schoenbaum,
Middleton's Tragedies, pp. 170-81.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
211
I warrant it hold collour.oo hold colour.
(IV.11.235)^ (A Mad World. III.
iii.til-2'r"
Incidental qualities of The Revenger’s Tragedy seem
also to derive from Henry Chettle's Hoffman. It is per
haps from this play that Tourneur got the idea of replac
ing the revenge ghost with a skull or skeleton (Stoll,
Webster, p. lO^n), and the first speech of Tourneur’s play
appears to be based on that of Chettle's (Collins, Works,
II, 1 5 1)• Harold Jenkins notes that the "villain" in both
plays is entrapped "by a lustful assignation, Chettle's
cave and 'queachy plot' corresponding to Tourneur's 'un
sunned lodge'" (p. 2 6).
Finally, a relationship to Volpone may be noted.
Inga-Stina Ekeblad considers The Revenger's Tragedy a
farce, in the sense that Volpone and The Jew of Malta are
23
farces. Robert Ornstein finds "the same dark, cynical,
satiric spirit" in both, the same emphasis on the conflict
22
But another possible parallel is Olivia's descrip
tion of her complexion in Twelfth Night--"'Tis in grain,
sir, 'twill endure wind an^ weather'MÎ.v.255-6).
^^Probably T. S. Eliot was the first to call The Jew
of Malta a "farce" and perhaps to compare it to Volpone in
Hÿbe Ëlank Verse of Marlowe" (reprinted in The Sacred
Wood). He added, "it is the farce of . . . the terribly
serTous, even savage comic humour. . ." (The Sacred Wood.
6th ed,, p. 92). Barker (p. 73) and Schoenbaum (Middleton,
p. 2 3), also call The Revenger's Tragedy a farce,' but
without the illuminating qualification Miss Ekeblad, prob
ably adapting Eliot, provides ("Authorship," p. 232).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 1 2 !
between cunning, knavish characters, the same allegorical
figures, ironic reversals, the same uses of disguises and
deceptions, even disguises that "reveal more of the inner
man than they hide" (Moral Vision, p, 112),
The first influence one notices upon The Atheist*s
Tragedy is again that of Shakespeare, and, as already
noted, the influence of Hamlet is particularly strong,
Castabella's references to Gharlemont>s "generous mind,"
"gentle love," and "noble courage" seem to recall some
thing of Ophelia's speech beginning "Oh, what a noble mind
is here o'er thrown" (III, i. 158 ^), The entire meditation
with which Gharlemont begins the "graveyard scene" is
carefully modelled on Hamlet's graveyard meditations. As
he tries to convince Montferrers that Gharlemont must be
allowed to go to war, D'Amville's remarks seem to reflect
Hamlet's— "There is special providence in the fall of a
sparrow , , , ," D'Amville's "reasoning" with the mourning
Gharlemont seems modelled on Glaudius* with Hamlet:
To lose a Father, and But, you must know, your
(as you may thinke) father lost a father
Be disinherited (it That father lost, lost
must be graunted) his , , , ,
Are motiues to impat- We pray you, throw to
ience. But for death earth
Who can auoide it? This unprevailing woe;
.......... , , , , and think of us
I will not be As of a father, For—
Your dispossessour, but let the world take
your Gardian, notei—
I will supply your Fa- You are the most immed-
thers vacant place, iate to our throne.
To guide your greene im- And with no less nobil-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
213
prouidence of youth;
And make you ripe for
your inheritance,
(III.iv.l4. 8-5i, 56-60)
ity of love
Than that which dearest
father bears his son
Do I impart toward you.
(I.ii.98 ff.)
The graveyard meditations of D’Amville also recall a part
of two of Hamlet's soliloquies—
. . , Why? was I borne
a coward?
He lies that sayes so.
I could now commit a
murder, were
It but to drinke the
fresh warme bloud
of him
I murder'd ....
(IV.iii.263-1 ^,
269-71)
Again, Gharlemont's and Hamlet's inferences about their
uncles and about the worlds they inhabit are similar—
Am I a coward?
Who calls me villain?
breaks my pate across?
Now I could drink hot
blood.
(II,ii.598-9; III.
ii.l4 .O 8)
These circumstances (Vn-
cle) tell me, you
Are the suspected author
of those wrongs.
Whereof the lightest, is
more heauie then
The strongest patience
can endure to beare.
(III.i.l61|.-7)
Oh, my prophetic souli
My Unclef (I.V.I4 .O-I)
The time is out of joint.
Oh cursed spite
That ever I was born to
set it right!
(I.V.189-9 0)
It might finally be noted that as Claudius promises "a
living monument" for Ophelia, so also does D'Amville for
Montferrers.
2I 4.
^"The preceding parallels are cited by D. J. McGinn,
pp. 31-2, 123-1 4 . » McGinn cites other verbal parallels which
seem to me simply to result from parallel situations. The
entire treatment of the ghostly appearances, for example,
would, I think, naturally be similar whether an author were
: borrowing from another or not. Several of the parallels
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
................................ 214 !
There are further parallels with other plays by
Shakespeare, Sebastian’s "so you'l but put money i’ my
purse" (III,ii,15-6) recalls lago’s advice to Roderigo,
while Castabella's "0 Father1 Mercie is an attribute/ As
high as lustice" (III,iv,5-6) echoes Portia, Levidulcia
imitates Lady Macbeth;
The Sea wants water enough to wash away
The foulenesse of my name, (IV,v,80-l;
And Gharlemont echoes Macbeth himself:
Our boyling phantasies
Like troubled waters falsifie the shapes
Of things retain’d in tjjem . , , , (II,vi,53-5)
The line "Where vnder the close Gurtaines of the night"
(IV,iii,59) recalls a part of Juliet's epithalamium—
"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing night" (III,ii,
5)» and D'Amville's desire for an anatomy of Gharlemont
25
recalls Lear’s for one of Regan, Moreover, D’Amville’s
attitude toward the too-honest Sebastian recalls Lear's
toward his daughter:
Goe, th'art the base cor- But yet thou art my flesh,
ruption of my bloud; my blood, my daughter
And like a Tetter growes't Or rather a disease
vnto my flesh, that's in my flesh
(III,ii,12-3) Which I must needs call
mine; thou art a boil
A plague-sore, an em-
cited are also noted by Nicoll, Works, pp, 6-7,
25
"^Tourneur’s debts to Shakespeare are mentioned by
almost every critic who gives him more than passing atten
tion, but the immediately-preceding group are all cited by
Nicoll, Works, pp, 6-7, Nicoll also gives credit to Ghur-
tçp GollTns*, who in his edition (Works, I, xl-xli) also
[cites many Shakespeare parallels,-----
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
21$
bossed carbuncle
In my corrupted blood,
( II. iv. 2211.-8) 20
Other parallels with Shakespeare are ones of situation
rather than of language. While other plays use the church
yard (Antonio's Revenge uses it also, but for a murder),
the graveyard scenes in Hamlet and The Atheist's Tragedy
are very close in situation as well as language. E. E.
Stoll feels that this scene, together with the motifs of
fratricide, of the ghost reappearing to remind the erring
son of his duty, of the idyllic love story disrupted by
the villain, and of the attack on the ghost may all owe
something to "the old Hamlet" (Webster, p. 112). Charle-
mont ' 3 disgust v5.th Castabella when she tells him she is
married, touch.*.ai» as it does upon images of sex and desire,
seems to owe something to Hamlet's denunciation of his
mother, D'Amville appears to owe something to Macbeth.
Both take advantage of the drunkenness of servants, and,
as Miss Ellis-Permor notes, both use violent imagery after
a murder they have engineered is discovered:
Each man is overacting, in a crisis, the
part of the horror-stricken discoverer of
a murder he has in fact himself committed.
(Jacobean Drama, p. I6ln)
Robert Ornstein finds considerable indebtedness to Lear—
the dramatization of the atheist's disillusionment with
26
Schücking cites these and other Lear parallels, p.
1 91 ££• -
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r . . . . . ■. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ' ' . . . . . . . . 2 1 6 "1
nature, the speeches of the crazed D'Amville, and the roles
of Edgar and Edmund;
Like Edmund, D'Amville hungers for a title
and conspires against his own brother. Like
Edmund, he is an emancipated intellectual who
takes nature for his goddess and laugpis at
superstitious credulity .... Gharlemont is
merely a Gallic version of Edgar, Like Edgar
he is robbed of his inheritance by a close
relative, and like Edgar he is falsely co'n-
demned by a criminal, (Moral Vision, p, 122)
There are perhaps scattered reminiscences of other
Shakespeare plays, Schücking (p, 8?) feels D'Amville's
request for an anatomy of Gharlemont may be indebted to
both Lear and Romeo and Juliet, since Romeo also asks in
