Review of ReseaRch

issN: 2249-894X
impact factoR : 5.7631(Uif)
volUme - 9 | issUe - 9 | JUNe - 2020

THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: A METADRAMA BY THOMAS KYD

Dr. Priti Kanodia

Associate Professor , P. G. Department of English, C. M. College, Darbhanga, Bihar.

ABSTRACT
The Spanish Tragedy is a Senecan play by Thomas Kyd adapted according to the Elizabethan
taste. It is perhaps the best revenge play in English which became a classic of its time. Kyd imported some
features of Senecan tragedy into his play, the theme of revenge, a ghost and plenty of declamation. He
discarded the antique story taken from mythology and gave instead a sizzling play of love and war
introducing a bewildering variety of plot and sub plot to create striking variety with dull monotonous plots
of Senecan tragedies. Kyd exhibited an uncanny knack of manoeuvring stage effects so that even the most
patently lurid and melodramatic incidents assumed the power of gripping the attention of even the most
sceptical audience. The Spanish Tragedy was the progenitor of all the plays that followed.
Thomas Kyd is unique in many ways. He was the first one to use the great qualities of blank verse
which then were made a masterly form by Marlowe and Shakespeare. As a means of telling a complex story
on stage, Kyd’s work is brilliantly constructed. The scenes alternate between rapid, decisive and often
startling action and slow contemplation of moral and other issues. The mystery unravels in slow motion,
truth emerging bit by bit. The finale develops a crescendo of bloodily potent action out of the pretence of
imposture and the comic play acting of the-play-within-the-play. The play reinvents classical tragedy for
the Renaissance audiences freeing it from generic limitation and epistemological determinism of classical,
Aristotelian tragedy; it advances the genre by rejecting its most basic rules and assumptions about the
mimetic function of the drama establishing theatrical self-awareness or self-reflexive mode. It sets early a
new trend of modern drama the presence of meta-theatricality in drama. This paper attempts to view The
Spanish Tragedy as a metadrama.

KEYWORDS: Revenge, justice, the-play-within-the-play, dumb show, metadrama, self-reflexive.

INTRODUCTION
The Spanish Tragedy, or Hieronimo is Mad Again is a play by Thomas Kyd which established a
new genre in English theatre of the revenge tragedy. Critics say that The Spanish Tragedy resembles a
Senecan tragedy. “The separation of acts, the emphasized bloody climax, and the revenge itself, make
this play resemble some of the most famous ancient plays” (The
Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Tragedies).
We first see the makings of metadrama in Kyd’s The
Spanish Tragedy. Many elements of The Spanish Tragedy, such as
dumb show, the- play-within-a-play which is used to trap a
murderer for justice, soliloquies and asides are the
characteristics which help to study this play as a metadrama.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Journal for all Subjects : [Link]
1
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: A METADRAMA BY THOMAS KYD volUme - 9 | issUe - 9 | JUNe- 2020
________________________________________________________________________________________
METADRAMA: DEFINITION AND MEANING
Metadrama is a “play that features another play as part of its plot” (your [Link]). So, “a
play within a play is a dramatic plot device or extended metaphor where characters narrate one story
while still part of another. Playwrights use such juxtaposition of nested plays to give a performance of
self-reflection and to reiterate the play's main themes. The French term is Mise en abyme”
([Link]).
William Shakespeare cleverly deployed this device the use of the-play “Murder of Gonzago,
within-the-play Hamlet”. However, it was Thomas Kyd who first used this device in The Spanish Tragedy
creating new standards for plot construction.
Metatheatre, and the closely related term Metadrama, describe the aspect of a play that draws
attention to its nature as drama or theatre, or to the circumstances of its performance. These may
include the direct address to the audience (especially in soliloquies, asides, prologues and epilogues);
expression of an awareness of the presence of the audience, an acknowledgement of the fact that the
people performing are actors; an element whose meaning depends on difference between the
represented time and place of drama (the fictional world) and the time and place of its theatrical
presentation (the reality of its theatre event); plays-within-plays (or masques, spectacles or other form
of performances within the drama)…” (Metadrama- Oxford Reference).
Lionel Abel, in his book, Metatheatre: A New View of Dramatic Form (1963), is credited with
coining the term metatheatre. However, despite this pioneering move, Abel’s interest lay not with
metatheatre but rather primarily with tragedy and the setting up of metatheatre as a new genre carved
in the early modern era to replace the ailing classical tragedy. As a result, “Abel’s contribution to the
field has been of slight theoretical weight apart from his lexical addition. Independent of Abel, self-
reflexive qualities in the plays of Shakespeare in particular and Renaissance drama in general have
attracted significant scholarly attention, beginning with studies of specific metatheatrical devices such
as dumb shows, insets, frames and extra-dramatic moments, but also extending beyond initial census-
taking to considerations of the thematic implications of metatheatre with regard to individual plays”
(Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticis, p.115). In recent years, similar approaches have been applied
to metatheatrical events in Greek and Roman classics and contemporary British plays.

