Chapter 96

Revenge

Revenge and vengeance: the urge to repay injury, blood feud and retaliation; whether vengeance is just, divine or forbidden.

841 passages · 327 principal · Covers the 49 volumes of primary texts

Revenge is the urge to repay injury with injury. It covers the private quarrel and the blood feud, the duel of honour and the reprisal between nations, and the vengeance that men assign to God or the gods. It is a great idea for these books because nearly every serious question about justice passes through it. One question is whether the wish to strike back is natural or learned. Another is whether repaying evil can ever be just. A third is how a community stops the chain of killing that private retaliation begins, and a fourth is whether a righteous God may himself be called vengeful. Epic, tragedy and romance supply the material. The philosophers, the moralists and the theologians argue over its meaning.

The first question is where the passion comes from. Augustine finds it in the cradle. As a thwarted infant, he says, he “avenged myself on them by tears” upon his elders¹. Hume treats revenge, with avarice and ambition, as so universal that a people without it would be an incredible tale². Locke sees the impulse in children but blames parents who cultivate it by teaching a child to strike back^3,4. Rousseau gives the sharpest dissent. Natural man, he holds, retaliated only mechanically, like a dog biting a thrown stone, and regarded injury as something to be repaired rather than punished⁵. Only when esteem arose did injuries become affronts, and only then did revenge become terrible and bloody, a product of society⁶. Shelley likewise calls revenge “the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age”⁷. Hume adds a point about what vengeance is aimed at: it can rightly fall only on a lasting person whose character produced the act, so that without necessity no one would be a fit object of it⁸.

Whatever its origin, the passion is described everywhere as sweet and overpowering. Bacon counts it among the passions that master the fear of death, observing that “Revenge triumphs over death”⁹. Dante defines wrath as love perverted: the man who feels insulted thirsts for vengeance and delights in another’s harm¹⁰. Shelley’s Cenci ranks the groans of a slain foe above lust as his keenest pleasure¹¹. Hobbes, more clinically, warns that a habitual desire of revenge becomes rage, a form of madness¹². The moralists list it plainly among the vices^13,14,15. Woolman traces a progression from pride through malice to revenge¹⁶.

The writers also agree, with striking unanimity, that vengeance recoils on the one who takes it. Aesop’s horse gains his revenge on the stag and loses his freedom in the bargain¹⁷. Bacon notes that private revenge harms the avenger¹⁸. Milton’s Satan admits that revenge, sweet at first, recoils bitterly¹⁹, and God foresees it falling back on his rebellious head²⁰. In Schiller, Fürst condemns revenge as fruitless and self-devouring, ending in despair²¹. Byron’s Nemesis makes men repent their own revenges²².

From such observations comes the case against revenge. Socrates in the Crito holds that one must never return evil for evil, whatever the many believe²³. Marcus Aurelius gives the Stoic form of the idea: the best way to avenge oneself is not to become like the wrongdoer²⁴. Long, his commentator, explains that resentment may be natural but revenge must not be practised, and he joins Socrates to Paul and Christ²⁵. Epictetus offers examples. Pittacus frees an offender, saying forgiveness shows gentleness and revenge savagery²⁶, and Lycurgus reforms the youth who blinded him²⁷. Browne holds that no revenge equals contempt of an injury²⁸. The Christian writers turn the maxim into a command. Molière’s Cleante urges that a Christian must stifle every wish for vengeance²⁹. Calderón’s Clotaldo tells Segismund to pardon enemies as Christian law bids³⁰. Penn insists that the one who forgives first wins³¹, and Manzoni’s Fra Cristoforo, confessing the murder he once committed in hatred, teaches that only true forgiveness sets a man free³². Shakespeare’s Prospero finds the rarer action in virtue rather than vengeance³³. Aristides declines to triumph over the fallen Themistocles³⁴.

Some authors offer nobler substitutes instead of outright renunciation. Bacon advises telling oneself that the hour for revenge has not yet come³⁵. Cellini’s father turns his son’s anger toward art as the best vengeance³⁶, and Cellini later pours his fury against Bandinello into the Perseus³⁷. Dryden finds a poetical revenge in Virgil’s treatment of the men who displeased him, on the principle that “the vengeance we defer is not forgotten”³⁸. Cellini also admits that a more “singular” revenge of humiliation was a mistake³⁹.

Against all this stands the oldest view, that vengeance is a duty of honour. Plato’s Socrates himself cites Achilles, who scorned death to avenge Patroclus and feared dishonour more than dying⁴⁰. Sophocles’ Creon says men raise sons to repay their father’s foes⁴¹. In the Odyssey, Eupeithes calls failure to avenge slain sons a lasting shame⁴². Beowulf declares it better to avenge a friend than to mourn him fruitlessly⁴³. The Volsung saga makes vengeance for a father the very test of a hero^44,45. Renaissance and modern figures inherit the code. Cellini carves an axe on his brother’s tomb so that he will not forget his revenge⁴⁶. Malcolm bids Macduff make medicine of great revenge⁴⁷. Chivalry widens the duty to the wronged in general: Renan sees the noblest use of strength in succouring and avenging weakness⁴⁸. Cervantes makes comedy of the ideal. Don Quixote proclaims it his office to revenge the wronged⁴⁹, while Andrew, whom he has “avenged,” would rather have money for his journey than all the revenges in the world⁵⁰. The family name has its own logic. Browning’s dying Tresham holds that blood must wash out the blot on his house, yet with his last breath warns that vengeance is God’s⁵¹.

The duty of avenging kin produces the blood feud, and here Aeschylus is the great witness. In the house of Atreus, blood once shed becomes the seed of more⁵². Clytemnestra justifies her husband’s murder as requital for Iphigenia⁵³. Orestes kills his mother at Apollo’s command⁵⁴, and the Furies, avengers of a mother’s blood, refuse to relent^55,56. The Norse cycle is as relentless. Gudrun serves Atli his sons’ hearts and burns his hall⁵⁷, then whets her other sons to a fresh vengeance for Swanhild⁵⁸. Beowulf foresees the Heathobard feud reviving when an old warrior goads a youth by pointing to an heirloom sword⁵⁹. Brynhild counsels killing the son lest a young wolf be nourished⁶⁰.

The ancient remedies are judgment, compensation and covenant. Athena founds a court and persuades the Furies to bless the city against civil bloodshed^61,62. Zeus ends Odysseus’ feud with oblivion and a covenant⁶³. Hrothgar settles Ecgtheow’s feud with treasure⁶⁴. Grendel’s monstrousness shows precisely in his refusal to compound for gold⁶⁵, and Gudrun likewise spurns atonement⁶⁶. A modern treaty forbids private retaliation and directs complaint to the authorities⁶⁷. Manzoni’s Cardinal Federigo suppresses ancient feuds, though suppression, Manzoni notes, was commoner than true reconciliation⁶⁸.

Whether descendants inherit the debt is debated. Raleigh sees God avenging Edward II’s murder down the generations⁶⁹. Calvin speaks of vengeance on the third and fourth generation⁷⁰. Job, by contrast, rejects the idea that the children bear the wicked man’s punishment⁷¹. Burke and Freeman deny it most strongly. Burke condemns punishing men for their ancestors’ offences⁷² and argues that history should teach posterity not to retaliate on later generations⁷³. Freeman mocks the notion of Barbarossa avenging Crassus on Saladin⁷⁴.

The modern discussion turns on law. Bacon calls revenge “wild justice” that law ought to weed out, tolerable only where law gives no remedy¹⁸. Rousseau recalls that before laws each man was judge and avenger of his own injuries⁷⁵. The Koran prescribes the talion while counting remission of it an expiation⁷⁶. Hobbes makes the key distinction: natural law permits punishment only for future good, and vengeance aimed at the past is vain cruelty⁷⁷. Cicero claims that his severity was deterrence, not revenge⁷⁸. Locke says a parent who punishes in choler cannot amend the child⁷⁹. Burke asks that justice even against tyrants be grave and decorous⁸⁰. More observes that crimes are punished as revenged rather than prevented⁸¹.

The hard case is the wronged person whom law cannot help. Shelley’s Beatrice finds no law to vindicate her⁸² and calls her father’s murder God’s angel of wrath⁸³. Shelley’s preface nevertheless calls revenge and atonement pernicious mistakes⁸⁴. Schiller’s Tell distinguishes his deed, a father’s defence that avenged nature itself, from a parricide’s ambitious murder⁸⁵. Ganelon’s plea that he wrought vengeance, not treason, shows how the same claim may serve a traitor⁸⁶.

Revenge also moves parties and nations. Machiavelli warns that injuries must be crushing enough to leave no fear of reprisal⁸⁷, and that conquered republics nurse the keenest thirst for revenge⁸⁸. Burke sees the Roman proscriptions as reciprocated retaliations of blood⁸⁹. Washington calls the spirit of revenge natural to party dissension and a road to despotism⁹⁰. He also says that national animosity leads to insult, retaliation and war⁹¹. Coriolanus turns his exile into war on Rome⁹² until Volumnia’s plea prevails⁹³. Adam Smith finds revenge dictating tariff retaliation, sensible only if it forces repeal^94,95. More’s Utopians avenge their friends but refuse to revenge small losses with many deaths⁹⁶. The voyagers record the same motive at the edges of the known world. Drake restrains Cimaroons bent on cutting Spanish throats⁹⁷. Vespucci reports native wars waged to avenge kinsmen⁹⁸, and Darwin notes that among the Maori blows must be returned⁹⁹.

Divine vengeance both checks the human kind and sanctions it. The psalmist invokes the God to whom vengeance belongs¹⁰⁰. Augustine calls human anger a perverse imitation of God, who alone revenges justly¹⁰¹. Malory’s Galahad tells Bors that vengeance on sinners is not theirs to take¹⁰², and Byron’s Abbot cites “Vengeance is mine alone”¹⁰³. Mill turns the doctrine outward, denying that society holds a commission to avenge offences against Omnipotence¹⁰⁴. Yet Scripture, the Koran and Dante abound in God’s retribution. The Koran calls God mighty and avenging¹⁰⁵, and Dante grades sins by the vengeance divine justice pours on them¹⁰⁶. Beatrice resolves the paradox of a just vengeance, the Crucifixion, that was itself justly avenged¹⁰⁷. The pagan gods avenge slights more personally. Aphrodite vows to repay Hippolytus in full¹⁰⁸. Virgil asks whether heavenly minds can harbour Juno’s resentment¹⁰⁹, until Jupiter tells her that her time for wrath is over¹¹⁰.

Prayers for vengeance run from the psalmist’s wish to see his enemies’ blood¹¹¹ to the widow of the parable¹¹² and Milton’s sonnet on the slaughtered Piedmontese¹¹³. Burns parodies them in Holy Willie¹¹⁴. The moderns criticise the vengeful deity as a projection. Hobbes notes that the gentiles ascribed anger and revenge to their gods¹¹⁵, and Pope speaks of gods made by fear in the likeness of tyrants¹¹⁶. Rousseau rejects a vindictive God as contrary to reason¹¹⁷, and Kant sees such a will as opposed to morality¹¹⁸. Shelley condemns the horrible revenge of the God of popular creed¹¹⁹. Rousseau keeps a moral law of retribution all the same: men’s avenging passions, he says, serve as justice’s ministers here below¹²⁰.

The literature gathers all these threads into character. Hamlet spares the praying king because killing him then would be “hire and salary,” not revenge¹²¹, and he scorns his own delay¹²². Laertes, by contrast, would cut a throat in church¹²³. Milton’s Satan vows “study of revenge, immortal hate”¹²⁴ and visits his loss on innocent Man¹²⁵. Samson’s end is a “dearly bought revenge, yet glorious”¹²⁶. Ferdinand, perversely, calls pardon the most honourable revenge, then tortures his sister¹²⁷.

Several questions remain open across the whole tradition. One is whether resentment is natural while revenge is not. Another is whether law ends vengeance or merely disciplines it. A third is whether God’s vengeance forbids man’s or authorises it.

Passages cited (127)

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine, Vol. 7, p. 8–9read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 354read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Vol. 37, p. 28–29read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Vol. 37, p. 90read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind, Vol. 34, p. 190–191read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind, Vol. 34, p. 204read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, Vol. 27, p. 336read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Vol. 37, p. 365–366read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 8–9read · scan
Dante Alighieri, Purgatory, Vol. 20, p. 212–215read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci, Vol. 18, p. 281read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 353read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, Vol. 1, p. 361read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor Works, Vol. 48, p. 375read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, Vol. 27, p. 357–358read · scan
John Woolman, The Journal of John Woolman, Vol. 1, p. 274read · scan
Aesop, Fables, Vol. 17, p. 24read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 15read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Vol. 4, p. 261read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Vol. 4, p. 136read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William Tell, Vol. 26, p. 477–480read · scan
Lord Byron, Manfred, Vol. 18, p. 429–430read · scan
Plato, Crito, Vol. 2, p. 37–38read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, Vol. 2, p. 232–233read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of Antoninus, Vol. 2, p. 338read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Vol. 2, p. 153read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Vol. 2, p. 150read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Vol. 3, p. 318–319read · scan
Molière, Tartuffe, or The Hypocrite, Vol. 26, p. 261–263read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a Dream, Vol. 26, p. 52read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, Vol. 1, p. 365–366read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), Vol. 21, p. 588read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Vol. 46, p. 450–452read · scan
Plutarch, Aristides, Vol. 12, p. 103–104read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and Moral, Vol. 3, p. 135read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Vol. 31, p. 17–18read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Vol. 31, p. 364read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the Aeneis, Vol. 13, p. 17–19read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Vol. 31, p. 312–314read · scan
Plato, The Apology of Socrates, Vol. 2, p. 16read · scan
Sophocles, Antigone, Vol. 8, p. 275–276read · scan
Homer, The Odyssey, Vol. 22, p. 330–331read · scan
Beowulf, Vol. 49, p. 43read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, Vol. 49, p. 288–290read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, Vol. 49, p. 291–293read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Vol. 31, p. 102–103read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Vol. 46, p. 378–381read · scan
Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic Races, Vol. 32, p. 158read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part I, Vol. 14, p. 129read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part I, Vol. 14, p. 297–298read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, Vol. 18, p. 402read · scan
Aeschylus, The Libation-Bearers, Vol. 8, p. 78–79read · scan
Aeschylus, Agamemnon, Vol. 8, p. 64–65read · scan
Aeschylus, The Libation-Bearers, Vol. 8, p. 112read · scan
Aeschylus, The Furies, Vol. 8, p. 133read · scan
Aeschylus, The Furies, Vol. 8, p. 136–137read · scan
Songs from the Elder Edda, Vol. 49, p. 414–417read · scan
Songs from the Elder Edda, Vol. 49, p. 424–426read · scan
Beowulf, Vol. 49, p. 59read · scan
Songs from the Elder Edda, Vol. 49, p. 371–374read · scan
Aeschylus, The Furies, Vol. 8, p. 154–155read · scan
Aeschylus, The Furies, Vol. 8, p. 162–164read · scan
Homer, The Odyssey, Vol. 22, p. 331–332read · scan
Beowulf, Vol. 49, p. 15–18read · scan
Beowulf, Vol. 49, p. 8read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs, Vol. 49, p. 350–351read · scan
Treaty with the Six Nations, Vol. 43, p. 232read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed), Vol. 21, p. 424–425read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the World, Vol. 39, p. 72read · scan
John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, Vol. 39, p. 35–38read · scan
The Book of Job, Vol. 44, p. 104–105read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 273–274read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 277read · scan
Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and Language, Vol. 28, p. 227read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among Mankind, Vol. 34, p. 205read · scan
Chapters from the Koran, Vol. 45, p. 998–999read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 407–408read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of Cicero, Vol. 9, p. 178–180read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning Education, Vol. 37, p. 60–61read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 219–220read · scan
Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Vol. 36, p. 236read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci, Vol. 18, p. 306–309read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci, Vol. 18, p. 347–350read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci, Vol. 18, p. 276read · scan
Friedrich Schiller, William Tell, Vol. 26, p. 485read · scan
The Song of Roland, Vol. 49, p. 187–189read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 10–11read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince, Vol. 36, p. 18read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Vol. 24, p. 249–250read · scan
George Washington, Washington's Farewell Address, Vol. 43, p. 241read · scan
George Washington, Washington's Farewell Address, Vol. 43, p. 244read · scan
Plutarch, Coriolanus, Vol. 12, p. 165–166read · scan
Plutarch, Coriolanus, Vol. 12, p. 180–181read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 346–347read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, Vol. 10, p. 348read · scan
Sir Thomas More, Utopia, Vol. 36, p. 215read · scan
Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake Revived, Vol. 33, p. 166–167read · scan
Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First Voyage, Vol. 43, p. 28read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, Vol. 29, p. 423read · scan
The Book of Psalms, Vol. 44, p. 262read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. Augustine, Vol. 7, p. 27–28read · scan
Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy Grail, Vol. 35, p. 190read · scan
Lord Byron, Manfred, Vol. 18, p. 437read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty, Vol. 25, p. 284–286read · scan
Chapters from the Koran, Vol. 45, p. 949–950read · scan
Dante Alighieri, Hell, Vol. 20, p. 45read · scan
Dante Alighieri, Paradise, Vol. 20, p. 310read · scan
Euripides, Hippolytus, Vol. 8, p. 303read · scan
Virgil, The Aeneid, Vol. 13, p. 73read · scan
Virgil, The Aeneid, Vol. 13, p. 412read · scan
The Book of Psalms, Vol. 44, p. 212–214read · scan
Luke, The Gospel According to Luke, Vol. 44, p. 400–401read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written During the Civil War and the Protectorate, 1642-1658, Vol. 4, p. 83–84read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and Songs, Vol. 6, p. 72–74read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, Vol. 34, p. 380read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on Man, Vol. 40, p. 428read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, Vol. 34, p. 288–289read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Vol. 32, p. 353read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of Poetry, Vol. 27, p. 348–349read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, Vol. 34, p. 264–266read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Vol. 46, p. 161–162read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Vol. 46, p. 174read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, Vol. 46, p. 186read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Vol. 4, p. 88–90read · scan
John Milton, Paradise Lost, Vol. 4, p. 155read · scan
John Milton, Samson Agonistes, Vol. 4, p. 415read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of Malfi, Vol. 47, p. 814read · scan

Introductory essay written by Claude Opus 5.5 from the outline and the notes on every passage below; quotations are checked against this edition.

