Cyril Tourneur

English playwright

• Born: c. 1575
• Birthplace: Unknown
• Died: February 28, 1626
• Place of death: Kinsale, Ireland

As the author of one or two powerful revenge tragedies who emphasized the perversity of his characters and the corruption of the society in which they lived, Tourneur was influential in establishing conventions of subject matter and tone in later Jacobean drama.

Early Life

Very little is known about the life of Cyril Tourneur (SUHR-ul TUHR-nur). Since his poem The Transformed Metamorphosis (1600) was obviously the work of an immature writer, it seems reasonable to assume that at the time it was published, Tourneur was no more than fifteen or twenty. That would place his birth date about 1575 or perhaps 1580. Nothing is known about his parentage. However, Tourneur would later be closely associated with the influential Cecil family, and in his definitive study of Tourneur, Samuel Schuman points out that also serving the Cecils was a Captain Richard Turner, whose father, Edward, was a resident of Canons, Essex. Edward Turner had a number of children, several of whom were given unusual Christian names that, like “Cyril,” were of Greek derivation. Since in Elizabethan times “Tourneur,” “Turner,” and “Turnor ” were all variants of the same name, Cyril might have been one of Edward’s children, born in Essex.

Tourneur must have been reasonably well educated, for he is mentioned in a letter as having been the secretary of Sir Francis Vere, the diplomat and military leader who commanded the English forces in the Netherlands during England’s war with Spain (1587-1604). Tourneur would probably have begun his military service as a foot soldier. His vivid description of the Siege of Ostend (1601-1604) in his play The Atheist’s Tragedy: Or, The Honest Man’s Revenge (pr. c. 1607, pb. 1611) has been taken to mean that he was present at that particular action. Tourneur later expressed high regard for his commanding officer in A Funerall Poem: Upon the Death of Sir Francis Vere (1609).

Life’s Work

At some point between 1600 and 1604, Tourneur evidently left military service for London and a literary career. His first works were obviously experimental. The Transformed Metamorphosis was an allegorical and satirical poem in which a world dominated by evil is finally redeemed. Unfortunately, the work is so confusing that critics cannot agree either as to its references or its meaning. There followed a prose pamphlet, Laugh and Lie Down: Or, The World’s Folly (1605), which has been ascribed to Tourneur, for it was signed by “C. T.” and, moreover, though it is much simpler than the earlier work, the two have notable similarities. Like The Transformed Metamorphosis, Laugh and Lie Down is a satirical allegory, and it deals with corrupt characters in a chaotic world. The pamphlet is significant in that it is the first work in which Tourneur ventures into dialogue. Upon its completion, he was evidently ready to try his hand at drama.

There is now significant doubt as to whether or not Tourneur was in fact the author of the play once generally agreed to be his masterpiece. The Revenger’s Tragedy (pr. 1606-1607, pb. 1607) was probably first performed at the Globe Theatre. In 1607, it appeared in print as an anonymous work. In 1656, the dramatist Edward Archer attributed the play to Tourneur. Late in the nineteenth century, however, some scholars began to voice their doubts, and many now argue that the author was a better-known playwright, Thomas Middleton . Others, however, note how closely The Revenger’s Tragedy resembles The Atheist’s Tragedy, which was published as Tourneur’s work in 1611.

The Revenger’s Tragedy is set in an Italian dukedom, ruled by a corrupt and lustful duke, whose wife, bastard son, and three stepchildren are all as lecherous and murderous as he. Vindice, the protagonist, is bent on revenge, because his beloved Gloriana was poisoned by the duke when she resisted his advances. The action of the play includes deception, seduction, procuring, attempted rape, incest, and murder. At the end, Vindice has obtained his revenge but feels compelled to boast of it, with the result that he is sentenced to death. Interpretations of The Revenger’s Tragedy vary. Certainly it presents a dark vision of the world and of the human beings who inhabit it, but it may also be seen as a play with a moral, that anyone who takes revenge risks losing his soul in the process.

The latter interpretation links The Revenger’s Tragedy to The Atheist’s Tragedy. Although the title page of the latter play indicates that it had often been acted, there is no known evidence of specific performances. From internal evidence, however, scholars have been able to deduce that it postdates The Revenger’s Tragedy.

