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The Spanish Tragedy

Thomas Kyd

Book Overview: 

The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is an Elizabethan tragedy written by Thomas Kyd between 1582 and 1592. Highly popular and influential in its time, The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, the revenge play or revenge tragedy. Its plot contains several violent murders and includes as one of its characters a personification of Revenge. The Spanish Tragedy was often referred to (or parodied) in works written by other Elizabethan playwrights, including William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe.

Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy, such as the play-within-a-play used to trap a murderer and a ghost intent on vengeance, appear in Shakespeare's Hamlet. (Thomas Kyd is frequently proposed as the author of the hypothetical Ur-Hamlet that may have been one of Shakespeare's primary sources for Hamlet.) (Summary by Wikipedia)

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .heon; then he fetches three
                KINGS; they take their crowns and them
                captive.

    Hieronimo, this makes content mine eye,
    Although I sound not well the mystery.

HIERO. The first arm'd knight that hung his scutcheon up

                He takes the scutcheon and gives it to
                the KING.

    Was English Robert, Earle of Gloucester,
    Who, when King Stephen bore sway in Albion,
    A. . . Read More

Community Reviews

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-

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 Shakespe

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 leadin

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

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

«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 touchst

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 কিছ

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. H

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