1The nature and causes of the passion of revenge
2The case against revenge and for forgiveness
3Revenge as honour and duty
4The blood feud and the cycle of retaliation
5Revenge, law and the state
6Political, factional and national revenge
7Divine vengeance
8Revenge in tragedy and romance

1.The nature and causes of the passion of revenge

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 340–342Defines revengefulness as the desire, by doing hurt to another, to make him condemn some fact of his own.read · scan
p. 371–372Notes that one who has wronged another beyond expiation expects revenge or forgiveness, both hateful; also, the recipient of benefits is 'revenged' by confessing superiority.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 301–302Hume notes a mild-mannered man cannot form an idea of inveterate revenge, as an example of ideas requiring corresponding feeling.read · scan
p. 365–366Hume argues vengeance and hatred can only properly target a persistent thinking person whose character caused the act; without necessity, no one is fit object of vengeance.read · scan

1a.Revenge as a natural impulse or a product of society

Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2

p. 21Socrates says corrupted youths or their kin would come forward to take revenge if he had harmed them; none do.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 8–9Infant Augustine, thwarted, is indignant at elders and 'avenged myself on them by tears'; early retaliatory impulse shown in infancy.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 107Deformed persons 'have their revenge of nature' by lacking natural affection and watching others' weaknesses to repay scorn; revenge as a motive of the scorned.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 28–29Locke condemns parents who teach children violence and revenge, urging them to strike back ('Give me a blow, that I may beat him'), thus corrupting the mind.read · scan
p. 90Children's accusations against one another are called clamours of anger and revenge seeking aid; parents should not indulge them but teach sufferance.read · scan

David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37

p. 354Hume lists revenge with avarice and ambition as universal human motives; men wholly without them would be an incredible tale.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34

p. 190–191Rousseau says natural men never dreamed of revenge except mechanically, like a dog biting a thrown stone; they saw injury as repairable, not punishable.read · scan
p. 192Mentions the vengeance of husbands and lovers' jealousy producing duels and murders in society, unlike the state of nature.read · scan
p. 204Once esteem arose, injuries became affronts and men punished contempt; revenge became terrible and sanguinary, a product of society, not natural man.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 321The Unnamed's youth was shaped by constant examples of violence, revenge and murder, which gave him emulation and silenced conscience; later he feels remorse.read · scan

Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27

p. 336Shelley says 'Revenge is the naked idol of the worship of a semi-barbarous age,' explaining the flawed morals of Homeric heroes.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 167–168Describes Indian justice as 'rather vengeance': an Indian kills a rival in hot blood after the rival stabbed his horse, then is shot.read · scan

1b.Revenge as a sweet and overpowering passion, and as a vice

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 275–276The miller woman prays for the suitors' last meal; Odysseus rejoices, thinking he has gotten his vengeance on the guilty.read · scan

Aeschylus, Prometheus BoundVol. 8

p. 201Prometheus defiantly declares hatred of his foes and refuses to yield to Zeus, who threatens further punishment; hatred of enemies as defiance.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 26–27Thirst for revenge arises from love of worldly mastery; a wronged man 'on fire to be revenged' is given as a motive for murder.read · scan
p. 29–30Theft done from love of mischief, 'without lust of my own gain or revenge'; revenge named as a typical motive absent here.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 294–295Fafnir remarks that one who gets a death-wound avenges himself nonetheless, and notes Regin's treachery bringing his end; vengeance as dying retaliation.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20

p. 212–215Wrath is defined as love perverted: one who feels wrong or insult thirsts for vengeance and so delights in another's evil.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 132Ser Benedetto, dismissed by his masters, runs to take revenge on Felice, venting anger on the partner.read · scan
p. 154Cellini lies awake plotting revenge on the innkeeper, considering arson and killing horses, then slashes the beds for satisfaction.read · scan
p. 184–185The Pope would have taken fierce revenge but hides a vindictive grudge; Cellini vows vengeance on his unknown calumniator.read · scan
p. 284Cardinal of Ferrara is nettled by what he takes to be Cellini's revenge in showing the model to the King.read · scan

Ambroise Paré, Journeys in Diverse PlacesVol. 38

p. 14Humiliated by being thrown, the wrestler Dativo rises in a rage and demands revenge, then kills his small opponent with a foul fall.read · scan

William Harrison, A Description of Elizabethan EnglandVol. 35

p. 223Italianate maxim cited as corrupting: forgiveness is to be shown only when full revenge has been made, presented as an immoral attitude learned abroad.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 392Uchali renounced his faith out of spite to be revenged on a Turk who had cuffed him at the oar.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 94Mentions the revenger who thinks others negligent for not trampling their opponents, among worldly follies God will not mock.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 8–9Lists revenge among passions that master the fear of death: 'Revenge triumphs over death,' showing its overpowering force on the mind.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46

p. 144–146Hamlet confesses to Ophelia that he is very proud, revengeful, ambitious, listing revengefulness among his faults.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46

p. 252–254Lear, denied audience by Cornwall and Regan, bursts out 'Vengeance! plague! death! confusion!', an angry cry for retribution.read · scan
p. 258Lear, humiliated by his daughters, vows terrible revenges that will be the terrors of the earth, though unsure of their form; he is torn between tears and wrath.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 342–343Notes that some weep from the sudden stop put to their thoughts of revenge by reconciliation.read · scan
p. 353Excessive desire of revenge, when habitual, injures the organs and becomes rage, a form of madness.read · scan

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26

p. 7Segismund protests his chaining as wrong done to the guiltless, and his resentment 'wreaks revenge on wrong'; vengeance is only hinted as impulse of the wronged.read · scan
p. 7Rosaura pities Segismund as wronged and unrevenged, 'clipt of the means of self-revenge' on his oppressors; revenge as the wronged man's thwarted desire.read · scan
p. 18Rosaura says she flung the sword so Segismund might revenge himself on those who misuse him; vengeance as the wronged man's recourse.read · scan
p. 43–45Segismund, about to 'wreak a just revenge' on Clotaldo, protests his vengeance was filched from him; hatred and the passion for retaliation against his captors.read · scan

Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26

p. 253–255Damis, angry at Tartuffe, seeks a signal vengeance on his hypocrisy and refuses to give up the pleasure of revenge despite Elmire's counsel.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48

p. 375The spirit of vengeance is listed among worldly vices carried into the Church by Christians, showing it as contrary to Christian piety.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 6–9Dryden cites Achilles' choler and obstinate desire of vengeance as a vicious hero-quality; the Iliad shows this anger was pernicious, a warning rather than a model.read · scan

John Dryden, Preface to Fables, Ancient and ModernVol. 39

p. 157Dryden characterizes Homer's Achilles as hot, impatient, revengeful, implacable, contrasting him with the merciful, patient Aeneas; vengefulness is a trait of the hero's character.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 324Man's corrupt pride shown in that he revenges all affronts to extremity while forgetting his own arrears to a patient God.read · scan
p. 361Revengefulness listed among vices to avoid; God is the avenger of his own law upon the disobedient.read · scan

William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 381–382Ambition is described as most revengeful in disappointment.read · scan
p. 386–387Revengefulness listed among vices that make outward religious observance worthless.read · scan

John Woolman, The Journal of John WoolmanVol. 1

p. 274Woolman traces a chain from pride and hard thoughts to malice, which ripens into revenge and inflicts pain on others; the Prince of Peace is the remedy.read · scan

William Collins, PoemsVol. 41

p. 477–478Revenge personified among the passions in Collins's ode: rises with a blood-stained sword, blows the war trumpet and beats the drum in furious, unpitying frenzy.read · scan

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26

p. 307–308Tellheim lists Just's 'love of revenge' among his faults of temper.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 248–250Winter's rage is compared to vengeful unrepenting malice that man bestows on brother man.read · scan
p. 295–297Condemned M'Pherson laments dying by treachery and 'not avenged be'; unsatisfied desire for vengeance burns his heart.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 260–261Renzo's fleeing thoughts mix repentance, disquiet and revenge after his arrest, among other feelings.read · scan
p. 329–330The Unnamed, who had disposed of lives unmoved, sometimes to glut his appetite with the fierce enjoyment of revenge, now feels recoil at Lucia's abduction.read · scan
p. 519Observes that the populace's anger burns to execute revenge and prefers blaming human wickedness (poisoners) as an outlet over resigned acceptance of plague.read · scan

Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18

p. 419Hunter asks if gentle Manfred could have wreaked revenge on enemies; Manfred denies it, saying he only killed in defence and his harm fell on loved ones.read · scan

Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27

p. 357–358Lists revenge among the purely evil passions (cruelty, envy, avarice) never charged against poets' lives.read · scan

John Greenleaf Whittier, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1360–1363The MacGregor clan-call at the relief of Lucknow is described as 'fierce as vengeance', a simile only.read · scan

Giuseppe Mazzini, Byron and GoetheVol. 32

p. 384Says the crowd, after being fascinated by Byron, repent and avenge their momentary transport by calumniating and insulting the poet; a brief image of petty social retaliation.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 102Witnessing the flogging, the narrator briefly thinks of future revenge against the captain before the cries pull him back.read · scan
p. 125–126After the flogging, John, angry and high-tempered, talks of satisfaction and revenge once back in Boston; the other flogged man takes no part in his plans of retaliation.read · scan

1c.The recoil of vengeance upon the avenger

Aesop, FablesVol. 17

p. 24Horse seeks the Hunter's help to take revenge on the Stag; vengeance wins but costs him his freedom, a warning about the price of revenge.read · scan

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 48–50Nitocris throws herself into a room of embers to escape the vengeance she expects after her retaliatory killings.read · scan

Epictetus, Fragments Attributed to EpictetusVol. 2

p. 183–185Maxim urging one to chastise the passions lest they avenge themselves upon you; passion figured as retaliating.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 247Cardenio, enraged, resolves on revenge against Fernando and Lucinda but turns it on himself, reasoning lingering pain exceeds sudden death as vengeance.read · scan

John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47

p. 827Bosola condemns the brothers' vengeance as hollow-hearted and bloody, going arm in arm like chained bullets, and reveals regret at serving it.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 136God sees Satan bent on desperate revenge against Man, which will recoil upon his own rebellious head.read · scan
p. 261Satan reflects that God made Man to be avenged, and embraces revenge and spite against Man, noting revenge sweet at first but recoiling bitterly.read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 29Ventidius says Antony, like a scorpion, stings himself in mad revenge; vengeance turned inward against oneself.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 347Correction given in passion raises revenge sooner than repentance.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 477–480Agnes vows to bathe in blood to avenge her father; Fürst condemns revenge as bearing no fruit, feeding on itself, delighting in murder, ending in despair.read · scan

Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18

p. 429–430Nemesis boasts of avenging men upon their enemies and making them repent their own revenge, showing retaliation as a cycle of regret.read · scan
p. 437Manfred says the soul's sense of its sins includes 'revenge upon itself'; self-inflicted remorse exacts justice beyond any outside punishment.read · scan

Walter Bagehot, John MiltonVol. 28

p. 177–179Samson pulls down the temple on the Philistines and himself; the Chorus calls it a 'dearly bought revenge, yet glorious', treating his death as vengeance on his foes.read · scan

Sidney Lanier, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1397–1398Hamish's revenge completed: after Maclean is lashed, he leaps into the sea with the child, screaming 'Revenge!', so retaliation for his flogging destroys the innocent.read · scan

2.The case against revenge and for forgiveness

2a.The doctrine that evil must never be returned for evil

Plato, CritoVol. 2

p. 37–38Socrates argues one must never retaliate or return evil for evil, rejecting the common view that injury may be repaid in kind.read · scan

Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2

p. 232–233Marcus Aurelius: the best way of avenging oneself is not to become like the wrong-doer.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 744Philaster urges the King not to take revenge on the base Megra, since her malice cannot hurt them; he counsels forbearing vengeance.read · scan

Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26

p. 296Orgon rages at the arrested Tartuffe; Cleante restrains him from vindictive indignities, urging leaving him to remorse and the prince's justice rather than personal revenge.read · scan

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18

p. 276Shelley's preface declares revenge, retaliation and atonement pernicious mistakes, urging forbearance and love; Beatrice's vengeance and the casuistry justifying it are the drama's core.read · scan

George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2

p. 338Long explains Antoninus on forgiving injuries: resentment is natural, but revenge must not be practised; best vengeance is not to resemble the wrong-doer, citing Socrates, Paul, Christ.read · scan

Thomas Babington Macaulay, PoemsVol. 41

p. 917The exile's epitaph begs the passer-by to 'forget all feuds' and weep for English dust, a brief plea to set aside factional enmity and retaliation.read · scan

2b.Christian injunctions to pardon and to stifle vengeance

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26

p. 52Clotaldo warns Segismund to curb vindictive passion and pardon enemies, as Christian canon bids; revenge done in dream is condemned as failing self-control.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 117–119Felix fears the vengeful mob would usurp justice if it lags; Christians forgive their persecutors rather than retaliating.read · scan
p. 127–128Severus vows to avenge Polyeucte's death with blood and storm; Felix then calls his conversion 'blessed Christian vengeance', recasting revenge as redemptive.read · scan

Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26

p. 261–263Cleante urges that a Christian should pardon an offence and stifle all wish for vengeance; Tartuffe feigns forgiveness. Forgiveness versus vengeance framed religiously.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

p. 93–94Pilgrims in Vanity Fair are made objects of men's sport, malice, or revenge, yet answer with blessing instead of railing, returning kindness for injury.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 365–366Condemns retaliation and holy-sounding passion as God's errand; urges forgiveness and love over getting even; he who forgives first wins.read · scan
p. 366Feuds among men are held up by passion, not reason; at death's approach enemies forgive and love one another.read · scan

William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 396–397Charity would rather suffer than revenge; forgives everyone and heals discord.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 98–99Renzo rages to kill Don Rodrigo and take justice himself; Lucia rebukes him, invoking God-fearing restraint against vengeance.read · scan
p. 189–190Renzo, exiled by Don Rodrigo, is swallowed by rage and desire for vengeance, then checked by remembered prayer; he kills and revives him in imagination.read · scan
p. 588Fra Cristoforo rebukes Renzo's vengeful thoughts, confessing his own murder born of hatred; insists God can restrain the revengeful and that only true forgiveness frees one.read · scan

2c.Examples of magnanimity toward enemies

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 54–56Proteus says he would have avenged the wronged Greek host on Alexander but refrains out of reluctance to slay strangers.read · scan

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 118Cicero offers to help Lentulus take vengeance on enemies who opposed his recall; the offending enemy has instead punished himself.read · scan

Plutarch, AristidesVol. 12

p. 103–104Aristides, offered a like opportunity of revenge on Themistocles who had caused his banishment, bears no malice and does not triumph over his fallen enemy.read · scan

Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12

p. 180–181Volumnia pleads against Marcius' revengeful humor, asking if duty must yield to remembering wrongs; urges gratitude over retaliation, and he yields.read · scan

Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2

p. 150Lycurgus, given the youth who blinded him to punish, abstains from all vengeance and instead reforms him into a good citizen.read · scan
p. 153Pittacus frees a wrongdoer, saying forgiveness is better than revenge; forgiveness shows gentleness, revenge savagery.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20

p. 183A widow begs Trajan to grant vengeance for her murdered son; the emperor answers that justice and pity bid him act first, as an example of humility.read · scan
p. 204A wife urges Pisistratus to avenge his daughter's embrace; he answers meekly against requital, and Stephen stoned prays forgiveness for foes. Examples of gentleness versus vengeance.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 237–238The Pope lets the dying castellan take vengeance on Cellini; the castellan then relents, pardoning in hope of God's mercy.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 77–79Praises James I as one who never took revenge on those who sought to bar him from the crown.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46

p. 450–452Prospero, though struck by his wrongs, chooses reason over fury: rarer action is in virtue than vengeance, so he forgives the penitent.read · scan
p. 455–458Reconciliation scene: Prospero declines to burden memory with past wrongs, forgiveness replacing vengeance, as Alonso asks pardon.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 704–708Philaster, suspecting Bellario, chooses to take no revenge upon his tender youth, restraining vengeance out of love.read · scan

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26

p. 66–69The captain calls Clotaldo's capture a touchstone of 'rightful vengeance'; Segismund then spares Clotaldo instead of striking, renouncing revenge.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 111–115Pauline accuses Severus of showing revenge unworthy of a noble man toward a prostrate foe; Polyeucte denies it.read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 84Antony, feeling wronged by friend and mistress, fears his justice and revenge will drown out pity; Dolabella appeals to divine mercy limiting justice; forgiving a foe versus betrayers.read · scan

Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1

p. 97–98Franklin wins a hostile rival by asking a favor rather than resenting; he also declines to retaliate against a competitor who refused his papers. Kindness preferred to resentment and retaliation.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 65–66Ludovico's humble plea for pardon disarms the dead man's brother; the planned triumph of pride and avenged insult gives way to forgiveness and reconciliation.read · scan
p. 481The converted Unnamed renounces violence and defence, deeming himself no right to punish; his victims, who longed for revenge, find greater satisfaction in his humility than in vengeance.read · scan

2d.Nobler or substitute revenges

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 128Cicero repays a slight with a retort and describes smothered wrath at Crassus's wrongs flaring up, then reconciliation under pressure.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 254–255Banished Licinianus avenges himself upon Fortune in his declamations, a figurative revenge.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 17–18Cellini offers to avenge his father's insults; father redirects to art as the best vengeance; God's justice and prophecy then punish the offender, ruin framed as divine retribution.read · scan
p. 312–314Cellini forces Pagolo Micceri to marry, completing his vengeance by humiliation, and later admits the singular revenge was a mistake.read · scan
p. 314Cellini completes revenge on Pagolo by degrading his wife as a model, calling it two revenges, then beats her in blind rage.read · scan
p. 364Cellini resolves to murder his enemy Bandinello in despairing fury, then spares the cowering man and redirects vengeance into his Perseus, a nobler revenge on all foes.read · scan
p. 399Insulted by Bernardone, Cellini abandons a cudgel beating and chooses to wreak vengeance by posting mocking verses, a retaliation by satire.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 135Advises restraining anger by telling oneself the opportunity for revenge has not yet come, deferring and reserving retaliation until later.read · scan