Like its predecessor, The Atheist’s Tragedy explores the issue of revenge. The title character in this play, however, is not the revenger. Because he is an atheist, D’Amville has no moral values whatsoever but is motivated solely by avarice and pride. In order to acquire the estate of his older brother, Baron Montferrers, he has the baron’s son and heir, Charlemont, sent off to war, has Montferrers murdered, and seizes the baron’s property. Again, the evil characters in the play are both treacherous and lecherous; they do not shrink from incest, rape, or homosexual necrophilia. However, unlike Vindice, Charlemont renounces revenge. At the end of the play, Charlemont has a providential deliverance from death, and D’Amville is punished, presumably by the God he has denied. Just when D’Amville is about to execute Charlemont, the axe in his hands turns upon its owner, knocking out his brains. Thus, The Atheist’s Tragedy may be read as completing the message of The Revenger’s Tragedy that revenge is best left to God.

Another play by Tourneur, The Nobleman (pr. 1612), was performed at court, but it has not survived. Tourneur was also asked by the playwright Robert Daborne to write an act of The Arraignment of London (pr. 1613), which has also been lost. Tourneur may well have been financially desperate enough at that point to do hack work.

Tourneur’s final literary works were a prose character written in 1612 as a tribute to the late Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, and “A Griefe on the Death of Prince Henrie”(1613), an elegy on the death of the prince of Wales. Only a little more is known about Tourneur’s life. In 1613, he was serving as a diplomatic courier. In 1617, he was arrested on unknown charges but was released to Sir Edward Cecil. In October, 1625, while serving as Cecil’s secretary, Tourneur participated in an unsuccessful expedition against Cádiz, Spain. On December 11, wounded or gravely ill, Tourneur was put ashore at Kinsale, Ireland, where he died on February 28, 1626. The fact that he was married is known only because in 1632 his widow, Mary Tourneur, who claimed to be destitute, petitioned the council of war for her husband’s back pay.

Significance

Since Cyril Tourneur spent only about a fourth of his life pursuing a literary career, it is perhaps surprising that he is ranked as one of the most important dramatists of the Jacobean period. Ironically, that assessment rests primarily on a play that he may not have written. However, though no student of Jacobean drama can ignore the controversy over the authorship of The Revenger’s Tragedy, it is so closely linked to Tourneur’s The Atheist’s Tragedy that the two dramas should be considered together.

Both The Revenger’s Tragedy and The Atheist’s Tragedy are rooted in earlier dramatic traditions. Ultimately, they both derive from the medieval morality play, and the revenge tragedy genre dates back to Thomas Kyd’s prototype play, The Spanish Tragedy (pr. c. 1585-1589, pb. 1594?). Critics have suggested that some of Tourneur’s characters resemble the superhuman figures in the plays of Christopher Marlowe, and that others, notably his obsessed, tormented souls, are like the heroes of tragedies by William Shakespeare. However, Tourneur is primarily remembered as an innovator, as the playwright who recreated the revenge tragedy, transforming it into both a psychological study of the revenger and a warning against vengeance. Tourneur’s place in literary history is also ensured by the fact that his plays so influenced the other dramatists of the period that his dark vision of the world came to define Jacobean tragedy.

Bibliography

Auchincloss, Louis. “Cyril Tourneur.” In The Man Behind the Book: Literary Profiles. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. The author speculates as to what Tourneur may have been like and why he became so disenchanted with life.

Champion, Larry S. “Tourneur.” In Tragic Patterns in Jacobean and Caroline Drama. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1977. Discusses each of the plays at length.

Eliot, T. S. “Cyril Tourneur.” In Essays on Elizabethan Drama. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1956. Sees the playwright’s defining quality as his preoccupation with death. On the basis of style and content, Eliot is certain that Tourneur was the author of The Revenger’s Tragedy.

Murray, Peter B. A Study of Cyril Tourneur. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965. Tourneur’s plays reflect Christian, and specifically Anglican, theology, emphasizing the doctrine that grace is essential for salvation.

Neill, Michael. Issues of Death: Mortality and Identity in English Renaissance Tragedy. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1997. Argues that Tourneur’s works reflect his times, when Christian certainties were being eroded, causing death to be redefined. Illustrated. Extensive bibliography and index.

Schuman, Samuel. Cyril Tourneur. Boston: Twayne, 1977. The standard critical work. Contains sections on Tourneur’s life and times, his plays, and his minor works. Includes chronology, notes, annotated bibliography, and index.

White, Martin. Middleton and Tourneur. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. Includes analysis of both plays attributed to Tourneur. The writers also presents his reasons for believing that The Revenger’s Tragedy was written by Middleton.