It would be easy to view The Spanish Tragedy, in a rather simplistic and superficial analysis, as a crude and inchoate example of the revenge tragedy. Andrea’s ghost is accompanied by Revenge, and the two of them act as a sort of Chorus throughout the events of the play. Watching the events of the play from the sidelines has been the ghost of Don Andrea, who had been killed by Balthasar in battle prior to the play.
Bellimperia stabs herself afterwards, and Hieronymo then tells the Duke about Horatio’s murder, before killing the Duke followed by himself. (Again, this is a clear precursor to the ‘Murder of Gonzago’ play-within-a-play in Hamlet.) In the play, the characters played by Hieronymo and Bellimperia kill the characters played by Balthasar and Lorenzo, but instead of merely pretending to stab them, both Hieronymo and Bellimperia actually kill the two men. Asked by Balthasar if he will stage a play for the viceroy’s amusement, Hieronymo puts on a play whose plot loosely mirrors the events surrounding Horatio’s murder. Once Hieronymo has spoken with Bellimperia and she has verified that she did indeed send him the letter, he sets about contriving the best way to avenge Horatio’s death. There follows a series of delays in Hieronymo’s enactment of revenge, delays which succeed in sending him mad. However, before he can avenge his son’s death, Hieronymo decides – much like Hamlet in Shakespeare’s later play – that he needs to prove that the letter was indeed from Bellimperia and that both Balthasar and Lorenzo are indeed guilty of Horatio’s murder. Bellimperia, who witnesses the brutal murder of her lover, sends a letter to Horatio’s father Hieronymo informing him that it was Balthasar and Lorenzo who murdered his son, and Hieronymo vows revenge on the two men. Bellimperia is Lorenzo’s sister, and she loves Horatio – and this is why poor Horatio is murdered by Balthasar and Lorenzo.
Believed to have been written and first performed in around 1587, The Spanish Tragedy tells the story of Hieronymo, marshal of Spain, whose son Horatio is murdered by Balthasar, son of the viceroy of Portugal, and Lorenzo, son of the Duke of Castile, because Balthasar has his eye on Bellimperia.
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