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3

p. 318–319Browne holds there is no injury so great as revenge and no revenge like contempt of an injury; rejects hatred and rejects the Italian who killed an enemy to damn him.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 10Dryden says one is displeased with an anonymous critic, as with a lampooner, because bitten in the dark one knows not where to fasten revenge.read · scan
p. 17–19Virgil's poetical revenge: those who lost the prizes were persons who displeased him; provoked poets do themselves justice, and 'the vengeance we defer is not forgotten.'read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 17–19Dryden says the only revenge he wants on the anonymous critic is that he sign his name to his censure.read · scan

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26

p. 304–305Just urges revenge on the insulting landlord; Tellheim wants to avenge himself by having Just throw money contemptuously. Revenge discussed as petty satisfaction.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 484–485Burns accused of pouring his vengeance in the burning line, dipping his pen in gall; satire framed as retaliatory spite.read · scan
p. 486–488Satire's vengeance hurled at Maria's detractors; Lonsdale's wrath on vagrants; vengeance as satirical retaliation.read · scan

Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32

p. 292–293Chivalrous manners and beauty soften violence: tears extinguish a vengeance that blood could not quench, and hatred yields to honour.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 283–284Sailors' story of the beef-dealer jailed until he eats the old horse meat is praised as a fair instance of retaliatory justice.read · scan

James Russell Lowell, DemocracyVol. 28

p. 457–458Says the persecuted Jews 'had their revenge, as the wronged are always sure to have it', by coming to rule the world through finance.read · scan

3.Revenge as honour and duty

3a.The duty of avenging kin and slain comrades

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 38–39Nestor hopes Odysseus may return to requite the wooers' violence; Agamemnon's murder by Aegisthus mentioned.read · scan
p. 205–206Melampus' story: he escaped captivity and avenged the foul deed upon Neleus, a retaliation recounted in the seer's lineage.read · scan
p. 310–311Eurycleia says Telemachus concealed his father's presence so he might take vengeance on the wooers' violence; Odysseus has slain them.read · scan
p. 330–331Eupeithes, grieving for Antinous, rouses Ithacans to avenge sons and brothers slain by Odysseus, calling failure to retaliate a lasting shame.read · scan

Sophocles, Oedipus the KingVol. 8

p. 209Apollo's oracle demands blood for blood: Laius's killers must be exiled or killed in vengeance; Oedipus vows to track the murderer and avenge the dead king.read · scan

Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8

p. 275–276Creon says men raise sons to repay their father's foes and honour his friends, treating requital of enemies as filial duty; Antigone's fate is otherwise legal.read · scan

Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2

p. 16Achilles scorns death to avenge his slain friend Patroclus on Hector, fearing dishonor more than dying; vengeance as heroic duty of honor.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 305Volscens seeks vengeance for his slain comrade but cannot find the killer; Nisus, with vengeance justly vowed, kills Volscens and dies content to be avenged.read · scan
p. 316Pandarus steps forth with vengeance vowed for the death of his brother Bitias.read · scan
p. 316Mnestheus rallies the Trojans to save the living and revenge the dead, shaming them that a single warrior should not pass unpunished.read · scan
p. 325Turnus claims Pallas as his due, wishing Pallas's father were present to witness his just revenge.read · scan
p. 325Aeneas, avenging Pallas whom Turnus slew against the rules of war, kills without remorse and seeks revenge on other foes, a vengeful victor.read · scan
p. 344–350Mezentius, grieving his son Lausus, bids his horse either avenge his woe on the cruel foe or die with him.read · scan
p. 355Evander lives on only to behold Aeneas' vengeance for his son Pallas, declaring Turnus's head owed to the living and the dead.read · scan
p. 389Arcadian brothers, fired with pious rage, rush to revenge their slain brother, breaking the truce and plunging both armies into battle.read · scan
p. 406–412Turnus recalls his dying friend Murranus invoking his name to avenge his death; the duty of avenging a fallen comrade appears only briefly amid his despair.read · scan
p. 412Turnus begs mercy, mentioning Aeneas's vowed revenge; seeing Pallas's belt, Aeneas is roused to wrath and kills him as vengeance for his friend Pallas.read · scan

Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12

p. 373Eurycles pursues Antony's fleeing ship, declaring he is armed with Caesar's fortune to revenge his father Lachares, beheaded by Antony's order.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 417The sorcerer's brother travels to China resolved to wreak vengeance on Ala-ed-Din for killing his brother, a revenge-motivated pursuit.read · scan
p. 420–421The Marid reveals the magician has come to kill Ala-ed-Din in revenge for his brother, and schemed through the wife's request.read · scan
p. 421–423Ala-ed-Din kills the disguised brother, who came to wreak vengeance for his brother's blood; revenge is exposed and defeated.read · scan
p. 434The robber captain, having lost men, declares they will have full revenge on Ali Baba and plots the jar ambush.read · scan
p. 437–438The captain resolves to avenge his slain companions by killing Ali Baba, adopting a disguise to carry out the retaliation.read · scan
p. 440Ali Baba notes the disguised captain sought his friendship to kill him and would have sacrificed his son to his revenge.read · scan

Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49

p. 361–363Dag sacrifices to Odin begging to avenge his father, kills Helgi with Odin's spear; Sigrun curses Dag in response, showing the cost of kin-vengeance.read · scan
p. 418–421Gudrun whets her sons to vengeance for Swanhild; Hamdir says her earlier vengeance on her sons was baleful; she recalls her vengeance on the Niblungs' heads.read · scan
p. 424–426Gudrun whets her sons to avenge Swanhild, trampled by Jormunrek, taunting them that their hearts are not like Hogni's; vengeance framed as kin duty.read · scan
p. 426–429Sorli and Hamdir ride to wreak heavy vengeance on Jormunrek for Swanhild's death, killing Erp on the way and attacking the king's hall.read · scan

The Song of RolandVol. 49

p. 144–145Olivier prays God to grant him revenge for slain Engelier, then kills Climorin; retaliation for a fallen comrade drives his fighting.read · scan
p. 145–147Roland, burning with grief at Franks slain, curses Grandonie and vows he will repay the blood dearly; wrath for fallen comrades spurs him.read · scan
p. 153–154Turpin urges sounding the horn so Charlemagne will come to avenge their fall and the foe will not go joyful.read · scan
p. 156–157Roland fights as one bound on vengeance for slain comrades; pagans pray their gods may avenge them on Charlemagne.read · scan
p. 160–161Mortally wounded Olivier hastens to vengeance, hewing down Saracens in a fury of retaliation.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 264–265Signy sends her son to Sigmund to help avenge his father Volsung, beginning her plan of vengeance on Siggeir.read · scan
p. 267Sigmund hardens Sinfjotli to help his revenge; Sinfjotli keeps reminding him of his wrongs and pricks him to slay Siggeir.read · scan
p. 269Sigmund, having tested Sinfjotli, turns to avenging his father; he and Signy agree Volsung shall be avenged that night.read · scan
p. 279–280Hjordis wishes the dying Sigmund could be healed to avenge her father; Sigmund says vengeance is fated for his unborn son.read · scan
p. 287–288Sigurd declares he must first avenge his father before fulfilling his pledge to slay Fafnir.read · scan
p. 288–290Sigurd resolves to avenge his father Sigmund and slain kinsmen on Hunding's sons, seeking the kings' aid for the vengeance expedition.read · scan
p. 291–293Sigurd slays Hunding's sons; Regin notes he has thus revenged his father and kin, fulfilling the duty of blood vengeance.read · scan
p. 310–311Gudrun calls Haki's sons slow to revenge their sister's wrong; Brynhild praises Sigurd for avenging his father and grandfather.read · scan
p. 355–356Gudrun goads her sons to avenge Swanhild's trampling on Jormunrek, taunting them as unlike Gunnar and Hogni; Hamdir answers by recalling kin-slayings and goes to vengeance.read · scan
p. 356–357Gudrun recalls her griefs and revenge-slayings; her sons set out, kill Erp, and mutilate Jormunrek, carrying out the blood-vengeance for Swanhild.read · scan

Jean Froissart, The Chronicles of FroissartVol. 35

p. 90The dying Earl Douglas asks his kinsman Sinclair to revenge him, a deathbed charge of retaliation.read · scan

William Caxton, Prefaces and EpiloguesVol. 39

p. 22–24Table of contents for Malory: Lancelot comes to revenge Arthur's death, a brief mention of avenging a slain lord.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 73Cellini notes he was within an inch of avenging his father on Jacopo Salviati, who had injured him.read · scan
p. 80Father addresses the magistrate who wronged his son with pointed words, intending to mark his revenge, relying on Baglioni's favour.read · scan
p. 100–101Cellini swears to his dying brother that he will be avenged by his hand, and rushes to kill the guard officer Maffio.read · scan
p. 102–103Cellini learns the killer's description and carves an axe on his brother's tomb so as not to forget to revenge him.read · scan
p. 104Cellini stabs his brother's killer; Bandini says he was bent on revenging his brother, and Cellini's vengeance is deemed fully satisfied.read · scan
p. 146Pompeo's daughter and Pier Luigi plot to avenge her father's murder, by assassination or arrest, on Cellini.read · scan
p. 148Pier Luigi seeks to appease Pompeo's daughter's demand for revenge on Cellini, planning his seizure.read · scan

Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46

p. 50On Gaveston's beheading, Spencer urges vengeance by the sword and Edward swears an oath to take heads and lives for his slain friend.read · scan
p. 50–52Edward vows bloody colours as an immortal remembrance of revenge on the barons' progeny, and marches to chastise them for murdering Gaveston.read · scan
p. 86–87Isabella reports the young king vows to be revenged on her and Mortimer for his father's murder; retribution looms.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46

p. 356–357The dying Banquo urges his son Fleance to flee and revenge his murder, a charge of filial vengeance.read · scan
p. 378–381Malcolm urges Macduff to make medicine of great revenge and turn grief into anger; Macduff vows to face Macbeth sword to sword, avenging his slaughtered family.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 21–22Aeneas takes revenge on Pallas's murderer, whom his natural compassion would have forgiven; vengeance is needed to complete his happiness and the poem.read · scan
p. 37Aeneas's fury hurries him toward death in revenge for his country, and his mother must appear to restrain him.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 334–335Predicts the dauphin, told his ancestors were kings, will aim to avenge his parents; vengeance is natural even if not duty.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19

p. 363Hermann recalls striking playmates in furious passion for mocking his father, while enduring their other malice unresented.read · scan

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1175–1177Queen Jane takes dire vengeance manifold on the regicides for her slain husband, whispering the traitors' names to the corpse; vengeance for a murdered king.read · scan

3b.Chivalric vengeance and the avenging of the wronged

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 183Odysseus and Athene plot death for the wooers; he asks for counsel by which he may requite them for their outrages.read · scan
p. 190Disguised Odysseus swears that Odysseus will return and take vengeance on all who dishonour his wife and son.read · scan
p. 204–205Helen interprets the eagle seizing the goose as an omen that Odysseus will return and take vengeance on the wooers.read · scan
p. 217Disguised Odysseus burns to make himself the bane of the wooers, preferring death in his halls to enduring their outrages; feud mentioned.read · scan
p. 221Telemachus warns that the vengeance Odysseus takes on the many wooers may prove bitter and baneful for them; Odysseus plans slaughter of the foemen.read · scan
p. 241–242Penelope wishes Odysseus and his son would return and avenge the suitors' violence against the household.read · scan
p. 328Odysseus tells Laertes he has slain the wooers and avenged their bitter scorn and evil deeds, framing the slaughter as vengeance.read · scan

Luke, The Acts of the ApostlesVol. 44

p. 435Moses sees an Israelite wronged, defends and avenges the oppressed man by smiting the Egyptian; his own people reject him for it.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 307–309Pliny recalls being comforter and avenger of Fannia and her mother on their return from exile.read · scan
p. 338–340Pliny prosecutes Certus on behalf of Arria and Fannia, willing to suffer to draw vengeance down on an infamous man.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 208–209The Sultan promises the wounded vizier that none shall take vengeance for him but himself, and sends men to hunt the fugitives.read · scan

The Song of RolandVol. 49

p. 101–102Roland urges war on Marsil and bids Charles avenge the nobles Marsil beheaded, appealing to retaliation against treachery.read · scan
p. 130–131Roland, aware of Ganelon's treason, says the Emperor will avenge the betrayed Franks; meanwhile they resolve to make the enemy pay dearly with their swords.read · scan
p. 142–143Roland says vengeance for Ganelon's treason belongs to the Emperor, while the battle is the share of the doomed rearguard.read · scan

Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35

p. 120–122Heading frames Galahad's fighting of Melias's wounder as revenging him, avenging an injury done to a companion.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 11–12Knight-errant boasts of having avenged a thousand wrongs, treating righting wrongs by vengeance as part of chivalric glory.read · scan
p. 19–20Quixote resolves to become knight-errant, revenging all kinds of injuries as part of chivalric duty and fame.read · scan
p. 129Quixote offers the innkeeper revenge on any miscreant who wronged him, declaring it his office to revenge the wronged.read · scan
p. 138Quixote charges the sheep vowing to revenge the emperor Pentapolin on his enemy Alifamfaron, showing the knightly ideal of avenging a wronged lord.read · scan
p. 145Quixote takes the funeral litter for a wounded or dead knight whose revenge is reserved for him, and offers to chastise the wrongdoer or revenge the wronged.read · scan
p. 268–269Cardenio vows to challenge Don Fernando for Dorothea's wrong, leaving revenge of his own injuries to Heaven while righting hers on earth.read · scan
p. 272Feigned princess asks Don Quixote to revenge her upon a traitor who usurped her kingdom; he vows to do so.read · scan
p. 280Don Quixote, suppressing just choler, asks Dorothea to name those on whom he must take full revenge for her grievance.read · scan

John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47

p. 850–852Bosola kills the Cardinal to avenge the Duchess and Antonio, saying that when he killed his sister he left Justice only her sword.read · scan
p. 852–853Dying, Bosola declares 'Now my revenge is perfect' on the Cardinal and Ferdinand, whom he calls the main cause of his undoing.read · scan
p. 853–854Bosola explains the slaughter as revenge for the murdered Duchess, Antonio and Julia, and calls death 'in so good a quarrel' worthwhile.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 218–219Moses avenging the beaten Jew by killing the Egyptian is cited as a type of the Jewish and Egyptian peoples.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

p. 271–272Great-heart attacks Giant Slay-good expressly to revenge the quarrel and blood of the many pilgrims he slew, treating avenging blood as a just cause.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 25–27Dryden mocks Achilles for weeping to his mother when he should have revenged his injury by arms, contrasting Aeneas's nobler course.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 212Burke laments that no ten thousand swords leaped out to avenge even a look threatening the queen; chivalric honor of defending against insult.read · scan

Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32

p. 158Chivalric ideal that the noblest use of strength is to succour and avenge weakness, first expressed in Breton romances.read · scan
p. 163–164Peredur is predestined to avenge his cousin slain by the witches; Arthur's knights put the witches to death.read · scan

3c.Honour, shame and the family name

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 305Ascanius cannot bear Numanus's insults without a vowed revenge, and kills him with an arrow after praying to Jove.read · scan

The Voyages to VinlandVol. 43

p. 17Freydis taunts her husband to avenge her feigned shame, threatening to leave him unless he wreaks vengeance; he has the brothers slain.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 143–144Cellini stabs Pompeo dead in retaliation for an insult; friends bless his hands as just redress for an unforgivable injury.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 340Camilla's soliloquy resolves on revenge as the answer to attempted dishonour: the traitor must pay with his life to satisfy honour.read · scan
p. 341Camilla's feigned speech avows a greedy desire for revenge, intending to kill Lothario and herself as sacrifice to her husband's offended honour.read · scan
p. 344Leonela advises concealing the matter lest Anselmo be moved to revenge himself on Lothario at great peril; avoiding a husband's quarrel.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 700Philaster, hearing the princess slandered, says whoever injures her truth draws vengeance from him; vengeance as defense of honour.read · scan
p. 742–744Philaster says honour cannot take revenge on Megra's slander, so death would be his only remedy.read · scan

Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18

p. 373Mildred fears that confessing the secret love would draw her brother's vengeance down on them.read · scan
p. 386Tresham says he could bind himself to exact the 'prescribed vengeance' demanded by ancestral honor, yet love for Mildred would scatter that resolve; vengeance is the expected duty.read · scan
p. 402Dying Tresham says blood must wash away the blot on the family name, then warns Austin that vengeance is God's, not man's.read · scan

Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23

p. 169Californian husbands' jealous revenge is deadly and certain; fathers and brothers kill to avenge family dishonor, shown as a custom of honor-vengeance.read · scan

4.The blood feud and the cycle of retaliation

4a.Blood answering blood in the house of Atreus and the Volsungs

See also: Punishment 7b · Justice 9b · Fate 1b · Family 10c

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 274Odysseus, contemplating slaying the suitors, fears the avengers (kinsmen) who would seek retaliation, and asks where he could flee.read · scan

Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8

p. 10–11Atreus' sons are urged to Troy 'with vengeful spear and brand' by omen-birds; vengeance only briefly framing the expedition.read · scan
p. 12–13Omen foretells Troy as 'steel of vengeance'; Artemis's wrath and a lurking wrath 'biding its time' to slake resentment in blood for a murdered child foreshadow Clytemnestra's revenge.read · scan
p. 54–56Cassandra sees Clytemnestra plotting revenge like a lion in the lair, with a vengeful cry and Thyestes' feast recalling the cycle of blood vengeance.read · scan
p. 56Cassandra foretells Orestes, banished, called home to avenge his father's blood by matricide; gods have sworn requital for her and Agamemnon's deaths.read · scan
p. 57–59Cassandra, about to die, invokes those whom vengeance calls to slay their kindred's slayers and avenge her death, foreseeing another killing as requital.read · scan
p. 60–62Chorus fears that blood shed long ago cries for more blood, a requital owed for the slain, just before Agamemnon is struck down.read · scan
p. 67–68Clytemnestra blames the old Avenger of Atreus' feast of blood; the death is requital for murdered children and Iphigenia, sword answered by sword.read · scan
p. 69–70Chorus says the slayer shall die, Zeus's law means vengeance outpoured on the doer; Clytemnestra hopes the house's bloody frenzy of kin-vengeance ends with her deed.read · scan
p. 71–72Aegisthus hails the day of rightful vengeance, killing Agamemnon in requital for Atreus' feast of Thyestes' children, seeing gods care for earthly wrongs.read · scan
p. 74Clytemnestra urges an end to bloodshed and warns the Avenger's talon may strike again; chorus invokes Orestes' return as coming retribution.read · scan

