SOURCE: “Virtù and Poesis in The Revenger's Tragedy,” in English Language History, Vol. 43, No. 1, Spring, 1976, pp. 19-37.

In the following essay, Pearce contends that The Revenger's Tragedy is concerned with the theoretical function of drama itself; that the imagery, characterization, and action underscore the idea of the world as a stage; and that art, poetry, and rhetoric are stand in contrast with the world's moral decay.

The Revenger's Tragedy persuades an audience of its apocalyptic vision of the void, the horror, the impending collapse of universal order and goodness. The play's intensity and power are, of course, paradoxical, for the thorough depravity of the characters and the decay of social values produce in the work of art, not further disintegration, but vitality, eloquence, and an intricate formalism. If the play demonstrates not only decay but also vitality, not only chaos but also control, not only disorder but also...