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The Spanish Tragedy
Large Format for easy reading. Highly popular and influential in the development of Elizabethan drama, it established a new genre in English theatre; the revenge play.
104 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1592
121 people are currently reading
4058 people want to read
About the author
Thomas Kyd
67 books61 followersThomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.
Although well known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins (an early editor of The Spanish Tragedy) discovered that Kyd was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his Apologie for Actors (1612). A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare's.
Although well known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins (an early editor of The Spanish Tragedy) discovered that Kyd was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his Apologie for Actors (1612). A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare's.
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January 7, 2020
This strange, lumpy drama is oddly effective in its own discursive way, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves Elizabethan theatre in general or Hamlet in particular or who is fascinated by the theme of revenge.
The exposition (political rivalry between Spain and Portugal, events leading up to Horatio's murder) is well executed, but after that Kyd's passion for powerful effect (particularly in Hieronimo's mad scenes) overshadows and occasionally confounds coherent plot development. Who in the court knows Horatio has been murdered and when do they know it? Clear answers to these questions might have clarified motivations and illuminated dialogue--both of which are occasionally baffling.
Yet the individual scenes--Hieronimo discovering his son hanging in the garden, Hieronimo and the painter, Hieronomo with a book, Hieronimo surrounded by legal suitors, Hieronimo's direction of the play-within-a-play--are all very powerful and make reading the play worthwhile. In addition, the influences of "The Spanish Tragedy" on Hamlet are many, and it is fun to spot them as they arise.
December 9, 2018
An arranged marriage between the Spanish king’s niece, Bel-Imperia, and the Portuguese viceroy’s son, Balthazar, brings an end to a war between Spain and Portugal. However, Lorenzo, Bel-Imperia’s brother, is outraged when he discovers she loves Horatio, the Spanish Marshall’s son. With Balthazar, Lorenzo plots to make things right, it involves murder. Lorenzo is cunning and lies easily, ready to cross anyone who gets in his way, but he’s unaware a Ghost of a man who was murdered is waiting and watching with Revenge.
The Spanish Tragedy is written by Thomas Kyd, a contemporary of Shakespeare and who wrote this play roughly one and half decades before Shakespeare’s Hamlet is performed. Some refer to this as the lost Ur-Hamlet play. Reading it, I can understand why as there are a lot of similarities aside from the revenge tragedy.
What makes this different from Hamlet is Kyd faintly structures it like a Greek drama, where the scenes with Ghost and Revenge are a chorus that bridge the action. Kyd also personifies revenge, not letting the reader/viewer forget what’s behind the fate of those who’ve done wrong.
I liked reading Hamlet but some of the main characters came across as a function to help Hamlet move the action of the play along, in The Spanish Tragedy this responsibility is distributed between several characters. I thought this made the characters rounder making the drama stronger. I also found Kyd’s scene with how the play in a play was being watched realer. But what I liked the most about this play, aside from the language and its poetry, is the fusion of Elizabethan and Greek tragedy. Just thinking about it it sounds strange but in this play it works and works brilliantly. It was good to finally read this play.
The Spanish Tragedy is written by Thomas Kyd, a contemporary of Shakespeare and who wrote this play roughly one and half decades before Shakespeare’s Hamlet is performed. Some refer to this as the lost Ur-Hamlet play. Reading it, I can understand why as there are a lot of similarities aside from the revenge tragedy.
Both plays have a play in a play, in Hamlet it’s to prod a king’s guilty conscience, in The Spanish Tragedy it’s to expose a big lie and highlight a murder.
Both plays have a character who is perceived by others to be losing their mind, in Hamlet it’s Hamlet, in The Spanish Tragedy it’s Heironimo, Lorenzo’s father.
In both, these scenes provide a comical break from the dramatic tension. The character Hamlet and Heironimo are both driving the action by plotting vengeance on the ones who robbed them of a loved one with murder. Like Hamlet, death runs hand in hand with revenge with a big body count at the end.
What makes this different from Hamlet is Kyd faintly structures it like a Greek drama, where the scenes with Ghost and Revenge are a chorus that bridge the action. Kyd also personifies revenge, not letting the reader/viewer forget what’s behind the fate of those who’ve done wrong.
I liked reading Hamlet but some of the main characters came across as a function to help Hamlet move the action of the play along, in The Spanish Tragedy this responsibility is distributed between several characters. I thought this made the characters rounder making the drama stronger. I also found Kyd’s scene with how the play in a play was being watched realer. But what I liked the most about this play, aside from the language and its poetry, is the fusion of Elizabethan and Greek tragedy. Just thinking about it it sounds strange but in this play it works and works brilliantly. It was good to finally read this play.