what part of his anatomy his name lodges, Sebastian's
relationship to Mercutio is, I think, rather obvious,
Nicoll, generally very cautious about citing parallels,
can state flatly, "He is truly the cousin-german of Mercu
tio, and one not unworthy of the racel' (Works, p. 1+2),
Sebastian's musings on "honor" have much of Palstaff's
tone, but come to. quite a different conclusion. Fresco,
reporting Sebastian's "attack" upon him, says that as he
ran away he told Sebastian to hang himself in his own
gartersJ this recalls one of Palstaff's famous gibes at
Hal, Finally, as noted earlier, Belforest seems to play
the role of "Old Gapulet" as he orders Gastabella to marry.
The next most obvious influence on The Atheist's
Tragedy is that of Marston, His Antonio, with the greatest
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
217 !
tendency to ’ ’rant” of any father-revenger in the period,
seems not only to contribute to such speeches in the
earlier play as Vendice’s "Ah the fly-flop of vengeance
beate ’em to peeces," but also to D’Amville’s rant when
the murder of Montferrers is announced;
Dead be your tongues. Drop out
Mine eye-bals and let enuious Fortune play
At tennis with ’em , , . , (II.iv.38-^0)
As he prepares to kill Sebastian in the name of revenge,
Gharlemont seems destined to follow in the footsteps of
27
Antonio. . E. E. Stoll believes that the elaborate feign
ing of the villain and tool villain in The Atheist’s
Tragedy derives from Piero Sforza and his tool Strotzo,
that D’Amville’s demonic glee also derives from Piero, and
that Tourneur’s use of appeals to heaven and angels, to
gether with his awareness of rhetorical conventions and his
apostrophes to vengeance, all derive from Marston (Webster,
pp. 106-7).
The influence of Chapman’s Bussy plays has been rather
extensively argued in recent criticism, but it should be
noted also that Michael Higgins (p. 3l|.0) gives Marston the
credit for supplying both Chapman and Tourneur with the
stoic hero (in Pandulpho), and argues that they follow
27
As Antonio wavers in his search for vengeance, he
murders the young son, Julio, of his enemy Piero Sforza.
The situation has its ultimate source in Thyestes, of
course.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r .... 218
him "in making drama from the stoic-Machiavellian anti
thesis” (p. 3 1 4. 2). Already cited is H. H. Adams* theory
that Tourneur could not complete his study of the revenger
until Chapman solved the problem of the "static revenger”
for him in the character of Clermont D'Ambois. Clifford
Leech notes differences between Chariemont and Clermont,
however. While Charlemont probably is a namesake of the
earlier character, he is far less active and far more
orthodox; Clermont, it must be remembered, finally does
exact revenge. Leech concludes that there is an indebted
ness, and even suggests that Bussy of Bussy D'Ambois is
transmuted into D'Amville, but reminds us of the changes
Tourneur made:
... his initial purpose seems indeed to
have boon to retort to Chapman's Bussy playsf
he takes a hint from Clermont's reluctance to
avenge his brother, he echoes the names of
d'Ambois and Clermont, but his sentence of
damnation is ready for the man without a c urb on
his will and he gives to Charlemont reasons for
inaction which never occurred to Clermont d'Am
bois. (p. 530)
One further debt of Tourneur may be suggested--that to
Christopher Marlowe. A possible relationship of The Reven
ger' s Tragedy to "farces” like The Jew of Malta has already
26
been cited, but Harry Levin's study of Marlowe suggests
a relationship between the plot of The Atheist's Tragedy
26
Ekeblad, "Authorship,” p. 232; the relationship has
also been suggested by Eckhardt, p. 110.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
219 :
29
and the life of Marlowe himself, Robert Ornstein thinks
the indebtedness is more complex; he considers D’Amville’s
catastrophe "an unconscious echo of Thomas Beard’s account
of Marlowe's death in The Theatre of Gods Judgments," he
believes there is a conscious imitation of "Marlowe’s cele
brated dramatic portrait of the atheist," Dr. Faustus, and
he concludes, "We must remember too that Marlowe was still
30
a most notorious atheist in Tourneur’s age."
It is obvious, of course, that both of Tourneur’s
plays have a strong general relationship to the entire
Revenge tradition. Much of the violence. Intrigue, illicit
sex, the use of tool-villains, the murder of innocents,
the ghostly appearances, and the paraphernalia of death
29
%e Overreacher; A Study of Christopher Marlowe
(Oambri^e, Mass., 1952), p. Ï5Ï.
30«’The Atheist’s Tragedy,’" Notes and Queries, N, S,
2;281|.-5, July 1955» Non-Elizabethan sources need not con
cern us, but a few suggestions might be listed. Various
reports of the murder of Allessandro d’Medici by Loren-
zino d’Medici have been discussed by Kurt Eckert, Die Dryn-
atlsche Behandlung der Ermordung des Herzogs Alessandro Ae’
kedicl durch seinen Vetter Lorenzino in der Englischen Lit-
eratur, Konigsberg, 1907; by Samuel Schoenbaum, "The Reven
ger * s Tragedy; A Neglected Source," Notes and Queries,
19^:338, August 19$0} and by N, W. Bawcutt, "The ftey-
; enger’s Tragedy and The Medici Family," Notes and Queries,
M, S, 192-3/^ay 1957» Somewhat more complicated is
Schoenbaum’s argument for a relationship to the danse
macabre ("The Revenger's Tragedy ; Jacobean Dance of
Death," Modern Language Quarterly, 15s201-7» September
19%) » arid'Jackson I,Cope* s for a relationship to a con
temporary dramatic "jig" ("Tourneur’s Atheist’s Tragedy
and the Jig of ’Singing Simkin,'" Modern Language Notes,
70:571-3» December 1955)•
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r' ■" ■ ^ ........ " ■.. 2 2 0
derive'from the many offspring of Thyestea and The Spanish
Tragedy. (Vendice's order to nail down the old Duke's
tongue, in fact, may be an indirect reference to Hieron-
imo's tearing out his own tongue), E, E. Stoll, however,
finds both plays to have several innovations over the re
venge-type, The Revenger's Tragedy is different in that
in its new story "revenge yields place, in a measure, to
more piquant motives, such as seduction and pandering";
there is also a careful development of portents, and there
is the consolidation of malcontent, revenger, and tool-
villain (Webster, p. 111), It must be added to Stoll's
observations that the malcontent is also a satirist who
evokes an absolute moral framework. The Atheist's Tragedy
is most obviously innovative in its repudiation of the re
venge motive, but there are also the introduction of a
continuing reflective element, and several ruling morals:
providence is revealed as ruling the world, and it there
fore follows that patience is the honest man's revenge; and
31
also a condemnation of lust.
Another characteristic of both of Tourneur's plays.
^ Stoll, Webster, p, 113 and notes. Other important
studies of Tourneur and the Revenge tradition include A, H,
Thorndike, Tragedy (Boston, 1908), pp. 1^3-lj., and A, H,
Thorndike,"the Relations of Hamlet to Contemporary Revenge
Plays," PMLA, 17:125-220, 19Ô2. (Thorndike considers The
Atheist'8 Tragedy nearly "contemporary" with Hamlet because
he dates it, on the basis of Eorachio's set-speeoh, as
contemporary with the siege of Ostend),
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 2 1 I
frequently noted since L, G, Salingar first pointed it out
in Scrutiny (in 1938) is their relationship to the Morality
tradition, particularly as it is transmitted through Jon-
son. The seven members of the ducal family in The Reven
ger's Tragedy are sometimes fancifully called "The Seven
Deadly Sins"; they are certainly seven deadly sinners.
Samuel Schoenbaum considers the same play a "Jacobean Dance
of Death," As the names indicate, many characters in both
plays are personifications of virtues, or, more often,
vices, and Salingar believes that it is from just such
plays as Volpone that Tourneur takes his "general plan of
op
a society of vicious humours . . , . More specifically,
there are the parallel harsh judgments of the comic vices,
the fortuitous prevention of D'Amville’s attempted rape of
Castabella, and D'Amville’s glorification of gold,^8 Most
significant, perhaps, is the emphasis upon implicit out
side control and upon reversal,
CONCLUSION
The type of play Tourneur chose to write was perhaps
the most popular kind of serious play on the Elizabethan
stage, yet he still managed to make striking innovations
^^"Tourneur and the Tragedy of Revenge," p. 3^4»
33
The first parallel is noted by Jenkins, p. 29; the
latter two by Ornsteln, Moral Vision, pp, 12l|.-^,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 2 2
