The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...

 written by Thomas Kyd

Thomas Kyd

Thomas Kyd was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama....

 between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre

Genre

Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...

 in English

English literature

English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....

 theatre

Theatre

Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...

, the revenge play

Revenge play

The revenge play or revenge tragedy is a form of tragedy which was extremely popular in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. The best-known of these are Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy and William Shakespeare's Hamlet...

 or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 a personification of Revenge

Revenge

Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...

. The Spanish Tragedy was often referred to (or parodied) in works written by other Elizabethan playwrights, including William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

, Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

, and Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe

Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...

.

Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy, such as the play-within-a-play used to trap a murderer and a ghost

Ghost

In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...

 intent on vengeance, appear in Shakespeare's Hamlet

Hamlet

The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...

. (Thomas Kyd is frequently proposed as the author of the hypothetical Ur-Hamlet

Ur-Hamlet

The Ur-Hamlet is the name given to a play mentioned as early as 1589, a decade before most scholars believe Shakespeare composed Hamlet...

 that may have been one of Shakespeare's primary sources for Hamlet.)

Date

In the Introduction to his play Bartholomew Fair (1614), Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

 alludes to The Spanish Tragedy as being "five and twenty or thirty years" old. If taken literally, this would yield a date range of 1584–89 — a range that agrees with what else is known about the play. Some critics, noting that the play makes no reference to the Spanish Armada

Spanish Armada

This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...

 of 1588, have argued for a date of 1587 as the most likely single year; others have varied that date a year or so, either way. Philip Edwards, in his Revels edition of the play, entertains a date range of 1582–92, but favours a date c. 1590.

Performance

No details on the earliest performances of the play in the late 1580s have survived. Lord Strange's Men

Lord Strange's Men

Lord Strange's Men was an Elizabethan playing company, comprising retainers of the household of Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange . They are best known in their final phase of activity in the late 1580s and early 1590s...

 staged a play that the records call Jeronimo on March 14, 1592, and repeated it sixteen times to January 22, 1593; it was their big hit of the season. It is unclear whether Jeronimo was The Spanish Tragedy, or The First Part of Hieronimo (printed in 1604), the anonymous "prequel" to Kyd's play, or perhaps either on different days.

The Admiral's Men

Admiral's Men

The Admiral's Men was a playing company or troupe of actors in the Elizabethan and Stuart eras...

 revived Kyd's original on January 7, 1597, and performed it twelve times to July 19; they staged another performance conjointly with Pembroke's Men

Pembroke's Men

The Earl of Pembroke's Men was an Elizabethan era playing company, or troupe of actors, in English Renaissance theatre. They functioned under the patronage of Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke. Early and equivocal mentions of a Pembroke's company reach as far back as 1575; but the company is...

 on October 11 of the same year. The records of Philip Henslowe

Philip Henslowe

Philip Henslowe was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance London...

 suggest that the play was on stage again in 1601 and 1602. English actors performed the play on tour in Germany (1601), and both German and Dutch adaptations were made.

Publication

Kyd's play was entered into the Stationers' Register

Stationers' Register

The Stationers' Register was a record book maintained by the Stationers' Company of London. The company is a trade guild given a royal charter in 1557 to regulate the various professions associated with the publishing industry, including printers, bookbinders, booksellers, and publishers in England...

 on October 6, 1592, by the bookseller Abel Jeffes. The play was published in an undated quarto

Book size

The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf, or sometimes the height and width of its cover. A series of terms is commonly used by libraries and publishers for the general sizes of modern books, ranging from "folio" , to "quarto" and "octavo"...

, almost certainly before the end of 1592; this first quarto was printed by Edward Allde

Edward Allde

Edward Allde was an English printer in London during the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. He was responsible for a number of significant texts in English Renaissance drama, including some of the early editions of plays by William Shakespeare.-Life:Edward Allde was part of a family of professional...

 — and published not by the copyright holder Jeffes, but by another bookseller, Edward White. On December 18 of that year, the Stationers Company

Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers

The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Stationers' Company was founded in 1403; it received a Royal Charter in 1557...

 ruled that both Jeffes and White had broken the guild's rules by printing works that belonged to the other; both men were fined 10 shillings, and the offending books were destroyed — so that Q1 of The Spanish Tragedy survives in only a single copy. Yet the Q1 title page refers to an even earlier edition; this was probably by Jeffes, and no known copy exists.

