Intrigue in Elizabethan Tragedy

Abstract

It seems scarcely mannerly at this late date to discuss the historical importance of Kyd's Spanish Tragedy. The play has long been credited with introducing to the English popular stage the revenge motif, with its Senecan panoply of ghosts, multiple murders, dire auguries, moral sententiousness, and the like. With so many resemblances in fable, dramatis personae, and theatrical devices to Shakespeare's Hamlet, it must surely be considered portentous enough. It appears that the Elizabethan playwright is most successful in exercising his spell upon us when he is being most true to his own traditions. From the time of The Spanish Tragedy onwards the ingredients of Elizabethan tragedy were hard to synthesize. We cannot say that intrigue spoiled Elizabethan tragedy, since particular plays survive to demonstrate the unique and powerful effects achievable with its use, but a tragedy of intrigue, a tragedy cross-bred from comedy, was too difficult for most talents.