by thomas kyd
The Spanish Tragedy
Directed by Dr. Alice Dailey
And DR. Chelsea Phillips
Note from the dramaturg
Blood. Violence. Madness. These words are commonly associated with the genre of revenge tragedy. All of these elements exist within the world of The Spanish Tragedy, especially since many point to it being the beginning of the genre’s popularity on early modern stages. There are two words missing from the above that run papably throughout the piece: Love and grief. In The Spanish Tragedy, we watch as our revengers are trapped in their inability to express their passions and it becomes corrosive to their sanity and souls. Lorenzo puts it perfectly: “When words fail, violence prevails.” This production will delve into how revenge is born from a love lost and inexpressible. Please read the content warning guide in the dramaturgical resources, but I hope you will take this journey alongside us.
Thomas Kyd
Thomas Kyd was born in 1558 (baptized on November 6th, 1558) in London. The son of a scrivener, Kyd attended Merchant Taylors School to potentially follow in his father’s footsteps. There is no evidence to show that Kyd went on to get an education at the university level, which became a sticking point when playwright Thomas Nashe seemed to lambast Kyd in the Preface to Robert Greene’s Menaphon. Nashe’s anger seems to be born from jealousy of Kyd’s success. The Spanish Tragedy was a smash
hit, being hailed by scholars as the originator for the revenge tragedy genre on the early modern stages. Kyd went on to translate Robert Garnier’s Cornéile from its original French and a lost work scholars call Ur-Hamlet believed to be a potential inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. In 1593, while rooming with Christopher Marlowe, Kyd was arrested for having alleged materials that spoke against Protestant values. Kyd was imprisoned and tortured, only released by expressing he believed the papers belonged to Marlowe. This led to Marlowe’s arrest and for some time, this was all we knew of Kyd’s personal life. Kyd later died penniless and allegedly from complications of his tortures in 1594.
Production History
National Theatre
London, England
1982
Royal Shakespeare Compasny
Stratford-upon-Avon, England
1997
Arcola Theatre
London, England
2009
Mrin Shakespeare Company
San Rafael, California
2013
Old Red Lion Theatre
London. England
2016
Violent EnteRtainment
“Tree,” in early modern English, was synonymous with “gallows” and public executions were another source of entertainment at the time. The Spanish Tragedy shows the evolution of how revenge acts as a contagion that breeds death and how death was turned into a spectacle. James Shapiro believes, “[The Spanish Tragedy] raises the possibility that it is not the opposition between state and theater, but their potential confusion and indistinguishability.” In the world of The
Spanish Tragedy, Kyd’s demand for audiences to look at their roles in violence as spectacle is left in confusion with no answer provided like the King and Andrea. In the absence of an answer is the truth of Kyd’s design: It is not up to the play to "reveal the mystery” but it is up to the audience to confront the question of what it means to be a spectator to the horrors shown both on and off the stage. Kyd’s mastery of manipulating the semiotics of performance holds a mirror up to audiences and exposes how they remain captivated by death as a source of entertainment. The line, like the hidden meanings underneath the language of The Spanish Tragedy, will entrap the audience in the harsh reality that there may not be a line at all.
Gendered Revenge
“What is a play without a woman in it?” Hieronimo uses this line when casting the play-within-a-play to encourage Bel-Imperia’s inclusion, but revenge tragedies would not exist without women in plays. Universities were staging Seneca’s tragedies, particularly Medea and Agamemnon. Seneca was fascinated with dramatizing myths that focused on how passions like love, anger, and ambition can mutate people past the point of their humanity. These cautionary tales were appealing to law students and lawmakers alike to gender the proper way to take revenge. Medea and Clytemnestra were examples of “feminised revenge” who
allow their passions to overtake them and take justice into their own hands leading to carnage and loss of innocent life. By taking grievances to the justice system, similar to Aeschylus’s Oresteia,
Clytemnestra
is the proper way to take revenge. Thomas Kyd, an evident Senecan lover, throws that gender binary out the window with Hieronimo. Scholars point to how in the Vindicta mihi soliloquy, Hieronimo transitions to a “feminised revenge” by quoting Clytemnestra. Kyd’s rejection of the binary of revenge adds to his overall upheaval of not only the concept of who is susceptible to revenge, but also pulled Seneca onto mainstream stages away from the gatekeeping of higher education.
Medea
Legacy of Revenge
“I'll there begin their endless tragedy.” The final line of The Spanish Tragedy, spoken by Revenge, eerily foretold that the play’s influence on theatre history. The Spanish Tragedy was entered into the Stationer’s Registrar in 1592 and after its first printing, history was given revenge tragedy staples: Titus Andronicus (1591/92), Hamlet (1600), Macbeth (1606), The Revenger’s Tragedy (1606), and many more. Early Shakespeare you can see Kyd’s influence not only in genre, but also
in verse; Shakespeare loosened as his career continued on. Scholars point to The Spanish Tragedy for influencing the popularity of plays-within-plays and characters, like Bel-Imperia, inspiring famous female roles such as Lady Macbeth. The Spanish Tragedy has become the Andrea in the history of revenge tragedy since many usually point to the above plays when the genre is mentioned. However, the beauty of this production will revitalize the significance of this script to this incredible lineage. The Spanish Tragedy is worthy of its own legacy and we will add to it through this piece.
Dramaturgical Resources
Initial Responses & Bibliography
Glossary & Pronunciation Guide
Content Warnings
Villanova Theatre Department’s The Spanish Tragedy contains the following:
Depictions of Death by Suicide
Depicition of Capital Punishment - Death by Hanging
Depictions of Murder
Gun Violence
Self-Disememberment
Loss of an adult child
V-File & Dramaturgy PLAYLIST
Education Guide