The indebtedness to the earlier revenge plays extends to details of the
stage presentation. Revenge is accomplished much as in "The Spanish
Tragedy," though by means of a masque instead of a play, and without the
death of the hero. From similar scenes in the old "Hamlet" were probably
derived the appearance of the ghost at midnight, the cry "Antonio,
revenge!" and the second appearance of the ghost to the hero and his
mother. The dumb show exhibiting the wooing of Maria, the use of the
churchyard, the banquets, carousals, funerals, exhibition of the dead
bodies, and the oaths of the conspirators were perhaps already conventional
accompaniments of a revenge play. "Antonio's Revenge," however, is not
wanting in inventiveness; its abundant horrors and its melodramatically
ingenious stage effects were probably recognized as an advance upon the old
favorites, and they excited the emulation of succeeding dramatists.
The hero, too, is of the Kydian type. Like both Hieronimo and Hamlet, he
is a scholar, interested in philosophy and also in theatrical performances.
Like them he is distinguished by a tendency to reflection, and struggles in
solitary meditation at each crisis in his career. Like them he is driven to
the verge of madness by the pressure of his heavy responsibility and by his
awakened sense of evil in the universe. Though he does not seek further
proof, yet, like Hamlet after the revelations of the play, he becomes
frantic and irresolute, neglects an opportunity to kill the duke, and
wastes his vengeance upon an innocent child. Like Hieronimo and Hamlet, he
is tricky, wild, and ranting. With all his overdrawn passion, however, his
mental struggle occasionally attains intellectual depth and tragic power.
As he tells us, it was "the stings of anguish," "the bruising stroke of
chance" which made him run mad "as one confounded in a maze of mischief."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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