Antonio's Revenge
Encyclopedia
Antonio's Revenge is a late Elizabethan play written by John Marston
John Marston
John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...

 ca. 1599–1600, and performed by the Children of Paul's
Children of Paul's
The Children of Paul's was the name of a troupe of boy actors in Elizabethan and Jacobean London. Along with the Children of the Chapel, the Children of Paul's were the most important of the companies of boy players that constituted a distinctive feature of English Renaissance theatre.St...

, one of the troupes of boy actors
Boy player
Boy player is a common term for the adolescent males employed by Medieval and English Renaissance playing companies. Some boy players worked for the mainstream companies and performed the female roles, as women did not perform on the English stage in this period...

 popular at the time.

Antonio's Revenge was entered into the Stationers' Register
Stationers' Register
The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...

 on Oct. 24, 1601
1601 in literature
The year 1601 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 7 - The Lord Chamberlain's Men stage a performance of Shakespeare's Richard II at the Globe Theatre. The performance is specially commissioned by the plotters in the Earl of Essex's rebellion of the following day...

, at the same time as Antonio and Mellida, and was first published in quarto
Book size
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...

 in 1602
1602 in literature
The year 1602 in literature involved some significant events.-Events:*February 2 - The King's Men perform Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple.*May 4 - Richard Hakluyt is installed as prebendary of Westminster....

 by the bookseller Thomas Fisher.

This play is a sequel to the romantic comedy
Romantic Comedy
Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...

 Antonio and Mellida
Antonio and Mellida
Antonio and Mellida is a late Elizabethan play written by the satirist John Marston, usually dated to c. 1599.The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on Oct. 24, 1601, and first published in quarto in 1602 by the booksellers Matthew Lownes and Thomas Fisher...

. Unlike its predecessor, however, Antonio's Revenge is a revenge tragedy. Antonio and Mellida
Antonio and Mellida
Antonio and Mellida is a late Elizabethan play written by the satirist John Marston, usually dated to c. 1599.The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on Oct. 24, 1601, and first published in quarto in 1602 by the booksellers Matthew Lownes and Thomas Fisher...

ended with a scene in which the two lovers were reconciled, with the villain, Mellida's father, Duke Piero, apparently repenting his attempts to keep them apart. Antonio's Revenge begins where the previous play ended. It is revealed that Piero has not really reformed: he still hates Antonio, and is determined to prevent his daughter's marriage to him. Piero murders and imprisons various characters, driving Mellida herself to die of grief, before Antonio teams up with other wronged individuals to carry out a revenge on the wicked Duke, which they do through a masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...

 in the play's last act.

This play, like Antonio and Mellida
Antonio and Mellida
Antonio and Mellida is a late Elizabethan play written by the satirist John Marston, usually dated to c. 1599.The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on Oct. 24, 1601, and first published in quarto in 1602 by the booksellers Matthew Lownes and Thomas Fisher...

, is heavily indebted to earlier Elizabethan drama, recalling and parodying many scenes and devices.
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