The popular play was reprinted in 1594; in an apparent compromise between the competing booksellers, the title page of Q2 credits the edition to "Abell Jeffes, to be sold by Edward White." On August 13, 1599, Jeffes transferred his copyright to William White, who issued the third edition that year. White in turn transferred the copyright to Thomas Pavier

Thomas Pavier

Thomas Pavier was a London publisher and bookseller of the early seventeenth century. His complex involvement in the publication of early editions of some of Shakespeare's plays, as well as plays of the Shakespeare Apocrypha, has left him with a "dubious reputation."-Life and work:Pavier came to...

 on August 14, 1600, and Pavier issued the fourth edition (printed for him by William White) in 1602. This 1602 Q4 featured five additions to the pre-existent text (see below). Q4 was reprinted in 1610, 1615 (two issues), 1618, 1623 (two issues), and 1633.

Authorship

All of the early editions are anonymous. The first indication of the author's identity appeared in Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood was a prominent English playwright, actor, and author whose peak period of activity falls between late Elizabethan and early Jacobean theatre.-Early years:...

's Apology for Actors (1612), where Heywood assigns the play to Kyd. The style of The Spanish Tragedy is considered such a good match with Kyd's style in his other extant play, Cornelia (1593), that scholars and critics have universally recognized Kyd's authorship.

Influences

Many writers have influenced The Spanish Tragedy. Notably those from the Medieval tradition and Seneca

Seneca the Younger

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...

. The play is ostensibly Senecan with its bloody tragedy, rhetoric of the "horrible", the character of the Ghost and typical revenge themes. The characters of the Ghost of Andrea and Revenge form a chorus similar to that of Tantalus and Fury in Thyestes

Thyestes

In Greek mythology, Thyestes was the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, King of Olympia, and father of Pelopia and Aegisthus. Thyestes and his twin brother, Atreus, were exiled by their father for having murdered their half-brother, Chrysippus, in their desire for the throne of Olympia...

. The Ghost describes his journey into the underworld and calls for punishment at the end of the play that has influences from Thyestes

Thyestes

In Greek mythology, Thyestes was the son of Pelops and Hippodamia, King of Olympia, and father of Pelopia and Aegisthus. Thyestes and his twin brother, Atreus, were exiled by their father for having murdered their half-brother, Chrysippus, in their desire for the throne of Olympia...

, Agamemnon

Agamemnon

In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...

 and Phaedra

Phaedra

Phaedra can refer to:*Phaedra *Various artistic works based on the legend:**Hippolytus by Euripides**Phaedra by Seneca the Younger**Phèdre by Jean Racine...

. The use of onomastic rhetoric is also Senecan, with characters playing upon their names, which Hieronimo

Hieronimo

Hieronimo is one of the principal characters in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. He is the knight marshal of Spain and the father of Horatio. In the onset of the play he is a dedicated servant to the King of Spain...

 does repeatedly. Hieronimo also references the Senecan plays, Agamemnon and Troades, in his monologue in Act 3, scene 13. The character of the Old Man, Senex, is seen as a direct reference to Seneca.

The play also subverts typically Senecan qualities such as the use of a ghost character, but in Kyd the Ghost is part of the chorus, unlike in Thyestes where the Ghost leaves after the prologue. Also, the Ghost is not a functioning prologue as he does not give the audience information about the major action on stage nor its conclusion. The Ghost is similar to those in metrical (meaning in meter form) medieval plays who come back to talk about their downfall and offer commentary on the action. Revenge is like a medieval character that acts as a guide for those on a journey although he is a guide for a Ghost, which is not Medieval.

Allusions

The Spanish Tragedy was enormously influential, and references and allusions to it abound in the literature of its era. Ben Jonson

Ben Jonson

Benjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...

 mentions "Hieronimo" in the Induction to his Cynthia's Revels

Cynthia's Revels

Cynthia's Revels, or The Fountain of Self-Love is a late Elizabethan stage play, a satire written by Ben Jonson, The play was one element in the so-called Poetomachia or War of the Theatres between Jonson and rival playrwights John Marston and Thomas Dekker.-Performance:The play was first performed...

