Revenge Tragedy (review)

226 Reviews find the use of excerpts limiting, the range of texts edited and translated here, along with Rebhom's meticulous detailing of the textual history of each selection, make Renaissance Debates on Rhetoric an excellent starting point for any examination of this subject. Alison Scott Department ofEnglish Macquarie University Simkin, Stevie, ed., Revenge Tragedy (New Casebooks), Houndsmill, Palgrave, 2001; hardback; pp. ix, 268; R R P £42.50; ISBN 0333922379. The title of this anthology of previously published 'contemporary critical ('contemporary', the general editors explain, in exhibiting the impact of'modem critical theory') is in part misleading. Major revenge tragedies one would expect to see discussed are left out. Yet several of the small number of plays chosen as central are not primarily revenge tragedies. N o less significantly, the essays often do not focus on revenge or issues specifically related to that. It would have been helpful to readers with an interest in the role of revenge in ancient Greek drama to use some such title as Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy 1587-1642, which was used in 1940 by Fredson Bowers for what the editor acknowledges remains 'the most comprehensive survey' of revenge tragedies written in Renaissance England (p. 257). But though more specific, that title would still have been inaccurate for this book. What about the English Renaissance plays not included? In note 10 on page 20 Simkin lists '[r]evenge tragedies not covered in this volume'. The list includes Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus and Hamlet, Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, Wlaiston9 sAntonio s Revenge, Chapman's The Revenge ofBussyD 'Ambois, Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid s Tragedy, and Massinger's The Duke ofMilan, as well as many other plays. It is not explained why these plays are omitted. To many people, Hamlet is, for all its oddities as a play in which the protagonist keeps postponing the task of revenge, the most famous revenge tragedy of all. Possibly yet more puzzling is the inclusion of most of the other plays. The main ones chosen are The Spanish Tragedy and The Revenger's Tragedy both of course excellent choices - and, strangely, The Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil, The Changeling, and "lis Pity She s a Whore. Not one of these plays seems to m e centrally preoccupied with revenge, either in action or in Reviews 227 theme. Even though Bowers does include all of them, he offers a definition of revenge tragedy which to some extent justifies his choice. Simkin offers no definition of what he takes to be 'revenge tragedy' at any point, nor any reasons why The Changeling is a more logical play to include than Hamlet. Inasmuch as discussion of The Changeling might have concentrated on such an element of revenge as occurs within that play, one is disappointed to find that, instead, the essays chosen (by Cristina Malcolmson and Deborah Burks) deal predominantly with feminist issues. These issues do not appear to me to be the central ones in The Changeling, although they certainly are significant in that play. In general, feminist criticism looms large in much of the volume, and such questions as one traditionally associates with Elizabethan and Jacobean revenge tragedy (Does the revenger have an adequate incentive for his revenge? Is revenge seen as good or evil? Is it supernaturally sanctioned?) are not extensively dealt with. Much the best essay here, to m y mind, is Michael Neill's on 'Tis Pity, first published in 1988. H e concentrates on one important moment, that of Giovanni's spectacular entry, at the end of the play, with his sister's heart impaled upon a dagger. Giovanni sees himself, triumphantly, as having succeeded in his 'revenge', though he is not very clear about just what he means by this. Neill exhaustively, knowledgeably, and penetratingly analyses the significance of the moment, discussing both the general cultural context within which it is located and its critical function within the play. His is an essay which, from any point of view, makes a truly significant addition to our understanding, and will, I predict, be ofpermanent value. Even so, though this is also an essay which can justifiably be included in a book on...