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
Balthazar enters with Lorenzo and Lorenzo’s page. Lorenzo asks the page if he is sure he saw Pedringano’s dead body, and the page insists he has. The page exits, and a servant enters with Bel-Imperia. She immediately turns to Lorenzo and verbally attacks him. He is not her brother, Bel-Imperia says, but her enemy. Lorenzo tells her to calm down, and she will see that he has done her a favor and saved her honor and his.
Lorenzo is so paranoid that he will be betrayed, he must make sure that Pedringano is really dead. Lorenzo’s claim that he has saved Bel-Imperia’s honor implies that Horatio was a threat to her honor. Horatio was of a lower social standing and was not a nobleman, which, to Lorenzo, means that he was not good enough for Bel-Imperia.
Themes
Bel-Imperia can’t possibly see how Lorenzo has saved her honor, so he explains. Their father (the Duke of Castile) and the King of Spain wanted to see Hieronimo about some legal matters and had sent Lorenzo along first. When he arrived at Hieronimo’s, Lorenzo found Bel-Imperia in the garden with Horatio. In light of Bel-Imperia’s “old disgrace” with Don Andrea, which was sure to be sustained with her relationship with Horatio, Lorenzo killed Horatio.
Lorenzo and Bel-Imperia are royalty—their father is a duke and their uncle the king—and Hieronimo is merely a civil servant. His position as judge is surely important, but it does not make him or his son, Horatio, on the same social level as Lorenzo and Bel-Imperia. Andrea was not noble either, and Lorenzo and Castile similarly disapproved of him.
Themes
Bel-Imperia asks Lorenzo why he has kept her locked up all this time, and Lorenzo says that her sadness over Andrea’s death has angered their father, the Duke of Castile. Lorenzo leans in and whispers into Bel-Imperia’s ear, telling her to consider Balthazar again. Balthazar loves her, Lorenzo says. Balthazar confirms and again professes his love to Bel-Imperia, asking again for her to accept him. Bel-Imperia refuses and exits, followed by Balthazar and Lorenzo.
In reality, Bel-Imperia doesn’t have any power to accept or refuse Balthazar. The King of Spain and the Viceroy of Portugal have already decided Bel-Imperia and Balthazar will marry. Lorenzo appears to give Bel-Imperia a choice as if to torture her, as he surely knows that the marriage is already set.
Themes