within the type. It is clear that he was steeped in the
lore of the Revenge tradition, but in providing an orthodox
moral view of revenge, he drew heavily upon the Morality
tradition as well, delineating characters that frequently
are moral types, carefully rewarding the good and punishing
the evil. In addition, he managed to expose the evils of a
society in which revenge may be thought necessary (and in
this connection it is notable that even his ideal anti
revenger is allowed to contemplate revenge for a time), and
in 30 doing drew rather heavily upon contemporary satire.
Coming fairly late in a period of great drama, Tour
neur relied for singularity in his plays upon techniques of
assimilation and synthesis. He could take dramatic short
cuts not available to Kyd or Marlowe,, and indissolubly
fuse separate traditions. At the same time his work is
of course derivative, and his debt to earlier playwrights
is enormous. From them he learned most of his techniques—
of plot development, characterization, dialogue construc
tion, of temporal compression, and the like. He also
learned the whole series of conventions Miss Bradbrook and
others have analyzed— the use of double-time, techniques
of "internal” exposition, the use of the soliloquy, the
aside, the couplet, the convention of impenetrable dis
guise, and the general exploitation of the theater and its
properties. The plays he produced demonstrate that he
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
223
learned his lesson well.
Tourneur's plots demonstrate his ability to construct
the kind of "double” plot so popular with the Elizabethans,
in which a related story, usually comic, illustrates or is
contrasted with the main narrative. But he is also able to
construct a "well-made” play, one which has as its plot-
basis a crescendo of reversals. He has learned to juxta
pose scenes in such a way as to provide the greatest sense
of contrast or of parallelism, has mastered the use of
special scenes, and demonstrates a dynamic sense of scene
construction. In The Revenger's Tragedy, complex "massed"
scenes set into motion several individual plots; these are
traced through many short, staccato scenes, and then the
dramatis personae are brought together again in a compli
cated massed scene for the denouement. Both plays are
thesis-drama, and, while they vary considerably in their
degree of "objectivity,” both usually provide ample indica
tion of the way in which the plot is to be understood.
Theme explains plot, and vice versa.
We have seen that the dialogue of Tourneur's plays
frequently runs to "commentary," and even rather obtrusive
moral comment, but rather than condemn its lack of "veri
similitude," we should remember that Tourneur was writing
thesis-drama. Moreover, even lago tells us, in effect,
that he is a villain, and we must not forget that most of
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
■ " 22k '
the speeches perform the function Tourneur intended them to
and many meet the demands of "psychological realism" be
sides. Recognizing the utility of the convention, Tourneur
follows his contemporaries in using prose for "low" charac
ters (or "high" ones speaking to lower ones), and for vari
ous kinds of contrast— madness, bawdry, deception, and
cynical or satiric realism. The imagery of the plays is
natural, "inevitable"; like its plot, the imagery of The
Revenger's Tragedy is concerned in many complex and sub
tle ways with reversal; the plot and imagery of The
Atheist's Tragedy are concerned with the ways of "nature,"
and with the vanity of human efforts to build a lasting
work on earth, Tourneur uses the couplet much as his con
temporaries did, for variety and emphasis: to close a
scene, end an important speech, emphasize an exit, or
underscore particular remarks or sentiments. There are
also sets of wit, stychomythia, imbedded lyrics, and
occasional moral tags (the latter apparently the legacy of
"Seneca Englished"), There are bitter but singularly ap
propriate puns of which John Donne might justly have been
proud.
The characters in the plays are walking proof that
Tourneur shared his contemporaries' love of variety,
hatred of Machiavellian Italians and hired villains, dis
trust of Puritans, fear of atheism, and many other atti-
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 2 2
tudes besides. He knew contemporary life very well. Seb
astian steals a few glances at the contemporary scene,
Charlemont seems for a time to be in an English debtors'
prison, and the political implications of the technically
"unlocated" action of The Revenger's Tragedy are quite un
complimentary to English dukes and their courts. But he
was also steeped in the drama of his time; a token list of
only the male characters contributing to his plays would
have to include Lear, Macbeth, Edgar, Edmund, Hamlet, Hier-
onimo, Antonio, Piero Sforza, Bussy and Clermont D'Ambois;
and if we go on to minor characters we shall have to in
clude Pedringano, Strotzo, Malvolio, Old Gapulet, and many
more. Like Shakespeare, Tourneur knew what was popular on
the stage and what was notable in everyday life; he saw
situations and beliefs around him which he felt should be
changed;like Shakespeare, he wove these apparently dis
parate elements into highly effective drama. His charac
ters are partly derived from others' plays, partly type-
characters, partly "realistic," and are sometimes delin
eated for a "reforming" purpose, but they are consistently
enough done that they strike us as "all of a piece," and
they achieve effectively what Tourneur intended them to.
The flexible but neutral Elizabethan stage was "home"
^^nlike Shakespeare, Tourneur felt sure he knew pre
cisely what beliefs to recommend.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r '............ 226 :
to Tourneur, and he knew how to dress it for the greatest
effectiveness, A complicated scene of intrigue may be
followed by a stagy but static court scene. He may use the
several doors to group characters by their loyalties (The
Revenger's Tragedy) or by their social status (The Athe
ist's Tragedy), He makes skillful use of the various
traps, of striking properties and sound effects, of several
areas and levels of the stage,
Tourneur is thus generally "Elizabethan" in his plot
construction, his uses of language, his characterization,
and his uses of the contemporary stage. Without necessar
ily being an innovator, he is thoroughly individualistic
in his attention to the moral continuity of his plots, his
use of imagery innate to both his themes and character
ization, his synthesis of several dramatic traditions, and
of course in his reversal of the revenge tradition. As
many of his techniques derive from the best ones of his
contemporaries, so his plays illustrate the excellences of
Elizabethan drama. But Tourneur deserves to be read care
fully, in and for his own practices, as one of the most
"major" of the "minor contemporaries" of Shakespeare,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
APPENDIX
A study of Tourneur's dramatic technique can hardly
include an elaborate examination of the controversy over
who wrote The Revenger's Tragedy, but neither can a study
of Tourneur justifiably include a work by Middleton, A
brief account of the authorship controversy and its chief
arguments and counter-arguments, together with a statement
of my own position on the question, is thus indispensable.
As early as 1911 E, H, C, Oliphant suggested that The
Revenger's Tragedy might be Middleton's, but concluded that
it should be considered an anonymous play, and that discov
ering its authorship was "one of the chief problems to be
tackled by students of Elizabethan drama,By 1926, how
ever, Oliphant felt that he had solved the problem him
self— the play was Middleton's, Oliphant found the play to
be like those of the accepted Middleton canon in its pros
ody, its use of irony, in certain borrowed passages, and
in distinctive linguistic traits,^
^"Problems of Authorship in Elizabethan Dramatic Lit
erature," Modern Philology. 8:i|.ll-59, January 1911,
p
"The Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy," Studies
in Philology, 23:157-68, April 192o. In his study of The
227
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' ' 228 :
In the meantime, however, Dugdale Sykes had argued
persuasively for Tourneur, finding parallels between The
Revenger’s Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy in their plots
and use of contractions, and citing one convincing "paral
lel passage."^ Following the "defiant" inclusion of The
Revenger's Tragedy by Allardyce Niooll in his edition of
