Tragedy

The study traces the development of English tragedy from medieval and classical influences through the Romantic movement, beginning with a discussion of definitions and the distinguishing features of tragedy versus melodrama and comedy. It surveys early stages and sixteenth-century plays, gives extended treatments of Marlowe, Shakespeare and their contemporaries, and examines later Elizabethan, Restoration, eighteenth-century, and Romantic treatments, selecting representative works after 1600. Emphasis falls on thematic and structural characteristics of the type, the play's role in theatre and literature, and the results of scholarly inquiry rather than detailed bibliographical debate.