SOURCE: "The Revenger's Tragedy and the Morality Tradition," in Scrutiny, Vol. VI, No. 4, March, 1938, pp. 402-24.

In the essay below, Salingar argues that much of the special quality of The Revenger's Tragedy is attributable to its grounding in medieval dramatic modes. He stresses that in this play, much as in morality plays, "the physical world is treated, in a peculiarly direct and consistent manner, as emblematic of the moral order, man in relation to divine will. " In this essay, Salingar ascribes The Revenger's Tragedy to Cyril Tourneur.

Tourneur's plays have too often been described as if they were texts for illustration by an Aubrey Beardsley. They have suffered as a result. Symonds read The Revenger's Tragedy as a melodrama with agreeable thrills and some needless moralizing; and, on this reading, it was not difficult for William Archer, applying the standards of naturalism, to make the play appear ludicrous...