The Spanish Tragedy

By Thomas Kyd

Little is known about the life of Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), but we do know that in the early 1580s he was associated with a London theatre company. By 1594 he had completed one of the most famous plays of the 16th century: "The Spanish Tragedy." At that time, the majority of English drama was stiff, and Kyd's new use of blank verse to present emotions on stage was revolutionary. He took foundations of Roman tragedy—a ghost, revenge and violence—and created a spectacular melodrama that greatly appealed to English audiences. The play's Hieronimo remains one of the most popular tragic characters on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stages, and served as a model for later tragic characters like Shakespeare's Hamlet. Full of allegorical characters and ghosts, onstage murder, suicide, play-within-the-play, real and feigned insanity and a bloody ending, "The Spanish Tragedy" established the popular revenge play and introduced audiences to the excitement of psychological realism.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781420942026

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THE SPANISH TRAGEDY

BY THOMAS KYD

A Digireads.com Book

Digireads.com Publishing

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4102-9

Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-4202-6

This edition copyright © 2012

Please visit www.digireads.com

CONTENTS

THE SPANISH TRAGEDY:

EDITOR'S NOTE

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

THE SPANISH TRAGEDY

ACT ONE

SCENE I. Induction.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

SCENE IV.

SCENE V.

SCENE VI.

ACT TWO

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

SCENE IV.

SCENE V.

SCENE VI.

ACT THREE

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

SCENE IV.

SCENE V.

SCENE VI.

SCENE VII.

SCENE VIII.

SCENE IX.

SCENE X.

SCENE XI.

SCENE XII.

SCENE XII A.

SCENE XIII.

SCENE XIV.

SCENE XV.

ACT FOUR

SCENE I.

SCENE II.

SCENE III.

SCENE IV.

SCENE V.

THE SPANISH TRAGEDY:

OR, HIERONIMO IS MAD AGAIN,

Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio,

and Bel-imperia; with the pitiful death of Hieronimo.

Newly corrected, amended, and enlarged with new

Additions of the Painters part, and others,

as it hath of late been divers times acted.

EDITOR'S NOTE

The text adopted is that of the undated Quarto in the British Museum (C. 34 d. 7), printed by Edward Allde for Edward White, which internal evidence, in my opinion, proves to be the earliest extant edition, and which has certainly the best text. The adoption of any reading other than that of this Quarto is indicated in the footnotes. I give all variants from the Quartos of 1594, -99, 1603 (Bodleian copy), 1603, with colophon 1603 (Duke of Devonshire's copy), 1610, -15, -18, -33, -33.

In the 'Additions' the text is that of the Bodleian Quarto of 1603; but after Act IV, Scene iv, 186, where MS. replaces in this copy the missing leaves of print, it is that of the Duke of Devonshire's Quarto. I have aimed at indicating more clearly than has hitherto been done the relation of these Additions to Kyd's text. Dodsley, the first editor, having seen only the Quarto of 1633, did not know that they were not in the original play. Hawkins, who collated the undated Quarto and the Quartos of 1618,-33,-33, placed the Additions in his notes; but his arrangement, though more consistent than that of any of his successors, does not make the complicated changes in Act IV, Scene iv, 167 ff. sufficiently clear. Reed and Collier printed the Additions, distinguished by italics, in the text; and in Act III, Scene ii, and Act IV, Scene iv, where these Additions replace parts of the original, they transferred Kyd's lines to the notes. Hazlitt printed the Additions, except in Act III, Scene fl, in the text, distinguished merely by square brackets; which, however, he omitted in Act III, Scene xii A, while in Act IV, Scene iv, he gave a ' contamination' of the original and the revised versions. Schick, by printing the Additions in Act II, Scene v, and Act III, Scenes xi and xii A. in the text, while in Act III, Scene ii, he transfers them wholly, and in Act IV, Scene iv, partly, to the foot of the page, produces a numbering of the lines which is neither that of Kyd nor of the reviser. I have therefore printed all the Additions in the text, distinguished by smaller type and special numbering, and have further used a double numbering to mark the contrast between the Scenes in their original and their extended form.

