Shakespeare, Revenge Tragedy and Early Modern Law

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction: Staging Justice

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 1-15

3. Vindictive Justice in Early Modern England

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 16-32

4. Correcting Justice with Vengeance in The Spanish Tragedy

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 33-48

5. Titus Andronicus: The Evidence of the Senses under Threat

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 49-70

6. Antonio’s Revenge, Riot and Collective Action

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 71-94

7. Exceptional Hamlet and Resistance to Law

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 95-119

8. Piracy, Insurrection and The Tragedy of Hoffman

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 120-137

9. The Revenger’s Tragedy: Post-Participatory Justice

   • Derek Dunne

   Pages 138-160

10. Conclusion: Participation and Vindication on the Early Modern Stage

    • Derek Dunne

    Pages 161-166

11. Back Matter

    Pages 167-229

    PDF

This book, the first to trace revenge tragedy's evolving dialogue with early modern law, draws on changing laws of evidence, food riots, piracy, and debates over royal prerogative. By taking the genre's legal potential seriously, it opens up the radical critique embedded in the revenge tragedies of Kyd, Shakespeare, Marston, Chettle and Middleton.

• Revenge
• Law
• Shakespeare
• Thomas Kyd
• Thomas Middleton
• Henry Chettle
• John Marston
• Tragedy
• Early Modern drama
• The Spanish Tragedy
• Titus Andronicus
• Hamlet
• Antonio's Revenge
• Tragedy of Hoffman
• The Revenger's Tragedy
• Jacobean
• Elizabethan
• Sir Edward Coke
• Tragedy of Blood
• Revenge Tragedy

“This monograph offers a striking perspective on revenge tragedy by placing the genre within the combined field of law and literature. … The monograph is an invaluable resource for scholars of early modern theatre as well as legal and social historians.” (Jessica Apolloni, Early Theatre, Vol. 21 (1), 2018)



“The book’s narrow focus excludes plays relevant to questions about justice that would illuminate both Dunne’s general argument and the largely unquestioned definition of revenge tragedy that the book depends on. Dunne’s book opens up questions about the theater’s engagement with the law that extend well beyond the confines of revenge tragedy.” (Edward Gieskes, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol.70 (3), 2017)

• University of Fribourg, Switzerland

  Derek Dunne

Derek Dunne has taught at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, Shakespeare's Globe, London, and Queen's University, Belfast. He has published on the mathematics of revenge, trial by jury in the early modern period, and the representation of women on trial. Derek's research interests span Shakespeare's contemporary dramatists, early modern Inns of Court culture, cony-catching pamphlets and counterfeiting.

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