Seneca's Influence on Webster's Revenge Tragedy The Duchess of Malfi

Abstract

It is universally admitted that Senecan drama was a turning point in the development of English tragedy. Seneca's tragedies, based on themes of Greek mythology, offered an admirable model that imposed one of the foremost influences on the English tragic writers of Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Written in an atmosphere of gloom, Seneca's tragic plays immensely concentrated on themes of bloody revenge which were in harmony with the English taste. His stoicism and rhetoric represented   significant participations to the Elizabethan form.