The Spanish Tragedy

Synopsis

The first fully-fledged example of revenge tragedy, the genre thatbecame so influential in later Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, TheSpanish Tragedy (1589) occupies a very special place in the history ofEnglish Renaissance drama.

Hieronimo, Knight-Marshal of Spain duringits war with Portugal, fails to obtain justice when his son is murderedfor courting Bel-Imperia, the Duke of Castile's daughter, and decidesto take justice into his own hands.

In a scene replete withmeta-theatrical implications, Hieronimo and Bel-Imperia stage a playletwith Portuguese and Spanish nobles as actors, stabbing them with real'fake' daggers before they kill themselves.

This edition, which appendsthe scenes that were added in 1602, discusses Elizabethan attitudes torevenge, the Senecan features of the play and the significance of theAnglo-Spanish conflict in the 1580s.