August 5, 2017
একজন কমলালেবু নামের হীন বইটারে এক বিদগ্ধ পাঠক দেখলাম পাঁচ তারা দিয়েছেন, ত ঐ বইটারে তিনি তারকাখচিত করার কারণ কী হইতে পারে এই ভাবনায় রিভিউ পড়তে গিয়ে মনে হইলো, রিভিউটা বা তারা কয়টা জীবনানন্দ সাহেবের জীবনীনির্ভর ঐ ঠোঙাপ্রদায়ী উপন্যাসটার জন্য না, বরং দাশবাবুর গোটা ক্যারিয়ারের জন্য। বই প্রসঙ্গে কিছু নাই, জামান সাহেবরে নিয়ে বুরবক সমাজে যে আষ্ফালন, তাও নাই, আছে শুধু নিজের জীবনে জীবনানন্দ সাহেবের উপস্থিতির ফিরিস্তি, সেও আবার দাশপ্রদত্ত শব্দের হিড়িক বাঁধায়ে।
আমি যদি ঐ কিসিমে আগাই, তাহলে আমাকেও এই বইটারে, অর্থাৎ স্পেনিশ ট্রাজেডিরে পাঁচ তারা দিতে হয়, বলতে হয় যে এই বইয়ের নাম আর আমার জীবন কীভাবে বালিশের ওয়াড়ের দুই খণ্ড কাপড়ের মত জোড়া লেগে গেছে, এখন হয়ত কেবল কোনো সরল কৌতূহল-ওলা শিশুই পারে এই ওয়াড়ের জীবনের এইখানেই ইতি টানতে, একটু একটু করে সেলাই খুলে ফেলার মাধ্যমে। আরো বলতে হয় আমি পাগল হয়ে যাচ্ছি, এই নাটকের হিরোনিমোর মত, এর ভাবশিষ্য নাটক হ্যামলেটের নামচরিত্রের মত, আমি পাগল হয়ে যাচ্ছি সুবর্ণা -
কিন্তু আমি আসলে এই বই নিয়ে দুই চারটা কথা বলাটারেই আগায়ে রাখবো। সুতরাং, শুরু করি।
টমাস কিডেরে আমার একজন চৌকস ঔপন্যাসিক মনে হইছে। হ্যাঁ, তখন উপন্যাস লেখার চল ছিলো না ঠিক, আর এইটাই ভাবায়, এখন যেই দক্ষতা পরম আরাধ্য, অন্য সময়ে সেই দক্ষতার দৌড় কতদূর - পরিচিতজনেরা দেখি হিপহপ করতেছেন কেউ কেউ - ভাবেন একবার, আঠারোশ ঊননব্বুইয়ে হিপহপের বদান্যতা কি টের পাইতো কেউ? টমাস কিডের কবিত্বশক্তি কিছুটা ফেলনা গোছের, শেক্সপীয়র-মার্লোর মত উত্তম কাব্য তিনি সিঞ্চন করতে সমর্থ হন নাই, প্রথমদিকে গায়ে না লাগলেও একটু পরপর ধামাকাদার ফরমুলাইক বাণী আওড়ানো অসহ্যই ঠেকে একটা সময় পর। ও আইজ, নো আইজ আমার অবশ্য বেশ লাগছিলো - কিন্তু কিড যেইটা পারেন খুব ভালোমতন, সেইটা হচ্ছে গল্প দাঁড় করানো - চরিত্র না, চরিত্রের ক্ষেত্রেও অন্যরা বেশ খানিকটা আগায়ে থাকবেন, কিন্তু কিড সাহেবের গল্প আগায় অবিশ্বাস্য দ্রুত গতিতে, অনেক কিছু ঘটে তার নাটকে, তিনি কাহিনীরে জায়গা দেন, এবং চরিত্রেরা ছোটো বড়ো মাঝারি যাই হোক, তারা কাহিনীর পথে বাঁধা না হয়ে বরং পিচ্ছিলকারক হয়ে দাঁড়ায়, রাস্তা আরো মসৃণ হয়ে ওঠে।
বালতাজার লরেঞ্জো আর বেল-ইম্পেরিয়ার কথোপকথন, বা পেরিং-কী-যেনোকে মারবার পর হিরোনিমোর সত্য-আবিষ্কার, এইসবই এত চমৎকারভাবে আঁকা, বা লরেঞ্জো আর হোরাশিওর মাঝে গণিমত ভাগ বাটোয়ারা, হিরোনিমোর সাথে সন্তানহারা আরেক বৃদ্ধের কথোপকথন, এইসব একটা গড়পড়তা নাটকরে কাহিনীর বিচারে অসাধারণ করে। শেষের দিকে বিদেশী ভাষারে সম্বল করে যে হুলস্থুল, সেটা মঞ্চায়িত করা অসম্ভব মনে হয়, এবং আমার ব্যক্তিগত বিশ্বাসরে দৃঢ় করে যে কবিত্ব যতখানিই হোক, গল্প সাজানোর বিচারে টমাস কিড এইযুগের বহুত ঔপন্যাসিকেরে তুড়ি মেরে ফেলে দেয়ার ক্ষমতা রাখতেন। চরিত্রগুলি আরেকটু মাংশল হইত যদি -
আহ সময়, ঠিক সময়ে না আসতে পারলে আর কীসের সময়। তাও ভালো ছাপাখানা আবিষ্কারের পর কিড সাহেবের আগমন, তাই তাঁরে পড়তে পারা গেলো।
আর ঠিক সময় কী তাই বা কে জানে। কে জানে, সামনে হয়ত এইসব লেখাজোকা থাকবে না আর, দেখা যাবে হয়ত এই নাই ঐ নাই, দেখা যবে কেউ হয়ত বলছে উনি বা তিনি হতে পারতেন চমৎকার অমৌকিক বা তমৌকিক - সময়ের ধারণাটারেই গুবলেট মনে হয় আমার মাঝে মাঝে।
আমি যদি ঐ কিসিমে আগাই, তাহলে আমাকেও এই বইটারে, অর্থাৎ স্পেনিশ ট্রাজেডিরে পাঁচ তারা দিতে হয়, বলতে হয় যে এই বইয়ের নাম আর আমার জীবন কীভাবে বালিশের ওয়াড়ের দুই খণ্ড কাপড়ের মত জোড়া লেগে গেছে, এখন হয়ত কেবল কোনো সরল কৌতূহল-ওলা শিশুই পারে এই ওয়াড়ের জীবনের এইখানেই ইতি টানতে, একটু একটু করে সেলাই খুলে ফেলার মাধ্যমে। আরো বলতে হয় আমি পাগল হয়ে যাচ্ছি, এই নাটকের হিরোনিমোর মত, এর ভাবশিষ্য নাটক হ্যামলেটের নামচরিত্রের মত, আমি পাগল হয়ে যাচ্ছি সুবর্ণা -
কিন্তু আমি আসলে এই বই নিয়ে দুই চারটা কথা বলাটারেই আগায়ে রাখবো। সুতরাং, শুরু করি।