REVENGE AND JUSTICE

The Spanish Tragedy established a new genre in English theatre, of the Revenge Tragedy. “The
genre is not original to the period, deriving from a revival of interest in the revenge tragedies of the
Roman playwright Seneca. Nor is it exclusive to the past, as anyone who has seen the ‘Death Wish’ or
‘Lethal Weapon’ films can attest. The revenge-play satisfied a deep longing in its audience for simple
black-and-white rough justice that seems to be universal” (Tragedy, 317). “While the brutal quest for
vengeance drives Kyd's play, justice is ultimately its main thematic concern: what is it, who has the right
to administer it, and is any sacrifice too great for its final attainment” (Hunter, 217)?
There are whisperings of revenge throughout the play. Bel-Imperia’s soliloquy contains the
second repetition of the word ‘revenge’. Revenge itself is personified. Andrea addresses his shadow
‘Forthwith, Revenge, she rounded thee in th’ear…’(The Spanish Tragedy, I.i.81). The first use of the word
is by the Viceroy of Portugal (The Spanish Tragedy, [Link].48) .In Act IV,i. Hieronimo has made ‘invention’
with a strange and wondrous show by his own savage plot, by hiding Horatio’s body behind a curtain to
be discovered as the justification and explanation of his own plot to be followed after the-play-within-
the-play .
“The Book of Exodus in the Holy Bible states that everyone should ‘give life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’ (NLT 21:23) in order for the world to be a fair place.
Thomas Kyd developed the Kydian Formula not to veer away from revenge tragedy, but to completely
distinguish revenge tragedies from other plays” ([Link]/searc...).
SOLILOQUIES
The first soliloquy which hints the theme of revenge and the progression of the plot is Bel-
Imperia’s soliloquy which she utters after Horatio’s death-
________________________________________________________________________________________
Journal for all Subjects : [Link]
2
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: A METADRAMA BY THOMAS KYD volUme - 9 | issUe - 9 | JUNe- 2020
________________________________________________________________________________________
Ay,go Horatio,leave me here alone,
For solitude best fits my cheerless mood.
Yet, what avails to wail Andrea’s death, ([Link].58-60, p.23)
She further stresses her feelings of revenge for her beloved Andrea as well as Horatio-
“Yes, second love shall further my revenge…” (p.23)

Hieronimo, the Knight Marshal of Spain, is a symbol for the authority of law within The Spanish
Tragedy. His character grows over a series of soliloquies dealing with several key [Link] first
soliloquy occurs when Hieronimo is awakened from his sleep by Bel-Imperia’s cry:

What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,

And chill my throbbing heart with trembling fear,
………………………………………………
Who calls Hieronimo? Speak, here I am.
..........................................................
And here within this garden did she cry,
And in this garden must I rescue her.
But stay, what murd'rous spectacle is this?
.............................................................
Alas, it is Horatio, my sweet son!( II.v.1-14, p.43)

Hieronimo is alarmed and agitated. He mutters to himself and blames God in utter despair. This
soliloquy informs the future action.
The second soliloquy of Hieronimo in Act III, scene ii, shows his conflict in retaining faith in the
justice of Heaven.

O Eyes! no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;

O life! no life, but lively form of death;
O world! no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confused and fill’d with murder and misdeeds!( 1-4, p.53)

Hieronimo's third soliloquy at the beginning of Act III scene xii is an acted soliloquy, where he
enters with a dagger in one hand and a rope in the other to await the arrival of the King.
In the fourth soliloquy Hieronimo appears on stage with a book by Seneca. He reads the passage
which says that the safe way for crimes was further crimes. Strike hard against injustice lest it should
lead to further injustice. He decides to avenge Horatio's death not in an open hostile manner but hiding
behind the cloak of kindness. He says-

Vindicta mihi!
Ay, heaven will be revenged of every ill, (III. xiii.1-2, p.88)

Hieronimo’s madness has been given a new function which is dramatically effective at the same
time sound psychology. Kyd knew how to make dramatic capital out of the greatest variety of dramatic
effects. The structure and proportions are worked out with an almost mathematical precision and
stylistic figures make powerful impact of metatheatricality. A quality or force in the play which
challenges theatre's claim to be simply realistic.