 (1600), and quotes from the play in Every Man in His Humour

Every Man in His Humour

Every Man in His Humour is a 1598 play by the English playwright Ben Jonson. The play belongs to the subgenre of the "humours comedy," in which each major character is dominated by an overriding humour or obsession.-Performance and Publication:...

 (1598), Act I, scene iv. In Satiromastix

Satiromastix

Satiromastix, or The Untrussing of the Humorous Poet is a late Elizabethan stage play by Thomas Dekker, one of the plays involved in the Poetomachia or War of the Theatres....

 (1601), Thomas Dekker suggests that Jonson, in his early days as an actor, himself played Hieronimo.

Allusions continue for decades after the play's origin, including references in Thomas Tomkis

Thomas Tomkis

Thomas Tomkis was an English playwright of the late Elizabethan and the Jacobean eras, and arguably one of the more cryptic figures of English Renaissance drama....

's Albumazar

Albumazar (play)

Albumazar is a Jacobean era play, a comedy written by Thomas Tomkis that was performed and published in 1615.-Productions:The play was specially commissioned by Trinity College, Cambridge to entertain King James I during his 1615 visit to the University...

 (1615), Thomas May

Thomas May

Thomas May was an English poet, dramatist and historian of the Renaissance era.- Early life and career until 1630 :...

's The Heir (1620), and as late as Thomas Rawlins's The Rebellion (c. 1638).

In modern times, T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns "T. S." Eliot OM was a playwright, literary critic, and arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century. Although he was born an American he moved to the United Kingdom in 1914 and was naturalised as a British subject in 1927 at age 39.The poem that made his...

 quoted the title and the play in his poem "The Waste Land

The Waste Land

The Waste Land[A] is a 434-line[B] modernist poem by T. S. Eliot published in 1922. It has been called "one of the most important poems of the 20th century." Despite the poem's obscurity—its shifts between satire and prophecy, its abrupt and unannounced changes of speaker, location and time, its...

". The play also appears in Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk

Ferit Orhan Pamuk , generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk, is a Turkish novelist. He is also the Robert Yik-Fong Tam Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, where he teaches comparative literature and writing....

's novel Snow (novel)

Snow (novel)

Snow is a novel by Turkish author Orhan Pamuk. It was published in Turkish in 2002 and in English in 2004. The story encapsulates many of the political and cultural tensions of modern Turkey and successfully combines humor, social commentary, mysticism, and a deep sympathy with its characters.Kar...

.

Dramatis personæ

Figures in the Frame

• The ghost of Don ANDREA
• An embodiment of REVENGE

Spain

• The Spanish KING
• The Duke of CASTILE, Don Cyprian, the King's brother
• Don Lorenzo, the Duke of Castile's son
• Bel-imperia
  Bel-imperia
  Bel-imperia is a character in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. She is the daughter of the Duke of Castile, the sister of Lorenzo, and the lover of the dead Don Andrea. Throughout the play, Bel-imperia attempts to avenge the death of Don Andrea...
  
  , the Duke of Castile's daughter
• PEDRINGANO, Bel-imperia's servant
• CHRISTOPHIL, Don Lorenzo's servant
• Don Lorenzo's PAGE boy

• Don Hieronimo
  Hieronimo
  Hieronimo is one of the principal characters in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. He is the knight marshal of Spain and the father of Horatio. In the onset of the play he is a dedicated servant to the King of Spain...
  
  , Knight Marshal
  Marshal
  Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
  
   of Spain
• His wife, ISABELLA
• Don HORATIO, their son
• A SERVANT to Don Hieronimo
• Isabella's MAID

• Don BAZULTO, an elderly man
• GENERAL of the Spanish army
• Three WATCHMEN
• A DEPUTY
• A HANGMAN
• A MESSENGER
• Three CITIZENS

Portugal

• The Portuguese VICEROY
• Prince BALTHAZAR, his son
• Don PEDRO, brother to the Viceroy
• ALEXANDRO and VILLUPPO, Portuguese noblemen
• The Portuguese AMBASSADOR
• SERBERINE, Balthazar's serving-man
• Two NOBLEMEN of Portugal
• Two PORTUGUESE citizens (Portingales)