Aeschylus, The Libation-BearersVol. 8

p. 78–79Blood once shed cannot be atoned and becomes the seed of vengeance; Justice and Ate wait to bring pain to the sinner.read · scan
p. 89–91Chorus and Orestes invoke Fates and the murdered father's wrathful spirit to claim vengeance; blood demands blood, 'whoso takes the sword shall perish by the sword.'read · scan
p. 91–93Blood shed on the ground pleads for more blood; avengers rise though late; Electra and Orestes call on Zeus and the Furies to repay their father's murder.read · scan
p. 102–103Chorus sings that unlawful deeds are not forgotten; Justice forges the sword and the house's Fiend will repay the price of blood shed long ago.read · scan

Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8

p. 126–127Clytemnestra's ghost rouses the sleeping Furies to hunt Orestes, complaining no god avenges her and urging their vengeful wrath against her matricide son.read · scan
p. 127The Furies, robbed of their quarry Orestes, vow unending wrath; they are the avengers of a matricide's blood and threaten to pursue him even to hell.read · scan
p. 129–131Furies and Apollo dispute whether avenging a mother's blood outweighs avenging a husband's murder; the Furies refuse to relent in hounding the matricide.read · scan
p. 131–132The Furies say they seek vengeance for a mother's blood and hunt Orestes like hounds on the scent of gore.read · scan
p. 133Furies declare a mother's spilled blood is indelible and must be atoned by the slayer's own; they will drain him, blood for blood.read · scan
p. 134–136The Furies' binding hymn: ministers of justice and avengers who wring the price of blood from kin-slayers in life and death.read · scan
p. 136–137Furies state their office of solemn vengeance: blood atones for blood, kin-slayers hunted, no tears or prayer can avert it.read · scan
p. 154–155Dishonoured Furies threaten venom of vengeance and blight on Athens; Athena pleads with them to be appeased and not shoot the dart of vengeance.read · scan

Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49

p. 374–377The dying Sigurd takes immediate vengeance, hurling his sword and killing his slayer Guttorm.read · scan
p. 391–394Raven foretells Atli will redden edges on the slayers of Sigurd; Gudrun warns heavy vengeance will come from a heart full of hate.read · scan
p. 407–409Prose headnote frames the Song of Atli as Gudrun avenging her brethren, slaying Atli's sons, Atli, and burning the hall.read · scan
p. 412–414Gunnar defies Atli, hiding the treasure; Atli is cast into the worm-close, and Gudrun's oath-curse on Atli prepares her retaliation.read · scan
p. 414–417Gudrun serves Atli his sons' hearts, then kills him with the sword and burns the hall, taking revenge for her brethren.read · scan
p. 417–418Gudrun burns the hall as the avenging of her brothers; the poem marvels at a woman's brother-vengeance; Swanhild's death sets up a new vengeance.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 270–271Sigmund and Sinfjotli burn Siggeir's hall; Signy reveals she sacrificed her children and bore Sinfjotli so vengeance might fall on Siggeir, then dies with him.read · scan
p. 339–340Gudrun's drink of forgetfulness blots out grievance against her brothers; she foretells Atli will be rewarded with grim revenge from his sons.read · scan
p. 346–347Atli attacks the Niblungs to take the gold and avenge Sigurd's betrayal, declaring he will revenge him; feud erupts into battle.read · scan
p. 351–352Gudrun kills Atli's sons and serves them to him to repay her brothers' slaying; Hogni's son vows to avenge his father.read · scan
p. 352–353Gudrun and Hogni's son stab Atli in his sleep, completing vengeance for the slain brothers and Hogni.read · scan

John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15

p. 69–70Faithful flees because the Avenger of Blood, the kinsman bound to take blood vengeance, is pursuing him; the biblical avenger figure is used as a threat.read · scan

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1038–1039Maud's mother mourns the blood feud between the two houses, the 'household Fury sprinkled with blood'; the narrator's hatred of the brother and his father's feud is the Maud backdrop.read · scan

4b.Feuds in the Germanic and Norse epics and the ballads

See also: Courage 8c · Fate 1b · War and Peace 4b

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 312–313Odysseus observes that killing even one man leaves kin to take up the feud, so slaying the wooers risks retaliation and requires concealment.read · scan
p. 320Summary heading says the Ithacans, having buried the wooers, resolve on revenge against Odysseus; the retaliation is then carried out in the following scene.read · scan

BeowulfVol. 49

p. 20Beowulf says Grendel fears no feud or retaliation from the Danes and the sea-monsters were vengeful creatures; he will challenge Grendel.read · scan
p. 32–34The Finn episode: renewed feud, and Hengest set on revenge for his slain lord Hnaef; wergild paid for Grendel's victims.read · scan
p. 34–36Finn's peace pact forbids reviving the murderous hatred on pain of the sword; Hengest broods on wreaking vengeance rather than going home.read · scan
p. 37–38Guthlaf and Oslaf return and kill Finn in his hall, avenging Hnaef and Hengest's slaughter and carrying off Hildeburh: the feud's retaliation completed.read · scan
p. 40Grendel's mother comes to Heorot to avenge her son's death, slaying Aeschere; vengeance answered by killing, 'dire exchange' of lives between Dane and Geat.read · scan
p. 40–41Hrothgar says Grendel's mother avenged the feud of her son, coming 'her kin to avenge' in a feud of blood, and he urges Beowulf to seek her.read · scan
p. 43Beowulf declares it better to avenge friends than fruitlessly mourn them, and vows to track Grendel's mother wherever she flees.read · scan
p. 46Grendel's mother attacks Beowulf with a knife to avenge her only son.read · scan
p. 48–50Beowulf says he avenged the fiends' deeds and the death of the Danes, 'as was due and right,' by slaying Grendel's mother.read · scan
p. 57–59Beowulf tells Hygelac he avenged the Scyldings' sufferings by killing Grendel; Hygelac had urged leaving the Danes to settle their feud themselves.read · scan
p. 61Grendel's mother, in greed of vengeance, kills Aeschere to avenge her son, slain through the Weders' war-hate; this provokes Beowulf's counter-quest.read · scan
p. 68After the dragon burns his home, Beowulf, prince of the Weders, plots vengeance and has an iron shield made.read · scan
p. 68–70Beowulf repays Heardred's fall by backing Eadgils against Onela; Hrethel cannot avenge Herebeald's accidental death by a brother, a grief with no lawful vengeance.read · scan
p. 70–72Hrethel cannot avenge his son on the kinslayer; Geats take vengeance in the Swedish feud, and Eofor kills Ongentheow, mindful of feud, kinsman for kinsman.read · scan
p. 73Beowulf vows to seek feud against the dragon and recalls repaying his lord with the sword; retaliation is only a faint background.read · scan
p. 74–76Weohstan killed Eanmund, and Onela felt no feud over his brother's son; feud obligation among kin is mentioned in passing.read · scan
p. 76–78The dragon thinks again on its feud and attacks a third time, driven by hatred and retaliation for the theft.read · scan
p. 79–80Beowulf rejoices that he sought no feuds and slew no kin, so God's wrath will not fall on him.read · scan
p. 80–82Wiglaf says God let Beowulf get revenge on the dragon with his sword alone, while the cowardly retainers failed him.read · scan
p. 86–87Messenger describes feud as the foeman's rage and death-hate; he expects the Swedes to avenge their fallen once Beowulf's death is known.read · scan
p. 88The dragon's watcher killed a man for the theft, and the feud was avenged in woeful fashion.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 146The narrator falsely confesses theft rather than reveal the murdered woman, fearing they would kill him to avenge her; blood-vengeance is dreaded.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 263Signy urges Volsung and his sons to retreat and return later to avenge themselves; Volsung refuses and fights.read · scan
p. 272–273Hunding's sons gather an army to avenge their father, whom Helgi slew; Helgi slays them too.read · scan

Traditional BalladsVol. 40

p. 96–98Sir Hugh Montgomery sees Douglas die and vows revenge on Percy, then kills him with a spear.read · scan
p. 100–102English king vows to take vengeance on all the Scots for Percy's death and fulfils the vow at Humbledown, killing many; also Armstrong's hanging sentence.read · scan
p. 102–104Young Johnie Armstrong, orphaned by treacherous Scots' killing of his father, vows that when grown he will be revenged on them.read · scan
p. 109–110Buccleuch vows to be avenged on Lord Scroop for seizing Kinmont Willie, restrains himself from war, and gathers kinsmen to rescue him.read · scan
p. 120–122After Braikley is slain by Inverey, his infant son vows from the nurse's knee to be revenged when grown.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 7Ancestral feud between families grows so threatening that elders remove the young quarrelers; feud shown as a danger to households, resolved by separation.read · scan

Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32

p. 147–148Contrasts Celtic mildness with the frightful vengeances of the Edda and Nibelungen, where Teutonic heroes show carnage and hatred.read · scan

4c.The ending of feuds by compensation, oath or covenant

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 297Odysseus rejects the suitors' offered compensation and vows not to stay his hand from slaying until they have paid for all their transgressions.read · scan
p. 331–332Eupeithes leads a vengeance expedition to his doom despite Halitherses' warning; Zeus calls Odysseus's act vengeance and ends the blood feud with oblivion and covenant.read · scan

Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8

p. 162–164Blessing against civil strife: no more blood shed in wrath and vengeance, death for death, within the city.read · scan

BeowulfVol. 49

p. 8Grendel's ceaseless murders are a one-sided feud; he refuses to compound for gold or make peace, denying any wergild settlement of the feud.read · scan
p. 15Beowulf boasts of avenging the Weders by slaying sea-monsters; Hrothgar recalls settling Ecgtheow's feud by paying wergild.read · scan
p. 15–18Hrothgar tells how he settled Ecgtheow's blood feud with the Wylfings by paying compensation, a feud ended by treasure and oaths.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 350–351Gudrun refuses Atli's offer of atonement for her slain brothers, vowing lasting hatred and feigning kindness while planning retribution.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 424–425Federigo's visitation extinguished or suppressed ancient feuds between individuals, families and whole towns, though suppression was more frequent than true reconciliation.read · scan

Treaty with the Six NationsVol. 43

p. 232Treaty forbids private revenge or retaliation for individual injuries; complaint must go to authorities instead, replacing vengeance with redress.read · scan

4d.Revenge on the descendants and the inheritance of grievances

The Book of JobVol. 44

p. 104–105Job asks who shall repay the wicked man to his face; denies that God's recompense falls on the wicked, and rejects the idea that the guilty man's children bear his punishment.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 167Dido's dying curse: she prays for Aeneas's ruin, perpetual hatred between peoples, and an avenger of Libyan blood, a vow of hereditary vengeance (Hannibal).read · scan
p. 232Anchises foretells a Roman who will avenge the Trojan cause on the Greeks, vindicating his ancestors' disgrace and Pallas's violated temple.read · scan

BeowulfVol. 49

p. 59Beowulf foresees the Heathobard feud reviving: an old warrior goads a young man to avenge his father by killing a Dane wearing the heirloom sword, breaking oaths.read · scan
p. 61Note and speech: old warrior incites Ingeld to vengeance, the old feud breaks out again; Beowulf distrusts the Heathobards' faith to the Danes.read · scan

Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49

p. 371–374Brynhild urges Sigurd's death, arguing vengeance falls lighter if the son does not live to avenge his father: 'no young wolf nourish'.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 49–53Footnote on Guy de Montfort slaying Henry at Viterbo in revenge for his father Simon's death, an example of blood vengeance.read · scan
p. 131–133Bocca, struck by Dante, cries out that he must be coming to add fresh revenge for Montaperto, invoking the lingering feud-grievance of the battle.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 72God's hidden judgment revenges the murder of Edward II on his descendants; blood-guilt of kings repaid by violent deaths down the line.read · scan

William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1

p. 348–349Greatest feuds have the smallest beginnings; the place a quarrel holds in our minds governs our resentment.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 273–274Condemns the Assembly's persecution of clergy as retaliation on principles of inherited guilt, punishing men for ancestors' offences; unjust vengeance.read · scan
p. 274–275Rejects inexpiable national retaliation for past wrongs and the use of history to keep animosities alive; lists revenge among history's miseries.read · scan
p. 276–277Mocks the idea of retaliating on today's Parisians for St. Bartholomew; the massacre is staged to stir savage dispositions toward new persecution.read · scan
p. 277History should teach posterity not to retaliate upon later generations for past enormities; denounces vengeful cycle of murderers in both centuries.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 61Slain man's powerful kin burn to take vengeance on Ludovico; his turning Capuchin is read as penance and laying down arms, defusing the feud.read · scan

Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28

p. 227Mocks the idea of Barbarossa avenging the defeat of Crassus on Saladin, or of making Pope Pius answerable for Vercingetorix's wrongs, as absurd inherited vengeance.read · scan

5.Revenge, law and the state

5a.Revenge as wild justice and its supersession by law

Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8

p. 151–152Athena founds the court as swift to vengeance; the Furies threaten to haunt the land if their ancient right is overridden.read · scan

Tacitus, GermanyVol. 33

p. 106Germans kill slaves in rage as they would an enemy, with no vengeance or penalty following.read · scan

Chapters from the KoranVol. 45

p. 998–999Prescribes retaliation, a life for a life, an eye for an eye, while remission of it is an expiation; talion framed as God's law.read · scan

Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3

p. 15Bacon's essay on revenge: 'wild justice' that law should weed out; pardoning is superior, private revenge harms the avenger, and revenge is tolerable only where law gives no remedy.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34

p. 205Before laws each man was sole judge and avenger of his injuries; dread of vengeance reinforced the weak curb of law and punishments grew severer.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34

p. 269–270Witnessing injustice rouses resentment and the urge to defend the injured, but laws deprive individuals of the right to avenge insulted innocence.read · scan

5b.Just punishment distinguished from vengeance

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 178–180Cicero says severe measures against Antony and Lepidus were deterrence, not revenge, and notes the enemy would have been more revengeful.read · scan

Paul, The Second Epistle of Paul to the CorinthiansVol. 45

p. 523Paul lists 'avenging' among the zealous fruits of the Corinthians' godly sorrow, their eagerness to right the wrong done in their midst.read · scan
p. 526–527Paul declares himself ready to avenge all disobedience once the Corinthians' obedience is complete, framing apostolic discipline as vengeance.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 236Crimes like murder and theft are daily punished as revenged rather than prevented; remove money and they die away.read · scan

Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German NationVol. 36

p. 268–269Cites Paul that rulers bear the sword as God's servants for vengeance on evildoers, grounding the temporal power's authority over clergy.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 407–408Natural law limits revenge: look to future good, not past evil; vengeance without purpose is vain cruelty; contempt provokes men to risk life rather than go unrevenged.read · scan

Sir Henry Vane, A Healing QuestionVol. 43

p. 122Magistrate is minister of terror and revenge to evildoers in outward matters, but must not intrude on conscience; wrathful spirit among people condemned.read · scan

John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37

p. 60–61Warns that punishing a child merely to revenge a past fault, from the parent's choler, cannot amend the mind; correction should not be vengeance.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 219–220Distinguishes just punishment of tyrants from vengeance: justice is grave and decorous, regarding dignity in avenging the crime rather than choosing cruelty.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19

p. 308–309Alva argues that offenses against the king and religion must be avenged, while Egmont urges pardon and clemency as the mark of great rulers.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 274Distinguishes resentment toward self-harming conduct from society's duty to retaliate against injury to others; says society must inflict pain as punishment, close to retaliation but framed as protection.read · scan

Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Contagiousness of Puerperal FeverVol. 38

p. 250–251Mentions the 'remorseless vengeance of the law' that spares a pregnant woman; vengeance is only a figure for legal punishment, tempered by mercy.read · scan

5c.The dilemma of the wronged who find no remedy in law

Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12

p. 199–200Demosthenes, resolute to be righted, dropped his suit against Midias only because it was hopeless; Plutarch doubts money could blunt his revenge otherwise.read · scan

The Song of RolandVol. 49

p. 187–189Ganelon pleads that he wrought vengeance, not treason, against Roland who wronged him, presenting private revenge as justification for his betrayal.read · scan

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales; The Nun's Priest's TaleVol. 40

p. 38Murdered man's ghost reveals his killing in dreams; companion cries out for vengeance and justice on the felony, seeking punishment of the murderers.read · scan

Traditional BalladsVol. 40

p. 170–172Robin Hood vows before God to requite the sheriff for capturing the knight, then kills him in retaliation and rescues the knight.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 464–465Tell waits to kill Gessler, fulfilling a sworn oath made when forced to aim at his son; he holds it a sacred debt and says God punishes and avenges.read · scan
p. 465–467Tell lies in wait for Gessler's life-blood to pay his vow and shield his children from the tyrant's fell revenge, framing the deed as defence and retribution.read · scan
p. 485John claims Tell too took revenge on a foe; Tell denies it, distinguishing ambitious murder from a father's self-defence, saying he avenged nature itself, while John flees avenging furies.read · scan

