ABSTRACT
By the same token, Lodge was clearly in tune with the times in adapting the formulae of revenge tragedy to prose fiction. A Margarite of America is not only about courts, their mores and diversions, their corruptions and intrigues, about tyranny and usurpation, but also about murders and mutilations of enemies and parents alike, and about the smoldering revenge that alone can bring stasis to a story of desolation and woe. J.W. Lever pro files the genre in The Tragedy of State, taking note, in select plays by Marston, Marlowe, Kyd, and Shakespeare, of a set of com mon features: court settings, corrupt rulers, intrigue, delayed re venge, and spectacular catastrophes (18). Inevitably, where there tra its to the "v illa in M achiavel" o f th e sensa tiona lis t v a rie ty te n d s to u n de rm in e the w o rk as a serious po litical study . M arlow e, in h is p ro lo g u e to The Jew o f M alta, p ro v id es the sam e crossing p o in t b e tw een a re s id u e of M ach iavellian th in k in g an d the ad v an cem en t of th e v illa in p ro ta g o n is t s ty led in th e n am e of the b o g ey m an "M achevil," in all its v a ria n t spellings. A s ea rly as 1568 W illiam M aitlan d refers to a sco u n d re l as "th is false M achiv ilian ," ind ica ting h o w early th e folk v e rs io n h a d a p peared . M ario P raz believes th a t th e id ea cam e to E ng land th ro u g h Scotland w h ere , as it tu rn s out, The Prince h a d b een tran s la ted in to Scot tish long before th e E nglish h ad a tran s la tio n (94). Such allu sions ca rry the im ag in a tio n n o t in the d irec tion o f necessary po litical s tra te g y — A rsadachus h a d n o reasons of sta te in m in d w h atso ev er befo re se ttin g h im self u p as e m p e ro r-b u t to am o ra lity a n d sensationalism in th e social w o rld of th e court.
