-
Title
-
The Lamentable and True Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham in Kent
-
Heading
-
The Birth of True Crime
-
Description
-
Arden of Faversham dramatises the murder of Thomas Arden in Kent in 1550/51 by his wife Alice and several accomplices. The story first reached many readers through Raphael Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (1577). The play subsequently transformed this recent and widely discussed crime into material for commercial entertainment and moral reflection. It belongs to the genre now known as domestic tragedy, which brought sensational crimes involving ordinary households onto the public stage.
Print played a crucial role in expanding the reach of the story. Alongside theatrical performance, quarto editions such as this one helped circulate the narrative to readers, while ballads, pamphlets, and news reports amplified public fascination with the case. The murder became one of the best-known crimes of the Elizabethan period, illustrating how print could turn individual acts of violence into shared cultural events.
The work also reflects contemporary anxieties about gender, household order, and social stability. Alice Arden’s role in orchestrating the murder challenged assumptions about obedience and patriarchal authority, themes that made the story especially compelling to early modern audiences. Although anonymous, the play has long attracted scholarly interest because of its literary quality and possible connections to William Shakespeare and other dramatists. Whatever its authorship, the text demonstrates how print culture helped establish crime as a profitable and recognisable genre long before the emergence of modern journalism.
-
Place of Publication
-
London
-
Publisher
-
Elizabeth Allde
-
Date of Publication
-
1633
-
Format
-
4to
-
Century
-
17th
-
Illustrations
-
Woodcut
The Power of Print
