Everything you need to know on
The Revenger’s
Tragedy
By: Ashley Louisseize, Erika Butler, and Emily Boucher
Thomas Middleton:
• (1580-1627) —‘our other Shakespeare’
• His father William and mother Anne were married on 17 Feb 1574; their only other child to
survive to adulthood was Avis, baptized 3 Aug 1582.
• When Thomas was five, his father died (20 Jan 1586).
• On 7 Nov 1586 Anne married Thomas Harvey (1559?-1606?), a young but poor gentleman
Grocer.
• Less than two weeks after their wedding, husband and wife began fighting over the trust Anne
had created to protect her children's inheritance. So began fifteen years of lawsuits. Harvey
spent years at a time abroad, months at a time in debtors' prison. Thomas Middleton is first
named as a party to a lawsuit in 1597; as late as 1606, he was called as a witness by his sister
and her second husband over her share of their father's estate.
• In Apr 1598 Middleton matriculated at Queen's College, Oxford. One of his fellow students
there was Thomas Overbury.
• He left Oxford degreeless, but Middleton had enlisted in that bedraggled regiment of poets
even before he enrolled.
• his wife, Magdalene Marbecke, sister of the actor Thomas Marbecke, settled in Surrey in
1608, and Middleton was appointed city chronologer in 1620.
• Worked with Thomas Dekker, John Ford, Thomas Heywood, William Rowley, William
Shakespeare, John Webster, and others.
• Influenced writers as diverse as Aphra Behn, Anthony Trollope, and T. S. Eliot.
• Renaissance playwright who wrote comedy, tragedy, and history.
• His achievements extended to tragicomedies, masques, pageants, pamphlets, pamphlets,
epigrams, and Biblical and political commentaries.
• Revolutionary English history play, A Game at Chess (1625), was a hit of early modern
London.
• A Game at Chess was presented at the Globe Theatre and ran for nine days. It was closed after
the ambassador of Spain complained about it. It appears that Middleton stopped writing plays
after A Game of Chess.
What is a Senecan Tragedy?
Here is quick rundown:
• Closet
• Blood
• Bad things
• Revenge
• All people must die
The Cast!
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Vindici
Gloriana
Castiza
Hippolito
Gratiana
Duke
Duchess
Lussurioso
Ambitioso
Supervaco
Junior Brother
Spurio
Antonio
Antonio’s Wife
Vindinci/Vindice (“Revenger”)
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Protagonist who is obsessed with vengeance on the Duke for his betrothed lady, Gloriana.
Disguises himself as Piato (“hidden”).
Gloriana
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Poisoned by the Duke for refusing to have sexual relations with him while she was betrothed
to Vindici.
Majority of the play she is portrayed using a skull.
Castiza (“Chastity”)
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Pursued by Lussurioso.
Vindinci’s and Hippolito’s sister
Hippolito
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Also known as Carlo.
Brother to Vincindi and Castiza.
Involved in Vindici’s schemes to get revenge on the Duke by working for the family.
Gratiana (“Grace”)
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Mother to Hippolito, Castiza, and Vindinci.
She used Castiza for financial gain by giving Lussurioso permission to pursue her chaste
daughter.
Duke
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Poisoned Gloriana.
Lecherous.
The center of Vindinci’s rage
The Duchess
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Married to Duke.
Has three sons (not with Duke)
Pleads for her youngest son’s freedom after he rapes Lord Antonio’s wife.
Had intimate relations with her step-son Spurio.
Lussirioso (“Luxirious”)
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Heir to the Duke.
Pursues Castiza.
He is Vindici’s and Hippolito’s connection to the Duke.
Ambitsioso (“Ambitious”)
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Duchess’ eldest son.
Encouraged and plotted Lussurioso’s execution.
Supervacuo (“Vain”)
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Duchess’ second eldest son.
Schemed with Ambitsioso.
Junior Brother:
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Duchess’ youngest son.
Raped Lord Antonio’s wife.
Spurio (“Bastard”)
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Duke’s illegitimate son.
Had sexual relations with Duchess.
Lord Antonio
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Discontented Lord.
Becomes Duke when everyone else has died.
Orders the execution of Vindici and Hippolito for killing the previous Duke.
Lord Antonio’s wife
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Gets raped by Junior Brother.
Commits suicide.
Themes:
Revenge:
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Revenge inflicts equally upon the revenger and the antagonist.
Vindici resorts to compromising the same moral values that were discarded by the nobility (ex.
he kills, lies frequently, convinces his mother to prostitute his sister to further his revenge, and
allows others to become scapegoats for his sins).
Justice:

Forms of justice are seen in many different aspects of the play;
o Sinners
o Law
o Court
o Vigilantism
o Rebellion
Love vs. Lust
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Familial love, for example, Vindici and Hippolito show this love through their quest for
revenge. On the other hand, there is a lack of familial love in the Duke’s family.