THE DUMB SHOW

The dumb-show is defined by Oxford Dictionary of English as “gestures used to convey a
meaning or message without speech; mime” ([Link] It refers to a piece of dramatic
mime in general, and particularly an action which summarizes, supplement or comment on the main
________________________________________________________________________________________
Journal for all Subjects : [Link]
3
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: A METADRAMA BY THOMAS KYD volUme - 9 | issUe - 9 | JUNe- 2020
________________________________________________________________________________________
action of the play. It came into fashion in 16th century English drama in interludes featuring
“personifications of abstract virtues and vices who contend in ways which foreshadow and moralise the
fortunes of the play’s characters” ([Link] There are examples from Gorboduc
George Peele’s The Battle of Alcazaar, and Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Two dumb shows occur in this play.
First appears in Act I, scene iv where the royal guest ‘sit to the banquet’ (p.25) which is in the
honour of the Portuguese ambassador to celebrate the new alliance between two countries. This
masque is staged by Hieronimo to entertain the guests. He is appreciated by the King - “Hieronimo, this
masque contents mine eye” (138, p.26).
The second dumb show is staged by Revenge for the Ghost. The Ghost of Andrea feels fearful
and appeals Revenge to wake up - “Erictho!Celebrus”.

“Hieronimo with Lorenzo is join’d in league” (15, p.102).

To which Revenge replies that Hieronimo cannot forget his son Horatio.
“Nor dies Revenge, though he sleeps a while,
For in unquiet quietness is feigned….” (III. xv. 23-24, p.103).

Soon, follows a dumb show. In which the first two knights carry the bright burning torches like
the mid-day sun, as usual in a marriage procession. Revenge explains what the audience has just seen, a
bleak inversion of a wedding ceremony, where Hymen as a god of marriage, puts out the nuptial torches
in pots of blood.
The mime presented by Hieronimo and the dumb show presented by Revenge may seem
extraneous in reality they present simultaneously spectacle and melodrama and foreshadow the
catastrophe in store for Spain and Portugal.

THE-PLAY-WITHIN-THE-PLAY
The most interesting feature of the play which makes it a metadrama is the-play-within-the-
play. Soon after the dumb show, wedding festivities start. In Act IV, scene iii, Hieronimo starts building
the stage. The play is based on the story of Soliman and Perseda. The chronicles of Spain contain the
account of a Knight of Rhodes who was betrothed and finally wedded to an Italian beauty Perseda. She
captured the heart of Soliman. He spoke of his love to one of his friends Bashaw, who tried to persuade
Perseda. But she would not agree till her husband is alive. So, he contrived to kill the knight of Rhodes.
Soliman is killed by her and she stabs herself.
The-play-within-the-play is a fine illustration of Kyd’s structural skill. It reflects the main theme.
Hieronimo, who, desperate by not getting justice for his son’s murder is ready to take revenge. He
expected justice from the king, if not, then from heavens.

‘The heavens are just, murder cannot be hid’ (II. v. p.45).

The original dishonour, Andrea’s death which will be revenged through the action of the whole
play sets of Bel-Imperia’s quest of revenge on Balthazar. Hieronimo assigns the role of Soliman to
Balthazar; the role of Erasto to Lorenzo; Hieronimo himself took the role of Bashaw. The proposed
drama requires that Bashaw should stab Erasto and Perseda should stab Soliman. The stabbings are
supposed to be unreal in a drama. But they stab in reality to avenge Horatio’s murder. Hieronimo feigns
madness earlier in the play. Now, he wants to enact this tragedy to take revenge in a most spectacular
and shocking way. The-play-within-the-play makes tragedy more gruesome and terrible. It is self-
reflective.
The critical work, which theorizes the nature of self-reflexivity in theatre, is Drama, Metadrama,
and Perception (1986) by Richard Hornby. Hornby derives metadrama as a mode of non-mimetic
criticism presenting a different method of relating art to life. This relation manifests in the reflection of
the drama/culture complex in dramatic art….It is the role of serious art (as opposed to conventional
art) to call into question the artistic system by invoking this reflection in the plays themselves. Through
________________________________________________________________________________________
Journal for all Subjects : [Link]
4
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: A METADRAMA BY THOMAS KYD volUme - 9 | issUe - 9 | JUNe- 2020
________________________________________________________________________________________
this discussion, he does deal with most traditional instances of metatheatre like the-play-within-a-play
(Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, p.116).
In his Dictionary of the Theatre, Pavis offers four principal strands of metatheatre - “The first of
these is the standard theatre-within-theatre model represented by Lionel Abel. Here, a play is nested
inside the play already in progress. Characters in the fictional world of the play assume roles, becoming
themselves actors and subsequently second order characters in the fictional world of the play-within.
Formal plays-within also feature a doubled audience, with some characters arranged as spectators to
this event, mirroring the actual-world audience-without. Play-within as a model of metatheatre,
however, need not always reproduce a complete performance. The same effect can be achieved through
informal plays-within, through characters who play roles or who direct the actions of others” (Journal of
Dramatic Theory and Criticism, p.123). In this manner, the play-within exhibits both a fictional world of
Soliman and Perseda and the actual world of The Spanish Tragedy in which the-play-within-the-play is
produced for the audiences that is the King of Spain and his royal guests at the court. The whole event is
self-reflexive in producing a meta dramatic effect in the real play for the audiences within and on the
whole the world of the audiences outside.

