SOURCE: McBurney, William H. “Otway's Tragic Muse Debauched: Sensuality in Venice Preserv'd.” Journal of English and Germanic Philology 58 (1959): 380-99.

In the following essay, McBurney argues that Venice Preserv'd deserves more than qualified praise, maintaining that it ranks among the greatest English tragedies.

“What a beautiful, most painful, and in some respects disagreeable play is this Venice Preserv'd!” wrote Leigh Hunt after seeing Fanny Kemble in the role of Belvidera at Covent Garden in October, 1830. “Otway's genius, true as it was to nature, had a smack in it of the age of Charles II. … Sensuality takes the place of sentiment, even in the most calamitous passages. The author has debauched his tragic muse; brings her, as he does his heroine, among a set of ruffians; and dresses her in double tears and mourning, that her blushes may but burn and her fair limbs be set off the more, to...