THE DUCHESS OF MALFI

John Webster, The Tragedy of the Dutchesse of Malfy. [In five acts, and in verse.] 1623

The Duchess was Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi, whose father, Enrico d'Aragona, Marquis of Gerace, was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples.

The play begins as a love story, with a Duchess who marries beneath her class, and ends as a nightmarish tragedy as her two brothers exact their revenge, destroying themselves in the process.  

The play is often considered among the greatest tragedies of English renaissance drama.