John Marston's "Antonio's Revenge": A Representation of Socio-political Conflicts in Early Modern England

The early modern period is one of the most controversial eras in western history, in general, and in England, in particular. The long-established socio-political structure of England encountered a number of fundamental emerging challenges in the early modern period. With the rise of a new episteme and in the wake of unprecedented experimental discoveries of scientists in this era, Biblical and medieval teachings upon which the socio-political structure of England was mainly founded, were seriously put into question. Hence, the intellectuals and elites of the English society increasingly felt the need for an indispensable change in the principles of this system. There is no denial that literature in this epoch, and theatre in particular, reflect this intellectual confrontation between Christian traditions and emerging secular discourses. In this paper, the author adheres to the tenets of British cultural materialism to shed some new light on this ideological conflict in the early modern epoch as being represented in John Marston's "Antonio's Revenge".