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HL 2002 Renaissance LiteratureWeek 9: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy

+Thomas Kyd

London, 1558-1594

Life remains relatively unknown; son of amiddle-class family, received a humanist education (trained in Greek, Latin, French,Italian) at the Merchant Taylors’.

Most famous for his association with Christopher Marlowe.

Arrested and possibly tortured in 1593; never found patronage again after his release.

Believed to have died from from the treatment he received in prison.

+The Spanish Tragedy

+The Spanish Tragedy

+The Spanish Tragedy

The play was composed some time between 1585-1589.

The play was published in various editions between 1592-1633 but was not discovered until the 18th century.

The texts published during this period did not include the author’s name.

There are a total of 7 quartos, and some scholars have argued that the additions to the text is in Shakespeare’s hand.

+The Spanish Tragedy (Tradition and Genre)Seneca Tragedy A form of tragedy developed by the Roman

philosopher‐poet Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4 bce–65 ce) in his nine plays based on Greek drama (especially that of Euripides), and further adapted by playwrights of the Italian, French, and English Renaissance.

Composed in five acts with intervening choruses, they employ long rhetorical speeches, with important actions being recounted by messengers.

Their bloodthirsty plots, including ghosts and horrible crimes, appealed to the popular English dramatists of the late 16th century, who presented such horrors on stage in their revenge tragedies.

+The Spanish Tragedy (Tradition and Genre)

Seneca Tragedy These were preceded by a purer form of

English Senecan tragedy, notably in Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's Gorboduc (1561), the first English tragedy.

The conventional five‐act structure of Renaissance drama owes its origin to the influence of Seneca.

(from Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 3rd ed.)

+The Spanish Tragedy (Tradition and Genre)Revenge Tragedy

A kind of tragedy popular in England from the 1590s to the 1630s, following the success of Thomas Kyd's sensational play The Spanish Tragedy (c.1589).

Its action is typically centred upon a leading character's attempt to avenge the murder of a loved one, sometimes at the prompting of the victim's ghost; it involves complex intrigues and disguises, and usually some exploration of the morality of revenge.

Difference from Senecan tragedy:

Drawing partly on precedents in Senecan tragedy, the English revenge tragedy is far more bloodthirsty in its explicit presentation of premeditated violence, and so the more gruesome examples such as Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus are sometimes called ‘tragedies of blood’.

(from Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, 3rd ed.)

+The Spanish Tragedy Opening scene: interlocked worlds. Andrea and Revenge (underworld) and Hieronimo (the

mortal world). Who gets to control destiny, esp. through the

metatheatrical structure of the play. Andrea and Revenge (personified) as audience,

watching the play that’s unfolding in the mortal world. The play is as much about justice as it is about

revenge; both are connected in the play to highlight the notion that evil doers will face retribution.

The theme of love and war a tragedy in itself yet inseparable… where should the ghost of Andrea go?

+The Spanish TragedyAndrea:

'This knight,' quoth he [Minos], 'both lived and died in love,And for his love tried fortune of the wars,And by war's fortune lost both love and life.' ... [I.1.40]'Why then,' said Aecus, 'convey him hence,To walk with lovers in our fields of love,And spend the course of everlasting timeUnder green myrtle trees and cypress shades.''No, no,' said Rhadamanth, 'it were not wellWith loving souls to place a martialist.He died in war and must to Martial fields,Where wounded Hector lives in lasting painAnd Achilles' Myrmidons do scour the plain.’ (I.i.38-49)

+The Spanish TragedyHonour and Dishonour (in war)

Similar to Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays. Lorenzo and Horatio both claiming their credit

for taking Don Balthazar. The conflict between Lorenzo and Horatio is

foregrounded by the king’s decision to give Lorenzo the weapons (of Balthazar), and Horatio the ransom but Lorenzo gets custody of Balthazar.

Class difference. Horatio of lower rank (perhaps also not fitting to

be Bel-imperia’s partner?)

+The Spanish TragedyHonour and Dishonour (in court)

Alexandro wrongly accused (by Villuppo) for betraying Balthazar in battle.

Servants betrayal of masters: Pedringano and Bel-imperia.

The king’s treatment of Balthazar in court:

See, Lord Ambassador, how Spain entreats

Their prisoner Balthazar, thy Viceroy’s son.

We pleasure more in kindness than in wars (I.iv.116-118)

+The Spanish TragedyHonour and Dishonour (in love and

friendship) Bel-imperia and Andrea. Horatio’s promise to Bel-imperia (in honour

of his friendship with the late Andrea). Bel-imperia “transference” of her love to

Horatio: is this problematic? (I.iv.58). How so?

Horatio’s qualities? Honour in war and in friendship.

