Cyril Tourneur
born c. 1575
died Feb. 28, 1626, Kinsale, County Cork, Ire.
English dramatist whose reputation rests largely
upon The Atheist’s Tragedie, which is written in
verse that is rich in macabre imagery.
In 1625 Sir Edward Cecil appointed Tourneur
secretary to the council of war. This
appointment was canceled by the duke of
Buckingham, but Tourneur sailed with Cecil on an
expedition to Cádiz. On the return voyage, he
was put ashore at Kinsale with other sick men,
and he died there. His poetical satire, The
Transformed Metamorphosis, was published in
1600.
The Atheist’s Tragedie: Or The Honest Man’s
Revenge was published in 1611. The Revenger’s
Tragedie, which is sometimes attributed to
Tourneur, had appeared anonymously in 1607. In
1656 the bookseller Edward Archer entered it as
by Tourneur on his list, but most recent
scholarship attributes it to Thomas Middleton.
The plays differ in their attitude toward
private revenge; and The Revenger’s Tragedie,
although earlier, is more mature in its
structure and sombre brilliance.