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18

p. 306Beatrice, wronged by her father, resolves that something must be done to make her suffering a shadow in the lightning that avenges it; revenge dawns as her only answer.read · scan
p. 306–309Beatrice cannot bear to live wronged and 'unavenged'; finds no law to vindicate her, rejects Orsino's advice to let the law avenge, and seeks redress herself.read · scan
p. 310Orsino argues Providence commits vengeance on wrongs to men's hands; Beatrice demands atonement and resolves, with oaths, to devise and execute her father's death.read · scan
p. 314Giacomo, hearing of Beatrice's outrage, sees her as 'a more unblamed avenger' and a holier judge; vengeance on the father is sanctified, and he proposes stabbing him.read · scan
p. 318Giacomo and Orsino plot Cenci's death after a failed ambush; Orsino enlists Olimpio and Marzio, whose hate for Cenci matches their wrongs, calling it a 'just deed'.read · scan
p. 328–329Beatrice scorns hired killers who would sell conscience 'for gold and for revenge' yet flinch from killing the sleeping Cenci; Marzio and Olimpio's grudges motivate the deed.read · scan
p. 334Beatrice defends the killing as God's retribution, the murderer a sword of the justest God, when human law barred access to retribution and God must avenge nameless crimes.read · scan
p. 337Giacomo regrets the murder but sees Beatrice as God's angel avenging a nameless wrong that turns parricide to piety, contrasted with base motives.read · scan
p. 347–350Beatrice says God left her wrong with no refuge or revenge, and calls the murder God's 'angel of his wrath', divine retribution carried out by their act.read · scan

6.Political, factional and national revenge

6a.Revenge among rulers, factions and revolutionaries

Herodotus, An Account of EgyptVol. 33

p. 48Queen Nitocris, desiring vengeance for her slain brother, craftily drowns the Egyptians responsible for his murder at a banquet.read · scan
p. 50–52Sesostris, having escaped his brother's attempt to burn him, returns to Egypt and takes vengeance on the brother.read · scan
p. 75–76Psammetichos, wronged by the eleven kings who exiled him, plots vengeance and receives an oracle that vengeance will come with men of bronze.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 282Tuscans, set on fire by just revenge, rise against tyrant Mezentius and demand his punishment; the augur restrains their hate, vengeance framed as just and lawful.read · scan
p. 344Turnus weighs sword for revenge against sea to purge disgrace; the Tuscans hate Mezentius and fiercely desire wished revenge, hurling all weapons at him.read · scan
p. 344Troops fired with hate and 'just revenge against the tyrant' Mezentius press him from a distance; dying Orodes prophesies like death will avenge him.read · scan
p. 350–353Dying Mezentius begs burial to be shielded from the people's vengeance after death; his fight stems from grief for Lausus.read · scan
p. 366Turnus taunts Drances that his fears are feigned dread of Turnus' revenge, dismissing him as beneath a death from him.read · scan

Plutarch, ThemistoclesVol. 12

p. 13–15Athenians fear the banished Aristides might go over to the Persians to revenge himself, prompting his recall; vengeance as an anticipated motive of the wronged.read · scan

Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12

p. 165–166Condemned and exiled, Marcius is consumed by rage and resolves to satisfy his revenge on Rome by raising its neighbors against it.read · scan
p. 167Coriolanus offers himself to his enemy Tullus, seeking vengeance on those who expelled him; Tullus also wants to requite Roman wrongs.read · scan
p. 171Marcius' raid spares patricians' lands to sow distrust; plebeians accuse senators of spite and revenge in inciting him. Vengeance driving war.read · scan

Plutarch, CiceroVol. 12

p. 257–258Cicero considers killing himself on Caesar's household altar to bring divine vengeance upon him, but fear of torture deters him.read · scan

Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12

p. 317–318Caesar's death at Pompey's statue is said to look like Pompey presiding over revenge on his adversary; later killers punished the conspirators' ill-will, not 'revenging the fact'.read · scan
p. 319–320Enraged mob hunts Caesar's murderers and mistakenly tears Cinna apart; Caesar's genius is described as avenger of his murder, pursuing every conspirator.read · scan

Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12

p. 336Antony reproaches Brutus over his brother Caius, executed in revenge for Cicero, then has Hortensius slain on his brother's tomb as retaliation.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 240Slaves murder their harsh master in revenge; he dies consoled that he was avenged, as the killers are hunted down.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 354–355Bikki urges Jormunrek not to leave the supposed wrong unavenged, inciting wrathful killing of Randver and the doom of Swanhild.read · scan

Jean Froissart, The Chronicles of FroissartVol. 35

p. 77–78Tyler's followers form ranks to revenge their slain captain, until the king calms them by offering himself as their captain.read · scan
p. 78–79The king refuses Knolles's wish to slay the rebels, saying he will be revenged on them well enough later, and so he was.read · scan

William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36

p. 90–91Henry VII, angered by young More's opposition in Parliament, takes revenge on More's father with a causeless quarrel and fine, and seeks a pretext for further revenge.read · scan
p. 91Cardinal Wolsey, displeased at More's conduct as Speaker, takes revenge by counselling the King to send him as ambassador to Spain.read · scan
p. 91Wolsey, thwarted of the papacy by the Emperor, devises every means of revenge for his grief against him, leading to lamentable consequences.read · scan
p. 103Bishop Stokesley, shamed by Wolsey, seeks to revenge his quarrel by inciting the King against the Cardinal over the divorce.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 172Ottaviano de' Medici has false charges laid against Cellini to revenge himself for the Duke's irritation.read · scan
p. 173Niccolo promises Cellini that his vengeance on Ottaviano will be executed sooner than he expects.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 301Raleigh mentions being left by all but friends, amid malice and revenge, in his time of adversity.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 75Kings who shed blood bring retributive death on themselves; Richard III stirs Buckingham with fear of the princes' severe revenge for Rivers and Grey.read · scan

Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46

p. 9Kent urges the king to revenge the barons' defiance and Gaveston vows to be Mortimer's death; threats of retaliation amid the quarrel, not developed.read · scan
p. 12–13Edward and Gaveston vow to be revenged on the Bishop of Coventry for Gaveston's exile, and punish him with seizure and prison.read · scan
p. 15–16Young Mortimer declares the lords have power and courage to be revenged at full on the king over Gaveston.read · scan
p. 17–19Forced to sign Gaveston's banishment, Edward vows to reign to be revenged on the peers and threatens slaughter of priests and peers.read · scan
p. 35–38Edward, baited by the peers, says he dare not be revenged yet, and vows their lives' blood will slake his fury.read · scan
p. 52–54Edward pours vengeance on rebels and, once they are captive, declares it time to be avenged for the murder of Gaveston.read · scan
p. 66–68Imprisoned Edward likens himself to a wounded lion and feels he should revenge himself on Mortimer and Isabel, but lacks power.read · scan
p. 68–72Deposed Edward tears Mortimer's name, calling it a poor revenge, and prays his limbs be torn likewise; impotent, symbolic retaliation against an enemy.read · scan
p. 75Kent, wronged by Mortimer, resolves to rescue Edward and be revenged on Mortimer and Isabella.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46

p. 266–267Gloucester predicts that the injuries done to the King will be revenged home, since a French power has landed.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of MacbethVol. 46

p. 382–383Menteith says revenges burn in Malcolm, Siward and Macduff, whose dear causes would rouse even the dead to bloody war against Macbeth.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46

p. 437Caliban urges Stephano to revenge his lost island on Prospero and plots his murder, driven by rooted hatred.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 671–677Dion invokes the 'rods of vengeance', the abused people rising like torrents against the usurping king's party, vengeance as popular retribution.read · scan
p. 720–721The King, aside, recognizes that the injuries he has done must be revenged, sensing retribution coming for his wrongs.read · scan

John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47

p. 843–845Pescara resolves to join Antonio in 'a most just revenge' against the Duchess's persecutors, claiming the sword of justice strengthens even the weakest arm.read · scan

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26

p. 45Segismund warns the king that the brute he made may 'revenge the man you marr'd'; vengeance of son on father for wrongs.read · scan
p. 45Segismund threatens to have his quarrel out with those who made him a savage; the wronged heir vows retribution against his father.read · scan
p. 45–52Segismund styles himself heaven's avenging minister, accuser, judge and executioner, claiming to requite his wrongs on his father; vengeance claimed as divine commission.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 81–84Felix dreads Severus's revenge, 'vengeance linked with power,' as a rejected rival returns; Pauline also fears Christian vengeance for her father's slaughter of Christians.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 15Marius and Cinna, under pretense of justice, revenged themselves without form of law on private enemies; Sylla's proscriptions likewise show factional vengeance destroying the Roman republic.read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 23–24Alexas reports that Octavia, driven from Antony's house, solicits her revenge, and Dolabella seeks his ruin over a grudge; revenge as motive among Antony's enemies.read · scan
p. 39–42Antony says Octavius is timid in battle yet never fails at a close revenge; vengeance as cold, calculated trait of character.read · scan
p. 46–53Antony resolves to sally out and revenge the treachery Caesar meant him, turning offered betrayal into a vow of retaliation.read · scan

Daniel Defoe, The Shortest-Way with the DissentersVol. 27

p. 136'Just such measure as they have meted, should be measured to them again': retaliation in kind urged against Dissenters, with grievances recited as a basis for requital.read · scan

Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40

p. 458–459The avenging bards weave the doom of Edward's house through civil war and murder, declaring 'we stamp our vengeance deep,' retribution on a dynasty.read · scan

Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24

p. 217Warns that justifying perfidy and murder for public benefit ends in rapacity, malice, and revenge satiating insatiable appetites.read · scan
p. 245Wealthy new men, resenting the nobility's pride, join in schemes to be revenged on its outrages, striking at it through crown and church.read · scan
p. 249–250Roman proscribers acted from the spirit of revenge, reciprocated retaliations of blood and rapine, fearing return of those they had injured beyond forgiveness.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19

p. 322–323Clara says the nation's woe is so great that even vengeance could not obliterate it.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 289–290Jacobite ode vows that the martyrs' fate will not lie unrevenged; their blood cries out and Vengeance's arm will fall on Brunswick, repaying Stewart's wrongs tenfold.read · scan
p. 291–293Invokes Perdition and hell-hounds to avenge the injured right of the Stewart line on the usurping Hanoverian faction; vengeance sought as just retribution.read · scan
p. 360–362Jacobite song hopes 'grim vengeance', long asleep, may awaken against the Whigs, personifying retribution for royal wrongs.read · scan
p. 374–375Mary Queen of Scots is called a 'vengeful woman' glutting her foe; vengeance only a passing epithet.read · scan
p. 396–398Imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots vows that Grim Vengeance will whet a sword to pierce Elizabeth's soul for her cruelty.read · scan
p. 419–421Exiled Jacobites long for Revenge, laurelled, to bring the banished home; vengeance as hoped-for restoration.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 399–401Melchthal, hearing of his blinded father, abandons prudence and vows vengeance and the tyrant's blood, raging to seek the despot out and repay the injury.read · scan
p. 413Melchthal swears over his blind father's empty eye sockets a vow of vengeance to be cooled only in blood; Stauffacher urges meeting future evil rather than avenging the past.read · scan
p. 426–427Stauffacher bids the confederates control their own just rage and nurse their vengeance for public wrongs, saving the reckoning with tyrants for the great day.read · scan
p. 449–451The fisherman says Gessler would keep Tell imprisoned because, once free, Tell's just revenge as a deeply wronged man would be dreaded.read · scan
p. 477Duke John kills the Emperor to take revenge for denied justice; Queen Agnes comes to wreak dire vengeance on the murderers' whole race.read · scan
p. 481–482Fürst refuses the queen's call to avenge the sovereign's death and hunt down his killers, as it is no duty of the Swiss, who owed him nothing.read · scan

George Washington, Washington's Farewell AddressVol. 43

p. 241Spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, produces horrid enormities and leads to despotism as factions alternately dominate.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 203Rioters, having stormed the bakery, forget their designs of sanguinary vengeance on the bakers once they see the spoil.read · scan
p. 289–290Count Attilio delays his journey fearing those he offended, previously powerless, might now seize the chance to take revenge on him.read · scan

Thomas Babington Macaulay, MachiavelliVol. 27

p. 364Hypothesis that Machiavelli's Prince urged Lorenzo to violent measures as surest way to hasten deliverance and revenge, like Sunderland against James II.read · scan
p. 379–380Italian statesman hides hatred and revenge behind smiles and caresses, striking only when the victim is unguarded; concealed, calculated vengeance.read · scan
p. 388Cesare Borgia's implacable hatred and thirst for empire and revenge described as a driving, lasting passion.read · scan
p. 400–401Hope that oppressed people gain emancipation and revenge against tyrants, and that a second Procida will avenge Naples' wrongs.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5

p. 95Says old abuses and unjust accumulations of property and power are 'avenged' through the law of compensation, with fear heralding revolutions; retribution is framed as vengeance.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, MannersVol. 5

p. 204Supposes the excluded majority revenge themselves on the aristocratic minority by killing them, yet a new elite rises; revenge fails to end hierarchy.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25

p. 184Opposes extradition of political refugees because it would make Britain an accomplice in the vengeance of foreign despotisms against rebels.read · scan

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1155–1157Graeme's rage at the King's rebuke and the nobles' grievance over executed kin prepare his vengeance; resentment of the King's bloody rule.read · scan
p. 1157–1159Sir Robert Graeme, outlawed, renounces allegiance and vows to slay the King with his own hands when God shows a way: personal vow of vengeance.read · scan

6b.Revenge between nations and in war

Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8

p. 37–38Agamemnon says the gods judged Troy and that by Greek hands 'the meshes of revenge' closed on the prey for one woman's sake.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 80Jove's prophecy that Troy's conquering sons will call 'sweet revenge' upon the Greeks who conspired in her fall.read · scan
p. 100Sinon claims he threatened to avenge his kinsman's death on Ulysses, provoking the murderer's hatred; offers Trojans 'just revenge' on a Greek by killing him.read · scan
p. 109Aeneas rushes to fight spurred by patriotic honor and revenge as Troy burns.read · scan
p. 113Trojans return to the fight to clear the palace and revenge the dead.read · scan
p. 117Aeneas rages to kill Helen, wanting vengeance for Priam and Troy as a just cause; she also fears her husband's vengeance.read · scan
p. 117Aeneas resolves to fight on so that the foe will not see him fall unrevenged.read · scan
p. 207Crete's revengeful exaction of yearly Athenian youths as tribute for Androgeos's death, shown in Daedalus's sculpture.read · scan
p. 248The Fury boasts that Latians and Trojans have tasted vengeance and the sweets of blood; Juno notes the war has fixed causes of lasting hate.read · scan
p. 287Shield scene mentions the Sabines contending for revenge after the rape of their women, a brief instance of retaliatory war.read · scan
p. 321–325Aeneas tells Tarchon of the vengeance proud Mezentius had prepared, as grounds for alliance; brief mention of vengeance.read · scan
p. 325Hisbo comes on eager for wished revenge, but the prince strikes first and kills him.read · scan

Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12

p. 62–63Samians brand Athenian prisoners with an owl to requite an earlier affront, an act of tit-for-tat retaliation.read · scan

Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12

p. 346–347Ventidius's victory over the Parthians is said to have fully avenged the earlier Roman defeats under Crassus.read · scan
p. 361–362The army urges Antony to take revenge on Artavasdes for deserting them; he forbears then, but later seizes him by deceit.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 343Editor's footnote remarks that Eastern luxury 'revenge[d] itself on Roman arms,' a figurative image of conquest repaid by corruption; not real vengeance.read · scan

The Song of RolandVol. 49

p. 158–159The Algalif boasts of avenging his host on Olivier for Karl's wrongs; Roland expects the Emperor to see the enemy chastised.read · scan
p. 194–195Charlemagne's vengeance on the pagans is accomplished; his justice is satisfied and his wrath subsides, marking vengeance completed.read · scan

Jean Froissart, The Chronicles of FroissartVol. 35

p. 11French king Philip swears the English shall not leave unfought and that their burning and wasting of his land shall be dearly revenged.read · scan
p. 36–38Knights urge the French to show their ill will and revenge the displeasures and damages the English have done them before battle.read · scan
p. 42The Black Prince tells his men that if they die in their right quarrel, the king and kinsmen will revenge them.read · scan

Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36

p. 10–11Machiavelli advises that men can avenge slight injuries but not grave ones, so injuries to a conquered people must be crushing enough to leave no fear of reprisal.read · scan
p. 18Conquered republics harbor fiercer hatred and a keener thirst for revenge, remembering lost freedom, so the conqueror must destroy them or live in them.read · scan
p. 86Italian provinces suffering under foreign invasion would welcome a deliverer with a thirst for vengeance against the barbarians.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 213–215Utopians send help to friends partly to requite and revenge injuries; the war for the Nephelogetes was cruelly revenged on the Alaopolitanes.read · scan
p. 215Utopians eagerly prosecute injuries to friends and demand offenders as recompense or declare war; they refuse to revenge small losses with many deaths.read · scan
p. 215Utopians take cruel vengeance on those at fault so they fear repeating the wrong; they use bribes against enemy leaders to avoid battle.read · scan

John Milton, Samson AgonistesVol. 4

p. 415Manoa supposes the Philistines have satisfied their utmost revenge on Samson through pains and slavery worse than death.read · scan
p. 415Manoa reports some Philistine lords harsh, 'set on revenge and spite,' refusing ransom for Samson.read · scan
p. 415A more generous lord says the Philistines have 'enough revenged' by reducing their foe to misery, so ransom is possible; vengeance satisfied.read · scan
p. 415Manoa calls Samson's pulling down the temple on himself and his foes 'a dreadful way thou took'st to thy revenge.'read · scan
p. 415Samson destroys the Philistine lords and himself; the chorus hails it a 'dearly bought revenge, yet glorious,' fulfilling his divine mission.read · scan
p. 415Manoa declares Samson 'fully revenged' on his enemies, leaving them years of mourning; vengeance presented as noble and God-favoured.read · scan

John Dryden, PoemsVol. 40

p. 393–395Timotheus's music rouses Alexander with cry of 'Revenge!' for unburied Grecian ghosts; the king burns the Persian temples in furious vengeance.read · scan

Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40

p. 456–458The Bard curses Edward I; slain Welsh poets become 'avengers of their native land,' weaving his line's doom, an imprecation of vengeance for conquest.read · scan

Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10

p. 346–347Revenge naturally dictates trade retaliation against foreign prohibitions; nations seldom fail to retaliate, and the French-Dutch and Anglo-French duty wars show hostility fed by reprisal.read · scan
p. 348Weighs trade retaliation as compensating an injury; sensible only if it forces repeal, otherwise it adds a second injury to one's own people.read · scan
p. 447Among hunter nations, men go to war to revenge injuries done to their society by other societies.read · scan
p. 556Observes that only the animosity of national vengeance or anxiety for security makes a people bear new war taxes patiently; vengeance as a national motive.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19

p. 376Oppressed villagers swear vengeance for their wrongs and rise with stern resolve to avenge losses, slaughtering the enemy without mercy in furious retaliation.read · scan