The references in the notes are:—

Allde = undated Quarto printed by Allde

1594 -99 = Quartos of 1594 and

1602 = Bodleian Quarto of 1602 { covered, when in agreement, by single figure,

1602 A = Duke of Devonshire's Quarto of 1602-3 {

1610 -15 -18 -23 -33 = Quartos of 1610, 1615, 1618, 1623, and

Dodsley = R. Dodsley's edition in Old Plays, vol. ii (1744)

Hazlitt = W.C. Hazlitt's edition inhis resissue of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. v. (1874)

Reed = I. Reed's edition in his reissue of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. iii (1780)

Collier = J. P. Collier's ed. in reissue of Dodsley's Old Plays, vol. iii (1825)

Fleischer = G. Fleischer's Bernerkungen üb. T. Kyd's' Spanish Tragedy'(1896)

Schick = Professor J. Schick's edition in the Temple Dramatists (1898)

Details about the Quartos and the later editions are given in the Introduction.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

Ghost of Andrea

Revenge

King of Spain

Don Cyprian, Duke of Castile, his brother

Lorenzo, the Duke's son

Bel-imperia, Lorenzo's sister

Pedringano, Bel-imperia's servant

Lorenzo's Page

Viceroy of Portugal

Don Pedro, his brother

Balthazar, the Viceroy's son

Serberine, Balthazar's servant

Hieronimo, Marshal of Spain

Isabella, his wife

Horatio, their son

Isabella's maid

Spanish General

Deputy

Portuguese Ambassador

Portuguese Noblemen

Alexandro

Viluppo

Bazulto, an old man

Christophil, Bel-imperia's Janitor

Hangman

Messenger

Three Watchmen

Two Portuguese

In Hieronimo's Play:

Soliman, Sultan of Turkey (by Balthazar)

Erastus, Knight of Rhodes (by Lorenzo)

The Bashaw (by Hieronimo)

Perseda (by Bel-imperia)

In First Dumb Show:

Three Kings

Three Knights

In Second Dumb Show

Hymen

Two Torch Bearers

In the Additions to the Play:

Bazardo, a painter

Hieronimo's servants: Pedro, Jacques

Army, Royal Suites, Nobles, Officers, Halberdiers, Servants &c.

Scene: Spain and Portugal

No early Quarto contains Dramatis Personae. Dodsley's list of 1744 was copied by later editors till Schick, from whose list the above varies in tome details, and in adding the characters in Hieronimo's play.

THE SPANISH TRAGEDY

ACT ONE

SCENE I. Induction.

[Enter the Ghost of Andrea, and with him Revenge.]

GHOST. When this eternal substance of my soul

Did live imprisoned in my wanton flesh,

Each in their function serving others need,

I was a Courtier in the Spanish Court.

My name was Don Andrea; my descent,

Though not ignoble, yet inferior far

To gracious fortunes of my tender youth:

For there in prime and pride of all my years,

By duteous service and deserving love,

In secret I possessed a worthy dame,

Which hight sweet Bel-imperia by name.

But in the harvest of my summer joys,

Deaths winter nipped the blossoms of my bliss,

Forcing divorce betwixt my love and me.

For in the late conflict with Portugal

My valour drew me into dangers mouth,

Till life to death made passage through my wounds.

When I was slain, my soul descended straight,

To pass the flowing stream of Acheron;

But churlish Charon, only boatman there,

Said that my rites of burial not performed,

I might not sit amongst his passengers.

Ere Sol had slept three nights in Thetis lap,

And slaked his smoking chariot in her flood,

By Don Horatio, our Knight Marshals son,

My funerals and obsequies were done.

Then was the Ferryman of Hell content

To pass me over to the slimy strand

That leads to fell Auernus ugly waves.

There, pleasing Cerberus with honeyed speech,

I past the perils of the foremost porch.

Not far from hence, amidst ten thousand souls,

Sate Minos, Eacus, and Rhadamant,

To whom no sooner gan I make approach,

To crave a passport for my wandering Ghost,

But Minos, in graven leaves of Lottery,

Drew forth the manner of my life and death.

This Knight (quoth he) both lived and died in love,

And for his love tried fortune of the wars,

And, by wars fortune, lost both love and life.

Why then, said Eacus, convey him hence,

To walk with lovers in our fields of love,

And spend the course of everlasting time

Under green myrtle trees and Cypress shades.

No, no, said Rhadamant, it were not well

With loving souls to place a Martialist:

He died in war, and must to Martial fields,

Where wounded Hector lives in lasting pain,

And Achilles Mermedons do scour the plain.

Then Minos, mildest censor of the three,

Made this device to end the difference:

Send him (quoth he) to our infernal King,

To dome him as best seems his Majesty.

To this effect my passport straight