টমাস কিডেরে আমার একজন চৌকস ঔপন্যাসিক মনে হইছে। হ্যাঁ, তখন উপন্যাস লেখার চল ছিলো না ঠিক, আর এইটাই ভাবায়, এখন যেই দক্ষতা পরম আরাধ্য, অন্য সময়ে সেই দক্ষতার দৌড় কতদূর - পরিচিতজনেরা দেখি হিপহপ করতেছেন কেউ কেউ - ভাবেন একবার, আঠারোশ ঊননব্বুইয়ে হিপহপের বদান্যতা কি টের পাইতো কেউ? টমাস কিডের কবিত্বশক্তি কিছুটা ফেলনা গোছের, শেক্সপীয়র-মার্লোর মত উত্তম কাব্য তিনি সিঞ্চন করতে সমর্থ হন নাই, প্রথমদিকে গায়ে না লাগলেও একটু পরপর ধামাকাদার ফরমুলাইক বাণী আওড়ানো অসহ্যই ঠেকে একটা সময় পর। ও আইজ, নো আইজ আমার অবশ্য বেশ লাগছিলো - কিন্তু কিড যেইটা পারেন খুব ভালোমতন, সেইটা হচ্ছে গল্প দাঁড় করানো - চরিত্র না, চরিত্রের ক্ষেত্রেও অন্যরা বেশ খানিকটা আগায়ে থাকবেন, কিন্তু কিড সাহেবের গল্প আগায় অবিশ্বাস্য দ্রুত গতিতে, অনেক কিছু ঘটে তার নাটকে, তিনি কাহিনীরে জায়গা দেন, এবং চরিত্রেরা ছোটো বড়ো মাঝারি যাই হোক, তারা কাহিনীর পথে বাঁধা না হয়ে বরং পিচ্ছিলকারক হয়ে দাঁড়ায়, রাস্তা আরো মসৃণ হয়ে ওঠে।
বালতাজার লরেঞ্জো আর বেল-ইম্পেরিয়ার কথোপকথন, বা পেরিং-কী-যেনোকে মারবার পর হিরোনিমোর সত্য-আবিষ্কার, এইসবই এত চমৎকারভাবে আঁকা, বা লরেঞ্জো আর হোরাশিওর মাঝে গণিমত ভাগ বাটোয়ারা, হিরোনিমোর সাথে সন্তানহারা আরেক বৃদ্ধের কথোপকথন, এইসব একটা গড়পড়তা নাটকরে কাহিনীর বিচারে অসাধারণ করে। শেষের দিকে বিদেশী ভাষারে সম্বল করে যে হুলস্থুল, সেটা মঞ্চায়িত করা অসম্ভব মনে হয়, এবং আমার ব্যক্তিগত বিশ্বাসরে দৃঢ় করে যে কবিত্ব যতখানিই হোক, গল্প সাজানোর বিচারে টমাস কিড এইযুগের বহুত ঔপন্যাসিকেরে তুড়ি মেরে ফেলে দেয়ার ক্ষমতা রাখতেন। চরিত্রগুলি আরেকটু মাংশল হইত যদি -
আহ সময়, ঠিক সময়ে না আসতে পারলে আর কীসের সময়। তাও ভালো ছাপাখানা আবিষ্কারের পর কিড সাহেবের আগমন, তাই তাঁরে পড়তে পারা গেলো।
আর ঠিক সময় কী তাই বা কে জানে। কে জানে, সামনে হয়ত এইসব লেখাজোকা থাকবে না আর, দেখা যাবে হয়ত এই নাই ঐ নাই, দেখা যবে কেউ হয়ত বলছে উনি বা তিনি হতে পারতেন চমৎকার অমৌকিক বা তমৌকিক - সময়ের ধারণাটারেই গুবলেট মনে হয় আমার মাঝে মাঝে।
July 17, 2016
Love it. Of course the language is more patterned than Shakespeare, but if you can enjoy that, it's well-done. I read it (again) for Titus Andronicus background; and it has a similar effect of horror-farce (... more funny. I can't help but laugh through the last scene, whether I'm meant to or not. Heironimo's mad grief speeches, though, have serious pathos); but so much else seems to have begun here.
Proper title: The Spanish Tragedie: Or, Heironimo is mad againe. I read a nifty ebook with original spelling and title page/frontispiece, along with other material: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...
Proper title: The Spanish Tragedie: Or, Heironimo is mad againe. I read a nifty ebook with original spelling and title page/frontispiece, along with other material: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01...
November 27, 2018
«O eyes! no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;
O life! no life, but lively form of death
O world! no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confus'd and fill'd with murder and misdeeds!»
Review in English | Reseña en español (abajo)
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd (1582-1592) is one of the touchstones of the Drama of the English Renaissance and the play is notable in the history of English drama in being the first innovative model of the “revenge or blood tragedy” genre.
Being completely honest, if this hadn’t been a compulsory reading for the subject of Medieval and Renaissance English Literature, I never would’ve read it. Mainly because I am always afraid to face classic texts in English and also because, among all literary genres, drama is the one I like least to read. I always conceive it with the function of seeing the work played and not read; and I always felt I’m reading a film script. All in all, I liked it a lot more than I’d expected and I appreciate having 'forced' myself to read it, because there are wonderful passages -especially Hieronimo’s soliloquies– and a sublime characters' development. Besides, I truly enjoyed all the classical influences and references to Ovid, Virgil and Seneca, among others.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves Elizabethan theatre in general or Hamlet in particular or who is fascinated by the theme of revenge.
