Robert Yarington, Two Lamentable Tragedies

Emily O'Brien (Trinity College Dublin)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1601 - 1601

Places

England (Publication/ performance)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

Two Lamentable Tragedies, an unusual tragedy featuring two distinct plotlines, was printed in 1601 in a quarto edition. It consists of two entirely separate murder narratives, one set in London and one in Italy, with the dramatic action alternating between the two locations. The play also makes use of an allegorical framework, enabling the figure of Truth to bridge the movement between the different settings, and to provide didactic commentary.

The English plot of Two Lamentable Tragedies represents a real crime that took place in London on 23 August 1594, when an alehouse keeper named Thomas Merry murdered his neighbour, Robert Beech, as well as Beech’s young servant, Thomas Winchester, in two brutal attacks …

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1604 words

Citation: O'Brien, Emily. "Two Lamentable Tragedies". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 April 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35678, accessed 20 April 2024.]

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