Shakespeare, Revenge Tragedy and Early Modern Law: Vindictive Justice

by Derek Dunne

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137572868
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	02/03/2016
Series:	Early Modern Literature in History , #14199
Edition description:	1st ed. 2016
Pages:	229
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
A Note on Texts
Introduction: Staging Justice
1. Vindictive Justice in Early Modern England
2. Correcting Justice with Vengeance in The Spanish Tragedy
3. Titus Andronicus: The Evidence of the Senses Under Threat
4. Antonio's Revenge, Riot, and Collective Action
5. Exceptional Hamlet and Resistance to Law
6. Piracy, Insurrection, and The Tragedy of Hoffman
7. The Revenger's Tragedy: Post-Participatory Justice
Conclusion: Participation and Vindication on the Early Modern Stage
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

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)

From the Publisher