Background information: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy is one of the most popular revenge tragedy plays in the late 16th century since it widely affected the following plays such as Shakespeare’s Hamlet. As the first English revenge tragedy, Kyd’s introduced a new genre that includes a revenge tragedy, a play within a play, and a Machiavellian villain. The theatrical performance and publication of the play were a success since it was performed at least 29 times between 1592 and 1597 and printed 11 times between 1592 and 1633. It is probably estimated that the play was written between 1583 – 1591 since it was printed and performed by Lord Strange’s Men at the Rose for Philip Henslowe in 1592.
PS: We have two versions of the play since in 1601-1602, Ben Jonson was commissioned to add additional passages to the play. The following review follows the A-Text (1592) edition.
Summary:
The plot follows Don Andrea who is the secret love of Bel-Imperia’s secret lover but was killed in a battle between Portugal and Spain by Balthazar. He returns as a ghost for vengeance and with him, Revenge, comes a character to help him achieve justice but Revenge is super lazy.
Balthazar is taken as a prisoner under Lorenzo’s custody; however, Balthazr is in love with Bel-Imperia. She, of course, hates him because she knows Balthazar killed Don Andrea. Bel-Imperia confides in Horatio who is Don Andrea best buddy. Horatio falls in love with Bel-Imperia and vows to seek revenge.
A series of unfortunate events happen and Hieronimo finds his son, Horatio, hanged and dead in a garden. Now, it is Hieronimo who plans to orchestrate killing Balthazar and Lorenzo since they are the ones who are behind all the killing. I’m not going to say what will happen in the end but it is pretty witty and dramatic.
Thoughts:
Before delving into this play, I read a short introduction about revenge tragedies and their function in the play. One of the main characteristics is that in revenge plays, the dead demand the living to remember them through punishment or vengeance that is usually marked by violence. For example, we have Don Andrea who returned as a ghost and then sometimes we have objects that function as mnemonic which are violent and bloody such as Hieronimo holding Horatio’s bloody napkin when he was talking to the citizens. Even when Bel-Imperia wrote a letter to Hieronimo to tell him that Balthazar and Lorenzo killed his son, she wrote it with her own blood. Thus, to achieve justice, death has to happen again by killing the murderers:
“To know the author were some ease of grief, / For in revenge my heart would find relief” – Hieronimo
(Act 2, scene 5), The Spanish Tragedy
During the early modern period, the ones who wanted to take matters into their own hands were punished because they had to leave it up to the law, and if they didn’t, they were punished similarly to the original murder. However, revenge is physiological, so when Hieronimo is perceived mad and insane by the rest, he is consumed by seeking revenge so he decides to use one of the plays that he wrote, a tragedy of Suleiman and Perseda, and let some of the characters play to seek revenge. We could illustrate Hieronimo as a murderer, a victim, or a character who wanted to revenge for his son or we can attach all these labels to him.
I’m still wondering about Don Andrea but I feel after reading the play, the focus lies more on Hieronimo and Horatio than Don Andrea. Don Andrea death preconditions the play and moves the plot forward and it only through Hieronimo Don Andrea gets his justice, so in the end, the audience had to wait for Hieronimo to take action.
Unfiltered Academy 