P. S. I'm not English, so if you see any mistakes let me know so I can correct them, please
—
The Spanish Tragedy (1582-1592) de Thomas Kyd es una de las piedras angulares del la Tragedia renacentista inglesa y se considera como el primer modelo innovador del género de la 'tragedia de venganza’.
Siendo sincera, si esta no hubiese sido una lectura obligatoria de la asignatura de Literatura Inglesa Medieval y Renacentista, creo que nunca lo hubiese leído. Principalmente porque siempre temo enfrentarme a textos clásicos en inglés y porque, entre todos los géneros literarios, el dramático es el que menos me gusta leer. Siempre lo concibo con la función de ver representada la obra y no leída; y ante un texto dramático me siento como si estuviese leyendo un guión. Con todo, me ha gustado mucho más de lo que pensaba que llegaría a gustarme y agradezco haberme 'forzado' a leerlo, porque hay pasajes maravillosos –especialmente los soliloquios protagonizados por Hieronimo– y una construcción de personajes sublime. Además, he de reconocer que disfruté muchísimo todas esas influencias y referencias clásicas a Ovidio, Virgilio o Séneca, entre otros.
Se lo recomendaría a cualquiera que le guste el teatro isabelino en general, o Hamlet en particular, o que esté fascinado por el tema de la venganza.
June 26, 2024
During a battle for independence, Spanish officer Andrea is killed by the Viceroy of Portugal's son Balthazar, who in turn gets captured by Lorenzo and Horatio. Horatio comforts Lorenzo's sister Bel-imperia over Andrea's death, but she wants revenge. Both Balthazar and Horatio fall in love with Bel-imperia and bloodshed is inevitable, but it's not what you'd expect.
On top of that, Andrea is now a ghost and watches events unfold with the spirit of Revenge (present onstage throughout the entirety of the play). This really is the ultimate revenge play, Shakespeare did well in taking inspiration from it for Hamlet.
On top of that, Andrea is now a ghost and watches events unfold with the spirit of Revenge (present onstage throughout the entirety of the play). This really is the ultimate revenge play, Shakespeare did well in taking inspiration from it for Hamlet.
December 26, 2018
The first revenge play.
Influenced by Seneca. Shakespeare and specially Hamlet was influenced by it.
How can one explain Hieronimo’s doubt to get his revenge?
In the absence of god in a newly renaissance play, the tragedy keeps its connection to the metaphysics by portraying a ghost and going to noble blood families.
The two to-be-called protagonists, Andrea and Hieronimo are not of noble blood. The personification of Revenge and having another play within the play are other interesting aspects of this play.
Influenced by Seneca. Shakespeare and specially Hamlet was influenced by it.
How can one explain Hieronimo’s doubt to get his revenge?
In the absence of god in a newly renaissance play, the tragedy keeps its connection to the metaphysics by portraying a ghost and going to noble blood families.
The two to-be-called protagonists, Andrea and Hieronimo are not of noble blood. The personification of Revenge and having another play within the play are other interesting aspects of this play.
July 15, 2013
FROM THE WORLD LITERATURE FORUM RECOMMENDED CLASSICS AND MASTERPIECES SERIES----ROBERT SHEPPARD, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
The Spanish Tragedy of Thomas Kyd (1587) is one of the touchstones of the Drama of the English Renaissance and well worth reading for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, the evolution of English Drama and Literature and in the history and culture of the Renaissance and Elizabethan Age. The play is notable in the history of English drama in being the first innovative model of the genre of the "Revenge Tragedy," and as such a precursor of better known works, most particularly Shakespeare's Hamlet.
But why is such a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy of continuing interest to us today?
I would answer and positively recommend your reading of this compelling work by first observing that such revenge tragedy is about much more than revenge. It is laced with the acid and very modern existential consciousness of an underlying world in which the cant of both human and divine law, order and justice is found wanting at best, and which presents persons injured and abused with the dilemma of turning alternatively to either vengance, protest, faith in a continuously deferred questionable karmic or divine retribution, or quietest acceptance of a violently absurd and meaningless world.
The "Revenge Hero" is also a precursor and brother to our own modern and post-modern "anti-heroes" in books and cinema from Batman to film noir to Django, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Oblivion, who finding that corrupt institutions and the absent or impotent hand of a divine or natural order, feel called upon to rebel and take justice into their own hands. Even the modern Jihadist paints himself as a "revenge hero" against a perceived unjust social order of militarist repression from the West and Israel or a soulless and corruptive materialist modernity.
The Revenge Tragedy thus is of continuing interest, not only as a moving drama of crime and punishment, but also in its ability to call into question the wider functioning of social order and its relation to the individual as well as presenting to our mind the question of the existence or non-existence of any divine, natural or human order or justice in the universe and the consequence of such for our lives.
In Kyd's tragedy, the revenge hero is Heironimo, a humanistic, educated judicial officer of the Spanish court and a loving husband and father who would be the last person one could imagine as possessed with the violent passion of blood vengeance. He, and the generic revenge hero of latter works such as Hamlet, contrary to expectation is not any kind of "blood" out for violent pay-back, but is the most reluctant of seekers of retribution. He is only driven to take action by the perfidious murder of his beloved son Horatio, a returned war-hero in the battles against the Portugese, a crime perpetrated by the corrupt royal princes of both warring nations out of lover's jealousy and corrupt political expediency, resulting in his society's betrayal and corrupt failure, particularly of its ruling class, to grant him and his dead son any form of justice. Like Hamlet he hesitates, questions and doubts himself, doubts the evidence, and pushes himself to the brink of madness arising from his dispair before in the end turning to reluctant action. As in Shakespeare's Hamlet, he also uses the convoluted device of a "play within a play," a court masque performed by noble personages, to bring about the undoing of the villians through his participation as writer, director and actor, leading in the end to their death by his hand.
