Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Spanish Tragedy, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Revenge and Justice
Class, Gender, and Society
Love and Madness
Betrayal
Summary
Analysis
Horatio enters with Bel-Imperia, and Pedringano shows Lorenzo and Balthazar to a hiding place above, where they are able to spy on the couple below. Bel-Imperia confesses her love to Horatio, and Balthazar says that his heart has died. Lorenzo tells Balthazar that his heart will soon live in the joy of Horatio’s death. Horatio tells Bel-Imperia that she must return to her father, the Duke of Castile, before she raises any suspicion. They all exit.
Spying, which is another form of Pedringano’s betrayal of Bel-Imperia, is a popular device in Elizabethan plays. Kyd was one of the first playwrights to use spying within a scene to advance plot, and this technique was heavily used by Shakespeare and other Elizabethan playwrights as well.
Themes
Literary Devices
