Volume 43, Number 19 · November 28, 1996
Getting Even
By Frank Kermode
Revenge Tragedy: Aeschylus to Armageddon
by John Kerrigan
Oxford University Press, 404 pp., $70.00
The first part of the title of John Kerrigan's book makes one think of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, of Hamlet, naturally, but also of such works as The Revenger's Tragedy, perhaps by Cyril Tourneur, perhaps by Thomas Middleton; let us favor Tourneur. His hero is actually called Vindice, and most of the other characters have allegorical names like Spurio, a bastard, Lussurioso, a lecher, Ambitioso, and Castiza. These names indicate types rather than characters, and Vindice exists almost exclusively to wreak revenge. The crimes that call for vengeance, whether by Vindice or others, are predominantly sexual; nearly everybody is engaged in rape, adultery, or incest.
Review, 3522 words
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