The Spanish Tragedy

The Spanish Tragedy begins with the frame narrative of Don Andrea seeking vengeance for his death at the hands of Balthazar, Prince of Portugal. Andrea is a revenant spirit whose unfinished business is based on love. Don Andrea grieves his untimely end, introducing the theme of The Effects of Grief and Loss. He explains:

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 (1.1.5-11).

Don Andrea’s dilemma while alive centered around the notion of caste in aristocratic society—the same issue Lorenzo, Bel-Imperia’s brother, will later invoke as a reason for murdering Horatio. Bel-Imperia is the king’s niece; though Andrea was a courtier, an aristocrat, he was still beneath her social status. As later events in the play show, noblewomen like Bel-Imperia had little say over their fates due to their use in political alliances through marriage. Having now died at Balthazar’s hands, Andrea has lost the love and life he had once hoped to win for himself through honorable deeds. 

After his death, Andrea finds himself in the Greco-Roman underworld, prevented from passing the Acheron by the ferryman, Charon, until Horatio performs his funeral rites in the world of the living. The three judges of the underworld—Minos, Aeacus, and Rhadamanthus—are unable to place him due to Andrea having “both lived and died in love / And for his love tried fortune of the wars / and by war’s fortune lost both love and life” (I.1.38-40), as Minos puts it. Minos’s frames Andrea’s character and motivations in the literary tradition of courtly love, with his love for Bell-Imperia inspiring his feats of arms. 

Andrea’s desire to improve his social standing through battlefield heroics nearly worked: The Spanish General in Scene 2 describes how, during the decisive battle:

The victory to neither part inclined

Til Don Andrea, with his brave Lanciers 

In their main battle made so great a breach

That, half-dismayed, the multitude retired (1.2.64-68).

Andrea’s participation in the battle turned the tide in favor of the Spanish Army, but it came at the cost of Andrea’s life. Agonized over the loss of his love and life, Andrea finds an ally in Queen Proserpine, Goddess of the Underworld, who pairs him with the spirit of Revenge. Andrea’s new desire to achieve vengeance for his death thus introduces The Complexities of Justice and Revenge into the play. 

Act I sets up the deadly rivalry Lorenzo and Balthazar feel toward Horatio. For Lorenzo, the play’s villain, Horatio represents a roadblock to his social ascension. In many ways, Horatio is Lorenzo’s antithesis. For one, Horatio proves himself to be an upright, honorable man, in stark contrast to Lorenzo’s underhanded scheming. For another, Horatio takes the glory as the hero of the battle between Spain and Portugal. By granting Horatio Balthazar’s ransom money, the king acknowledges Horatio’s key role in defeating the Portuguese. Lorenzo is already rich; he is not jealous of the money, but of the prestige that such a victory brings. Horatio is the victor of another battle, too: He wins over Bel-Imperia, much to the displeasure of Balthazar, who takes on the role of the spurned, melancholic lover, “slain, by beauty’s tyranny” (1.5.6). While this would appear to set the stage for an ordinary love triangle, Lorenzo’s influence will not allow a peaceful outcome. 

Hieronimo puts on a series of dumb shows for the benefit of the Portuguese ambassador in Act I, Scene 5. This is the first instance of theatricality, one of the play’s key motifs (See: Symbols & Motifs). The three short scenes depict instances of Portugal and Spain suffering defeat at the hands of England. Hieronimo intends for the dumb show to flatter the king by providing historical precedents for Portugal’s defeat and to bring a sense of humility to Spain’s recent victory by showing how they were once defeated by a much smaller country. 

The dumb shows also reflect the wider context of Anglo-Spanish rivalry in the 16th century, playing to Kyd’s original audience’s national pride during an era of intensifying conflict between the kingdoms leading up to the failed Spanish invasion of England in 1588. Kyd’s depiction of the Spanish court invokes elements of the “Black Legend” (See: Background). Kyd’s Spain is a violent, heretic nation, with the play’s elements of Pagan Roman mythology reinforcing a moral atmosphere that is driven more by classical values—honor, revenge, status—than Christian virtues or piety.