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Basic Glossary of Literary Terms
R
Renaissance: coined in the nineteenth century
looking back at that period of European history, following the Middle Ages,
when knowledge of all kinds took a great leap forward and was subject to a
'rebirth'. Elizabethan and Jacobean drama come broadly at the peak of this
brilliantly creative period. Parallel in English literature and science with
this humanist movement was the religious Reformation. Revels, Master of the: English court official,
who, from Tudor times up until the Licensing Act of 1737, supervised the production
and financing of often elaborate court entertainments. He later was the official
issuer of licenses to theatres and theatrical companies and the censor of
publicly performed plays. revenge hero: the ptotagonist of a revenge
tragedy. revenge tragedy: a special form of tragedy which
concentrates on the ptotagonist's pursuit of vengeance against those who have
done him wrong. These plays often concentrate on the moral confusion caused
by the need to answer evil with evil. Drama in which the dominant motive is revenge for a real or
imagined injury; it was a favourite form of English tragedy in the Elizabethan
and Jacobean eras and found its highest expression in William Shakespeare's
Hamlet.
A Master of the Revels was first appointed about 1495, and the Revels office
soon developed a complicated system for building and painting spectacular
scenery. In 1545 Sir Thomas Cawarden became master for life, and thereafter
the office assumed importance. Decrees in 1581 and 1603 gave the Master of
Revels licensing, censorship, and fee-collecting powers. The prestige of the
office reached its high point during the mastership of Sir Henry Herbert (1623-42),
after which England's theatres were closed during the Puritan interregnum.
After the Restoration (1660), Herbert was reinstalled as master until his
death in 1673, but the office was gradually stripped of its power. The Licensing
Act of 1737 abolished it entirely, granting the power of censorship directly
to the Lord Chamberlain. Although the Revels office did not have exclusive
control over all court entertainment, the accounts and detailed records of
the office are a valuable source for information on elaborate court productions
from the 15th through the early 18th century.
The revenge drama derived originally from the Roman tragedies of Seneca but
was established on the English stage by Thomas Kyd with The Spanish Tragedie
(c. 1590). This work, which opens with the Ghost of Andrea and Revenge,
deals with Hieronimo, a Spanish gentleman who is driven to melancholy by the
murder of his son. Between spells of madness, he discovers who the murderers
are and plans his ingenious revenge. He stages a play in which the murderers
take part, and, while enacting his role, Hieronimo actually kills them, then
kills himself. The influence of this play, so apparent in Hamlet (performed
c. 1600-01), is also evident in other plays of the period. In John Marston's
Antonio's Revenge (1602), the ghost of Antonio's slain father urges
Antonio to avenge his murder, which Antonio does during a court masque. In
George Chapman's Revenge of Bussy d'Ambois (performed c. 1610), Bussy's
ghost begs his introspective brother Clermont to avenge his murder. Clermont
hesitates and vacillates but at last complies, then kills himself. Most revenge
tragedies end with a scene of carnage that disposes of the avenger as well
as his victims. Other examples are Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (performed
1593-94), Henry Chettle's Tragedy of Hoffman (performed 1602), and
Thomas Middleton's Revenger's Tragedie (1607).