CONCLUSION
Drama of all forms of art is most immediately affected by material [Link] involves
creation by the dramatist, recreation by a company of actors on stage, and third incarnation in the
illusion of the spectators. Thomas Kyd holds his importance as the maker of Elizabethan Revenge
tragedy. Kyd is a craftsman and an artist. His The Spanish Tragedy is a great advance upon earlier
tragedies, and no other tragedy is near it in quality and tone. It makes a turning point in the history of
tragedy. Its ghosts, horror, murders, vindictiveness are few common elements of Senecan tragedy. But
in management of his language, he shows a great advance upon the contemporary playwrights. His
characters are distinct, situations theatricality effective, and the plot a unified whole. Kyd’s dialogue
maintains decorum, reflecting the characters. It’s the Virgilian framework within which Kyd has placed
the main action. By virtue of the framing action in particular with the help of asides and soliloquies
audience enjoys knowledge hidden from participants. The two dumb-shows and the-play-within-the-
play is an example of Kyd’s structural craft which reflects the play’s governing theme. The roles of the
character in the-play-within-the-play are equal to their actions in the main play. The Ghost of Andrea is
a spectator as well as a character and a chorus simultaneously in the play. According to Anne Barton
“For Don Andrea the actions occurring on the stage below are painfully real, in no sense rehearsal at
second hand” (The Structure and the Meaning of the Spanish Tragedy).
As the result of the complicated structure, the events involving Hieronimo and Bel-Imperia, in
the-play-within-the-play, which was to be merely fictitious acquire an unexpected reality. Through this
act, Hieronimo performs the main action of the play. Here the focus of the creator moves towards
hidden action under the guise of an art, a play presented for the entertainment. The opportunity is
sought by Hieronimo to fulfil individual objective along with Bel-Imperia and Don Andrea’s. At the same
time the world of chorus who is engaged in the real action of watching a play uses its inherent reality
and merges with the fictitious world of drama. In The Spanish Tragedy, use of this dramatic device of
plot construction by Kyd set a new standard of structure of the plays - the metadrama.

WORKS CITED
 Kyd Thomas, The Spanish Tragedy, ed. J.R. Mulryne, Bloomsbury, New Delhi, 2016.
 Stephenson Jenn, Meta-enunciative Properties of Dramatic Dialogue: A New View of Metatheatre and
the Work of Slawomir Swiontek, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, 3563-Article Text-3902-1-
[Link].
 Watson, Robert N., Tragedy. The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama. ed. A. R.
Braunmuller and Michael Hattaway. Cambridge, UK, 1990.
 Dillon Janette, The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare’s Tragedies, 2007. Retreived on 23rd Dec.
2019 from [Link]
________________________________________________________________________________________
Journal for all Subjects : [Link]
5
THE SPANISH TRAGEDY: A METADRAMA BY THOMAS KYD volUme - 9 | issUe - 9 | JUNe- 2020
________________________________________________________________________________________
 Retrieved on 23rd Dec. 2019 from [Link] [Link].
 The Structure and Meaning of The Spanish Tragedy. Retreived on 24th Dec.2019 from
[Link] [Link].
 Retrieved on 23rd Dec. 2019 from [Link]/world-view/play-within-play-called.
 Metadrama-Oxford Reference, Retrieved on 23rd Dec.2019 from [Link] [Link]...
 Oxford Dictionary of English, Retrieved on 28th Dec. 2019 from [Link]
[Link].
 Hunter, Revenge in Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, Retrieved on 23rd Dec. 2019 from Free The
Spanish Tragedy Essays and Papers – 123 [Link].
 The Spanish Tragedy. Retrieved on 23rd Dec. 2019 from [Link]

Dr. Priti Kanodia

Associate Professor , P. G. Department of English, C. M. College, Darbhanga, Bihar.

________________________________________________________________________________________
Journal for all Subjects : [Link]
6