The Spanish Tragedy ends bathed in an orgy of blood, and on such a note of pessimism as to human or divine order and justice, that it may have contributed to the historical Kyd himself at a later time being arrested and charged with "atheism and heresy," along with his friend and colleague Christopher Marlowe, author of Faustus. Who in our modern time can view the savage and bloody videos of the mass slaughters, beheadings and mutilations of the Zetas and drug cartels in Mexico, the genocide in Rwanda, the ceaseless sectarian bombings and retributions from Boston to Chechnya to Syria, Palestine and Bombay without some visceral questioning of their faith in any human or divine justice on earth? It is a commonplace of Rennaissance scholarship to invoke the terminology of "Early Modern" in discribing Kyd's age, and Kyd's tragic vision and pessimism in retrospect do look increasingly "Modern" far before its time.
For most of us, we come to Kyd through Shakespeare, and my initial attention in reading Kyd's drama was focused on the many similarities and influences of the play on Hamlet. Though we romanticize Shakespeare as one of, or perhaps the ultimate original genius of English and World Literature, by reading Kyd's play we can also recognize how Shakespeare was a shameless borrower of stories, content and treatment in producing his own works. Indeed, not only was the Spanish Tragedy a powerful model from which The Bard drew, but Kyd had also produced his own version of Hamlet years before, of which the text was unfortunately lost to modern scholars, lending him the very subject matter itself. But any modern reader of Kyd's play will be forcefully struck by such similarities as Heironimo's "Hamletian" hesitation and madness, the "play within a Play," the corruption in the fabric of society, especially in the ruling class and the catharsis and purgation of sin by blood which are common with Shakespeare's work. One is forced to rethink what was original to Shakespeare and what derived from the conventions of the genre itself. T.S. Eliot also wrote on Kyd's work, and it is well to call to mind his invocation of "The Tradition" from his essay "Tradition and the Indivudual Talent" even with regard to so great a talent as Shakespeare himself. Shakespeare visibly borrowed from and added force to his work from prior models including Kyd as well a classical precursors such as Seneca.
I and World Literature Forum thus positively recommend looking into Kyd's cathartic tragedy of blood and anomie as a moving read, a re-perspectiving of Shakespeare, and as a revisiting of the early roots of Modernity.
Robert Sheppard
Editor-in-Chief
World Literature Forum
http://robertalexandersheppard.wordpr...
Author, Spiritus Mundi Novel
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Copyright Robert Sheppard 2013 All Rights Reserved
The Spanish Tragedy of Thomas Kyd (1587) is one of the touchstones of the Drama of the English Renaissance and well worth reading for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, the evolution of English Drama and Literature and in the history and culture of the Renaissance and Elizabethan Age. The play is notable in the history of English drama in being the first innovative model of the genre of the "Revenge Tragedy," and as such a precursor of better known works, most particularly Shakespeare's Hamlet.
But why is such a Renaissance Revenge Tragedy of continuing interest to us today?
I would answer and positively recommend your reading of this compelling work by first observing that such revenge tragedy is about much more than revenge. It is laced with the acid and very modern existential consciousness of an underlying world in which the cant of both human and divine law, order and justice is found wanting at best, and which presents persons injured and abused with the dilemma of turning alternatively to either vengance, protest, faith in a continuously deferred questionable karmic or divine retribution, or quietest acceptance of a violently absurd and meaningless world.
The "Revenge Hero" is also a precursor and brother to our own modern and post-modern "anti-heroes" in books and cinema from Batman to film noir to Django, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and Oblivion, who finding that corrupt institutions and the absent or impotent hand of a divine or natural order, feel called upon to rebel and take justice into their own hands. Even the modern Jihadist paints himself as a "revenge hero" against a perceived unjust social order of militarist repression from the West and Israel or a soulless and corruptive materialist modernity.
The Revenge Tragedy thus is of continuing interest, not only as a moving drama of crime and punishment, but also in its ability to call into question the wider functioning of social order and its relation to the individual as well as presenting to our mind the question of the existence or non-existence of any divine, natural or human order or justice in the universe and the consequence of such for our lives.
In Kyd's tragedy, the revenge hero is Heironimo, a humanistic, educated judicial officer of the Spanish court and a loving husband and father who would be the last person one could imagine as possessed with the violent passion of blood vengeance. He, and the generic revenge hero of latter works such as Hamlet, contrary to expectation is not any kind of "blood" out for violent pay-back, but is the most reluctant of seekers of retribution. He is only driven to take action by the perfidious murder of his beloved son Horatio, a returned war-hero in the battles against the Portugese, a crime perpetrated by the corrupt royal princes of both warring nations out of lover's jealousy and corrupt political expediency, resulting in his society's betrayal and corrupt failure, particularly of its ruling class, to grant him and his dead son any form of justice. Like Hamlet he hesitates, questions and doubts himself, doubts the evidence, and pushes himself to the brink of madness arising from his dispair before in the end turning to reluctant action. As in Shakespeare's Hamlet, he also uses the convoluted device of a "play within a play," a court masque performed by noble personages, to bring about the undoing of the villians through his participation as writer, director and actor, leading in the end to their death by his hand.
The Spanish Tragedy ends bathed in an orgy of blood, and on such a note of pessimism as to human or divine order and justice, that it may have contributed to the historical Kyd himself at a later time being arrested and charged with "atheism and heresy," along with his friend and colleague Christopher Marlowe, author of Faustus. Who in our modern time can view the savage and bloody videos of the mass slaughters, beheadings and mutilations of the Zetas and drug cartels in Mexico, the genocide in Rwanda, the ceaseless sectarian bombings and retributions from Boston to Chechnya to Syria, Palestine and Bombay without some visceral questioning of their faith in any human or divine justice on earth? It is a commonplace of Rennaissance scholarship to invoke the terminology of "Early Modern" in discribing Kyd's age, and Kyd's tragic vision and pessimism in retrospect do look increasingly "Modern" far before its time.
