Drew Patti

Drama: Renaissance and Modern

Professor Hurley

January 18, 2017

The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd

After finishing the first scene of Kyds The Spanish Tragedy, I was eager to see how the

play itself would unfold. Ive always admired writers who start a story with the outcome of a

certain incident because I find myself more attentive in hopes to figure out what happened to get

to the outcome first presented. Whats also fascinating about this writer technique, which Kyd

executes seamlessly, is that there is usually a great number of factors that play into the final

outcome that might not have seemed as important if we had been presented with them prior to

the outcome.

Having learned that William Shakespeare may have based his play Hamlet off of The

Spanish Tragedy, the similarities were easily apparent. The part of the play that truly compares

Hamlet and The Spanish Tragedy, in my opinion, is at the end of Act II when Hieronimo, for a

split second, considers suicide due to the loss of his son. The soliloquy Hieronimo gives while

cutting down his sons hanging body made me instantly think of the classic to be, or not to be

soliloquy that Hamlet performs when he contemplates suicide.

There were, however, a few things that didnt quite make sense to me. Most of these

events occurring or involving the court and social ranking. I found it odd that Balthazar, being a

captive, was treated so well as a hostage solely because he is a prince. Had any other soldier been

taken hostage its assumed that they wouldnt be treated as well if their social ranking was low. I

also found it a bit strange that the Spanish court actors performed a scene following three
separate times Portugal was defeated by England including boastful commentary on Spains

behalf. Though the exchange was funny since the Portuguese reminded Spain that England

defeated them also, it seemed a bit unnecessary story wise but probably was intended for a

political stance.

All in all, the first two acts of The Spanish Tragedy turned out to be just the way I

expected it: very similar to Hamlet. The staging would be a bit different though due to the artistic

choice of having the Ghost of Andrea and Revenge onstage the entire time, but I think that just

adds to the genius! The Spanish Tragedy has combing aspects of traditional Greek theatre, as

well as Shakespearean dialect. The fact that this play is so close to Hamlet actually made me

enjoy it that much more because throughout reading it I would try to tie the two together; and I

usually dont like Shakespeare!