Medival and Elizabethan theatre

“The state of the world has marvelously changed.” This statement from Renaissance Drama: an anthology of plays and entertainments, perfectly describes the nature of the times that The Spanish Tragedy was written. The world was changing; theatre started to become professionally performed. Thomas Kyd used the period as inspiration to change the way plays were written. He portrayed a government that was self-indulgent and corrupt; which reflects the French and Spanish hatred toward each other.

Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, was the first major play of the English Renaissance. It was the first great tragedy before Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was the third most popular play between 1592 and 1599. It was also the first work to confront the fact of vengeance and the need for justice. In the play, every character feels the need to avenge something they have lost. The Spanish Tragedy focused on the “efficacy of the law, the desirability of vengeance and the possibility of equity.” Kyd was arrested and tortured in 1593 because of its premise of challenging the justice system and what constitutes it. This further proves his point that government should be questioned for its unjust treatment of its people.

During this time Elizabethan Europe is very stratified according to class, birth, and lineage. Kyd mixes it around in The Spanish Tragedy by depicting the main focus in the play as a Knight and not a Duke or a King. The play is centered on Horatio’s wrongful death and the actions that follow. Horatio is killed because he has fallen in love with Bel-Imperia, the Duke of Castile’s daughter, and is not of good lineage to do so. Her brother, Lorenzo believes that Balthazar, the Viceroy of Portingale’s son, is a better suitor. So they devise a plan and use the other players to help see it through. After his death, Lorenzo and Balthazar try to convince Bel-Imperia that they did it for her own good and, in their company, she agrees. This only makes her thirst for revenge greater and her malice more malevolent. The play is driven by her revenge and the revenge of Horatio’s father, Hieronimo, and the tragedy continues all the way to the end with the deaths of everyone and the King and Viceroy mourning their deaths.

The character that I chose to perform is Bel-Imperia. She is represented as a very strong-minded person which is contrary to what is happening in the world at that moment. In the monologue Bel-Imperia is upset with Hieronimo because of his casual interactions with his son’s murderers. She exclaims that she will finish the deed if need be and that she will not rest until it is.

If this show was a part of next years season, that would be great. The Spanish Tragedy is a show about the will of man, and its perversity, and the need to manipulate others for a personal agenda. I think that its themes revenge, manipulation and love would make a good classical piece for next year.