For most of us, we come to Kyd through Shakespeare, and my initial attention in reading Kyd's drama was focused on the many similarities and influences of the play on Hamlet. Though we romanticize Shakespeare as one of, or perhaps the ultimate original genius of English and World Literature, by reading Kyd's play we can also recognize how Shakespeare was a shameless borrower of stories, content and treatment in producing his own works. Indeed, not only was the Spanish Tragedy a powerful model from which The Bard drew, but Kyd had also produced his own version of Hamlet years before, of which the text was unfortunately lost to modern scholars, lending him the very subject matter itself. But any modern reader of Kyd's play will be forcefully struck by such similarities as Heironimo's "Hamletian" hesitation and madness, the "play within a Play," the corruption in the fabric of society, especially in the ruling class and the catharsis and purgation of sin by blood which are common with Shakespeare's work. One is forced to rethink what was original to Shakespeare and what derived from the conventions of the genre itself. T.S. Eliot also wrote on Kyd's work, and it is well to call to mind his invocation of "The Tradition" from his essay "Tradition and the Indivudual Talent" even with regard to so great a talent as Shakespeare himself. Shakespeare visibly borrowed from and added force to his work from prior models including Kyd as well a classical precursors such as Seneca.
I and World Literature Forum thus positively recommend looking into Kyd's cathartic tragedy of blood and anomie as a moving read, a re-perspectiving of Shakespeare, and as a revisiting of the early roots of Modernity.
Robert Sheppard
Editor-in-Chief
World Literature Forum
http://robertalexandersheppard.wordpr...
Author, Spiritus Mundi Novel
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17...
Copyright Robert Sheppard 2013 All Rights Reserved
November 1, 2025
very enjoyable to read and analyze for an Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy tbh.. also a great example of it, nothing much to criticize
June 26, 2016
'Hieronymo's mad againe'
This tends to be looked at as *the* original Renaissance revenge tragedy that takes its roots from Seneca and other Latin sources, and which kick-starts a dramatic genre which flourishes via Titus Andronicus and Hamlet through to The Revenger's Tragedy, The Changeling and others.
The play itself is a wonderfully macabre story framed by a ghost and the figure of Revenge who sit on stage throughout watching over the drama that we are watching, while the deaths pile up. Amongst the gore, though, are important debates about a feudal blood-price culture of personal revenge vs. a more social sense of legal justice - and the play questions the efficacy of the latter alongside the ethics of the former.
So while there are important matters at stake here, the play is also hugely and almost shockingly enjoyable. It's also fun to spot the way its plots, lines and props get lifted by a sneaky William Shakespeare: the scarf that turns into the handkerchief in Othello, the play-within-a-play which is repeated in Hamlet, Hieronymo's struggles with whether, and how, he can live which re-emerge in Hamlet's 'to be or not to be' speech.
It's a bit of a shame that Kyd's play has almost become a series of sources for Shakespeare: it would be nice to give back primacy to the drama for its own sake.
This tends to be looked at as *the* original Renaissance revenge tragedy that takes its roots from Seneca and other Latin sources, and which kick-starts a dramatic genre which flourishes via Titus Andronicus and Hamlet through to The Revenger's Tragedy, The Changeling and others.
The play itself is a wonderfully macabre story framed by a ghost and the figure of Revenge who sit on stage throughout watching over the drama that we are watching, while the deaths pile up. Amongst the gore, though, are important debates about a feudal blood-price culture of personal revenge vs. a more social sense of legal justice - and the play questions the efficacy of the latter alongside the ethics of the former.
So while there are important matters at stake here, the play is also hugely and almost shockingly enjoyable. It's also fun to spot the way its plots, lines and props get lifted by a sneaky William Shakespeare: the scarf that turns into the handkerchief in Othello, the play-within-a-play which is repeated in Hamlet, Hieronymo's struggles with whether, and how, he can live which re-emerge in Hamlet's 'to be or not to be' speech.
It's a bit of a shame that Kyd's play has almost become a series of sources for Shakespeare: it would be nice to give back primacy to the drama for its own sake.
October 9, 2024
No. Just no. My final year of university may be the end of me.
February 7, 2014
I’d be interested in knowing whether or not Shakespeare and Kyd actually got on. There are rumours that Shakespeare actually had a hand in writing part of this play, which suggests that they were like bezzo mates or something. But then there’s evidence suggesting that Kyd is the person that Shakespeare stole the story of Hamlet from. I wouldn’t be happy if somebody pinched my story and became really famous while I sank into deepest darkest oblivion.
Now, this is the only dabbling I’ve ever had in Kyd’s work but I’m actually pretty damn impressed. I think he definitely deserves to be considered Shakespeare’s equal. Kyd is said to have established the ‘revenge play’, and what a brilliant type of play that is. If I were around in Elizabethan times I’d be at the theatre ALL THE BLOODY TIME.
Whilst Shakespeare excels at puns and whimsical wordplay, Kyd is a pro at complex rhyme schemes. Some of the rhyming couplets were just awe-inspiring, and actually had a message: “Jest with her gently: under feigned jest / are things conceal’d that else would breed unrest”.
TRUE
And when talking about rushing into a romance: “New-kindled flames should burn as morning sun / but not too fast, lest heat and all be done”.
DOUBLY TRUE
Story-wise, it was a little complex (too complex to iterate here), and I will probably need another read of it. All you need to know it that it's a proper revenge tragedy, and everyone dies. Make of that what you will.
