(from 1590 to 1620)

Seneca's plays inspired a lot of Elizabethan plays on the theme of revenge.

English society was halfway between a state of primitive lawlessness, in which justice was subordinate to power and privilege, and a modern state in which justice is available to everyone.

For Elizabethans, although the state and the Church considered private revenge as a crime, it was nevertheless seen as a duty of the individual to take direction against any injustice done to a member of one's family.

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