Performing Vengeance in Agrippa d’Aubigné’s Les Tragiques

Abstract

This essay examines expressions of retribution in “Vengeances,” Book VI of Agrippa d’Aubigne’s seven-book epic, Les Tragiques (1616). Early modern registers of vengeance provide contexts for the ways in which Aubigne navigates a self-proclaimed duty and desire to see that justice is served, in both earthly and celestial realms. Early modern vengeance, it is argued here, can best be understood in performative terms. As this essay demonstrates, verse is a filter through which Aubigne makes manifest his desire for retribution.