Product Description

The "revenge" play became the most durable and commercially successful type of drama on the Elizabethan stage. This example by Thomas Kyd, who was one of the originators of the genre, brings to life the intrigues of the Spanish court, dramatically juxtaposing romantic passion with sudden violent death and clandestine politics. The ghost of Dan Andrea and his guide Revenge observe the dark and bloody action throughout, provoking questions about the nature of the human condition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58868 in Books
• Published on: 1996-05-09
• Format: Student Edition
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Alright but not an uber classic, yeah?
I read this because I heard that it was a pretty influencial book in terms of the great tragedies that were written after it by the likes of Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe. This is no where near as good as anything either of those two produced though.

The plot is this: Horatio is murdered by Lorenzo and Prince Balthazar so that Balthazar is clear to marry the woman that Horacio loves, Bel-Imperia. Hieronimo, father of Horatio is understandably upset at these events, and swears revenge upon the two murderers. This he eventually achieves, and in the age old tragic tradition almost every character ends up dead by the final scene.

The plot is decent enough, but for me it's all rather crude. With the exception of Hieronimo, none of the characters are really developed, and the language seems rather flat and even clumsy at times. If you read this and then any Shakespeare it would make you appreciate just how beautiful the poetry of Shakespeares writing is, and also how life like his characters are when compared to those of Kyd.

All in all I can't strongly recommend this to you, it's alright and it's entertaining enough, you probably wont hate it, but there are lot better plays from the time you can be reading, like King Lear or Dr Faustus, this is average, nothing more.

Dazzling Elizabethan play
This is a really clever play. A bloodthirsty revenge play, involving stabbings, hangings, and the biting out of tongues, its climax is a theatrical tour de force in which the bad guys act in a play written by Hieronimo, the man who seeks revenge on them. At the end of Hieronimo's play the protagonists are unexpectedly killed with real knives. As they sink to the ground, bleeding and crying, the onstage audience laughs and applauds, not realising that the carnage is real. We the audience are asked to ponder how we'd feel if the actors in a play didn't get up and bow, but remained bloody and still on the stage. It's a fascinating play about theatre itself, in which there are plays within plays within plays, and the ultimate suggestion is that we're all actors within the theatre of God. Our tragedy is that nobody's given us the script.

Recommended
Interesting play, this one here is a correct edition with a short introduction and additional passages at the end. The footnotes are ok. Recommended.