After Pedringano is imprisoned for the murder of Serberine, Lorenzo sends a page to Hieronimo with a box supposedly containing Pedringano’s pardon, and this box symbolizes betrayal in The Spanish Tragedy. Lorenzo pays Pedringano to kill Serberine because Lorenzo is convinced that Serberine betrayed them to Hieronimo and revealed Horatio’s murder. When Pedringano is arrested for Serberine’s murder, he isn’t worried in the least. Pedringano is sure that Lorenzo, the nephew of the King of Spain and the son of the Duke of Castile, will secure his pardon. Lorenzo indeed sends the page with a box containing Pedringano’s pardon, but he orders the page not to open the box on pain of death. The page is full of curiosity and opens the box anyway; however, the box is empty, revealing that Lorenzo has betrayed Pedringano and has no intention of securing his pardon. Pedringano goes before Hieronimo, the Knight Marshall of Spain, and is sentenced to hang—all the while convinced that the page, who sits nearby with the box in his lap, is holding his pardon. Pedringano is promptly hanged, and neither the page nor the box is mentioned again. By ensuring Pedringano’s execution, Lorenzo tries to be certain that no one will find out about Horatio’s murder. With Pedringano and Serberine dead, only Bel-Imperia knows the truth about Balthazar and Lorenzo’s murder of Horatio (except for Hieronimo, of course), and Lorenzo’s betrayal of both Pedringano and Serberine is represented by the empty box. The box also reflects the page’s betrayal of Lorenzo, when he ignores Lorenzo’s order and opens the box, as well as the page’s betrayal of Pedringano, when he discovers the box is empty but does not warn his fellow servant for fear of his own life. Thus, the box, while literally empty, is metaphorically full of betrayal.
The Box Quotes in The Spanish Tragedy
My master hath forbidden me to look in this box, and by my
troth ’tis likely, if he had not warned me, I should not have had
so much idle time; for we men’s-kind in our minority are like
women in their uncertainty: that they are most forbidden,
they will soonest attempt. So I now. By my bare honesty, here’s
nothing but the bare empty box. Were it not sin against secrecy,
I would say it were a piece of gentleman-like knavery. I must
go to Pedringano, and tell him his pardon is in this box; nay, I
would have sworn it, had I not seen the contrary. I cannot choose
but smile to think how the villain will flout the gallows, scorn
the audience, and descant on the hangman, and all presuming
of his pardon from hence. Will’t not be an odd jest, for me to
stand and grace every jest he makes, pointing my finger at this
box, as who would say, ‘Mock on, here’s thy warrant.’ Is’t not a
scurvy jest that a man should jest himself to death? Alas, poor
Pedringano, I am in a sort sorry for thee, but if I should be
hanged with thee, 1 cannot weep.
Peace, impudent, for thou shalt find it so:
For blood with blood shall, while I sit as judge,
Be satisfied, and the law discharged.
And though myself cannot receive the like,
Yet will I see that others have their right.
Despatch, the fault’s approved and confessed,
And by our law he is condemned to die.
The Box Symbol Timeline in The Spanish Tragedy