Balthazar’s love for Bel-imperia, and his friendship with Lorenzo.

+The Spanish Tragedy Lorenzo to Balthazar:

My lord, for my sake, leave these ecstasies,

And doubt not but we’ll find some remedy.

Some cause there is that lets you not be loved;

First that must needs be known and then removed.

What if my sister love some other knight? (II.i.29-33)

Lorenzo’s Machiavellian strains.

+The Spanish Tragedy

Horatio’s secret meeting with Bel-imperia: “Dangers of war, and pleasures of love” (II.ii.30).

Bel-imperia’s reference to Venus and Mars (II.iv.34-35).

Inability to separate love and war (politics joins both).

The female figure as political property and liability. Bel-imperia’s response to her father’s and brother’s

demands portrayed as heroic and honourable.

+The Spanish Tragedy Horatio’s death and Hieronimo’s response:

To know the author were some ease of grief,

For in revenge my heart would find relief.

What are some problems in Hieronimo’s remark? His motivations to stay alive is to avenge his son.

The interruption (of Andrea’s ghost and revenge) distances audience’s from Hieronimo’s grief but highlights the implications of injustice.

Results in a series of the abuse of power (Lorenzo’s instructions to Pedringano), murders (Horatio, and later, Pedringano’s murder of Serberine, and even later Pedringano) so that Lorenzo can escape punishment for his murder of Horatio; see III.iv.35.

+The Spanish Tragedy Parallels between Andrea’s ghost and Hieronimo. Andrea’s impatience and Hieronimo’s madness.

Hieronimo’s madness: Most notable aspect of the play. 1615 quarto’s title: The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is mad again. Madness prominently featured in many early modern tragedies The notion of “tragic madness” is first established in Hieronimo Madness as a response to grief; tragic madness in the play is:

“represented as a condition that disrupted mind and body, fostered emotional self-expression, threatened the subjects unity and constituted a challenge to the existing social order” (qtd. in Calvo and Tronch).

+The Spanish Tragedy Typically, tragic madness oscillates between moments

of clarity and insanity.

In the case of Hieronimo, he becomes mad at the mention of Lorenzo and when he thinks of Horatio.

Hieronimo as loco cuerdo or the “sane madman.”

How much of it is “feigned” and how much is “real”?

How is this different from a man who is really mad?

Do you agree with the editors’ comment that “[m]adness makes Hieronimo’s resistance to political power more understandable and heart-rending, and his revenge more acceptable, if not desirable”?

+The Spanish Tragedy

Hieronimo’s soliloquy (III.xiii). Hieronimo’s encounter with Bazulto, the old

man, who seeks justice for his murdered son (III.xiii.130). Very Lear-like.

The climax of the play begins in earnest when slumbering Revenge is awakened: “Behold Andrea, for an instance how/ Revenge hath slept, and them imagine thou/ What ‘tis to be subject to destiny” (III.xv.25-27).

+The Spanish Tragedy The 3 dumbshows in the play:

1) Masque on the victorious battles of the Spanish (but historically inaccurate) (I.iv).

2) Mime that celebrates the marital and political union between Bel-imperia and Balthazar.

3) A play-within-a-play in various languages (highlighting the fall of Babylon) of “The tragedy of Suleiman.”

Some critics have argued that “the ‘audience response’ of these onstage spectators, particularly during the play within the play, interacts with the theatre audience’s response to Hieronimo’s revenge and the play as a whole” (qtd. in Calvo and Tronch).

+The Spanish Tragedy The tragedy of Suleiman (IV.iv)

Comic elements outside of the play and tragedy within the play.

Hieronimo plays Pasha, henchman to Suleiman (who wants to win Perseda’s love); Perseda is played by Bel-imperia.

But Perseda is in love with Erasto (played by Lorenzo).

The crime that follows: Pasha tells Suleiman that he must “remove” Erasto to possess Perseda; Suleiman approves and tells Pasha to carry out the plan.

Perseda prefers to die than find comfort in Suleiman; she kills herself.

+The Spanish Tragedy Like Hamlet’s Mousetrap, the Tragedy of Suleiman is used

to expose the crimes of the guilty.

Using fiction to explain reality when fiction bleeds into reality, Lorenzo and Balthazar are killed, see IV. iv. 82.

The closing scene: Andrea’s ghost finally appeased, but has our perception of the injustice done to him changed?

Revenge as a way to right injustice but also implicates the perpetuation of crimes.

Andrea’s request of Revenge, to set the dead characters to their proper places. The evil-doers continue to suffer in the underworld and those that were honourable to enjoy perpetual bliss.

Do you find this ending to be problematic or limiting?