Tourneur, the controversy flourished briefly, particularly
in the Literary Supplement of the London Times. T, 8,
Eliot's unsigned review of Nicoll's edition (later included
among the Essays on Elizabethan Drama), argued that there
are many instances of a "less mature" work following a
"more mature" one, and concluded that The Revenger's
Tragedy was the work of a "sensitive adolescent,"^ Oli
phant replied that the play has far more parallels with
the Middleton canon than with The Atheist's Tragedy and
that there is no development from The Revenger's Tragedy
to The Atheist's Tragedy, but he also admitted that the
author of the disputed play "is markedly a moralist, as
Middleton never is,"^ Eliot then answered Oliphant—
• . , Mr, Oliphant has concentrated his atten-
t*lays of Beaumont and Fletcher (New Haven, 1927), Oliphant
again denied the play to ïourneur, but did give him a
share in The Honest Man's Fortune,
3ln Notes and Queries. September 1919.
Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary Supplement^ November
13, 1930, pp, 925-6.
^"Tourneur and 'The Revenger's Tragedy»'" Times Liter-
Supplement. December lo, 1930, p. lDo7.
i - a c y .
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
................. , . 229
tlon more on the difference between the two plays
attributed to Tourneur than on the difference be
tween The Revenger’s Tragedy and those tragedies
which we are sure were written by Middleton, We
know more about Middleton than we do about Tour
neur; and I submit that the differences between
The Revenger*s Tragedy and the whole of Middle-
ton’s work in tragedy are more significant than
the differences between the two plays attributed
to Tourneur.o
The private argument between Eliot and Oliphant seems to
have been closed by 1935. In that year Oliphant summed up
• 7
his Middleton arguments, stating that his natural inclin
ations were to agree with Eliot, except that no development
could be shown between the two plays attributed to Tour
neur, and except for "the extraordinary similarities of
tone, of expression, of syntax, and of vocabulary between
this play and the work of Middleton" (p. 5^9). Ke again
admitted that Middleton is never the "moral missionary"
Tourneur is, however, and concluded that perhaps the best
argument for Tourneur is that the seventeenth-century
cataloguers who attributed The Revenger's Tragedy to him
should have remembered such a nearly-forgotten dramatist
(p. 552).
The argument was not entirely private during this
period, however. P. L. Jones argued that the frequency of
6
"Tourneur and 'The Revenger's Tragedy,'" Times Lit
erary Supplement, January 1, 1931, P» 12.
^"Tourneur and Mr. T. S. Eliot," Studies in Phil
ology, 32:546-52, October 1935.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r'T'"'.....^ ^ " 1
final of and W in the lines of the play indicates Middle-
f t
ton's authorship, while W, D, Dunkel argued that the de
vices The Revenger's Tragedy and Middleton's "London com
edies" have in common prove the play to be Middleton's.^
But in 193^> Una Ellis-Permor, after a thorough analysis
(cited fully elsewhere) of the images of both plays attrib
uted to Tourneur, concluded that the methods of the
imagery and the continuity of the chief image-groups in
both plays (from building, business, and rivers and
streams), indicate common authorship. Then in a 1939
study prepared independently, but with an afterword on
Miss Ellis-Permor'a article. Marco K, Mincoff concluded
that the imagery of The Revenger's Tragedy was sufficiently
like that of Middleton to warrant its attribution to Mid
dleton, However, L, G, Salingar in 1938 suggested a unity
8
"Cvril Tourneur," Times Literary Supplement, June
18, 1931, P. 487. ------------- ---- ------
^"The Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy," PMLA,
46:781-5, September 1931. Dunkel refers to Harold N,
Hillebrand, "Thomas Middleton's The Viper's Brood," Modern
Language Notes, 42:35-8, January 192?, and argues that the
play in question, which Middleton claims to have given
Robert Keysar in partial payment of a debt on June 15,
1606, is actually The Revenger's Tragedy, Schoenbaum (Mid
dleton's Tragedies, p, 166) repeats the argument, and both
imply that it is Hillebrand's. By the time the argument
had come down to G, R, Price ("Authorship and Bibliog
raphy," p, 269), he could flatly state, "Over thirty years
ago Harold N, Hillebrand persuasively argued that RT is
the play called The Viper and Her Brood . , . ," ÏÏTlle-
: brand, however, did not identify the VTper as The Reven
ger's Tragedy or any other play by Tourneur or his contem
poraries.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
■ ‘ 231 I
between the imagery and symbolism of The Revenger's
Tragedy and that of Tourneur's The Transformed Metamorpho
sis, and this is a conviction Salingar has retained;
. . . to give the play to ahy other candi
date (to Middleton, for instance) would raise
problems of artistic continuity even more
difficult than those involved in attributing it
to the writer of The Atheist's Tragedy. With
Tourneur, then, rests tke benefit of"the doubt.
The controversy was still very much alive in the for
ties, Harold Jenkins found some development of thought
between The Revenger's Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy,
and again noted that Middleton's evil characters seem never
to be aware of the fact that they are evil, while Tour
neur's always are, Richard Barker, however, repeated the
argument that The Revenger's Tragedy resembles Middleton's
"London comedies," and compared Middleton's style, use of
irony, and tricks of language to justify giving the play to
11
Middleton. P, S, Boas concluded his own brief examin
ation of the question:
The authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy
, , , remains, as I think, an open question,
"Tourneur and The Tragedy of Revenge," in Boris
Ford, ed.. The Age of Shakespeare, 3rd ed, (Baltimore,
i960), pp, 3ET~57 (Pelican Guide to English Literature,
vol. 2, first published in 1955)•
^^"The Authorship of The Second Maiden's Tragedy and
The Revenger's Tragedy," Shakespeare Association Bulletin,
èO:51-62, I2I-33, April and" July 19^5.
219.
1 p
An Introduction to Stuart Drama (Oxford, 19^6), p.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
' 232
: I
In 19^^, however, Henry Hitch Adams produced an elaborate
and convincing study of both plays attributed to Tourneur,
written from the point of view that
, . . together they possess a common approach
to the problem of revenge, and that together
they present a single mind's ordered view of the
universe, (p. 72)
and concluding that The Atheist's Tragedy is in a number of
unmistakable ways a development of The Revenger's Tragedy.
Tourneur scholarship has also flourished in the
1950's (and, as Allardyce Nicoll observes— Kosley, p.
312--WS have learned much more about the plays involved
when the authorship problem has been set aside). In 1951,
however, Samuel Schoenbaum tried to prove that Middleton
does indeed have a "moral outlook," so that Oliphant's
réservations about Middleton's authorship might be
13
allayed. Writing on the announced topic "On the Author
ship of 'The Revenger's Tragedy,'" but providing valuable
insights for anyone interested in the play, R. A, Poakes
in 1953 reviewed some of the arguments of preceding writers
and advanced new evidence of his own. He first notes that
the arguments for Middleton's authorship based on the pre
sumed tendency of The Revenger's Tragedy to use fourteen-
and fifteen-syllable lines are frequently of no value be-
13
"The Revenger's Tragedy and Middleton's Moral Out
look," Notes and Queries, 196:8-10. January 6, 1951*
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
233 !
cause they have used editions rearranging the lines of the
play. He admits that Tourneur, like Middleton, uses em
blematic Italian names (there is a Castiza in The Phoenix,
for instance), but observes that Marston, Jonson, and
occasionally Shakespeare use them as well, and concludes:
The common use of such character names is
perhaps some indication that several of the
greater Elizabethan writers knew Italian, but
provides no clue to the authorship of The
Revenger's Tragedy, (p. 135)
Poakes also disposes of the argument based on the pre
sumed identity of The Revenger's Tragedy and the play The
Viper's Brood which Middleton claimed to have written. If
the play i^ Middleton's, why, he wonders, didn't Middleton
claim it (in 1609) under the title by which he had pub
lished it (in 1607)? A stronger argument against Middleton
is the fact that his plays to I6O7 are written for private
theaters, while The Revenger's Tragedy is published as