George Washington, Washington's Farewell AddressVol. 43

p. 244National antipathy and resentment prompt insult, retaliation and war; nations enslaved to animosity act from passion rather than reason.read · scan

William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28

p. 10–11Mentions a French general proposing to sack England 'in revenge for humanity outraged' at Copenhagen, as a pretext of aggressive men.read · scan

Edward Augustus Freeman, Race and LanguageVol. 28

p. 272Mutual wrongs, conquest and oppression avenged by conquest and oppression in turn made Poles and Russians bitter enemies, an example of retaliation between peoples.read · scan

Ernest Renan, The Poetry of the Celtic RacesVol. 32

p. 143–144Celtic belief in a future avenger who will restore Cambria; conquered peoples 'revenge themselves' on conquerors through hope and imagination.read · scan
p. 171Teutonism 'took its revenge' through Luther for forced baptisms and Carlovingian conquest, answering Witikind.read · scan

Frank Aretas Haskell, The Battle of GettysburgVol. 43

p. 388–389Observer says the Union dead have been avenged already by the defeat of the enemy's charge.read · scan

6c.Reprisal in voyages and encounters with native peoples

See also: Punishment 7a · War and Peace 8e

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 122After the Cyclops devours his men, Odysseus ponders stabbing him and plots how to avenge himself, restrained by prudence.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 145Polyphemus's blinding is called vengeance for the Greeks' slaughtered friends; the Cyclops then roars in rage, seeking retaliation.read · scan

Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First VoyageVol. 43

p. 28Indian wars are waged to avenge ancestors' and kinsmen's deaths; the eldest kinsman rouses others to avenge the slain, blood-feud motive.read · scan
p. 28Natives complain of cruel raiders; the voyagers promise to avenge them of the wrong, pleasing them.read · scan

Sir Francis Drake, Sir Francis Drake RevivedVol. 33

p. 129Preface on the general vengeance pursuing wrongdoers and the indignation of the wronged; Drake redresses Spanish wrongs by his own reprisal voyages.read · scan
p. 142–143Spanish gentleman concedes the town cannot seek revenge on Drake's party, and should rather provide for its own defence.read · scan
p. 166–167Cimaroons seek to cut Spanish prisoners' throats to revenge Spanish wrongs; Drake restrains them and protects the captives.read · scan
p. 177–178A wounded Cimaroon revenges his own death by killing the enemy who gave him the mortal wound.read · scan

Captain Walter Bigges, Drake's Great ArmadaVol. 33

p. 238English burn Santiago's houses in revenge for the Portuguese murder and mutilation of a boy and earlier wrongs to Hawkins.read · scan
p. 241–242Enraged at his messenger boy's killing, the General hangs friars and threatens more; the killer is made to be executed by his own side as a more honourable revenge.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, The Discovery of GuianaVol. 33

p. 313–314Raleigh stays at Trinidad to be revenged on Berreo for betraying Whiddon's men, then attacks and burns his city, also for Indians' sake.read · scan
p. 333Berreo, enraged at the slaying of his Spaniards, sends forces to be revenged on Morequito and his people, executing him and spoiling his land.read · scan

Francis Pretty, Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the WorldVol. 33

p. 212–213Drake deems himself sufficiently satisfied and revenged for private injuries and indignities by Spain, and so ends his raiding on the coast.read · scan

John Eliot, Eliot's Brief NarrativeVol. 43

p. 144–145Nomphon, whose brother was slain by the Mauquaogs, went on an expedition in revenge of his brother's death.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 219York Minster sees storms as the elements avenging the killing of a 'wild man' and wasted ducklings; nature as retributive avenger.read · scan
p. 423Maori blows must be returned; Shongi's oath to never forgive his tribe's oppression drives his war on the Thames tribe, harboring deep hatred and revenge.read · scan

7.Divine vengeance

7a.The doctrine that vengeance belongs to God alone

The Book of PsalmsVol. 44

p. 262Opens by invoking God to whom vengeance belongs, calling him to render the proud their desert; God sees and will cut off the wicked in their own wickedness.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 27–28Anger is said to seek revenge as a perverse imitation of God, who revenges most justly; vengeance rightly belongs to God.read · scan

Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35

p. 190After slaughtering the castle's people, Galahad rebukes Bors: if they sinned against God, vengeance is not ours but belongs to God, who alone has power over it.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 220The Son declares 'Vengeance is his', punishment of rebels belongs to God's appointed hand, not the angels; wrath poured on the godless.read · scan

Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26

p. 263–264Cleante argues Heaven needs no human help to punish sinners; leave vengeance to Heaven and heed its commanded pardon. Vengeance as God's, not man's.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 486Parricide John fears the Pope will hand him over to 'the avengers'; Tell sends him to seek penance, not vengeance, deferring judgment to God.read · scan

Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18

p. 437The Abbot leaves punishment to heaven, citing 'Vengeance is mine alone,' so saith the Lord; vengeance belongs to God, not the priest.read · scan

John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25

p. 284–286Denies that society holds a commission from on high to avenge supposed offences to Omnipotence that wrong no fellow-creature; rejects human vengeance on God's behalf.read · scan

Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18

p. 402Dying Tresham says blood must wash away the blot on the family name, then warns Austin that vengeance is God's, not man's.read · scan

Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1082–1083Condemned man says that instead of the world repaying him, 'God shall repay'; recompense left to God.read · scan

7b.God's just vengeance on sinners, the proud and the persecutors

The Book of JobVol. 44

p. 138–139God asks 'Who hath first given unto me, that I should repay him?', affirming that nothing is owed to man. This is repayment, not revenge.read · scan

The Book of PsalmsVol. 44

p. 151–152God stills the enemy and the avenger; he who makes inquisition for blood remembers the afflicted. Divine retribution is framed as blood-avenging, but only briefly.read · scan
p. 160–164David praises God as the one who executes vengeance for him and subdues peoples under him; vengeance is divine.read · scan
p. 267–269God forgave Israel's leaders yet 'took vengeance of their doings'; divine vengeance coexists with forgiveness. The rest is praise and the king's vow to destroy the wicked.read · scan
p. 330–332The saints, with praise and a two-edged sword, are to 'execute vengeance upon the nations'; vengeance is framed as a divinely written judgment and an honor.read · scan

Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44

p. 408–409Jesus calls the coming destruction of Jerusalem 'days of vengeance', divine retribution fulfilling scripture, with wrath upon the people.read · scan

Plutarch, DemosthenesVol. 12

p. 216–217Demades' death in Macedonia described as divine vengeance for the death of Demosthenes; Cassander's enraged killing of his son.read · scan

Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7

p. 40Lists revenge of enemy against enemy among motives for violence; God avenges what men do against themselves through their own sin.read · scan
p. 47–48God addressed as 'God of vengeance' and fountain of mercies, who takes Augustine's friend by death to turn him back.read · scan
p. 61–62God dissolves the hard heart 'in pity or in vengeance'; vengeance presented as a divine prerogative alongside mercy.read · scan
p. 148Maid-servant's bitter taunt, spoken in anger to vex her mistress, is turned by God to heal; God repays their intent, not the result.read · scan

Chapters from the KoranVol. 45

p. 898–899Footnote tells of a man who apostatized to escape divine vengeance and paid another to bear his sin; the text denies one soul can bear another's burden.read · scan
p. 930Warns of overwhelming divine vengeance and God's violence not averted from sinful people, as God's retribution on unbelievers.read · scan
p. 949–950Calls God 'mighty and avenging' toward those who reject His signs; divine vengeance on disbelievers.read · scan
p. 1003–1004God will take vengeance on one who repeats the offense of killing game on pilgrimage; God is mighty and the avenger.read · scan

BeowulfVol. 49

p. 7Grendel's exile is framed as God avenging Abel's slaughter on the kin of Cain; divine vengeance on Cain's line. Editorial note on the Finn feud mentions Hengest set on revenge.read · scan

The Song of RolandVol. 49

p. 174–175Charlemagne is urged to avenge the slain Franks; an angel bids him wreak vengeance on the felon crew, sanctioning divinely backed retaliation.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 28Virgil says the Archangel Michael poured Heaven's vengeance on the proud rebel; divine vengeance is the sanction behind Plutus's helplessness.read · scan
p. 45Virgil explains that divine justice pours its vengeance less wrathfully on the incontinent than on the malicious and brutish, ranking sins by God's retributive wrath.read · scan
p. 98Dante exclaims that God's judgment deals out blows in stormy vengeance, calling the punishment of Vanni Fucci divine vengeance.read · scan
p. 106Ulysses and Diomede are said to hasten together to vengeance as once to wrath, their joint punishment framed as retribution.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20

p. 230Dante feels pity for the 'vengeful doom, though just' of the penitent avaricious souls prostrate on the terrace.read · scan
p. 230–232Statius says Titus, aided by Heaven's King, avenged the wounds of Christ's crucifixion, treating the destruction of Jerusalem as divine vengeance.read · scan
p. 246Statius mentions unfolding 'the secrets of Heaven's vengeance,' but the passage is about embryology and leanness, not revenge itself.read · scan
p. 280Beatrice warns that one who has sinned cannot hope to scare God's vengeance with a sop, and foretells divine retribution on the corrupt Church and its allies.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, ParadiseVol. 20

p. 306–308The imperial eagle serves as instrument of divine justice: Tiberius executes the vengeance of God's wrath, and Titus avenges that vengeance on the Jews.read · scan
p. 310Beatrice explains how a just vengeance, the Crucifixion, was justly revenged, resolving the paradox of just revenge punished with justice.read · scan
p. 358–359Cacciaguida prophesies that truth will find witness in the vengeance God dispenses on Dante's persecutors, who will be shamed.read · scan
p. 378Beatrice says that had Dante understood the prayers, he would know the heavenly vengeance he will witness, foretelling divine retribution on corrupt churchmen.read · scan

Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35

p. 159–160Launcelot, having served the devil, shall suffer divine vengeance for twenty-four days, matching his years of sin.read · scan
p. 178Bors fears God has taken vengeance on him after the fire and swoon at nearly harming his brother.read · scan
p. 192A voice says Galahad has avenged the dying man on God's enemies; the knight serves as instrument of vengeance, though the stress is on the grail.read · scan
p. 197The castle's inhabitants are found dead by the vengeance of Our Lord; a voice says it is vengeance for the shedding of maidens' blood, divine retribution.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 142Describes the sheep rot as vengeance God took on the sheepmasters' insatiable covetousness, divine retribution on enrichers.read · scan
p. 232Those bearing hatred or grudge dare not attend sacrifices unreconciled, fearing great divine vengeance and punishment.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 340–341Cellini sees God's justice punishing unjust men; the enemy was avenged by others, and no prince should laugh at divine justice.read · scan

John Calvin, Dedication of the Institutes of the Christian ReligionVol. 39

p. 33–34Calls God's sending strong delusions on those who reject truth 'the most righteous vengeance of God', divine retribution.read · scan
p. 35–38God is mighty to take vengeance on the third and fourth generation of those who share in impiety, citing the Deluge.read · scan
p. 40Loss of the visible Church is a deserved judgment; asks why resist 'the righteous vengeance of God'.read · scan

Edward Haies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to NewfoundlandVol. 33

p. 276Narrator holds that God took revenge on the pirate crew of the Swallow, showing divine retribution for their outrages.read · scan
p. 277God is said to have taken vengeance on the pirates who tortured and robbed the fishermen, as a demonstration of divine judgment.read · scan

Sir Walter Raleigh, Preface to the History of the WorldVol. 39

p. 80Contrasts James's revengeless disposition with cruel kings; God punishes usurpation and cruelty on offenders' descendants, as with Debonnaire's sons.read · scan
p. 86–89Kings' plots and cruelties pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves and their families, God destroying the wisdom of the wise.read · scan

Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3

p. 157–158Atlantis's destruction by flood is described as 'divine revenge' overtaking its proud enterprises; vengeance as divine retribution.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46

p. 243–244Edmund mentions the revenging gods who bend their thunder against parricides, invoking divine vengeance in his false account of Edgar's attempt.read · scan
p. 285–286Albany sees Cornwall's sudden death as heavenly justice swiftly avenging crimes, and vows to revenge Gloucester's eyes.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The TempestVol. 46

p. 441Ariel as agent of Fate pronounces retribution on the usurpers for wronging Prospero; the powers, delaying but not forgetting, requite the foul deed.read · scan

Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3

p. 256–258Mentions Origen's heresy that God would not persist in His vengeance forever but release the damned after a time; divine vengeance tempered by mercy.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 105–109Polyeucte says God's vengeful sword is bright against the mighty and the foes of Christ, divine retribution.read · scan

John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4

p. 40–42Christ bears the full wrath of vengeful Justice for human sin, satisfying the covenant; divine vengeance framed as justice borne in atonement.read · scan
p. 48–49Ill things are 'slavish officers of vengeance' under the Supreme Good; vengeance as divine instrument, mentioned briefly.read · scan

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 136Angels praise the Son for executing fierce vengeance on God's foes, contrasted with mercy toward Man.read · scan
p. 204Michael threatens Satan with the avenging sword or a more sudden vengeance winged from God, presenting divine vengeance upon rebels.read · scan
p. 220God's Son is sent to end the war, being avenged upon his enemies, framing the rebels' defeat as divine vengeance.read · scan
p. 227Heaven praises God's just avenging ire that drove out the ungodly, treating divine vengeance as righteous.read · scan
p. 319After Cain slays Abel from envy, Michael declares the bloody fact 'will be avenged,' implying divine retribution for murder.read · scan
p. 342Michael foretells the day of rest for the just and 'vengeance to the wicked' at Christ's return, divine vengeance.read · scan

Sir Henry Vane, A Healing QuestionVol. 43

p. 128Refers to God's curse of vengeance designed for the accursed thing, which covetous men wrongly withhold from destruction.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 226–227Notes Isaiah's reference to the vengeance of God and change of good into evil as a prophetic theme.read · scan
p. 253–254Amos: God has sworn to take vengeance on Israel for its sins, followed by darkness and mourning; divine vengeance announced by prophecy.read · scan
p. 291Nuns are threatened with the fury and vengeance of heaven, yet God overwhelms them with favours instead, showing the threat to be false.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, LettersVol. 48

p. 325Scripture is full of the vengeance God executes on idolaters; divine vengeance is presented as the penalty for idolatry.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48

p. 393–395Pascal calls Montaigne the 'minister of so great a vengeance' for humbling proud reason; figurative, divine-retribution sense.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34

p. 264–266Divine justice avenges itself on the wicked here below; men's mutual evils and avenging passions are its ministers of vengeance, so no hell is needed.read · scan

Thomas Gray, PoemsVol. 40

p. 449–451Adversity personified as goddess; 'the vengeful band' attends her as seen by the impious, a brief image of punishing retribution rather than a treatment of revenge.read · scan

Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24

p. 56–59Mentions God descending to take vengeance upon the wicked, as one instance of terror attending the Scriptural image of divine power.read · scan

William Blake, PoemsVol. 41

p. 587–588Blake's couplet that the beaten babe 'writes revenge in realms of death' implies that cruelty to the innocent will be repaid.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 137–139Scripture reading mentions Moses' eternal war on Amalek and David groaning under Heaven's avenging ire, divine wrath as retribution.read · scan
p. 212–213Warns heretics that Vengeance will draw the sword in wrath, divine retribution at Heaven's commission.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 451–452Fisherman sees Gessler's ship in the storm as Heaven's judgment, the avenger's arm striking the tyrant for his crimes.read · scan

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient MarinerVol. 41

p. 685–687Marginal gloss says the Albatross begins to be avenged: the polar spirit plagues the ship for the killing of the bird.read · scan
p. 694–696Spirits discuss the Mariner's penance; the gloss says the Polar Spirit still requireth vengeance for the slain albatross, which he loved.read · scan

James Russell Lowell, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1371–1372God figured as the 'great Avenger,' seemingly careless yet keeping watch over history's wrongs and his own.read · scan

7c.Vengeance of the Greek and Roman gods

See also: Hospitality 1a · God 11b · Punishment 10c · Religion 5b

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 24–25Telemachus fears his mother's invoked Avengers (Furies) if he expels her, and prays Zeus for acts of recompense on the wooers.read · scan
p. 68Zeus reminds Athene that Odysseus is destined to take vengeance on the wooers at his coming.read · scan
p. 121–122Odysseus appeals to Zeus as avenger of suppliants and strangers; the Cyclops scorns divine retribution.read · scan
p. 127–128Odysseus taunts the Cyclops that Zeus has requited his evil deeds against guests, and angrily proclaims his name as the blinder.read · scan
p. 147Teiresias foretells Poseidon's wrath for his blinded son and that Odysseus will avenge the wooers' violence by slaying them.read · scan
p. 151–152Oedipus left to suffer all that a mother's Avengers (Furies) bring to pass.read · scan
p. 170–171Helios demands the gods take vengeance on Odysseus' men for slaying his cattle, threatening to shine among the dead; Zeus promises to smite their ship.read · scan
p. 177–178Poseidon, slighted by the Phaeacians' honouring of Odysseus, seeks revenge; Zeus assures him of retribution and lets him turn their ship to stone.read · scan
p. 179–180Odysseus, believing the Phaeacians betrayed him, prays that Zeus, protector of suppliants, requite them and punish the transgressor.read · scan
p. 229–230Telemachus and Penelope vow sacrifices to the gods that Zeus may grant deeds of requital against the wooers.read · scan
p. 239–240Struck by Antinous, Odysseus broods silently and calls on gods and 'Avengers of beggars' to bring death on him, invoking divine retribution for the insult.read · scan
p. 276–277Odysseus prays that the gods avenge the suitors' insolent scorn and shameless deeds in another man's house.read · scan
p. 278–279Suitors do not tremble at the vengeance of the gods; Philoetius hopes Odysseus will scatter them, and Odysseus swears he will return and slay them.read · scan
p. 284Heracles murdered his guest Iphitus with no regard for the vengeance of the gods, violating hospitality.read · scan

Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8

p. 8–9Zeus sends the Atreidae in vengeful ire against Paris; divine wrath and avenging fiends punish rapine, framing the Trojan war as retribution.read · scan
p. 19–21Clytemnestra warns that the wrong of the slain may rise before the gods to claim revenge if victors profane Troy; Zeus bends vengeful bow at Paris.read · scan
p. 21–22Chorus asserts the rod of vengeance smites the sinner by God's will; impious pride and Paris's crime bring retribution on descendants.read · scan
p. 23–24Gods do not forget the bloodshed; Furies and the vengeful divine bolt strike the unjust and boastful; city's suppressed wrath against the Atreidae.read · scan
p. 30–33Zeus tarries but avenges still the husband's wrong and outraged hospitality, showing divine vengeance for Paris's offence.read · scan

Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8

p. 287Teiresias warns Creon that the Erinyes, slow but sure avengers of the unburied dead, wait to ensnare him in the same evils.read · scan

Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8

p. 303Aphrodite, slighted by Hippolytus, vows to smite him and pay her haters in full with a vengeance; divine retribution for offended honour drives the plot.read · scan
p. 331–334Phaedra fears the avenging rod and curses the nurse, whose betrayal of her secret has ruined her; mostly despair, with retributive imprecation.read · scan
p. 365–367Artemis promises to avenge the dead Hippolytus by piercing the heart of the man dearest to Aphrodite, divine vengeance answering divine rancour.read · scan

Euripides, The BacchaeVol. 8

p. 408–409The Bacchae pray Dionysus for vengeance on Pentheus, asking that he be maddened and humiliated, so the god's punishment of the scorner is wrought as retaliation.read · scan
p. 417–419Dionysus calls on the Maenads to avenge him on Pentheus, who scorned the god; the messenger tells how vengeance unfolds and the chorus rejoices.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 73Juno's grievances, including Paris's judgment and slighted beauty, together kindle vengeance in her mind, so she persecutes the Trojans; poet asks whether heavenly minds can show such resentment.read · scan
p. 73Juno rages, citing Pallas's revengeful spleen in burning the Greek fleet for one man's offense, and seeks Aeolus's storm to destroy the Trojans in vengeance.read · scan
p. 91Trojan envoy appeals that if hospitality and human law fail, the gods are just and will avenge their cause.read · scan
p. 117Priam, seeing his son slain, calls on just gods to requite Pyrrhus's brutal rage, invoking divine retribution.read · scan
p. 131Celaeno the Harpy avenges the slain oxen with a curse of famine; Trojans first seek vengeance on the Harpies, then plead for pardon.read · scan
p. 145Jove as avenging father buries the rebel Enceladus under Mount Etna as punishment.read · scan
p. 152Dido invokes avenging Jove to strike her down if she breaks her vow to dead Sichaeus; vengeance appears only as a divine oath-sanction.read · scan
p. 197Juno, still hateful, sends Iris to try new methods of revenge on the Trojans by inciting the women to burn the fleet.read · scan
p. 207Aeneas prays that the gods' vengeance against the Trojans end, since Troy is no more and can no longer offend.read · scan
p. 210The Sibyl promises Palinurus that heaven's wrath will pursue with vengeance the coast whose people murdered him, until they appease his ghost with a tomb.read · scan
p. 355Diomede recalls Agamemnon as proud revenger of a wife's wrong and Menelaus' war to avenge his bed, and the vengeful gods' punishment of the Greeks.read · scan
p. 366Diana gives Opis a bow and arrow to avenge Camilla's death, ordering that her slayer not pass unpunished.read · scan
p. 389Aeneas declares his avenging sword will right the gods and injured altars against faithless Turnus who broke his vow.read · scan
p. 412Jupiter tells Juno her lawful time for vengeance and wrath is over; she says she would have fought with vengeful flames and must quench her enduring anger.read · scan

Plutarch, ThemistoclesVol. 12

p. 26Themistocles flees to King Admetus, whom he once insulted and who would plainly take revenge if he could; suppliant's hearth protection overrides it.read · scan

Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9

p. 226–228Regulus's frauds provoke the vengeance of the gods he falsely invokes, implying divine retribution for perjury.read · scan

The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49

p. 299–300Brynhild says Odin in vengeance for her slaying Helm Gunnar struck her with the sleep-thorn; divine retaliation.read · scan

Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36

p. 215–224Fearful people suppose a god would revenge the forsaking of his worship by sending misfortune on one who changes religion.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 400Men fear invisible power as a revenger of perfidy; oaths call on God for vengeance on oneself if the covenant is broken.read · scan
p. 402The heathen held Jupiter to be the avenger of injustice, cited in the Fool's argument that injustice may be reasonable.read · scan

Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26

p. 160–161Phaedra calls herself the object of celestial vengeance and begs Hippolytus to take his revenge by striking her.read · scan
p. 165–166Phaedra urges Venus to avenge herself on Hippolytus, who scorns her altars, and force him to love.read · scan
p. 174–175Theseus, enraged, calls on Neptune to avenge a wretched father and destroy Hippolytus, invoking the god's promised favor.read · scan
p. 177–180Theseus relies on Neptune's oath to execute vengeance on Hippolytus, a debt owed him, and promises Phaedra she will be avenged.read · scan

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19

p. 191–192Mephistopheles speaks of avenging spirits hovering over the place of blood-guilt, watching for the murderer's return; Faust curses him; blood-guilt calls for vengeance.read · scan

Lord Byron, ManfredVol. 18

p. 423–428Allusion to the slain Byzantine maid's spirit whose wrath and 'term of vengeance' Pausanias tried to appease; her vengeance was fulfilled despite rites.read · scan

7d.Prayers for God's vengeance on one's enemies

The Book of PsalmsVol. 44

p. 153Psalmist calls on God to requite the wicked who murder the poor and think God will not require it; retribution is left to God.read · scan
p. 193–194Psalmist prays to be raised up by God so that he may requite his enemies, who plot his death. A personal wish to retaliate.read · scan
p. 196The enemy and the avenger appear as the source of the people's reproach; the people pray God to rise and redeem them from their adversaries.read · scan
p. 208David prays that God will requite evil to his enemies and rejoices to see his desire upon them. Betrayal by a friend prompts a call for sudden death on the guilty.read · scan
p. 212–214The righteous will rejoice at seeing vengeance and wash his feet in the wicked's blood; the psalmist calls on God to break the wicked and show no mercy.read · scan
p. 242–244Psalmist prays that God pour out wrath on the nations, that the avenging of his servants' blood be known, and that neighbors be repaid sevenfold.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 210Murdered by Helen's betrayal, Deiphobus prays that avenging powers repay the Greeks in kind, with justice, so that their own fortune turns.read · scan
p. 270–282Evander calls on the gods to replace the blood and murders of the tyrant Mezentius on his own head and impious race, a call for retribution.read · scan

Luke, The Gospel According to LukeVol. 44

p. 400–401Parable of the widow and unjust judge: she begs 'Avenge me of mine adversary'; God will speedily avenge his elect who cry to him.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, PurgatoryVol. 20

p. 227–228Speaker longs to see God's vengeance, which His wrath broods in secret silence, after the outrage on Christ's Vicar at Alagna by Philip's agents.read · scan

Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46

p. 62–63Kent calls on God, to whom punishment of unnatural revolt belongs in justice, to rain vengeance, appealing to divine retribution against Mortimer's rebellion.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46

p. 255Lear calls on the stored vengeances of heaven to strike Goneril with lameness and blasting; he curses her but refuses to curse Regan.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 737–738The King invokes the gods' vengeance on the rebellious citizens; this is a conventional imprecation, not a developed treatment.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 99Polyeucte proclaims that God will avenge His bleeding saints, placing vengeance with the divine.read · scan

John Milton, Poems Written During the Civil War and the Protectorate, 1642-1658Vol. 4

p. 83–84Sonnet pleading God to avenge the slaughtered Piedmont Protestants, their blood sown so as to grow; vengeance sought from God for martyrs.read · scan

William Cowper, PoemsVol. 41

p. 539–541The dying queen hurls a curse at Roman ruffians, declaring that Heaven awards the vengeance due them, so retribution is divine.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 72–74Holy Willie prays God to use His day of vengeance to destroy Aiken and his patrons, a self-righteous call for divine retribution on personal enemies.read · scan

7e.The vengeful God criticised

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 57–58Dante fears the vengeance of heaven; Capaneus defies Jove, saying Jove will never enjoy a sweet revenge, and Virgil says his own rage is his torment.read · scan

Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34

p. 380Gentile religion ascribed human passions such as anger and revenge to its gods, among other vices.read · scan

Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40

p. 428Fear-made gods are imagined with attributes of rage, revenge and lust, vengeful deities formed like tyrants.read · scan

David Hume, Of the Standard of TasteVol. 27

p. 204–205Hume says the Koran's morals are suspect because it praises revenge, among other cruelties, as incompatible with civilized society.read · scan
p. 221Catholic zeal casts other believers as objects of divine wrath and vengeance, a sentiment Hume calls blameable yet treated as heroic in drama.read · scan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34

p. 288–289Rejects a God described as vindictive, jealous, threatening slaughter and revenge; such a vengeful deity is incompatible with reason and natural religion.read · scan

Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32

p. 353Kant objects that a theological morality built on God's will conceives it as desire for glory with might and vengeance, opposed to morality.read · scan

Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27

p. 348–349Shelley condemns the 'most horrible revenge upon his enemy' taken by the God of popular creed, contrasting it with Milton's Satan's persistence in enmity.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5

p. 85–86Cites the corrupt reading of the sermon: the disappointed saints say 'we expect our revenge tomorrow', hoping to repay the successful sinners in the afterlife.read · scan

8.Revenge in tragedy and romance

8a.The revenger's dilemma: Hamlet, Laertes and Orestes

See also: Family 10e · Punishment 7a · Justice 9b · Religion 5c

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 10Zeus says Orestes will avenge Agamemnon on Aegisthus once grown; vengeance foretold as the due consequence of Aegisthus's murder, despite divine warning.read · scan
p. 15Athene wishes Odysseus might return and take vengeance in his halls on the wooers, leaving it to the gods' knees.read · scan
p. 35–38Nestor praises Orestes taking vengeance on his father's slayer Aegisthus; Telemachus longs for like strength to avenge himself on the wooers.read · scan

Aeschylus, The Libation-BearersVol. 8

p. 76–77Orestes prays Zeus to let him avenge his father's murder; the chorus tells of the angry dead whose ire glows against their slayers.read · scan
p. 79Electra and chorus debate praying that a god or mortal slay the slayers, asking whether it is fitting to seek vengeance, to wreak wrong on a foe.read · scan
p. 87–88Orestes recounts Apollo's command to avenge his father's slaying, with fiends and disease threatened if vengeance is left undone, joined to grief and loss.read · scan
p. 93–95Orestes vows to avenge his father's shameful burial, claiming the gods command it; chorus urges the dead father to rise as champion in wrath.read · scan
p. 95–96Orestes and Electra pray to their dead father and underworld powers to aid retaliation against the murderers; the blood-fiend of the house to be driven out by kindred hand.read · scan
p. 98–100Orestes holds no offering can atone spilled blood and reads Clytemnestra's serpent dream as foretelling a man's revenge, resolving to slay her.read · scan
p. 100–101Orestes plans to kill Aegisthus by craft for craft, as Apollo foretold; the house's Fury will drink a third draught of blood.read · scan
p. 107–109Chorus prays Zeus and the gods to help Orestes smite his father's foes and avenge blood shed of old, hoping the old curse then dies.read · scan
p. 110–111Chorus urges Orestes to do the deed for his slain father, appeasing the dead and the wrath of friends; daggers will fulfil the doom on Atreus' house.read · scan
p. 112Orestes kills Aegisthus and confronts Clytemnestra, justifying matricide as repayment for his father's murder; Pylades cites Apollo's command; she says they slew by craft and die by craft.read · scan
p. 114–115Orestes kills his mother for his father's fate while she warns of a mother's vengeful hounds; chorus hails vengeance, 'Revenge's scheming child,' and Justice coming late.read · scan

Aeschylus, The FuriesVol. 8

p. 140–142Orestes avows he slew his mother, avenging his father blood for blood at Apollo's bidding; Athena hesitates to judge blood-guilt and wrath.read · scan
p. 147–148Apollo defends Orestes' vengeance for Agamemnon's murder as commanded by Zeus; the Furies argue spilled blood cannot be undone.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46

p. 112–114Ghost charges Hamlet to revenge his father's foul murder; Hamlet eagerly vows to sweep to his revenge.read · scan
p. 114–117Ghost recounts the poisoning, urges Hamlet not to let the bed be incestuous, but to leave his mother to heaven; Hamlet swears to remember and avenge.read · scan
p. 138Player's speech depicts Pyrrhus's aroused vengeance driving his sword down on Priam, vengeance as a rage after a pause.read · scan
p. 138Hamlet berates himself for inaction, cries 'O, vengeance!', says he is prompted to revenge by heaven and hell, and devises the play to test the king.read · scan
p. 152Hamlet quotes 'the croaking raven doth bellow for revenge' as the murderer in the play-within-a-play begins the poisoning.read · scan
p. 161–162Hamlet spares the praying Claudius, since killing him while purged of sin would be hire and salary, not revenge; he wants the soul damned.read · scan
p. 174Hamlet laments that all occasions spur his dull revenge, scorning his delay as bestial oblivion or craven scruple, and contrasts himself with Fortinbras's readiness to fight for honour.read · scan
p. 174–177Hamlet, with a father killed and mother stained, vows his thoughts shall be bloody, resolving on revenge after shaming himself with the army's example.read · scan
p. 179Laertes storms the king demanding his father, defies allegiance, conscience and damnation, and swears to be revenged most thoroughly for his father's death.read · scan
p. 179–182Laertes vows Ophelia's madness shall be paid back by weight, and says her state moves him more than if she had urged revenge.read · scan
p. 184Laertes, learning how his father was killed, declares his revenge will come; the king assures him of it, while explaining why he did not punish Hamlet.read · scan
p. 185–186Laertes longs to confront Hamlet face to face and tell him 'Thus didest thou'; he agrees to be the king's instrument in a plot to kill Hamlet.read · scan
p. 186Claudio goads Laertes to prove himself his father's son; Laertes would cut Hamlet's throat in church, the king says revenge should have no bounds, and they plot an unbated sword.read · scan
p. 186–189Laertes plans to anoint his sword with deadly poison to kill Hamlet in requital; the king adds a poisoned cup as backup in the revenge plot.read · scan
p. 204–205Laertes admits natural feeling would urge revenge but, on honour, refuses reconciliation with Hamlet until judged by elders, while accepting his offered love.read · scan

Jean Racine, PhaedraVol. 26

p. 170–171Theseus demands to know why he was not avenged for the outrage supposedly done him, and seeks the culprit.read · scan

8b.Satan's revenge and the war on Heaven

See also: Angel 7b · War and Peace 1d · God 8c · Will 2a

John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4

p. 88The serpent's guile was stirred by envy and revenge against God and man, motivating the Fall.read · scan
p. 88–90Satan vows 'study of revenge, immortal hate' and eternal irreconcilable war against God, refusing to submit despite defeat.read · scan
p. 90Fallen angels fear God's vengeful ire and ministers of vengeance; Satan resolves to retaliate by perverting God's good into evil.read · scan
p. 90Satan plans to offend his Enemy; God permits his malice so that wrath and vengeance are poured on him in the end.read · scan
p. 90Satan stands 'waiting revenge' with cruel eye, and proposes to repay God's victory by fraud and guile in a new war.read · scan
p. 108Moloch urges open war on Heaven, turning torments against the Torturer: if not victory, 'yet revenge'; his look denounces desperate revenge.read · scan
p. 108Belial doubts the fallen angels' 'dire revenge' against Heaven can succeed, since the towers are impregnable and exasperating God would only bring annihilation.read · scan
p. 108Belial warns that provoking God's renewed vengeance with his red right hand would bring worse torment, so open or concealed war should be avoided.read · scan
p. 108Mammon/Beelzebub: the vanquished can return only hatred and revenge, ever plotting against the Conqueror; corrupting Man would surpass common revenge and spite God.read · scan
p. 129Satan offers Chaos the restoration of his old dominion, claiming 'Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge!' as his motive.read · scan
p. 136God sees Satan bent on desperate revenge against Man, which will recoil upon his own rebellious head.read · scan
p. 136The Son fears Satan's malice would achieve revenge accomplished by dragging mankind to Hell, and appeals to God's justice and mercy.read · scan
p. 155Satan comes furious to be revenged on men, wreaking on innocent Man his loss in the battle with Heaven.read · scan
p. 155Satan conceals deep malice under a calm face, couched with revenge; deadly hate makes reconciliation impossible.read · scan
p. 155Satan justifies his revenge on innocent Adam and Eve as aimed at God who wronged him, a 'public reason just' excused by necessity.read · scan
p. 204Satan greets Abdiel as arriving in the wished hour of his revenge, framing his rebellion's combat as retaliation against the dissenter who opposed him.read · scan
p. 226Satan seeks to draw Adam into misery as his solace and revenge, a spiteful retaliation against the Most High.read · scan
p. 261Satan reflects that God made Man to be avenged, and embraces revenge and spite against Man, noting revenge sweet at first but recoiling bitterly.read · scan
p. 261Eve's beauty briefly disarms Satan of enmity and revenge, before hellish hate returns and he resumes his destructive intent.read · scan
p. 290–291Adam recalls the promise that Eve's seed should be revenged on the Serpent, grounding hope in future retribution.read · scan
p. 292Sin imagines Satan returning pursued by his Avengers, whose revenge would accompany his punishment, implying retaliatory vengeance.read · scan
p. 297Sin praises Satan's success as having fully avenged the defeat in Heaven, framing the seduction of Man as retaliation.read · scan
p. 304Adam says crushing Satan's head would be 'revenge indeed,' lost if they die by suicide; also invokes God's vengeful ire that cannot be evaded.read · scan

8c.Revenge by the wronged woman or the passionate lover

Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8

p. 62–63Clytemnestra avows her trapping of Agamemnon as repaying evil for evil to an enemy, exults in the deed, and calls it more than just.read · scan
p. 64–65Clytemnestra justifies killing Agamemnon as retaliation for the sacrifice of Iphigenia, swearing by the vengeance for her murdered child and the Fury; chorus says blood is not yet avenged.read · scan

Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13

p. 93Venus calls Juno 'revengeful wife' who pursues Aeneas by force and fraud, motivating her scheme against Dido.read · scan
p. 152Earth, enraged against the gods, revengefully bears the monster Fame; Hyarbas, spurned in love, burns with fury and calls on Jove.read · scan
p. 167Dido, dying, calls on any power that avenges injured love; rage and despair mingle with her love.read · scan
p. 167Mercury warns Aeneas that Dido is fixed on revenge; she regrets not tearing Aeneas piecemeal and destroying his son and friends.read · scan
p. 389Turnus, burning with desire, is roused to fight by revenge, jealous rage and spite.read · scan

Songs from the Elder EddaVol. 49

p. 377–380Brynhild vows that her woe will be well avenged, predicting Atli's retaliation against the Giukings for Sigurd's death.read · scan
p. 433–436Oddrun recounts Brynhild's hard, dreadful vengeance for Sigurd's betrayal, which ended in her own death and woe for all.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 49Nessus avenged his own death through the poisoned shirt given to Deianira; Dante also denounces blind wrath that goads men into violence.read · scan
p. 73Medea's injuries are said to be avenged in Jason's punishment, framing his torment as retribution for betraying her.read · scan

Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31

p. 55–56Pantasilea, slighted in love, desires revenge for the affront; foreshadows a retaliation plot.read · scan
p. 62Pantasilea, furious over the trick played on her, swears revenge on Cellini and sets in motion a plot using Luigi Pulci.read · scan
p. 64–65Cellini lies in ambush with sword to wreak vengeance on Pantasilea and Luigi, resisting a friend's plea for mercy.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 191–192The disdained lover's letter threatens that he may be constrained to take revenge, though he does not desire it.read · scan
p. 244Cardenio, watching Lucinda's wedding to Don Fernando, laments he cannot procure a revenge for the wrong done him and wishes only to lose his life.read · scan
p. 244–246Cardenio regrets cowardice in not avenging himself on Don Fernando, the thief of his bride, and complains rather than acts.read · scan
p. 335Lothario, in jealous rage, desires revenge on innocent Camilla and urges Anselmo to witness her and be executioner of the wrong.read · scan
p. 338Camilla, feigning outrage, speaks of taking revenge on Lothario for his dishonouring advances and wants his corpse left for Anselmo to bury as his own infamy.read · scan
p. 339Camilla feigns a vow of just revenge on Lothario, declaring she will be satisfied and revenged on him even at the cost of her own death.read · scan
p. 361Don Fernando reaches for his sword to take revenge on Cardenio; Dorothea pleads that reason master his choler and passion.read · scan
p. 364Don Fernando recounts leaving Lucinda's house full of shame and despite, resolved to revenge himself more conveniently after his thwarted attempt to kill her.read · scan

Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27

p. 17–18Cites 'the sour sweetness of revenge in Medea' as an example of how poetry makes a passion visible to the reader.read · scan
p. 44Recounts Hecuba finding a way to be 'revenged most cruelly' on Polymnestor for murdering her son Polydorus; mentioned as a dramatic-structure example.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 696–697Megra, exposed and shamed by the King, threatens that she has vengeance in store for those who scorn her.read · scan
p. 726Philaster, having wounded the princess, offers himself to Bellario to take full revenge and teaches him to revenge, while also wounding Bellario in angry suspicion.read · scan
p. 727Bellario falsely confesses he tried to kill the princess from his own revenge, to die revenged for her withdrawn favour, shielding Philaster.read · scan

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26

p. 66Rosaura, wronged and abandoned by Astolfo, seeks to retrieve her shame; her private wrong merges with public passion that 'sweeps it to revenge'.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 97Pauline says that for rival lovers passion overrules reason: valour seeks a sword and love seeks revenge.read · scan

Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26

p. 224–227Dorine says a woman forced into marriage would show that a woman's vengeance isn't far to seek.read · scan

John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13

p. 32–34Dido, wronged by Aeneas's desertion, is described as injured, revengeful and powerful; a woman's wrath is feared even by the hero.read · scan

John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18

p. 81–84Betrayed Antony demands the gods find torments for the guilty pair; Dolabella says heaven, hell and Antony himself should revenge any wrong done.read · scan

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1017–1018Maud's cold face is imagined as 'taking revenge too deep for a transient wrong' done in thought to her beauty.read · scan

8d.Revenge by the villain and the cruel tyrant

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 51–52The enchanted husband and the fish each night imprecate vengeance on the queen and her lover for their cruelty, and this prevents the king's recovery.read · scan
p. 225The vizier El-Mo'in, wishing to seize Nur-ed-Din, declares he will take his revenge upon his offender.read · scan

Sir Thomas Malory, The Holy GrailVol. 35

p. 148The earl sends his nephews to be avenged on the hermit, burning him; God preserves the hermit unharmed.read · scan

William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King LearVol. 46

p. 244–246Regan says all vengeance falls short of what the offender (supposed Edgar) deserves, expressing a hunger for retaliation against the alleged plot on Gloucester's life.read · scan
p. 271–273Cornwall declares he will have his revenge on Gloucester before leaving his house, stating a resolve to retaliate for the supposed treason.read · scan
p. 277–278Cornwall speaks of revenges he must take on Gloucester, lets power do a courtesy to his wrath beyond justice; blinded Gloucester foresees winged vengeance overtaking the children.read · scan

Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher, Philaster, or Love Lies A-BleedingVol. 47

p. 733–734The enraged King disowns his daughter and vows lion-like vengeance on her and Philaster, threatening them with death.read · scan

John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47

p. 786Ferdinand rages with vengeful fantasies of burning his sister and her lover, and sees heaven's revenge on sin in her; the Cardinal warns against anger.read · scan
p. 807–808Ferdinand vows to sacrifice the Duchess's wedding ring to his revenge, driving her banishment.read · scan
p. 814Ferdinand calls pardon the most honourable revenge where one may kill, then tortures the Duchess with a dead man's hand and wax figures of her slain family.read · scan
p. 814–817The Duchess curses her tormentors; Ferdinand pursues cruelty to drive her to despair, saying his revenge never slackens until it has spent its fuel.read · scan
p. 826–827Ferdinand, after the murders, speaks of his revenge against his sister's innocence and its cruelty; he admits mere greed and hatred of her marriage motivated it.read · scan

Philip Massinger, A New Way to Pay Old DebtsVol. 47

p. 924Margaret imagines her father's 'thirst of vengeance' pursuing her with lingering torments if she defies him, which she is prepared to endure.read · scan
p. 933–938Overreach scorns village nurses who 'revenge their wrongs with curses' and turns to rage and violence against his daughter; his thwarted malice threatens retaliation.read · scan

Pierre Corneille, PolyeucteVol. 26

p. 99Pauline fears the Christians will wreak vengeance on her father; Strato says Felix's rage falls on Nearchus, on whom he wreaks fullest vengeance.read · scan
p. 99–102Pauline sees in Felix's face wrath, grief, and revenge struggling for mastery as he reacts to the sacrilege.read · scan
p. 117Fabian warns that Decius's rage against Christians and his revenge are fierce, so pleading for them is dangerous.read · scan
p. 121–123Felix says insult grows from injury and his rejected grace turns to swift revenge; he bids the furies slake their vengeance on Polyeucte.read · scan
p. 127Albin says Felix is unmanned by revenge and pressing peril in condemning Polyeucte; vengeance is named as a motive for the killing.read · scan

Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26

p. 214–216Cleante condemns false zealots who are vengeful and dress private grudges as the cause of heaven, wielding a sacred sword.read · scan
p. 277–280Tartuffe threatens to confound Orgon and 'avenge offended Heaven', cloaking retaliation in piety.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 104–106Condemns hypocritical zealots whose religion cloaks greed, revenge and malice; an honest man disdains mean revenge, while they hunt down their victims.read · scan

Friedrich Schiller, William TellVol. 26

p. 398–399Landenberg, failing to catch the son, vows 'thou shalt feel my vengeance' and blinds the old father; tyrant's vengeance on an innocent.read · scan

Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21

p. 103Don Rodrigo, stung by the friar's rebuke, repeatedly devises and abandons a plan of revenge, torn between passion, honour and dread of the prophecy.read · scan
p. 153–155The jailer-nun revenges herself on provoked Gertrude with threats of punishment and taunts, a petty retaliation fueling Gertrude's resentment.read · scan
p. 173Gertrude, embittered by her forced vocation, nurses rancour almost amounting to a desire of vengeance against her pupils, taking out her thwarted life on them.read · scan
p. 315The Unnamed's power often served iniquitous desires and atrocious revenge, alongside occasional use for protecting the oppressed.read · scan
p. 330The old servant takes savage consolation in the vengeance the Signor took on her husband's killers, which deepens her pride in his protection.read · scan
p. 406Don Rodrigo, driven off by the Cardinal's coming, leaves fretting and swearing to return soon in another guise to execute his vengeance.read · scan
p. 420–421Don Abbondio fears Don Rodrigo will return in triumph, furious with revenge, which makes him cling to his cowardly excuses before the Cardinal.read · scan
p. 433Narrator says Don Gonzalo bore Renzo no personal enmity and would not wreak vengeance on him for his insolence; his pursuit arose from circumstance.read · scan
p. 515Rumor attributes the anointing of walls to Don Gonzalo's act of revenge for insults at his departure; only one speculation among many.read · scan

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18

p. 281Cenci declares all men delight in revenge, describes killing a foe and hearing his groans as his keenest pleasure, ranking revenge above lust.read · scan
p. 288–290Cenci exults over his sons' deaths as Heaven's favor and threatens his revenge as a king's sealed commission that kills unnamed.read · scan
p. 291–294Beatrice warns Cenci that his sons' ghosts will hunt him with avenging looks; Cenci drinks wishing the wine were his children's blood.read · scan
p. 323Cenci curses his daughter, calling himself a fiend appointed to chastise, and feels horrid joy in vengeful cruelty; revenge as malevolent passion.read · scan

Sidney Lanier, PoemsVol. 42

p. 1395–1396Hamish, flogged by Maclean, dangles Maclean's child over the crag and demands lashes on the chief's back in return, enacting a vengeance of humiliation and cruelty.read · scan

8e.Revenge in comedy, satire and fable

Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22

p. 164Odysseus asks whether he can avenge himself on Scylla for preying on his companions.read · scan

Aesop, FablesVol. 17

p. 13Serpent avenges tail-cutting by stinging cattle; farmer had sought to avenge his son; tit-for-tat cycle of retaliation ends in proposed reconciliation, 'forget and forgive'.read · scan
p. 24Horse seeks the Hunter's help to take revenge on the Stag; vengeance wins but costs him his freedom, a warning about the price of revenge.read · scan

Aristophanes, The FrogsVol. 8

p. 479–480Parody chorus mentions avengers, the terrible eagle launched with brand and hand, in a mock-epic lyric; only incidental reference to vengeance.read · scan

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9

p. 127–128Cicero explains defending Vatinius as tit-for-tat retaliation against rivals, citing the parasite's advice to sting by returning like for like.read · scan

Plutarch, AristidesVol. 12

p. 100–102Themistocles' derision of Aristides described as a retaliation for Aristides' earlier free words; petty tit-for-tat.read · scan

Plutarch, CiceroVol. 12

p. 221Aesop the tragedian, playing Atreus deliberating the revenge of Thyestes, is so carried away he kills a servant; revenge only as theatrical subject.read · scan

Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16

p. 20The sheykh says the herdsman's daughter may take his cousin's blood and enchant her; the freed son is to be avenged on the stepmother who enchanted him.read · scan
p. 112The Jinniyeh takes vengeance on the jealous sisters by turning them into bitches, repaying a benefit; the Khalifeh vows to take vengeance on the oppressor of the beaten lady.read · scan

Dante Alighieri, HellVol. 20

p. 36–38Fragmentary remark that the fiends took 'no ill revenge' when Theseus assailed Hell; retaliation recalled in passing.read · scan
p. 89The barrator begs the demons to restrain their talons so no vengeance need be feared; fiends' fury and retaliation appear as a motive.read · scan

Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14

p. 55Quixote, believing himself beaten by Don Rowland, vows the foe will pay dearly and leaves the revenge to his own charge.read · scan
p. 73Quixote solemnly vows, like the Marquis of Mantua avenging Valdovinos, to forgo comforts until he takes complete revenge for the broken helmet.read · scan
p. 75Quixote annuls his revenge oath against the knight, since the debt is satisfied, yet keeps the penitential vow; Sancho mocks such oaths as harmful.read · scan
p. 110Quixote calls on Sancho to help take due revenge on the carriers for beating Rozinante; Sancho objects to the odds and both are thrashed.read · scan
p. 111Sancho pardons all wrongs and refuses to fight; Quixote rebukes him for lacking valour or will to revenge his injuries.read · scan
p. 126Quixote says that against invisible enchanters there is no one on whom to take revenge for the blows.read · scan
p. 130Innkeeper refuses Quixote's help, saying he knows how to take his own revenge when injured.read · scan
p. 134Quixote vows he would have taken vengeance on Sancho's tormentors but for knightly law; Sancho says he too would have revenged himself.read · scan
p. 135Sancho laments that because his blanket-tossers were enchanted he cannot be revenged, and so cannot enjoy the delight of vanquishing an enemy; Quixote shares the grief.read · scan
p. 147Quixote says God's killing of the dead man by fever spares him the pains of revenge; he would have avenged the death had a man slain him.read · scan
p. 168Quixote rebukes Sancho for never forgetting injuries as unchristian and ignoble; Sancho says the revenge cannot be carried out in earnest, so it remains a jest.read · scan
p. 207–208Sancho, beaten by mad Cardenio, rages and tries to be revenged on the goatherd, wanting to fight him to satisfy the wrong done.read · scan
p. 286Sancho says Quixote's blows were revenge for their earlier quarrel; Quixote answers a new offence needs new penance.read · scan
p. 296–297The peasant, unable to revenge his inflamed anger on Quixote, vents it on Andrew, whipping him worse; Quixote swears to seek him out.read · scan
p. 297–298Andrew rejects Quixote's oaths of avenging him, preferring money for his journey to all the revenges in the world.read · scan
p. 437–438Don Quixote pleads that the maid not vent revenge and indignation on his small bound hand, saying those who love well do not take cruel revenge.read · scan
p. 443–444Don Quixote vows that if the innkeeper is killed he will take revenge on those who sent him to the other world.read · scan
p. 444Don Quixote refuses to fight non-knights and assigns the defence and revenge for the innkeeper to Sancho as his duty.read · scan
p. 462Don Quixote says he would have taken dire revenge for Sancho's blanket-tossing, but found no one on whom to avenge the injury.read · scan
p. 506The beaten goatherd gropes for a knife to take a bloody revenge on Don Quixote, but is prevented by the onlookers.read · scan

Christopher Marlowe, The Tragical History of Doctor FaustusVol. 19

p. 238–239Faust avenges the knight's earlier insult by giving him horns, then requites him as 'worthily requited' the injury, releasing him only to amuse the Emperor.read · scan

Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47

p. 625–626Subtle resolves to hasten his scheme to be revenged on the impetuous Face, a brief statement of retaliatory motive.read · scan

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26

p. 43Estrella's quip that the cold hand shudders 'in revenge' is a trivial, figurative use of revenge.read · scan

Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48

p. 39Reason is said to 'have her revenge' on the senses, a figurative retaliation between faculties; only metaphorical vengeance.read · scan

Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27

p. 167–168Pope attacks Dennis, giving resentment full play 'without appearing to revenge himself'; a literary grudge pursued under cover of friendship.read · scan

Oliver Goldsmith, She Stoops to ConquerVol. 18

p. 212–214Tony muses he could be revenged on his stepfather for calling him whelp and hound, but holds back for fear of losing his fortune.read · scan

Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18

p. 137–138Joseph says propagating a malicious truth is more despicable than falsifying from revenge, ranking revenge-driven slander as a lesser fault.read · scan
p. 138–139Joseph calls a wife's infidelity the only revenge in her power against her husband's ill humour, which Lady Teazle declines.read · scan
p. 192–194Joseph Surface fears Lady Sneerwell's revengeful spirit will prompt her to injure his brother after her plot is exposed.read · scan

Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6

p. 465–467Poet pleads 'Spare me thy vengeance, Galloway!' in an epigram against the earl, referring to his enemy's hostility.read · scan
p. 476–478Poet's image of Vengeance personified, brandishing a desolating brand over a guilty land, is mocked as gloomy theme; also dying wife's threat to haunt husband.read · scan

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Household TalesVol. 17

p. 137–138The uninvited thirteenth Wise Woman, to avenge herself for the slight, curses the princess to die by a spindle.read · scan

Thomas Babington Macaulay, MachiavelliVol. 27

p. 386–387Machiavelli's unhappy marriage led him to satirize wives in Belphegor, wishing to avenge himself and fellow sufferers.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, HeroismVol. 5

p. 128The tough world 'has its revenge' on idealistic youths when they enter practical life, shrinking them to common size.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5

p. 284–285Gossip is 'vengeful' and every offence draws 'a several vengeance'; nature's police of resentments and reactions repays wrongdoing.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, BeautyVol. 5

p. 298Science that scorns love and moral purpose draws a 'revenge for this inhumanity': it makes diminished men.read · scan

Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5

p. 430Nature 'revenges herself' on hypocritical, cant-ridden religion through satire and the heathenism of the lower classes.read · scan
p. 440–441Carlyle's imagination, disgusted at cant, 'avenged itself' by celebrating the laws of decay, and Nemesis is made amiable.read · scan

Hans Christian Andersen, TalesVol. 17

p. 312–313Young storks, mocked by the boys, burn to take revenge; their mother restrains them and defers it, and they vow to revenge themselves.read · scan
p. 313–314Storks plan revenge on the boys who sang the teasing song, especially the ringleader; revenge deferred until departure and shaped by the mother's scheme.read · scan

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29

p. 195Gauchos, in revenge against a savage bull that blocked them, resolve to emasculate it; retaliation against an animal for its aggression.read · scan

See also: Punishment, Emotion, Justice, Family, Fate, Honor