This volume presents a modernised edition of Christopher Marlowe’s critical engagement with one of the bloodiest and traumatic episodes of the French Wars of Religion, the wholesale massacre of French Huguenots in Paris in August, 1572. Sensorily shocking and intellectually gripping, the play’s dramatic action spans a tumultuous two decades in French history to unfold for its audience the tragic consequences of religious fanaticism, power politics, and dynastic rivalry. Comprehensively introduced and containing full commentary notes, this edition opens up this frequently neglected but historically significant and dramatically powerful play to student and scholar alike. The introduction examines such topics as the history of the massacre, the play’s treatment of its sources, the play’s dramatisation of trauma, and the play’s exploration of notions of religious toleration. Its notes record the text’s full collation with all extant early editions and major modern editions. Its commentary notes clarify the meaning of the text and aspects of its staging, guide the reader through the play’s dramatisation of early modern French history, and place the play in its broader cultural and artistic milieu. An appendix reproduces a modernised and annotated version of the Collier Leaf, a fragment from a fuller but now lost version of the play. This Revels edition aims to encourage new contemporary critical study of Marlowe’s powerful and provocative drama.
