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.
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
