The Spanish Tragedy and the Revenge Tragedy

Written 1582 – 1597 by Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy is the first play of the genre of revenge tragedy. It is the long lasting success of The Spanish Tragedy that helped revenge tragedy to be considered a separate branch of the plays on blood revenge. Considering the elements of a revenge tragedy, the play undoubtedly contains all the major components of the type.    

     The setting is the Italian peninsula where people are considered more revengeful and individualism still flourished despite the encroachment of law. The storyline deals with murder and betrayal. Though Andrea dies in battle, he considers that he has been killed dishonourably by Balthazar, the Prince of Portugal. This is the reason the queen of the Underworld promises death to his enemies. Yet, according to critics in front of the English Audience Andrea’s claim would not hold water. Therefore, Kyd turns to Bel-Imperia, someone who is genuinely affected by Andrea’s death. Elizabethan women and the heroin of the French novellas the play is partly based on have female characters with a reputation for being vindictive. She decides to use Andrea’s friend Horatio as her cat’s-paw but end up falling for him. It is the death of Horatio that allows a more acceptable revenge theme and a more logical avenger to emerge.

     The play revolves around four revenge plots

1.      Don Andrea’s revenge against Balthazar and Don Castile

2.      Bel-Imperia’s revenge against Balthazar and Lorenzo for the murder of Andrea and Horatio

3.      Balthazar and Lorenzo’s revenge against Horatio

4.      Hieronimo’s revenge against Balthazar and Lorenzo

Out of the four revenge plots, the fourth is the most central to the plot.

     The play displays excessive passions – hate, jealousy and love. Hieronimo and Isabella are both inordinately proud of their son Horatio and loved him beyond measure. This is why they are unable to bear his loss and have been driven to madness upon his gruesome death. Bel-Imperia is a creature driven by her passions. She has indulged in two sexual relationships that are considered socially incorrect. Both Lorenzo and Balthazar hate Horatio over his relationship with the Princess. Excessive passions come to their gruesome conclusion in the play-with-in-the-play.

   The Spanish Tragedy also contains a lot of sensational elements. Out of them the most spectacular are the ghost of Andrea and the personified Fury that form the macabre chorus of the play. Cruel torture is another sensational element. In the opening scene, Andréa’s ghost following the tradition of Tantalus’ ghost in Theystes of Seneca pains a horrifying verbal picture of the torture practiced in the Underworld. In the court of Portugal people i.e. Alexandrino and Villepo, are routinely tortured or threatened of torture. Bloody violence is another element of a revenge tragedy that is found in the play. Out of the ten people that die during the play, eight die on stage. This includes two hangings, one performed on the stage in the full view of the audience. This is s very marked de-tour from the tradition as murder is usually kept off stage. But the murders on the stage are not glorifies and their impact especially that of Horatio’s, is essential to the plot. The play also gives details of violence off stage – the old man’s son is murdered. Isabella kills herself. In the last scene violence reach an unprecedented height and all the major characters perish.

     Lorenzo is the sinister Machiavellian in the play. His pride has been hurt by Horatio on two counts. It is Horatio that captures Balthazar and later he his is caught making love to Bel-Imperia. Lorenzo hopes to forge a royal alliance between his family and that of Balthazar and Horatio forms an obstacle to his dream. Lorenzo plots with Pedringano who owed him a favour and catch Horation in the act. Though Balthazar was there, it is Lorenzo that actually relished killing Horatio, and therefore, the real killer. He imprisons Bel-Imperia to prevent her form seeking justice and gets rid of his accomplices Serberine and Pedringano. Lorenzo’s Machiavellian tendency is most prominent in the way he got rid of Pedringano. He allows his accomplice to believe that he would not be hanged until the very last moment with the ruse of the pardon-in-the-box. Lorenzo also is instrumental in preventing Hieronimo from approaching the king. He also tries to get the king to remove Hieronimo from the post of the Sheriff Marshall so that his own power would increase in the absence of his enemy. In the end Lorenzo proves to be too clever for his own good. It is his murder spree that draws Hieronimo’s attention towards Lorenzo, not Bel-Imperia’s letter.

     Kyd uses motifs like bloody handkerchiefs, bodies, nooses, poniards, etc. as means of connecting with the audience. Hieronimo carries a constant reminder of his son’s senseless death in the form of a handkerchief dipped in his blood. He keeps Horatio’s body without burying is so he could display it in a plea for justice. The body is displayed in the last act to the king. Bel-Imperia’s letter in blood is another popular motif in revenge plays (Tis Pitty She’s a Whore).

     There are many speeches that can be labels as ‘rhetoric of the horrible’. In the prologue, Andrea asking Persephone to grant him the right to avenge his own death says:

Then will I rent and teare them, thus, and thus

Shlvering their limes in peeces with my teeth.

Hieronimo’s ‘Vindicta mihi’ speech and the call for revenge fall under this category:

Behooves thee then, Hieronimo, to be reveng’d

The plot is laid of dire revenge:

On then, Hireonimo, peruse revenge,

For nothing wants but acting of revenge  (4.III 26-30)

The above also could be taken as onomastic rhetoric in which the characters play on their names – a common feature of revenge tragedy.  in this play it is Hieronimo that uses this technique very frequently.

     The play concentrates on a single ‘hero’ in Hieronimo and the action to a single main theme – revenge vs. justice. There is unity of action except in the ‘Portuguese Scene’.

    Like all the revenge plays, The Spanish Tragedy also has a period of disguise. In the case of Hieronimo, it is not his identity that is disguised but the mind. He pretends to harbour no ill feelings towards Lorenzo to his father and even embrace him when asked to by Don Castile. Bel-Imperia pretend to accept the marriage but seen railing at Hieronimo for not doing anything about Horatio’s death. Both Lorenzo and Balthazar too disguise their emotions. Lorenzo tries to put off everybody off the scent of his bloody activities by appearing jovial and helpful.

     The avenger, Hieronimo becomes mad due to the loss of his son. Madness is a common theme in revenge tragedies. Ferdinand in The Duchess of Malfi too had gone mad and started acting like a maddened wolf. Both The Duchess of Malfi and The Malcontent make use of Craziness, the first in the main plot and the second in the subplots. Madness interested the Elizabethan audience and the playwright indulged them. In the case of Hieronimo’s revenge attempt, madness is necessary and convincing. Madness helps him to escape Lorenzo’s mechanizations and gather information. But, ultimately it is his broken mind that prevented him from approaching the king and demanding justice. This necessitates him to seek human justice that resulted in his own death.

     The play-with-in-the-play is where Hieronimo takes revenge from his enemies. This too is a common feature of revenge plays. The Duchess of Malfi is a prime example for such a plot – the play ends in the complete annihilation of the dramatic personae including the avenger himself.

    

    Considering the above facts, is quite obvious that The Spanish Tragedy is indeed a seminal work in the history of the revenge tragedy – in fact it is considered ‘the great property room of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre’. Lastly, like all the revenge plays, Kyd has used The Spanish Tragedy to project his concerns over repressive religious traditions, political corruption, and social malaises of his time.