CRITICISM

Ayres, Philip J. Tourneur: The Revenger's Tragedy. London: Edward Arnold, 1977, 62 p.

Discusses influences; sources; and ironic, social, comic, and tragic dimensions of the play.

Ellis-Fermor, Una. “The Imagery of The Revenger's Tragedie and The Atheist's Tragedie.” Modern Language Review 30 (1935): 289-301.

Discusses the common imagery in the two plays, paying particular attention to the imagery of the house in The Atheist's Tragedy.

Foakes, R. A. Marston and Tourneur. London: Longman Group Ltd., 1978, 54 p.

Thoroughly examines The Revenger's Tragedy and offers commentary on Tourneur's life and The Atheist's Tragedy.

Gauntlett, Mark. “‘Had his estate been follow to his mind’: Ironic Strategies in The Revenger's Tragedy.” Cahiers Élisabéthains 42 (October, 1992): 37-48.

Examines the modes of irony by which The Revenger's Tragedy attains its peculiar status as a revenge comedy.

Higgins, M. H. “The Influence of Calvinistic Thought in The Atheist's Tragedy.” Review of English Studies 19 (1943): 255-62.

Argues that the play is Calvinist and Puritan in its outlook, as it reveals a disgust with the human body.

Kernan, Alvin. “Tragical Satire and The Revenger's Tragedy.” In Shakespeare's Contemporaries, edited by M. Bluestone and N. Rabkin. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1970, pp. 317-29.

Discusses the nature of satire and argues that Vindice is a satirist who comments on other characters and on society.

Layman, B. J. “Tourneur's Artificial Noon and the Design of The Revenger's Tragedy.” Modern Language Quarterly 34, No. 1 (March, 1973): 20-35.

Disagrees with critics who view Tourneur as a masterful moralist.

Levin, Richard. “The Subplot of The Atheist's Tragedy.” Huntington Library Quarterly 29 (1965): 17-33.

Analysis of the related themes in the main plot, subplot, and a third comic plot.

Mincoff, Marco K. “The Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy.” Studia Historico-Philologica Serdicensia 2 (1940): 1-87.

Detailed explication of the imagery in The Revenger's Tragedy that also argues the work is not by Tourneur's hand.

Murray, Peter. A Study of Cyril Tourneur. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1964, 257 p.

Comprehensive scholarly analysis of Tourneur's major works which argues that The Revenger's Tragedy is not by Tourneur.

Oliphant, E. H. C. “The Authorship of The Revenger's Tragedy.” Studies in Philology 23 (1926): 157-68.

Suggests that The Revenger's Tragedy is not by Tourneur but by his contemporary John Middleton.

Ornstein, Robert. “The Atheist's Tragedy and Renaissance Naturalism.” Studies in Philology 51 (1954): 194-207.

Views the protagonist's naturalistic outlook as typical of the atheist as characterized by Renaissance writers.

Peter, John. “The identity of Mavortio in Tourneur's The Transformed Metamorphosis.” Notes and Queries 193 (1948): 408-12.

Sees the poem as a political allegory in which the hero, Mavortio, is Henry VIII and the Unicorn is Elizabeth I.

Salingar, L. G. “The Revenger's Tragedy and the Morality Tradition.” Scrutiny 6 (1938): 402-24.

Discusses the work as a morality play, as characters and events are manipulated for didactic purposes.

Schuman, Samuel. Cyril Tourneur. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1977, 163 p.

Presents the life and works of Tourneur within the frame of the contemporary literary and historical situation.

Simmons, J. L. “The Tongue and Its Office in The Revenger's Tragedy.” PMLA 92 (1977): 56-68.

Argues that the imagery of the tongue helps to illuminate the grotesque Jacobean darkness of the play.

Additional coverage of Tourneur's life and works can be found in the following sources published by the Gale Group: Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol. 58; and DISCovering Authors Modules:Dramatists.