Draw Connections: Scenes from Hamlet, The Spanish Tragedy, and The Revenger’s Tragedy

Draw Connections: Scenes from Hamlet, The Spanish Tragedy, and The Revenger’s Tragedy

Hamlet is arguably one of Shakespeare’s finest plays, filled as it is with court intrigue, complex characters, and philosophical reflections on the nature of life, vengeance, family, and kingship. While the play is distinctively Shakespeare’s, he based his play on an existing story of Hamlet (or Amleth, in Saxo Grammaticus’ The Danish History), and worked within a genre of drama popular during his lifetime: the revenge tragedy. These questions will ask you to consider some features of the revenge tragedy as they appear in Hamlet and in two other major examples of the form: Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy and Thomas Middleton’s The Revenger’s Tragedy.

The Spanish Tragedy (subtitled Hieronimo is Mad Again) by Thomas Kyd is the very first revenge tragedy written for the early modern English stage. The play begins with the ghost of Don Andrea and a personified Revenge preparing to watch the action, and these two characters are onstage, commenting on the action throughout. The excerpts you’ll be reading primarily focus on Hieronimo, whose son Horatio has been murdered. In addition to being the dead Don Andrea’s best friend, Horatio had also become romantically involved with the dead man’s beloved, Bel-imperia. Her affection for Hieronimo comes from a desire for revenge against the man who killed Andrea in battle, and who now attempts to court her. The play culminates with a performance for the court, wherein Hieronimo and Bel-imperia wear masks, perform, and actually kill their enemies (and themselves).

In The Revenger’s Tragedy (which general critical consensus agrees was written by Thomas Middleton), the main character Vindici desires revenge against the Duke who murdered his beloved Gloriana after refusing the nobleman’s advances and who created a situation wherein Vindici’s father died, leaving the family in dire straits. The play opens with Vindici speaking to the skull of his beloved and ends, like The Spanish Tragedy, with a performance wherein characters are murdered out of vengeance. Both The Spanish Tragedy and The Revenger’s Tragedy consider—among other questions—how justice can exist when those who have done others wrong are protected by the head of state.

Download the annotated playtexts for Hamlet, The Spanish Tragedy, and The Revenger’s Tragedy, and answer the questions below to think about the genre and the themes that Hamlet grapples with.

  1. Hamlet, Vindici, and Hieronimo spend a lot of time talking in soliloquies, which among other things indicate the motivations of the character. While all of them certainly want revenge for the death of a loved one, they view their reasons for revenge somewhat differently. What motivates each character for revenge?

    Question

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    Chapter 4: Hamlet, Vindici, and Hieronimo spend a lot of time talking in soliloquies, which among other things indicate the motivations of the character. While all of them certainly want revenge for the death of a loved one, they view their reasons for revenge somewhat differently. What motivates each character for revenge?
  2. Vindici and Hamlet both look upon skulls and consider life and death. The skulls are examples of memento mori, a common trope in the Renaissance (do an image search for the term “renaissance memento mori,” or for one of the most famous examples, Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors for more ideas about how important these were to people of the period). Compare and contrast the things that Hamlet and Vindici consider while viewing these skulls. How do these differences indicate the way that each man is characterized?

    Question

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    Chapter 4: Vindici and Hamlet both look upon skulls and consider life and death. The skulls are examples of memento mori, a common trope in the Renaissance (do an image search for the term “renaissance memento mori,” or for one of the most famous examples, Hans Holbein’s The Ambassadors for more ideas about how important these were to people of the period). Compare and contrast the things that Hamlet and Vindici consider while viewing these skulls. How do these differences indicate the way that each man is characterized?
  3. Humoural theory was a medical theory that proposed that the human body contained four fluids—blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm—and that these had to be in balance in order for a person to be healthy in both body and mind. Hamlet and Vindici are both melancholic, which in humoural theory means that they have too much black bile in their systems. Considering their soliloquies and their actions in the excerpts, explain what that means for the way that they act and think.

    Question

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    Chapter 4: Humoural theory was a medical theory that proposed that the human body contained four fluids—blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm—and that these had to be in balance in order for a person to be healthy in both body and mind. Hamlet and Vindici are both melancholic, which in humoural theory means that they have too much black bile in their systems. Considering their soliloquies and their actions in the excerpts, explain what that means for the way that they act and think.
  4. Through comparing Hamlet’s use of the play-within-the-play with Hieronimo’s play-within-the-play, consider how effective and reliable Hamlet’s evidence is for accusing Claudius of the crime that the ghost says he committed.

    Question

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    Chapter 4: Through comparing Hamlet’s use of the play-within-the-play with Hieronimo’s play-within-the-play, consider how effective and reliable Hamlet’s evidence is for accusing Claudius of the crime that the ghost says he committed.
  5. Given the excerpts from these three texts, explain some of the features of the revenge tragedy. What do these three seem to have in common?

    Question

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    Chapter 4: Given the excerpts from these three texts, explain some of the features of the revenge tragedy. What do these three seem to have in common?
  6. In his soliloquy, Hieronimo talks about hiding his plans from his enemies, Vindici operates through much of the play as Piato, and Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is “but mad north-north-west.” What effect does this have on the characters and their motivations? How do the other characters view the apparent madness of the three men in the excerpted scenes?

    Question

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    Chapter 4: In his soliloquy, Hieronimo talks about hiding his plans from his enemies, Vindici operates through much of the play as Piato, and Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that he is “but mad north-north-west.” What effect does this have on the characters and their motivations? How do the other characters view the apparent madness of the three men in the excerpted scenes?