I think I have a bit of an Elizabethan playwright crush on Thomas Kyd. Not as much as Shakespeare, but there’s still time.
Now, this is the only dabbling I’ve ever had in Kyd’s work but I’m actually pretty damn impressed. I think he definitely deserves to be considered Shakespeare’s equal. Kyd is said to have established the ‘revenge play’, and what a brilliant type of play that is. If I were around in Elizabethan times I’d be at the theatre ALL THE BLOODY TIME.
Whilst Shakespeare excels at puns and whimsical wordplay, Kyd is a pro at complex rhyme schemes. Some of the rhyming couplets were just awe-inspiring, and actually had a message: “Jest with her gently: under feigned jest / are things conceal’d that else would breed unrest”.
TRUE
And when talking about rushing into a romance: “New-kindled flames should burn as morning sun / but not too fast, lest heat and all be done”.
DOUBLY TRUE
Story-wise, it was a little complex (too complex to iterate here), and I will probably need another read of it. All you need to know it that it's a proper revenge tragedy, and everyone dies. Make of that what you will.
I think I have a bit of an Elizabethan playwright crush on Thomas Kyd. Not as much as Shakespeare, but there’s still time.
January 19, 2024
very fun to read thee og revenge tragedy. just as wild as titus and somehow more based. . andrea and horatio and bel-imperia had a weird little throuple situation going on thomas kyd told me so personally.
May 17, 2016
BALTHAZAR
Hieronimo, methinks a comedy were better.
HIERONIMO
A comedy?
Fie, comedies are fit for common wits:
But to present a kingly troupe withal,
Give me a stately-written tragedy,
Tragedia cothurnata, fitting kings,
Containing matter, and not common things.
(IV:i, ll. 155-161)
The Spanish Tragedy is one of those plays that shows up very frequently on college courses and Shakespeare-related reading lists. Yet despite its popularity with Theatre Studies professors the world over, it's very rarely the first thing to pop into someone's head when they think of Elizabethan theatre. Or the second thing, for that matter.
I have to admit, this puzzles me a little. After all, The Spanish Tragedy pretty much does exactly what it says on the can: it's set in Spain; it's about revenge; and there's enough tragedy to make even Romeo and Juliet take a break from their incessant adolescent whining to sit up and take notes.
The Spanish Tragedy tells the very tragic story of the tragic death of Don Andrea, and of his lover Bel-Imperia, who tragically vows to revenge herself on Andrea's murderer. She's aided in her plan by Hieronimo, whose son Horatio is murdered in truly tragic circumstances.
You can't say that Kyd doesn’t deliver on the tragedy front. But don't let my melodramatic summary put you off; The Spanish Tragedy is an impressive piece of playwriting, full of suspense and surprises. The story begins with the ghost of Don Andrea emerging from the underworld with his new friend, Revenge. Don Andrea, a little miffed that he's been killed by the sneaky Balthazar in the heat of battle, begs Revenge to show him how his enemies meet their own gruesome ends. You always know you're in for a good time when you go to the theatre and see a ghost pop out in the very first scene, so I began my reading with high hopes.
The ghost and Revenge continue to disappear and reappear, keeping track of the murders and double-crossings that are taking place between the Spanish and Portuguese courts. And believe me, there are plenty. It's difficult to keep up, sometimes, with the amount of revenge that goes on in this play. In fact, I've compiled a quick list of just some of the revenges that take place:
As you can probably tell, it isn't exactly an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond. But by all accounts it was very popular in the Elizabethan theatre; it was re-staged a number of times, even after the author's death. And if some of these scenes are beginning to sound a little familiar, that's because many Elizabethan playwrights were influenced by Kyd's play. Including, of course, our old friend - Shakespeare. Yes, it's said that many scenes in Hamlet were inspired by The Spanish Tragedy. Most famous, of course, is the play-within-a-play scene; although there might also be something to the fact that one of the only people to survive at the end of Hamlet is named Horatio. Coincidence? I'll leave that for you to decide.
Don't be put off by the gruesome murders or the melodramatic storyline; The Spanish Tragedy is quite a read, and it's one of those plays I think would look fabulous on the modern stage. It's a classic, and quite possibly the first revenge drama in the English language. And if you're still not sold, have a peek at this beautifully produced clip, showing one of the most significant moments in the play: the murder of Horatio.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pdwr...
Rating: 4.5 Stars
Originally Posted on Majoring in Literature.
November 15, 2018
One of the Goriest texts I've ever read!
July 15, 2013
Another gap in my reading filled (only a few thousand more to fill now!). This is important reading if you are interested in theatre history, but as a play it's rather flawed. The sometimes clunky verse is generally effective; it reads well enough and its redundancies and repetitiveness sometimes help to communicate the irrationality of some of the characters. Kyd isn't much interested in developing consistent or nuanced rationales for his characters' actions; as long as bodies are falling, he just keeps moving.
June 5, 2013
This now, seldom performed play requires careful reading, but if you are interested in revenge tragedies then it is certainly worth reading. I studied this text for a university paper and found it fascinating. It has a lot of similarities to Hamlet and if you have read that, I certainly think you should read Kyd's play. Both plays have inner plays that function as meta- theatrical devices that suggest that art has considerable power and ability to function as an agency for change.
September 16, 2021
It's an excellent play worthy of hours of discussion, unquestionably monumental in the history of the English theatrical canon. However, it would need to have at least an hour of content cut to ever be performed today. For poetical and literary analysis, divine. For the stage, slash some of it and it'll play just as well as some of the greats.
September 1, 2015
I really enjoyed this read! It actually made me laugh out loud at parts, was I meant to live in the 1600s?