Lust is also evident throughout the play. The main example of this is the Duke’s pursuit of
Vindice’s betrothed. Another example is seen when the Duke’s son Lussurioso asks a disguised
Vindice to persuade Castiza for sex.
Adultery
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Morality and Sin (rationalizes killing).
Corruption (court).
Misogyny: created by the women, who view themselves as weak and incapable of operating
without a man. The men in turn see the women as naturally lustful and deceitful, and cannot
bring themselves to trust the female cast characters.
Family: Familial ties are present, such as the somewhat twisted bonds between the Duke’s
various sons, Vindice’s fondness for his sister and his initial relationship with his mother.
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Quotes:
The Duchess: “Are you so barbarous to set iron nipples upon these breasts that gave you suck?”
Vindici: "Age, as in gold, in lust is covetous.”
Duke: “They do, we're sorry for't; it is our fate: To live in fear and die to live in hate.”
Duke: “Age hot is like a monster to be seen; my hairs are white, but yet my sins are green.“
Vindici: “Were it not for women and gold, there would be no damnation!"
Vindinci: “Duke, royal lecher, go, gray-hair'd adultery;
And thou his son, as impious steep'd as he;
And thou his bastard, true-begot in evil;
And thou his duchess that will do with [the] devil:
Four ex'lent characters. Oh, that marrowless age
Would stuff the hollow bones with damn'd desires,
And stead of heat kindle infernal fires
Within the spendthrift veins of a dry duke,
A parch'd and juiceless luxur! Oh God, one
That has scarce blood enough to live upon!
And he to riot it like a son and heir?
Oh, the thought of that
Turns my abused heartstrings into fret!
Thou sallow picture of my poisoned love,
My study's ornament, thou shell of death,
Once the bright face of my betrothed lady,
When life and beauty naturally fill'd out
These ragged imperfections,
When two heaven-pointed diamonds were set
In those unsightly rings: then 'twas a face
So far beyond the artificial shine
Of any woman's bought complexion
That the uprightest man, if such there be,
That sin but seven times a day, broke custom
And made up eight with looking after her.
Oh, she was able to ha' made a usurer's son
Melt all his patrimony in a kiss,
And what his father fifty years told
To have consum'd, and yet his suit been cold!
But oh, accursed palace!
Thee, when thou wert apparel'd in thy flesh,
The old duke poison'd,
Because thy purer part would not consent
Unto his palsy-lust, for old men lustful
Do show like young men angry, eager-violent,
Outbid like their limited performances.
Oh, 'ware an old man hot and vicious!
"Age, as in gold, in lust is covetous."
Vengeance, thou murder's quit-rent, and whereby
Thou shouldst thyself tenant to tragedy,
Oh, keep thy day, hour, minute, I beseech,
For those thou hast determin'd! Hum: whoe'er knew
Murder unpaid? Faith, give revenge her due:
Sh'as kept touch hitherto. Be merry, merry;
Advance thee, O thou terror to fat folks,
To have their costly three-pil'd flesh worn of
As bare as this: for banquets, ease, and laughter
Can make great men, as greatness goes by clay,
But wise men little are more great than they.
Themes:
Revenge
•Revenge inflicts equally upon the revenger and the antagonist.
•Vindici resorts to compromising the same moral values that were discarded by the nobility (ex. he kills,
lies frequently, convinces his mother to prostitute his sister to further his revenge, and allows others to
become scapegoats for his sins).
Justice
Forms of justice are seen in many different aspects of the play;
•Sinners
•Law
•Court
•Vigilantism
•Rebellion
Love Vs. Lust
•Familial love, for example, Vindici and Hippolito show this love through their quest for revenge. On the
other hand, there is a lack of familial love in the Duke’s family.
•Lust is also evident throughout the play. The main example of this is the Duke’s pursuit of Vindice’s
betrothed. Another example is seen when the Duke’s son Lussurioso asks a disguised Vindice to
persuade Castiza for sex.
Adultery
•Morality and Sin (rationalizes killing).
•Corruption (court).
•Misogyny: created by the women, who view themselves as weak and incapable of operating without a
man. The men in turn see the women as naturally lustful and deceitful, and cannot bring themselves to
trust the female cast characters.
•Family: Familial ties are present, such as the somewhat twisted bonds between the Duke’s various sons,
Vindice’s fondness for his sister and his initial relationship with his mother.
Motif:
Flesh
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“Thee, when thou wert apparel'd in thy flesh,”
“To have their costly three-pil'd flesh worn of”
“Why, flesh and blood, my lord.”
“That sees through flesh and all well. If anything be damn'd,”
“as they say, a thing of flesh and blood, a man I take him by his beard,”
“he brings flesh-flies after him that will buzz against suppertime and hum for his coming out.”
Symbol:
•The skull of Gloriana is used in multiple scenes in which Vindici talks to it and it is used in the plot to
kill the Duke.
•Arguable necrophilia.