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When most people consider English Renaissance drama, their minds often drift to Shakespeare's iconic works, such as Romeo and Juliet (1597) and Hamlet (c. 1599–1601). The theater of this era, also referred to as Elizabethan or Jacobean, spans from 1558 to 1642. While modern audiences may view these plays as sophisticated, filled with profound soliloquies on love, death, and everything in between, they were the mainstream entertainment of their time. Consequently, many of these plays are surprisingly outrageous.
Though they often included solemn and emotional dialogues, Renaissance audiences also craved dramatic deaths, bizarre scenarios, and risqué humor. Below are 10 of the most peculiar moments from English Renaissance theater. Spoilers ahead (though, to be fair, these plays are over four centuries old).
10. Necrophilia in The Revenger’s Tragedy
Revenge tragedies were immensely popular during the Renaissance, and Thomas Middleton’s satirical The Revenger’s Tragedy cleverly parodies this brutal genre. Written in 1606, the play incorporates the usual themes of disguise and deceit but takes a darkly sexual turn. It essentially depicts necrophilia, though the perpetrator remains unaware of the recipient's lifeless state.
The play begins with Vindice seeking vengeance against the Duke, who poisoned his fiancée after she rejected his advances nine years earlier. Since then, he has morbidly kept her skull with him. Disguising himself, Vindice is employed by the Duke as a pimp. In a twist of poetic justice, he coats the skull of his deceased lover with poison and positions it on a mannequin dressed as an alluring woman. Mistaking it for a ful prostitute, the Duke kisses the toxic figure “like a slobbering Dutchman” (III.v.164), leading to the rapid decay of his teeth and tongue.
9. Lioness Attack in As You Like It
Shakespeare’s As You Like It (1599) includes the renowned “All the world’s a stage” monologue (II.vii.139). Like many of his works, it explores themes of instant love and cross-dressing disguises. Orlando, the male protagonist, is driven into the forest by his malicious older brother, Oliver. While the play concludes with their reconciliation, as befits a comedy, Shakespeare’s method of resolving their conflict is notably creative.
Orlando discovers Oliver asleep under a tree, with a lioness poised to attack. Shakespeare seems to have ignored the fact that lions had been extinct in Europe for millennia. Rather than abandoning his brother to his fate, which he briefly contemplates, Orlando confronts the beast: “The lioness had torn some flesh away, / Which all this while had bled; and now he fainted” (IV.iii.156-7). Orlando’s heroism prompts Oliver to regret his past cruelty, though a wolf attack might have served the same purpose.
8. Devil-Dog in The Witch of Edmonton
Authored by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker, and John Ford in 1621, The Witch of Edmonton draws inspiration from the real-life Elizabeth Sawyer, who was executed for witchcraft that same year. In the play, Sawyer is ostracized by her community after being falsely accused of witchcraft. With nothing left to lose, she seeks retribution by making a pact with the Devil.
The Devil doesn’t manifest as a man but instead appears as a dog named Tom (though portrayed by a human actor on stage). While Sawyer is portrayed sympathetically, her interactions with the Devil-Dog carry a strange and unsettling undertone. She commands him to “Stand on thy hind-legs up. Kiss me, my Tommy” (IV.i.170) and then insists, “Let’s tickle.” (IV.i.173). Although accounts of witchcraft sometimes included sexual acts with the Devil, the animal form adds an extra layer of peculiarity.
7. Bottom’s Donkey Head in A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, penned in 1595 or 1596, unfolds in a fairy-filled forest, setting the stage for bizarre events. True to its title, the comedy exudes a dreamlike atmosphere. At one point, the mischievous fairy Puck interprets Bottom’s name literally and transforms his head into that of a donkey.
Earlier, Puck had administered a love potion to Titania, Queen of the Fairies, causing her to fall for the first being she sees upon waking—which happens to be Bottom. Despite his half-human, half-donkey appearance, she proclaims, “So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape. / And thy fair virtue’s force perforce doth move me / On the first view to say, to swear, I love thee” (III.i.127-9). Fortunately, as a comedy, the play ensures Bottom eventually regains his human form.
6. Poisoned Portrait and Hat in The White Devil
John Webster’s The White Devil (1612) draws from the real-life murder of Vittoria Accoramboni in Padua 27 years prior. Webster’s adaptation includes classic Renaissance tragedy elements like adultery and corruption. Brachiano becomes infatuated with Vittoria, though both are married. In true tragic fashion, their solution to this dilemma is murder.