acted "by the Kings Maiesties Seruants," and thus must have
been a public-theater play belonging to the Globe.
Poakes also provides a rather extensive analysis of the
verse of The Revenger's Tragedy, noting that most studios
of the verse have usually emphasized the great speeches of
Vendice (assuredly the best in the play), but concluding
Ik
Inga-Stina Ekeblad, "A Note on 'The Revenger's Trag
edy,'" Notes and Queries, N, S. 2:98-9, March 1955» aug
ments Poakes' arguments, citing the play's references to
comets and stars to associate It with the Globe, "noted for
jits use of a blazing star as a stage effect" (p. 98).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
after a study of all the verse throughout the play that the
verse is
• . . much less irregular than the praise
lavished on it would suggest .... Indeed
the verse of the earlier play is on the whole
rather stiff and formal; there is a preponder
ance of end-stopped lines, and sometimes whole
speeches are written in a regular jog-trotting
metre .... Much of the verse is very elem
entary in structure, though not so rigid as
this [a passage just quoted}, and there is
throughout little variation of rhythm from
the basic 5-teat blank verse line. (pp. 136-7)
In his Middleton's Tragedies, Samuel Schoenbaum inclu
ded a discussion of The Revenger's Tragedy as if it were
Middleton's, but discussed the authorship problems in an
appendix. Schoenbaum reviews earlier scholarship and at
tempts a rebuttal of those arguing for Tourneur. He dis
misses the evidence of the old playlists as "unreliable,"
but then reports the hearsay evidence that Dugdale Sykes
"recanted" before his death and came to accept Middleton's
15
authorship* He argues that the pattern of The Revenger's
Tragedy--that of a wicked man inadvertently causing his
own destruction--cannot be found in The Atheist's Tragedy!
He attempts to refute Foakes on The Viper's Brood by argu
ing that "the title describes plausibly the contents of the
minor plot" (p. 166) of The Revenger's Tragedy, and by
He is quoting (p. 159) Oliphant's "Tourneur and Mr,
;T., S, Eliot," pp. 5m. 6-7, where Oliphant reports that a
mutual friend gave him this information.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
..... .......... . ....23r:
suggesting that The Revenger’s Tragedy ’ ’was originally
commissioned by the Children of the Revels but ultimately
became the property of the King's men” (p. 166)* Part of
his aggrieved reply to Poakes seems to assume Middleton's
infallibility; Poakes had observed that Middleton had only
claimed to have written The Viper's Brood and that such a
play has never been found. Schoenbaum replies.
But we have Middleton's testimony that the
play was written, and he was surely in a position
to know; there are no grounds for questioning the
dramatist's word, and we have no reason to be
lieve that he was irregular in his professional
dealings, (p. l66)
Pinally, Schoenbaum cites a number of parallel passages—
some of them repeated by almost every Middleton disciple
since Oliphant— between The Revenger's Tragedy and the
works, particularly the comedies, of Middleton.
Many of Schoenbaum's arguments derive from his former
teacher, Richard Barker, who published his study of Mid
dleton in 1958 only after it had lain in manuscript for
some fifteen years. Barker is sure Pollywit (A Mad World.
My Masters) and Vendice were created by the same man; he
also makes comparisons to Middleton's other comedies and
cites parallel passages.
Much of the recent scholarship has favored Tourneur,
however. John Peter's study of Complaint and Satire in
Early English Literature (19^6) is not primarily concerned
,with the authorship problem, but finds the two plays
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
.. 236 ;
attributed to Tourneur similar and says.
Perhaps after the work of Harold Jenkins,
Professor Ellis-Permor, and R, A, Poakes it is
possible to feel that Oliphant and Wilbur D,
Dunkel have been refuted, and Archer’s and
Kirkman's ascriptions of the play to Tourneur
sufficiently vindicated, (p. 253)
Robert Ornstein’s The Moral Vision of Jacobean Tragedy
(i960) also finds a high degree of continuity of theme and
method between the two plays, noting that
It is difficult , , , to believe that the
poised, detached observer of life who gave us
Middleton’s comedies and tragedies could ever
have felt the moralistic passion that informs
Vendice's lines, (p, 105)
Ornstein suggests that The Atheist’s Tragedy "is a product
of the same mind and talent which created The Revenger’s
Tragedy," and believes that
, , . while the parallels of expression in
The Revenger's Tragedy and Middleton's plays
may suggest influence or imitation, they do
not establish a single authorship, (p, 106)
Inga-Stina Ekeblad also finds a continuity in the two plays
given Tourneur ("Imagery," pp, I 4. 89-98), and later finds in
both plays the same conception and construction in basic
Christian morality, the same attitude toward the uses of
drama, the same effects, themes, and techniques--the latter
of which are "irreconcilably opposed" to those of Middle
ton ("Authorship," p, 239),
A recent article by G, R, Price constructs an elab
orate bibliographical argument for giving The Revenger's
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
r" ....; .................... 237. :
1A
Tragedy to Middleton, On the belief that the play was
printed from a "fair copy" in Middleton's own hand. Price
argues from the basis, presumably, of Middleton's own punc
tuation habits. However, he takes his punctuation figures
from Nicoll's emended edition, not the quartos, and ignores
Nicoll's own suggestion regarding the pointing and printing
of the quarto:^?
The compositor must either have tumbled a
set of question-marks among his periods or else
have run short of the latter, for question-marks
are scattered everywhere throughout the play,
even appearing in the stage directions,
(Works, p, 306)
Price also examines such things as the watermarks of The
Revenger's Tragedy and the Kemble-Devonshire-Huntington
copy of A Trick to Catch the Old One (entered the same day
in the Stationers' Register), in an attempt to suggest a
relationship between the two.
Tw o s t i l l la ter studies have appeared. In 1962 A llar
dyce N ico ll surveyed recent Tourneur scholarship, noting
^^"The Authorship and the Bibliography of The Reven-
f
er's Tragedy," The Library, ^th Series, 15^262-77» Decem-
er i960,
17
Price ignores the suggestion of W, T, Jewkes— Act
Division in Elizabethan and Jacobean Plays, 1^83-1616 (Ham
den, Connecticut, 19%W), p, 213— that the play was printed
from a set of author's foul papers, and even that of Oli
phant regarding preparation of the manuscript ("Author
ship," p, 167), " , , , though it has been declared that
the play shows plentiful signs of having been carefully
edited, I think that good reasons might be adduced for the
view that, whoever edited it, it was not the author,"
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I .................. ' - - :238 i
how little the authorship controversy has taught us about
the plays themselves, and suggesting that it might be well
to study every Elizabethan play as if it were anonymous, to
escape stereotyped comparisons to an author's canon or bio
graphy and to promote a study of the play itself with its
relationships to other plays, Nicoll does remind us, how
ever, that the only shreds of external evidence in the en
tire controversy (the playlists of Archer and Kirkman),
give the play to Tourneur (Hosley, pp. 309-16), Pinally,
Peter B, Murray, in the course of a doctoral study of the
canon of Tourneur, concluded on the basis of elaborate and
highly-sophisticated statistical tests that the play must
1 A
of necessity be given to Middleton,
It is evident, I think, that no conclusive solution,
short of the discovery of new and definitive external evi
dence of unassailable authenticity, is likely to be found
to this most perplexed of controversies. It is also evi
dent, particularly inasmuch as the only existing external
evidence attributes the play to Tourneur, that the burden
of proof rests with the Middleton disciples, that they have
not heretofore proved the play to be Middleton's and, as
the problem now stands, probably never can.
1 A
"The Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy," Papers
of the Bibliographical Society of America, $o:l9S-2lb,
Apr il-June 19^57^ - ------------------
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
239
No advocate of Middleton's authorship, I think, has
ever been quite so objective as Oliphant, and his summary
of the situation in 1935 remains one of the fairest-minded
