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English 410: Shakespeare Questions for Discussion/ Ideas for Written Responses, Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy After break, we will begin an examination of Shakespeare's tragedies, beginning with what is familiar to most of you, Hamlet. But as a way of easing in to Hamlet, we will also begin discussing one of Shakesepeare's source plays for Hamlet, Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, most probably performed in the 1580s or early 1590s. The Spanish Tragedy, like Hamlet, ponders on when and how it is appropriate to enact revenge. (Krystal and Samantha may say more about revenge tragedies, as well as about Kyd, in class next week.) The Spanish knight Hieronimo, in attempting to avenge the murder of his son Horatio, provides the most solid parallel to Hamlet, contemplating suicide, just as Hamlet does. The Spanish Tragedy, like Hamlet, additionally portrays scenes in which lovers are spied on by family members, characters go insane, the ghost of a wronged man vies for justice, and a play is performed to portray a murderer's guilt. The Spanish Tragedy is also notable for its mercenary villain, Lorenzo, its extraordinarily violent murder scene and play-within-a-play, and its depiction, in the years surrounding the English defeat of the Spanish Armada, of Spanish culture itself. The play begins, like The Taming of the Shrew, with a frame story through which the rest of the action, including the Soliman and Perseda play-within-a-play, takes place. (Sly's references to The Spanish Tragedy at the beginnIng of The Shrew call attention to this similarity in structure.) Spain has recently defeated Portugal in battle, but the ghost of Don Andrea, slain by the Portugese prince Balthazar, cannot find his proper niche in the underworld, and is directed by personified Revenge to see how well the imprisoned Balthazar is faring in Spain. Andrea, a clandestine lover of princess Bel-Imperia, will have to watch not only the favor of his murderer Balthazar in the Spanish court, but also Balthazar's proposed marriage to Bel-Imperia. Of less pain, perhaps, to Andrea, Andrea will additionally have to witness the blossoming, but eventually curtailed love affair between Bel-Imperia and Horatio, Andrea's loyal friend while Andrea was living. The play presents several successive revenge plots that echo the main one, Hieronimo's desire to avenge the murder of his son. Andrea hopes for revenge on Balthazar; Balthazar helps orchestrate revenge on Horatio, his rival for Bel-Imperia's hand; the Portugese Viceroy plans revenge on his subjects Alexandro, and then Villuppo for treasonous acts; Pendringano, under Lorenzo's direction, enacts revenge on Balthazar's servant Serberine for revealing who killed Horatio, and so forth. These are only some of the revenge plots in the play; see how many others you can find as you read. Some questions to consider :
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