The Spanish Tragedy

by Thomas Kyd, J.R. Mulryne (Editor), Andrew Gurr (Editor)

Overview

The first fully-fledged example of a revenge tragedy, the genre that became so influential in later Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, The
Spanish Tragedy (1589) occupies a very special place in the history of
English Renaissance drama. Hieronimo, Knight-Marshal of Spain during its war with Portugal, fails to obtain justice when his son is murdered for courting Bel-Imperia, the Duke of Castile's daughter, and decides to take justice into his own hands...

This new student edition has been freshly revised by Professor
Andrew Gurr to incorporate the latest stage history and critical interpretations of the play. It also appends the scenes that were added in 1602, discusses Elizabethan attitudes to revenge, the Senecan features of the play and the significance of the Anglo-Spanish conflict in the 1580s.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781408114216
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/25/2009
Series:	New Mermaids
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	176
Sales rank:	947,908
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Andrew Gurr is Professor of English at Reading University.

Table of 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

1. From Richard Mulcaster, Positions (1581)
2. Letter from Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council (11 May 1593)
3. Thomas Kyd, Two Letters to Sir John Puckering (1593)
4. Thomas Kyd, Dedication to Robert Garnier’s Cornelia (1594)

Appendix C: The Question of Revenge

1. From the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans
2. From Seneca, Thyestes (first century CE)
3. From “A Sermon against Contention and Brawling” (1547)
4. From Richard Jones, The Book of Honor and Arms (1590)
5. From William Westerman, Two Sermons of Assize (1600)
6. From Ben Jonson, Introduction to Bartholomew Fair (1614)
7. Sir Francis Bacon, “Of Revenge” (1625)

Appendix D: Violence and Entertainment in Elizabethan England

1. From Robert Langham, A Letter (1575)
2. From William Harrison, Description of England (1586)
3. From Philip Stubbes, The Anatomy of Abuses (1595)
4. John Norden, Map of London (1593)
5. The Triple Tree at Tyburn

Appendix E: The Social Construction of Women at Court

1. From Baldesar Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier (1528)
2. From Juan Luis Vives, Instruction of Christian Women (1529)
3. Queen Elizabeth’s Armada Speech to the Troops at Tilbury (9 August 1588)
4. Lady Arbella Stuart, Letter to King James (c. December 1610)
5. From Elizabeth Cary, The Tragedy of Mariam (1613)

Appendix F: Spain in Elizabethan Culture

1. From Richard Hakluyt, A Discourse on Western Planting (1584)
2. From A Fig for the Spaniard (1591)
3. From Sir Walter Raleigh, A Report of the Truth of the Fight about the Iles of Azores (1591)

Works Cited and Further Reading

Editorial Reviews

This is a superb edition of The Spanish Tragedy — a work of exemplary scholarship and sensitive critical intelligence. The notes and annotations are admirably clear and informative, and the introduction to Thomas Kyd’s enigmatic life and work is enthralling and illuminating. As well as providing us with a fresh, updated play text, Patrick McHenry gives us a vivid account of the political and cultural background to this great, foundational work of revenge tragedy. Readers of this edition of the play will be rewarded with abundant critical insights and thought-provoking commentary.” — Stephen Regan, Durham University

“This foundational text of Renaissance drama and cultural history has been conservatively edited, helpfully glossed, and well annotated. In addition, a judicious selection of background materials (on revenge, honor, and forgiveness; Elizabethan blood lust; female agency; and Elizabethan perception of the Spanish temperament) makes this an excellent all-round edition for classroom use.” — Raymond-Jean Frontain, University of Central Arkansas

From the Publisher