Product Description

The first fully-fledged example of revenge tragedy, the genre that became so influential in later Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, The Spanish Tragedy (1589) occupies a very special place in the history of English Renaissance drama. Hieronimo, Knight-Marshal of Spain during its war with Portugal, fails to obtain justice when his son is murdered for courting Bel-Imperia, the Duke of Castile's daughter, and decides to take justice into his own hands. In a scene replete with meta-theatrical implications, Hieronimo and Bel-Imperia stage a playlet with Portuguese and Spanish nobles as actors, stabbing them with real 'fake' daggers before they kill themselves. This edition, which appends the scenes that were added in 1602, discusses Elizabethan attitudes to revenge, the Senecan features of the play and the significance of the Anglo-Spanish conflict in the 1580s.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #134611 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 140 pages

Customer Reviews

peter kline is full ...
Hey everyone! Don't even bother paying ANY attention to the ...peter kline spouted in his horrendous review of The Spanish Tragedy. Shakespeare wrote Kyd's masterpiece? Give me a break! And I suppose you're also going to say that Shakespeare secretly wrote Marlowe's plays as well, right? Kudos to Mr. Richard for being a well-informed reader of the English Classics! And as for Mr. Kline, you should do some research ...

Excellent edition, excellent play
J.R. Mulryne's edition of *The Spanish Tragedy* is without a doubt the best that may at present be bought: informative, helpful, intelligent and accurate in introducing the text, presenting it, and glossing difficult words and phrases where necessary. The play is among the most exciting and artistic of its period. Kyd writes, and constructs his plot, with a level of skill comparable to that of Shakespeare, who was much influenced by *The Spanish Tragedy*, particularly in writing *Hamlet*, which is possibly yet "richer", but undoubtedly less clear and focused. Kyd shows us in an extremely sophisticated way the workings of revenge, both at an earthly and at a supernatural level. From the beginning the audience knows, in a way that the characters do not, that the supernatural world will insist on revenge. The pain of those who suffer injustice here on earth and clamour for revenge is painful to behold. Ultimately, however, in a baffling way, evildoers are punished: Hieronimo, the main character, manages to take matters into his own hands after exhausting all other possibilities, and thus ironically enacts the wishes of the higher powers. The FORM of Hieronimo's revenge is extraordinarily interesting: under the cloak of art - of a theatrical plot - he manages to kill his evil opponents quite easily. The tension between "art" and "life" is thus handled by Kyd in a very innovative fashion which still shocks modern spectators and readers. The role of language, too, is called into question: much of the play demonstrates that in real life finally action does speak louder than words, which often do not make their point or simply get ignored. Any reader who wants to get a notion of the superb quality of plays written by Shakespeare's contemporaries is certain to admire and enjoy this striking work of art. - Joost Daalder, Professor of English, Flinders University, South Australia

Hieronimo is mad againe
I reviewed this play a year ago; my purpose here is only to correct some of the astonishing misinformations given by Mr. Kline for fear that some students or others interested in Kyd might be misled.

First of all, there is no evidence that Shakespeare wrote a word of this. The play was ascribed to Kyd by Thomas Heywood in 1612, when Shakespeare was still living. The Spanish Tragedy is not mentioned in Francis Meres's list of Shakespeare's plays made in 1598; and at the very latest The Spanish Tragedy was in existence by 1592, when it was published, and performed as an old play by Henslowe. And how anyone who has read Shakespeare could possibly think the style of The Spanish Tragedy is his is beyond me; both Kyd and Shakespeare possess very distinctive styles, to neither's demerit.

The existence of the earlier version of Hamlet is not doubted. It is mentioned by Henslowe in 1594 as an old play, and alluded to by Thomas Nashe in 1589 and by Thomas Lodge in 1598 (I think). Nashe links the old Hamlet to Thomas Kyd. The fact that its text did not survive is not extraordinary; most plays in the Elizabethan period have been lost as well. The date of Shakespeare's Hamlet is almost universally accepted to be 1600 or 1601.

It is incredibly absurd to even suggest that Henry V may have been written at the same time as TST. Because of a reference to the Earl of Essex's expedition to Ireland, Henry V can be securely dated to the spring or summer of 1599. The Spanish Tragedy was at least 7 years old by then, and probably 12.

I agree that the Spanish Tragedy is worthy of frequent theatrical performance. Just don't pass it off under the mock-guise of Shakespeare.