ever made; The Revenger's Tragedy does not fit easily into
Middleton's canon, and has a moral outlook Middleton never
possesses; on the other hand, there seemed at the time to
be no development of any kind between The Revenger's
Tragedy and The Atheist's Tragedy, Schoenbaum has argued
that Middleton does have a moral outlook. Such as it is,
it is highly different from that evidenced in The Revenger's
Tragedy. Many attempts have been made to fit the play
into Middleton's canon, comparing it either to his first
known tragedies (written fifteen years later), or to his
comedies (contemporary with the play but highly different
from it). The fact remains that there is no other evidence
that Middleton had even the slightest interest in tragedy
or ability to write it by I607, Since the imagery studies
of the 1930's (using C, P, E, Spurgeon's methods), reached
a stalemate with contradictory conclusions, later studies
have tended to emphasize the fanciful bit of "external
evidence" afforded by Middleton's claim to have written a
play entitled "The Viper and Her Brood," or else have
relied heavily upon "parallel passages," While the latter
type of study usually admits that there are limitations
to the method, it invariably proceeds as if a number of
parallels (often strained, or referring to commonplace or
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
240
proverbial topics), proved the parallel works to be by the
same man*^^ No such study seems willing to admit what
should be obvious— there are also marked parallels with
works of Shakespeare, Marston, and even Chettle, and either
we must attribute the play to a committee of these men (and
20
others, including Middleton), or we must admit that Mid
dleton, like Shakespeare and many others, influenced the
PI
writer of The Revenger's Tragedy.
In addition, there is the one scrap of external
evidence attributing the play to Tourneur, there are
rather numerous studies demonstrating a high degree of
continuity in thought and method between The Revenger's
Tragedy and The Atheist’s Tragedy, there is at least one
study convincingly demonstrating a development in prosody.
19 /
The "classic” observation of Rene Wellek and Austin
Warren (Theory of Literature, p. 248), is perhaps relevant
here: "But parallels must be real parallels, not vague
similarities assumed to turn, by mere multiplication, into
proof. Forty zeroes still make zero,"
20
As Schoenbaum observes (Middleton, p. 157), Pleay’a
Biographical Chronicle attributes the play to Webster,
while a German study (Paul Wenzel, Cyril Tourneurs Stellung
in der Geshicte der englischen Dramas, Breslau, 191b)>
attributes the play to Marston,
21
The only writer whom I know to have suggested that
the parallels indicate only influence is Robert Ornstein
(Moral Vision, p, 106), E, H, G, Oliphant seems in an off-
guard momentto have left the door open to such a sugges
tion ("Authorship," p. 159)--"It would be easy to prove
that the mere mechanism of the verse of RT is Middletonian,
even if it be not Middleton's . , ,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
i 2 1 4 . 1
;and atill another recent study demonstrating continuity in
the imagery. The most recent study to appear, that of
Peter B, Murray, has, with its talk of such things as "the
chi-square test of significant,” a bogus air of "computer-
produced” objectivity, but it is hardly convincing when
compared to the ample proof of what Oliphant said had to be
shown before The Revenger's Tragedy could be attributed to
Tourneur--development from the earlier to the later play.
Tourneur's, then, is still "the benefit of the doubt,”
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Adams, Henry H, "Cyril Tourneur on Revenge," Journal of
English and Germanic Philology, ^8:72-87, January
Ï9Î9I
Adams, John Cranford, The Globe Playhouse; Its Design and
Equipment, 2nd ed. New York, 1961,
Archer, William. The Old Drama and the New, Boston, 1923*
Bald, R, C, "Cyril Tourneur: 'Atheist's Tragedy,' Act IV,
So. I," Modern Language Review, 16:32^., July 1921,
Barker, Richard H, "The Authorship of The Second Maiden's
Tragedy and The Revenger's Tragedy^" Shakespeare
Association Bulletin, 20:51-627 121-33, April and
July 19l»-5.
Thomas Middleton. New York, 1958.
Bastiaenen, J. A, The Moral Tone of the Jacobean and Car
oline Drama. Amsterdam, 1930*
Bawcutt, N, W, "The Revenger's Tragedy and the Medici Fam
ily," Notes and Queries, M. S.h:l92-3. May 1957*
Bethell, S. L. Shakespeare and the Popular Dramatic Tradi
tion, Durham, North Carolina,
Boas, Frederick 8, An Introduction to Stuart Drama, Ox
ford, 19i 4- 6,
Bogard, Travis, The Tragic Satire of John Webster, Berke
ley and Los Angeles^ 1955*
Boklund, Gunnar, The Duchess of Malfi; Sources, Themes,
Characters, Cambridge, Mass., 1962,
Bowers, Fredson T, Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, 1587-16L2.
Princeton, 191+0': -----
Boyer, Clarence V, The Villain as Hero in Elizabethan
Tragedy, London, 191t(..
2t|.2
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
I 2k3 ;
Bradbrook, Muriel C, Elizabethan Stage Conditions, Cam
bridge, 1932.
--------------- Themes and Conventions of Elizabethan
Tragedy, Cambridge, 193^.
Buiand, Mable, The Presentation of Time in Elizabethan
Drama. New York, 1912,
Cameron, Kenneth N. "Cyril Tourneur and The Transformed
Metamorphosis," Review of English Studies. l6:lü-2L,
January 1%0,
Carpenter, Frederick I, Metaphor ^d Simile in the Minor
Elizabethan Drama, Chicago, 1Ü95.
Chelli, Maurice, Le Drame de Massinger, Lyon, 1923*
Cope, Jackson I, "Tourneur's Atheist's Tragedy and the Jig
of 'Singing Simkin,'" Modern Language Notes, JOi
$71-3» December 19$$,
Craig, Hardin, The Enchanted Glass, 2nd ed. New York,
19$0.
Craik, T, W, "The Revenger's Tragedy," Essays in Criti
cism, 6: 1 4 . 82-$, October 1936.
Crane, Milton, Shakespeare's Prose, Chicago, 19$1*
Davril, Robert, Le Drame de John Ford, Paris, 19$1|-.
Dunkel, Wilbur D, "The Authorship of The Revenger's
Tragedy," PMLA, 1 4 . 6:781-$» September 1931,
----, The Dramatic Tectolque of Thomas Middle
ton in His Comedies of London Life; A Dissertation,
Chicago, 192$, (Private ed, distributed by the Ilniv-
ersity of Chicago Libraries),
Dunn, T, A, Philip Massinger: The Man and the Playwright,
London, 1957.
Eckert, Kurt, Die drytiatische Behandlung der Ermordung des
Herzogs Allessan&ro de'Medicl duroh seinen Vetter
Lorenzino in der englischen Literatur, konigsberg,
1907.
Eckhardt, Eduard, Das Englische Drama der Spfttrenaissance:
(Shakespeares Nachfolger), Berlin and Leipzig, 1929.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
244 :
Ekeblad, Inga-Stina, "An Approach to Tourneur's Imagery,"
Modern Language Review, $4:489-98, October 1959.
----------— -------. "A Note on The Revenger's Tragedy,"
Notes and Queries, N, S. 2:98-9, Maron 1955.
---------- -. "On the Authorship of The Revenger * s
Tragedy." English Studies. 41:225-40, August I960.
Eliot, T. S. "Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary Supplement.
November 13, 1930, pp. 925-^1
----------. Essays on Elizabethan Drama. New York, 1956.
("Harvest" paperback ed,)
----------. The Sacred Wood; Essays on Poetry and Criti
cism. 6th ed. London, 1948.
-. "Tourneur and 'The Revenger's Tragedy,'"
Times Literary Supplement. January 1, 1931, p. 12.
Ellis-Permor, Una. The Frontiers of Drama. New York,
1946. ---- -----------------
------"The Imagery of The Revengers Tragédie
and The Atheists Tragédie. Modern Language Review,
30:289-301, July 1935.
The Jacobean Drama. London, 1936.
Pleay, Frederick G, A Biographical Chronicle of the Eng
lish Drama. 1559-1642. 2 vols, London, 1Ü91.
Poakes, R, A. "On the Authorship of The Revenger's Tra^
gedy." Modern Language Review, 48:129-38, April 1953.
Gerritsen, J^had, ed. The Honest Mans Fortune : A Critical
Edition of MS Dyce (l625). Groningen, 1$52.
Greg, W, W. A Bibliography of The English Printed Drama to
the Restoration. 4 vols. London^ 1935-59.
Grierson, H. J. C. Cross Currents In English Literature of
the XVIIth Century. 2nd ed. London, 1958,
Hamilton, A. C, "Spenser and Tourneur's Transformed Meta-
morphosls." Review of English Studies. N. 8. 0:127-36.
May 1*557.
Harbage, Alfred. Shakespeare's Audience. New York, 1941.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
:
Harrier, Richard C., ed. The Anchor Anthology of Jacobean
Drama, II, Garden City, New York, 1963.
Hillebrand, Harold N« "Thomas Middleton's The Viper's
Brood," Modern Language Notes, ^2:35-8, January 1927.
Higgins, Michael H, "The Convention of the Stoic Hero as
Handled by Marston," Modern Language Review, 39:338-
i | . 6 , October 19 l| i | . »
----------- . "The Influence of Calvinistic Thought