Plot

Before the play begins, the Viceroy of Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 has rebelled against Spanish rule. A battle has taken place in which the Portuguese were defeated and their leader, the Viceroy's son Balthazar, captured; but the Spanish officer Andrea has been killed by none other than the captured Balthazar. His ghost and the spirit of Revenge (present onstage throughout the entirety of the play) serve as chorus and, at the beginning of each act, Andrea bemoans the series of injustices that take place before being reassured by Revenge that those deserving will get their comeuppance. There is a subplot concerning the enmity of two Portuguese noblemen, one of whom attempts to convince the Viceroy that his rival has murdered the missing Balthazar.

The King's nephew Lorenzo and Andrea's best friend Horatio dispute over who captured Balthazar, and though it is made clear early on that it is in fact Horatio that defeated him while Lorenzo essentially cheats his way into taking partial credit, the King leaves Balthazar in Lorenzo's charge and splits the spoils of the victory between the two. Horatio comforts Lorenzo's sister, Bel-imperia

Bel-imperia

Bel-imperia is a character in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy. She is the daughter of the Duke of Castile, the sister of Lorenzo, and the lover of the dead Don Andrea. Throughout the play, Bel-imperia attempts to avenge the death of Don Andrea...

, who was in love with Andrea against her family's wishes; despite her former feelings for Andrea, Bel-imperia soon falls for Horatio. Her courtship with Horatio is motivated partially by her desire for revenge. Bel-imperia intends to torment an amorous Balthazar, the killer of her former lover.

As Balthazar is in love with Bel-imperia, the royal family concludes that their marriage would be an excellent way to repair the peace with Portugal. Horatio's father, the Marshall Hieronimo

Hieronimo

Hieronimo is one of the principal characters in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. He is the knight marshal of Spain and the father of Horatio. In the onset of the play he is a dedicated servant to the King of Spain...

, stages an entertainment for the Portuguese ambassador; Lorenzo, suspecting that Bel-Imperia has found a new lover, bribes her servant Pedringano and discovers that Horatio is the man. He persuades Balthazar to help him murder Horatio during an assignation with Bel-Imperia; Hieronimo and his wife Isabella find the body of their son hanged and stabbed, and Isabella is driven mad. Revisions made to the original play supplement the scene with Hieronimo briefly losing his wits as well.

Lorenzo locks Bel-Imperia away, but she succeeds in sending Hieronimo a letter, written in her own blood, informing him that Lorenzo and Balthazar were Horatio's murderers. His questions and attempts to see Bel-Imperia convince Lorenzo that he knows something; afraid that Balthazar's servant Serberine has betrayed the plot, Lorenzo convinces Pedringano to murder him, then arranges for Pedringano's arrest in the hopes of silencing him too. Hieronimo, appointed judge, sentences Pedringano to death; Pedringano expects Lorenzo to procure his pardon, and Lorenzo, having written a fake letter of pardon, lets him believe this right up until the hangman drops Pedringano to his death.

Lorenzo manages to prevent Hieronimo from seeking justice by convincing the King that Horatio is alive and well. Furthermore, Lorenzo does not allow Hieronimo to see the King, claiming that he is too busy. This, combined with his wife's suicide, which happens just prior to Hieronimo's appeal to the King, pushes Hieronimo past his limit. He rants incoherently and digs at the ground with his dagger. Lorenzo goes on to tell his uncle, the King, that Hieronimo's odd behaviour is due to his inability to deal with his son Horatio's new found wealth (Balthazar's ransom from the Portuguese Viceroy), and he has gone mad with jealousy. Regaining his senses, Hieronimo, along with Bel-Imperia, feigns reconciliation with the murderers. The two plan to put on a play together, Soliman and Perseda. Under cover of the play they stab Lorenzo and Balthazar to death in front of the King, Viceroy, and Duke of Castile (Lorenzo and Bel-Imperia's father); Bel-Imperia kills herself, and Hieronimo tells his audience of his motive behind the murders, but refuses to reveal Bel-Imperia's complicity in the plot. He then bites out his own tongue to prevent himself from talking under torture, after which he kills the Duke and then himself. Andrea and Revenge are satisfied, delivering suitable eternal punishments to the guilty parties.

