Full Description
The Spanish Tragedy became one of the most successful plays on the Elizabethan English stage and laid the foundation of the revenge tragedy, a genre that playwrights returned to throughout the early modern era and that endures even today. The story surrounds the civil servant Hieronimo who joins Bel-imperia of the royal family to take revenge on her own brother for murdering Hieronimo's son, the object of her affection. The work goes far beyond a story of intrigue and brings up questions about aristocratic privilege, the moral hazards of revenge, the spectacle of violence, and the agency of women at court.
This Broadview Edition includes a freshly edited text based on the 1592 edition, notes designed to help first-time readers understand and enjoy the work, an extensive introduction that situates the play in its literary and historical context, and extensive historical documents. The documents open up avenues of inquiry for students interested in the life and work of Thomas Kyd, the construction of women at court, the question of revenge, violence and entertainment in Elizabethan England, and Spain in the Elizabethan imagination.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Thomas Kyd: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Spanish Tragedy
Appendix A: Additional Passages of 1602
Appendix B: Documents in the Life of Thomas Kyd
From Richard Mulcaster, Positions (1581)
Letter from Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council (11 May 1593)
Thomas Kyd, Two Letters to Sir John Puckering (1593)
Thomas Kyd, Dedication to Robert Garnier's Cornelia (1594)
Appendix C: The Question of Revenge
From the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans
From Seneca, Thyestes (first century CE)
From "A Sermon against Contention and Brawling" (1547)
From Richard Jones, The Book of Honor and Arms (1590)
From William Westerman, Two Sermons of Assize (1600)
From Ben Jonson, Introduction to Bartholomew Fair (1614)
Sir Francis Bacon, "Of Revenge" (1625)
Appendix D: Violence and Entertainment in Elizabethan England
From Robert Langham, A Letter (1575)
From William Harrison, Description of England (1586)
From Philip Stubbes, The Anatomy of Abuses (1595)
John Norden, Map of London (1593)
The Triple Tree at Tyburn
Appendix E: The Social Construction of Women at Court
From Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528)
From Juan Luis Vives, Instruction of Christian Women (1529)
Queen Elizabeth's Armada Speech to the Troops at Tilbury (9 August 1588)
Lady Arbella Stuart, Letter to King James (c. December 1610)
From Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam (1613)
Appendix F: Spain in Elizabethan Culture
From Richard Hakluyt, A Discourse on Western Planting (1584)
From A Fig for the Spaniard (1591)
From Sir Walter Raleigh, A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Iles of Azores (1591)
Works Cited and Further Reading
