SOURCE: "The Revenger's Tragedy" in Middleton's Trage-dies: A Critical Study, 1955. Reprint by Gordian Press, 1970, pp. 3-35.

In the following excerpt from his influential work, Schoenbaum provides afarranging survey of issues related to The Revenger's Tragedy, including possible historical influences on the play, Middleton's use of various literary conventions and techniques, and his style of versification.

Thomas Middleton began writing for the stage at the turn of the seventeenth century. In 1602 his name is associated with two tragedies which have not survived. According to Henslowe's Diary, he wrote Randal Earl of Chester, or The Chester Tragedy, for the Admiral's Men and collaborated with Munday, Drayton, Webster, and Dekker on Caesar's Fall (apparently also called Two Shapes), for the same company. But Middleton's creative energies were at this time devoted primarily to a series of comedies, designed to appeal to the fashionable audiences that attended the performances of Paul's Boys...