The 1602 additions

As noted above, the White/Pavier Q4 of 1602 added five passages, totalling 320 lines, to the existing text of the prior three quartos. The most substantial of these five is an entire scene, usually called the painter scene since it is dominated by Hieronimo's conversation with a painter; it is often designated III,xiia, falling as it does between scenes III,xii and III,xiii of the original text.

Henslowe's Diary records two payments to Ben Jonson, dated September 25, 1601 and June 22, 1602, for additions to The Spanish Tragedy. Yet most scholars reject the view that Jonson is the author of the 1602 additions. The literary style of the additions is judged to be un-Jonsonian; Henslowe paid Jonson several pounds for his additions, which has seemed an excessive sum for 320 lines. And John Marston

John Marston

John Marston was an English poet, playwright and satirist during the late Elizabethan and Jacobean periods...

 appears to parody the painter scene in his 1599 play Antonio and Mellida

Antonio and Mellida

Antonio and Mellida is a late Elizabethan play written by the satirist John Marston, usually dated to c. 1599.The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on Oct. 24, 1601, and first published in quarto in 1602 by the booksellers Matthew Lownes and Thomas Fisher...

, indicating that the scene must have been in existence and known to audiences by that time. The five additions in the 1602 text may have been made for the 1597 revival by the Admiral's Men. Scholars have proposed various identities for the author of the revisions, including Dekker, John Webster

John Webster

John Webster was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, which are often regarded as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. He was a contemporary of William Shakespeare.- Biography :Webster's life is obscure, and the dates...

, and Shakespeare — "Shakespeare has perhaps been the favorite in the continuing search..."

(It can seem surprising to find Shakespeare, house playwright for the Lord Chamberlain's Men

Lord Chamberlain's Men

The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a playing company for whom Shakespeare worked for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the city and was subsequently patronised by James I.It was...

, as a putative reviser of a play associated with their rival company the Admiral's Men. Yet Sir Thomas More

Sir Thomas More (play)

Sir Thomas More is a collaborative Elizabethan play by Anthony Munday and others depicting the life and death of Thomas More. It survives only in a single manuscript, now owned by the British Library...

 provides a precedent of Shakespeare working as a reviser in a surprising context.)

Themes and motifs

A long time dispute among scholars has been the moral status of revenge. Because revenge is the most obvious theme of the play, a lot of debate has been made over it. One can make judgments on the morality Hieronimo based on his revenge-focused goals but the question many scholars face is whether the fault of his intentions is truly his. Steven Justice theorizes that the judgment of the play falls less on Hieronimo that on a kind of society in which the tragedy results from a way of life. It is argued that Kyd used the revenge tragedy to give body to popular images of Catholic Spain. Kyd tries to make Spain the villain in that he shows how the Spanish court gives Hieronimo no acceptable choice. The court turns Hieronmino to revenge in pursuit of justice, when in reality it is quite different.

Critics may say that Hieronimo’s attitude is what central Christian tradition calls the Old Law. The theme that holds true here is the straight out of the Bible, a sort of “eye for an eye” idea. This is where Hieronimo says, “For blood with blood shall, while I sit as judge, / Be satisfied, and the law discharg’d” (III.vi.35-36). These lines clearly reveal Hieronimo’s passion for justice in society.

An additional theme of The Spanish Tragedy is tragedy itself, or more specifically murder and death. Smith considers the decade of the play relevant to the use of hangings, murders, and near deaths throughout the play. Multiple characters are killed or nearly killed throughout the play. Horatio was hanged, Pedringano was hanged, Alexandro was nearly burnt at the stake, and Villuppo was assumed tortured and hanged. Kyd consistently refers to mutilation, torture, and death. This is show immediately in the beginning of the play when the ghost of Don Andrea describes his stay in the underworld, “And murderers groan with never killing wounds, / And perjured wights scalded in boiling lead, / And all foul sins with torments overwhelmed (I.i.68-70). He vividly describes in these lines as well as previous the high frequency of murder and torture in the underworld. Murder and death make up the tragedy theme that holds true through the last scene of the play.