in Tourneur's Atheist's Tragedy," Review of English
Studies. 19:253-62, July 19#3.
Howe, Charles Horace, "An Analysis of Some Significant
Technical Aspects of the Plays of Thomas Heywood,"
Unpublished Master's thesis. University of Southern
California, 1953»
Hunter, G, K, "A Source for The Revenger's Tragedy," Re
view of English Studies, N. S. 10;lül-2, May 1959»
Jenkins, Harold, "Cyril Tourneur," Review of English
Studies. 17:21-36, January 19J+1,
--------- — --, The Life and Work of Henry Chettle, Lon
don, 193^.
Jewkes, Wilfred T, Act Division in Elizabethan and Jaco
bean Plays, 1583-1616, Hamden, Connecticut, 1^58,.
Jones, Fred L, "Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary Supple
ment, June l8, 1931, p, ^87,
Joseph, Bertram, Elizabethan Acting, London, 1951,
-------------- - "The Elizabethan Stage and Acting," in
Boris Ford, ed. The Age of Shakespeare, 3rd ed, Balti
more, I960, (Pelican Guide to English Literature,
vol, 2),
Kennedy, Milton B, The Oration in Shakespeare, Chapel
Hill, North Carolina, 19^.2.
Kernan, Alvin, The Cankered Muse; Satire of the English
Renaissance" New Haven, 1959,
Knights, L, C, Drama and Society in the Age of Jonson,
New York, ----------
Some Shakespearean Themes, London, 1959,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2 1 + 6
Lawrence, W, J, Those Nnt-Cracking Elizabethans» London,
1935.
Leech, Clifford, "A Speech Heading in The Revenger's
Tragedy," Review of English Studies, 17:335-6, July
Ï91+1.
-------------"The Atheist's Tragedy as a Dramatic Com
ment on Chapman’s Bussy Plays," Journal of English and
Germanic Philology, 52:525-30, October 1953.
-----, John Ford and The Drama of His Time,
London, 1957.
I
— , John Webster; A Critical Study, London,
1951.
Levin, Harry, The Overreacher: A Study of Christopher
Marlowe, Cambridge, Mass., 1952,
Lisca, Peter, "The Revenger's Tragedy; A Study in Irony,"
Philological Quarterly, 3b:2U.2-^l, April 1959.
Lockert, Lacy, "The Greatest of Elizabethan Melodramas,"
in Hardin Craig, ed. Essays in Dramatic Literature:
The Parrott Presentation Volume. Princeton, 1935.
McGinn, Donald J, Shakespeare’s Influence on the Drama of
His Age; Studied in Hamlet, New Brunswick, New Jer
sey, 1930.
Maxwell, J, C, "Two Notes on The Revenger’s Tragedy,"
Modern Language Review, ijI}.:5t-5> October 19i|-9.
Mincoff, Marco K, "The Authorship of The Revenger's
Tragedy," Studia Historico-Philologica Serdicensia
TstfTiT, 2:1-87,'i'939.---------------------------
Murray, Peter B, "The Authorship of The Revenger’ 3
Tragedy,"Papers of the Bibliographical Society of
America, 56:195"21b, April-June 1962,
Myers, Aaron M, Representation and Misrepresentation of
the Puritan in Elizabethan Drama, Philadelphia, 1931.
Napier, C, S, "The Revenger’s Tragedy," Times Literary
Supplement, March 1^7 1937, pT I08.
Nicoll, Allardyce. "The Revenger’s Tragedy and the Virtue
of Anonymity," in Richard Hosley, ed. Essays on
Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama; In Honor of Hardin
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2kl
Craig. Columbia, Missouri, 1962,
Oliphant, E, H, C. "The Authorship of The Revenger's
Tragedy." Studies in Philology, 23:157-60, April 1926,
---— ---. The Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher.
New Haven, 1927.
--------------- . "Problems of Authorship in Elizabethan
Dramatic Literature," Modern Philology, 8:^11-29,
January 1911.
---------------- , "Tourneur and Mr. T. S, Eliot," Studies
in Philology, October 1935.
— --- -. "Tourneur and ’The Revenger's Trag
edy,'" Times Literary Supplement. December 18, 1930,
p. 1087,
— ---- -, "Tourneur and 'The Revenger's Trag
edy,'" Times Literary Supplement, February 5, 1931,
p. 99.
Ornstein, Robert. "'The Atheist's Tragedy,'" Notes and
Queries, N. S. 2:28^-$, July 1955.
-. "The Atheist's Tragedy and Renaissance
Naturalism," Studies in Philology, 3^:19^-207, April
195^.
— . "The Ethical Design of The Revenger's
Tragedy," English Literary History, 21:81-93, June
--— The Moral Vision of Jacobean Tragedy.
Madison, Wisconsin, I96O.
Peter, John, Complaint and Satire in Early English Litera
ture. Oxford, I956.
"The Revenger's Tragedy," Essays in Criti
cism, 6: 1 4 . 85-6, October 1956.
-. "The Revenger's Tragedy Reconsidered," Essays
in Criticism, 6:131-^3, April 1956.
------ — -, "The Identity of Mavortio in Tourneur's
Transformed Metamorphosis," Notes and Queries, 193:
i|.ôti-12, September 10, I9I 4. 0.
Price, George R. "The Authorship and Bibliography of The
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2ij.8 ;
Revenger's Tragedy,” The Library, ^th Series, 15:262-
77» December I960,
Quennell, Peter, Sinpiular Preference; Portraits and Es
says. New York, 1953. '
Ribner, Irving, Patterns in Shakespearian Tragedy, Lon
don, i960,
---- -, Jacobean Tragedy: The Quest for Moral Or
der, New York, 1562,
Salingar, L, 0, "The Revenger's Tragedy and the Morality
Tradition," in R. J, Kaufmann, ed, Elizabethan Drama:
Modern Essays in Criticism. New York, l'56l,
------------ -, "Tourneur and the Tragedy of Revenge," in
Boris Ford, ed. The Age of Shakespeare, 3rd ed, Bal
timore, i960, (Pelican Guide to English Literature,
vol. 2).
Schoenbaum, Samuel, Middleton's Tragedies, New York,
19S5. ---------------------
-— ------ • "The Revenger's Tragedy and Middle
ton's Moral Outlook," Notes and Queries, 196:8-10,
January 6, 1951*
----------------- • "The Revenger's Tragedy: A Neglected
Source," Notes and Queries, 195:3387 August 5» 1950.
--— --- ------. "The Revenger's Tragedy: Jacobean
Dance of Death," Modern Language Quarterly, 15:201-7»
September 19S^*
Schücking, Levin L, "Eine Enleihe Shakespeares bei Cyril
Tourneur," Englische Studien, 50:80-105, 1916,
Succombe], ifiomasl, "Cyril Tourneur," Dictionary of National
Biography, aIX, 101^-6.
Shakespeare, William. Shakespeare: Major Plays and the
Sonnets, ed, G. B, Harrison. New York, l$^b.
Simpson, Percy. "The Theme of Revenge in Elizabethan
Tragedy," in Studies in Elizabethan Drama, Oxford,
1952. : "
Sisson, C. J, "Nicoll' 3 Edition of Cyril Tourneur," Modern
Language Review, 26:102-5» January 1931,
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
2k9
Spencer, Theodore, Death and Elizabethan Tragedy. Cam
bridge, Mass., 1936,
Sprague, Arthur G. Shakespeare and the Audience, Cam
bridge, Mass., 193^0
Stoll, Elmer Edgar, Art and Artifice in Shakespeare; A
Study in Dramatic Contrast and Illusion, Cambridge,
1^33^
John Webster. Boston, 1900»
Sutherland, J. R. "Cyril Tourneur," Times Literary Supple
ment, April 16, 1931, p. 307.
Swinburne, A. C. The Age of Shakespeare. New York, I908,
Sykes, Dugdale. "Cyril Tourneur: 'The Revenger's Tragedy':
'The Second Maiden's Tragedy,'" Notes and Queries, 0 8;
225-9, September 1919,
— ----------- Sidelights on Elizabethan Drama. London,
1924., -----------------------
Symonds, J. A., ed, Webster and Tourneur. New York, 1956,
(Mermaid Dramabook paperback edition),
Tannenbaum, Samuel, "A Tourneur Mystification," Modern
Language Notes. 14.7:114.1-3» March 1932,
---------------and D, R ,, Tannenbaum, Cyril Tourneur: A
Concise Bibliography, New York, I9I 4. 6,
Thorndike, Ashley H, "The Relations of Hamlet to Contem
porary Revenge Plays," PMLA, 17:125-220, [June] 1902,
— __________— , Shakespeare's Theater, New York.
1928.
-, Tragedy. Boston and New York, I9O8,
Tomlinson, T, B. "The Morality of Revenge: .Tourneur's
Critics," Essays in Criticism. 10:134.-4.7, April I960.
Tompkins, J, M, S. "Tourneur and the Stars," Review of
English Studies, 22:315-9» October 1946,
Tourneur, Cyril. The Atheist's Tragédie: or The honest
Man's Reuengel London, 1611.
The Plays and Poems of Cyril Tourneur, ed.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
250
J, Churton Collins, 2 vols, London, I878,
------- , The Revengers Tragaedie, London, I607,
------- The Revenger' s Tragedy, ed, James L, Ros- ,
enberg, San Francisco, 1^62, (Chandler paperback
edition),
— -------- . The Works of Cyril Tourneur, ed, Allardyce
Nicoll, London, [1929J, (Reissued, New York, 1963).
Tuve, Rosemond. Elizabethan and Metaphysical Imagery.
Chicago, 1914. 7»
Wadsworth, P, W, "The Revenger's Tragedy,” Modern Language
Review, 50:307, July 1$55.
Waith, Eugene M, "The Ascription of Speeches in The Reven-
f
er's Tragedy," Modern Language Notes, 57:115-21,
ebruary 1914.2,
Wellek, René and Austin Warren, Theory of Literature, New
York, I9I 42,
Wells, Henry W, Elizabethan and Jacobean Playwrights, New
York, 1939,
-, Poetic Imagery in Elizabethan Literature,
New York, 192^,
Wenzel, Paul, Cyril Tourneurs Stellung in der Geschicte
des englischen Dramas% Breslau, l5l8.
L - .
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