February 7, 2023
Readable Renaissance English play with the typical trappings: revenge, the personification of revenge, doomed love, blank verse, night as a guise for covert affection, jealousy, and the somewhat distant and exotic location
February 24, 2017
I have no idea what to think of this play.
September 16, 2017
With beautiful language and tragedy indeed,
I found this play quite worth the read.
I found this play quite worth the read.
September 13, 2018
I love that Shakespeare blatantly plagiarized this work when writing Hamlet lol.
October 3, 2023
very dramatic- everyone please relax
March 7, 2024
kinda good ngl??? first bit was boring but i was hooked by act 2 yeah no bad. highlights were the garden bit and also revenge is a funny character. standard revenge tragedy innit
September 27, 2024
I loved this play! (What a surprise - I wasn’t expecting to.)
It’s begging for a Hollywood film adaptation with dramatic music and huge battle scenes. Someone like Timothy Dalton or Lennie James as Heironimo, Kristen Stewart as Bel-Imperia, a young heartthrob as Horatio (Timothée Chalamet?) - do it. It’ll be huge.
This story - the tale of a grieving father out for revenge on the killers of his young son - was so much more popular than Shakespeare’s Hamlet in its day, and I agree with the 16th-17th Century public. This one is so much better. It’s more dramatic and action-packed, as well as having some incredibly moving moments. Unlike many revenge tragedies which have the son avenging the dead father (who is often dead before the play starts), this is a father avenging a dead son. And we meet the son before he dies and he’s a total sweetheart. This story is the earliest revenge tragedy but arguably already the boldest and most daring.
Emma Smith calls Heironimo’s story a “fantasy of human agency” (32:00). Just like superhero films or detective fiction these days (28:20-29:20), death and crime are not inexplicable acts of God: they are tangible and human, and the perpetrators can be dealt with by the humans brave and strong enough to take action. Smith encourages us that this is not how Elizabethans would behave in real life, but saw in it a kind of escapism (as she says, a “fantasy”). It’s the unapologetic boldness of this story - the deliberately over-the-top drama and high emotion unburdened by theatrical realism that came centuries later - that makes this play such a gem.
There are some ambiguities. The play can be read as rather flippant revenge escapism (in the vein of Liam Neeson’s “Taken” today), especially as the political system is presented as too inadequate for Heironimo to achieve legal justice. But it could also be read more seriously. By the end, Heironimo has inflicted on the King precisely what he suffered himself: horrendous parental grief. Is this a happy ending - or merely a warning that revenge only breeds further destruction and grief? Depends upon the performance perhaps.
But ultimately, Kyd and Shakespeare’s plays were both more popular (less “elite”) than how we perceive early modern tragedy today - and it shows in this play. It makes for a cracking read.
It’s begging for a Hollywood film adaptation with dramatic music and huge battle scenes. Someone like Timothy Dalton or Lennie James as Heironimo, Kristen Stewart as Bel-Imperia, a young heartthrob as Horatio (Timothée Chalamet?) - do it. It’ll be huge.
This story - the tale of a grieving father out for revenge on the killers of his young son - was so much more popular than Shakespeare’s Hamlet in its day, and I agree with the 16th-17th Century public. This one is so much better. It’s more dramatic and action-packed, as well as having some incredibly moving moments. Unlike many revenge tragedies which have the son avenging the dead father (who is often dead before the play starts), this is a father avenging a dead son. And we meet the son before he dies and he’s a total sweetheart. This story is the earliest revenge tragedy but arguably already the boldest and most daring.
Emma Smith calls Heironimo’s story a “fantasy of human agency” (32:00). Just like superhero films or detective fiction these days (28:20-29:20), death and crime are not inexplicable acts of God: they are tangible and human, and the perpetrators can be dealt with by the humans brave and strong enough to take action. Smith encourages us that this is not how Elizabethans would behave in real life, but saw in it a kind of escapism (as she says, a “fantasy”). It’s the unapologetic boldness of this story - the deliberately over-the-top drama and high emotion unburdened by theatrical realism that came centuries later - that makes this play such a gem.
There are some ambiguities. The play can be read as rather flippant revenge escapism (in the vein of Liam Neeson’s “Taken” today), especially as the political system is presented as too inadequate for Heironimo to achieve legal justice. But it could also be read more seriously. By the end, Heironimo has inflicted on the King precisely what he suffered himself: horrendous parental grief. Is this a happy ending - or merely a warning that revenge only breeds further destruction and grief? Depends upon the performance perhaps.
But ultimately, Kyd and Shakespeare’s plays were both more popular (less “elite”) than how we perceive early modern tragedy today - and it shows in this play. It makes for a cracking read.
May 31, 2022
o piesă foarte frumoasă. un fel de the beatles al pieselor de teatru moderne, are multe părți din hamlet si romeo și julieta si teatru in teatru baroc. plus subtitlul hieronimo is mad againe o face să sune ca un film de actiune cu jason statham. dacă ar fi fost scrisă de shakespeare ar fi fost in his top 10
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June 3, 2023somebody describes as lumpy, & I think this gloopy porridgidity to the play is not far off. but such is a little joy. make sure it's in th originale spellings
When I was yong I gaue my minde
And plide my-selfe to fruitles poetrie,
Which, though it profite the professor naught,
Yet is it passing pleasing to the world.
When I was yong I gaue my minde
And plide my-selfe to fruitles poetrie,
Which, though it profite the professor naught,
Yet is it passing pleasing to the world.
October 20, 2021
I lowkey loved this??
Full of revenge, death, murder, suicide, this play really stayed true to it's name.
Full of revenge, death, murder, suicide, this play really stayed true to it's name.
May 17, 2025
That was so bloody boring I’m glad I never have to read it again
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