ragedy is brought closest to Shakespeare in the
relations of the revenge plays to _Hamlet_. The type, introduced by Kyd
in _The Spanish Tragedy_ and the original _Hamlet_, underwent a special
development in Marston's _Antonio's Revenge_ (1598) and several other
plays appearing from 1598 to 1603, that dealt with the blood vengeance
of a son for a father. At the same time Shakespeare turned to the
remaking of the old _Hamlet_ and to a new treatment of the old theme,
yet retained many of the old accessories. Marston reproduces the
essential story of blood vengeance, presided over by a ghost, crossed by
both lust and sentimental love, commented on by long soliloquies, and
accompanied by pretended madness. Chettle, in _Hoffman_, amplifies the
horrors and villainy and brings the story of the mad girl into closer
juncture with the main plot than is the case in _Hamlet_. Tourneur,
writing independently of Shakespeare, introduces, among all sorts of
horrors, a Christian ghost who forbids blood vengeance and commands
submission to Providence. Ben Jonson, in his additions to the old
_Spanish Tragedy_, gives fine imaginative interpretation of the wavering
moods of meditation, irony, and frenzy with which Kyd had dealt only
crudely. The later development of this type proceeded without much
regard to Shakespeare's _Hamlet_, but rather in the direction started by
Marston's tragedies and his influential tragi-comedy, _The Malcontent_.
While _Hamlet_ may be described as centering attention on a meditative
and high-minded avenger, Tourneur, Webster, Middleton, and later
dramatists found greater interest in the study of villainy and intrigue.
Revenge is born of depravity rather than duty, and given a setting of
physical horrors and unnatural lust. Tourneur's _Revenger's Tragedy_
(1606) and Webster's _White Devil_ (1610) and _Duchess of Malfi_ (1611)
represent the culmination of this play of revenge, lust, and horror, and
supply a sort of standard for tragedy until the Civil War. Webster, it
must be added, was hardly less interested than Shakespeare in character
and motive, though he chose to study these in a chamber of horrors.

Shakespeare's Roman tragedies also suggest comparison with contemporary
plays, those either on Roman or on contemporary foreign history.
Tragedies dealing with Roman history had preceded _Julius Caesar_, but
that play doubtless stimulated Jonson's _Sejanus_ (1603) and _Catiline_
(1611). Both these plays attempted a