Linked assets

University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Conceptually similar

PDF

Preview of the vanishing hero: a study of the protagonists in Jacobean drama

PDF

'Beowulf' and 'the hobbit': elegy into fantasy in j. R. R. Tolkien's creative technique

PDF

The Nine Songs: A reexamination of shamanism in ancient China

PDF

Cathay revisited: The Chinese tradition in the poetry of Ezra Pound and Gary Snyder

PDF

The erudite romanticism of Juan Eugenio Hartzenbusch in 'Los Amantes de Teruel'

PDF

Painting as text: Developments in Russian art during the second half of the nineteenth century

PDF

She's nothing: Gender and representation in Catullus and elegy

PDF

The impact of transcendentalism on the novels of herman melville

PDF

Evaluating heaviness: Relative weight in the spoken production of heavy-NP shift

PDF

The Marian legend in the religious theater of Tirso de Molina

PDF

The act and the word: A study of abstraction versus the concrete in the work of Albert Camus

PDF

A necessary epigone: The fantastic and "dvoeverie" in the works of A. K. Tolstoi

PDF

Satirical social criticism in the novels of John Dos Passos

PDF

Arthur Machen’s treatment of the occult and a consideration of its reception in England and America

PDF

On the nature of particles in Japanese and its theoretical implications

PDF

Powerlessness and violence: Contemporary trends of the French Caribbean novel

PDF

Melchior Grimm: the 'correspondance litteraire' and the 'philosophic' spirit. (parts I and II)

PDF

Nation, race, and heterogeneity in the literature of the Americas

PDF

New American fiction and the aesthetics of Camus and Robbe-Grillet

PDF

The life and literary and artistic activities of Robert Baldwin Ross, 1869-1918

Asset Metadata

Creator Dickerson, David Otis (author)

Core Title The dramatic technique of Cyril Tourneur

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Language and Literature

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Literature, General,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c17-162827

Unique identifier UC11349054

Identifier 6413495.pdf (filename),usctheses-c17-162827 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 6413495.pdf

Dmrecord 162827

Document Type Dissertation

Rights DICKERSON, DAVID OTIS

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA