the prince counterfeited to be mad, to how the prince stabbed and killed the King's counsellor who was eavesdropping on Hamlet and his mother behind the arras in the Queen's chamber. The story of Lear appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia regium Britanniae , and then in John Higgins' poem The Mirror for Magistrates in 1574, as well as appearing in Holinshed's Chronicles in 1587. Some events that happen in Shakespeare's King Lear were inspired by various episodes of Philip Sidney's Arcadia from 1590, while the nonsensical musings of Edgar's "poor Tom" heavily reference Samuel Harsnett's 1603 book, A Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures. Contemporary tragedy Tragedies from these eras traced their philosophical essence back to Senecan tragedy, grounded in nobles who have a tragic flaw or commit a grave error (hamartia) which leads to their reversal of fortune (peripeteia). (However, some critics have argued that the "pseudo-Aristotelian" concept of the tragic flaw does not apply to Shakespeare's tragic figures.) Revenge tragedy was also of increasing popularity in this age; Shakespeare's Hamlet is one example of this. Plays of this age were also decidedly secular, in contrast to the religious morality plays which by this time were outlawed by Elizabeth I. One marked difference between English renaissance tragedies and the classics that inspired them, was the use and popularity of violence and murder on stage. Select exemplary (non-Shakespearean) Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd The Jew of Malta by Christopher Marlowe Tamburlaine by Christopher Marlowe Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe Antonio's Revenge by John Marston The Revenger's Tragedy by Thomas Middleton 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by John Ford Notes and references Notes References Sources Further reading External links Shakespearean tragedies at the British Library Tragedies Tragedies (dramas)