The Revenge

The Revenge is a 1721 tragedy by the British writer Edward Young, set in a mostly undefined region of 16th-century Africa under Spanish rule. It concerns the character of Zanga, an African prince who becomes cruel after his experiences in slavery. Although initially it did not enjoy the same success as his previous play Busiris, King of Egypt, it later became a much-revived work during the eighteenth century particularly popular because of the Othello-like role of the Moorish character Zanga. John Philip Kemble revived the work briefly in 1798 before Edmund Kean in 1815 did so with great success and it became part of his repertoire.