The central theme is essentially revenge. The given title explains that there is some sort of harm that has been put on the main character to make him want to seek revenge. Revenge, however, is not the only theme. One key theme is that of Wealth and Power. This theme is clear in the sole actions of Balthazar. He kills Horatio in the beginning in order to gain power that in turn gives him wealth. This is also clear with the character of Lorenzo. Toward the end of the play he tries to convince the king to get rid of Hieronimo. Lorenzo knows that in the absence of Hieronimo, he will become more powerful and closer to the king.

The play also has a theme of revenge in historical context. The play in a way re-enacts the conflict between Spain and England. Kyd takes this opportunity to patronize the Spanish Armada and to make a political joke. This is very popular in Elizabethan and Greek tragedies. The play is used as a sort of defence mechanism for the English. This type of literature is still used today.

Structure

The structure in essence is a 'play within a play'. The play begins with the background of why Hieronimo wants to seek revenge. He is seen as minor character and eventually leads up to being the protagonist to add to the revenge plot. When he becomes the main character, the plot begins to unfold and become the revenge story that it is. Kyd incorporates the build up to the revenge as a way to show the internal and external struggles of the characters. The actual revenge takes place during the play that Hieronimo stages, making this the climax of the play. The resolution is essentially the explanation to the king of what has happened. The play within the play is not described until the actual play is performed, intensifying the climax, and the resolution is short due to the explanations that have already occurred.

Critics say that The Spanish Tragedy resembles a Senecan Tragedy. The act separations, emphasized bloody climax, and the revenge itself, make this play resemble some of the most famous ancient plays. Kyd does acknowledge his relations to Senecan Tragedies by using Latin directly in the play but also causes Christianity to conflict with pagan ideals. We also see Kyd’s use of Seneca through his referencing three Senecan plays in the Spanish Tragedy. It is said that this play was the initiator of the style for many “Elizabethan revenge tragedies, most notably Hamlet”.

Modern performances

The Royal Shakespeare Company staged a production of the play in 1995–1996, directed by Michael Boyd. The cast included Peter Wight as Hieronimo, Jeffrey Wickham

Jeffrey Wickham

Jeffrey Wickham is a British film and television actor. He is the father of the actress Saskia Wickham.-Selected filmography:* Before Winter Comes * The Breaking of Bumbo * Waterloo...

 as the King of Spain, Paul Bentall as the Duke of Castille, Siobhan Redmond as Bel-imperia, and Deirdra Morris as Isabella.

An amateur production of 'The Spanish Tragedy' was performed from the 2–6 June 2009 by students from Oxford University, in the second quad of Oriel College, Oxford. Another amateur production was presented by the Hyperion Shakespeare Company 21–30 October 2010 with students from Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

 in Harvard's New College Theatre.

A professional modern-dress production was staged at the Arcola Theatre

Arcola Theatre

Arcola Theatre is a studio theatre in Dalston, in the London Borough of Hackney. The theatre's ambition is to create and present high-quality theatre with a social and political relevance to its multicultural local community as well as a wider audience....

in London in October–November 2009, directed by Mitchell Moreno, with Dominic Rowan as Hieronimo.

Further reading

1. Broude, Ronald. Time, Truth, and Right in 'The Spanish Tragedy. Studies in Philology, Vol. 68, No. 2 (Apr., 1971), pp. 130–145. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. 1 April 2009.
2. Justice, Steven. Spain, Tragedy, and The Spanish Tragedy. Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 25, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1985), pp. 271–288. Published by: Rice University. 1 April 2009.
3. Kay, Carol McGinnis. "Deception through Words: A Reading of The Spanish Tragedy". Studies in Philology, Vol. 74, No. 1 (Jan., 1977), pp. 20–38. University of North Carolina Press. 1 April 2009.
4. Smith, Molly. "The Theater and the Scaffold: Death as Spectacle in The Spanish Tragedy". Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 32, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1992), pp. 217–232. Rice University

External links

• Sources and Models for Hamlet: Thomas Kyd and Revenge Tragedy
• The Spanish Tragedie from Project Gutenberg
• The Spanish Tragedy Shorter version of the play for a modern audience