Brachiano’s wife has a nightly habit of kissing his portrait, which has been laced with poison, leading to her death. Vittoria’s husband, Camillo, is killed by her brother, Flamineo, during an impromptu gymnastics competition (as one does). Flamineo snaps Camillo’s neck and positions his body beneath a vaulting horse to stage it as an accident. Later, Brachiano meets his end when poison is sprinkled into his tournament helmet, causing him to exclaim, “O, my brain’s on fire” (V.iii.4). However, the poison doesn’t act swiftly enough, so he is ultimately strangled.
5. Merlin Being Born as an Adult in The Birth of Merlin
While most envision Merlin as a bearded old man, William Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin (1622) presents him as being born fully grown. The play centers on Joan, a woman impregnated by a mysterious stranger, and her clownish brother. The narrative follows their journey through a forest in search of a father figure for her unborn child—a plan that seems less than ideal.
The Devil is revealed as the father, and instead of delivering a baby, Joan gives birth to a fully grown man. The play leaves the physical logistics of this event unexplained. The idea of the Devil being Merlin’s father is rooted in traditional mythology, with his half-demon heritage granting him prophetic abilities. However, the concept of Merlin being born as an adult is Rowley’s invention. Merlin’s clown-uncle remarks on the absurdity: “a child to speak, eat, and go the first hour of his birth; nay, such a baby as had need of a barber before he was born, too; why, sister, this is monstrous” (III.iv.45-7).
4. Cannibalism in Titus Andronicus
Titus Andronicus (c. 1588–1593) is among Shakespeare’s least-performed plays due to its graphic violence. It portrays the vengeful feud between Titus, a Roman general, and Tamora, Queen of the Goths. Lucy Bailey’s production at The Globe in London (2006 and 2014) was so gruesome that it caused some audience members to faint.
Titus sacrifices one of Tamora’s sons and kills his own son during a dispute. Tamora’s two sons murder a man to rape Titus’s daughter Lavinia, cutting off her tongue and hands to silence her. Despite this, Lavinia outsmarts them. Titus slits the throats of her rapists while Lavinia collects their blood in a basin. He declares he will “grind their bones to powder small / And with this hateful liquor temper it; / And in that paste let their vile heads be baked” (V.ii.250-2). Tamora unknowingly consumes pies made from her sons’ remains, making Titus a precursor to Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd.
3. Lycanthropia in The Duchess of Malfi
John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1613) is another play inspired by true events. It follows the Duchess, who marries below her station, triggering a series of violent acts orchestrated by her two brothers and a spy they employ. Near the play’s conclusion, it is revealed that one brother, Ferdinand, is so consumed by guilt over his sister’s murder that he descends into madness, suffering from lycanthropia—the delusion of transforming into a wolf.
A doctor describes the condition, stating that Ferdinand “Steal[s] forth to church-yards in the dead of night, / And dig[s] dead bodies up” (V.ii.14-5). He recounts how Ferdinand was discovered “Behind Saint Mark’s church, with the leg of a man / Upon his shoulder; and he howl’d fearfully” (V.ii.17-8). In contrast, the other brother, the Cardinal, shows no remorse. After confessing his role in his sister’s death to his mistress, he forces her to swear secrecy by kissing a poisoned bible, which kills her instantly. Renaissance playwrights clearly had a penchant for lethal objects.
2. The Bear in The Winter’s Tale
The Winter’s Tale (c. 1610–1611) begins as a typical Shakespearean tragedy until Act III, Scene iii, when Antigonus leaves baby Perdita in the forest. Then comes one of Shakespeare’s most famous and humorous stage directions: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” While a real bear wouldn’t have been used on stage—though bears were part of other forms of entertainment in Renaissance London—the moment is nonetheless shocking.
The bear’s abrupt appearance and exit isn’t the only amusing or strange moment in the play. Hermione, Queen of Sicily and Perdita’s mother, dies, and her husband commissions a statue in her memory. Miraculously, the statue comes to life, and Hermione is revived. The play also includes a scene where a servant hilariously misunderstands the sexual connotation of the word dildo. This is likely the first recorded use of the term, so credit to Shakespeare for the dildo humor.
1. Incest in ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore
John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore (c. 1626–1633) boldly explores the taboo subject of incest, focusing on the romantic and sexual relationship between siblings Giovanni and Annabella. Their love is depicted as both genuine and morally reprehensible. A 2014 review of the play noted its unsettling nature, stating that Ford neither condones nor condemns incest, instead presenting it as an inevitable and uncontrollable force.
Giovanni impregnates Annabella, who marries another man to hide their affair. The play culminates in Giovanni stabbing Annabella and revealing their incestuous relationship to everyone, holding her heart impaled on a dagger. He declares, “For nine months space, in secret I enjoy’d / Sweet Annabella’s sheets” but “her too fruitful womb too soon bewray’d / The happy passage of our stolen delights” (V.vi.43-4, 47-8). This shocking revelation causes their father, Florio, to die from the sheer horror of it.
