Part 2 of our look at the Spanish Tragedy. There's blood and spoilers ahead.
Act III, Scene 1
The Viceroy of Portugal is getting ready to execute Alexandro, binding him to a stake and everything when the Ambassador shows up with good news. Balthazar’s alive in the Spanish court and getting ready to get married. Alexandro is untied, apologized to and Viluppo is taken away as a traitor, having been served a hearty plate of justice. Sadly, his fate is off-stage.
Act III, Scene 2
Hieronimo mourns his son in a long (but very nice) speech when a letter falleth from the sky. Written in blood by Bel-imperia, who’s been locked up Rapunzel-style by Lorenzo, the letter tells Hieronimo all about the murder.
Lorenzo, suspecting that someone suspects arrives and pays Pedringano to kill Serebine (Balthazar’s servant. Oh, so that's who he is) because he’s probably ratting them out.
Act III, Scene 3
Pedringano loiters ominously at night, then shoots Serebine when he shows up. The night watch show up in record time to actually see the smoking gun in the killer’s hand and arrest Pedringano.
Act III, Scene 4
Lorenzo tells Balthazar that he thinks somebody sold them out to Hieronimo. A page arrives telling them that Serebine is dead and Pedringano arrested. Lorenzo assures Balthazar that Pedringano will die as well and that there’s nothing to worry about. A page then tells Lorenzo that Pedringano’s in jail and asking Lorenzo to bail him out. Lorenzo gives the page a box to take with him.
Act III, Scene 5
The page looks in the box (because he was told not too) and finds...NOTHING! ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! The page comments that Pedringano is royally screwed if he thinks the pardon is in the box.
Act III, Scene 6
Hieronimo brings Pedringano before a gallows. Pedringano thinks the pardon is in the box the page brings. Black comedy ensues and Pedringano is hung.
Act III, Scene 7
Hieronimo broods over the death of Horatio when the hangman brings him a letter Pedringano had on him. The letter reaffirms Bel-imperia’s letter, and Hieronimo is PISSED.
Act III, Scene 8
Isabella, grieving for her son, “runs lunatic” as the stage directions say.
Act III, Scene 9
Bel-imperia is at a window. She is sad. That’s it.
Act III, Scene 10
Balthazar tries to court Bel-imperia again with predictable results. Bel-imperia blows him off, Lorenzo is mad at her, and Balthazar is sad that she doesn’t like him.
Act III, Scene 11
Hieronimo meets some Portuguese guys and pretends to act crazy in front of them. There is much laughing. (Shakespeare Shot)
Act III, Scene 12
Hieronimo broods some more (Shakespeare Shot) before continuing the crazy act in front of the King, Ambassador, Castile and Lorenzo. Lorenzo denies Hieronimo an audience with the King.
Act III, Scene 13
Hieronimo plots revenge then hears some legal cases.
Act III, Scene 14
The Viceroy of Portugal arrives at the King’s court. Everybody hugs. Balthazar keeps trying to woo Bel-imperia (who is very much against hugging him). Castile talks to Hieronimo, who pretends to reconcile with Lorenzo and Balthazar.
Act III, Scene 15 (Yes, FIFTEEN)
Don Andrea wakes up a sleeping Revenge (can you blame him? I mean, 15 scenes!!) and whines about how revenge isn’t about making buddies with the people that killed your son. Revenge tells him to wait and nods off again.
Act IV, Scene 1
Bel-imperia and Hieronimo scheme together then pretend to be nice to Lorenzo and Balthazar. Hieronimo asks them to star in a play for the King and Viceroy’s amusement. They agree and rehearse a little.
Act IV, Scene 2
Isabella, still crazy with grief, stabs herself to death.
Act IV, Scene 3
Hieronymus “knocks up the curtain” and prepares the stage for the rulers. Castile talks with him about the upcoming play.
Act IV, Scene 4
The court sits down for a nice evening of theater, and comment on how realistic it looked when Hieronimo stabbed Lorenzo and Bel-imperia stabbed Balthazar and herself. They quite literally “act out revenge.” Pretty good for amateur thespians. Hieronimo draws back a curtain revealing the dead (and likely smelly) Horatio, explains to the King everything leading up to the revenge, bites his own tongue out then stabs Castile and himself. (That’s…a whole bottle’s worth of Shakespeare borrowing right there).
Act IV, Scene 5
Don Andrea is pretty satisfied with the outcome. He and Revenge leave the stage to go and meet the newcomers to the underworld. The End.
Impressions
Pretty wild, when you look at it as a whole. Being an early Elizabethan play, there’s a lot of dead time, a lot of needlessly boring scenes and a couple other things that seem off (I mean Serebine shows up at the murder of Horatio for the sole purpose of being killed off later) and other things that get “ironed out” of later plays, but when Kyd gets down to business, he bloody well delivers. Stuff like the murder in the garden just punch the audience in the face and scream “pay attention!” Hell, the whole climax of the play with the “play-within-a-play” and the “everybody dies” ending was so damn effective that Shakespeare pretty much lifted it beat by beat and tossed it into his most highly regarded tragedy (with a few nods to Othello for good measure) This play was the moment in Elizabethan theater where audiences looked at each other and said “shit just got real.” Exactly like in Bad Boys 2.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
Thomas Kyd - The Spanish Tragedy, pt. 1
What
The Spanish Tragedie, Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio, and Bel-imperia: with the pittifull death of olde Hieronimo (that's the full title)
The granddaddy of Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy that influenced pretty much all future/contemporary Elizabethan playwrights including Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) is something of a cipher to the modern world. The son of a London scrivener (a kind of pro writer who copied legal texts and whatnot), he was roomies with Elizabethan bad boy Christopher “Kit” Marlowe for a while, worked as an actor in Lord Strange’s Men (the most awesomely named acting company I’ve ever heard of), and was arrested and tortured in 1593 on charges of treason based on illegal books found in his & Kit’s flat, but released. Kit Marlowe was arrested too, but released with less hassle because of [insert conspiracy theory here]. He died the next year, so its quite possible he got worked over pretty hard. Aside from the Spanish Tragedy, the only other surviving thing that he wrote is a translation of a French play that is neither as famous or as important. He’s been attributed/rumored to have written various OTHER plays, especially something called the “Ur-Hamlet,” which was allegedly the play Shakespeare remade/looted for his own play (not Hamlet performed by cavemen, even though that would totally rule). He was not a 17th century pirate who left a still-undiscovered treasure buried somewhere in the Caribbean, that was somebody else.
Why
Kyd revolutionized the stage, quite simply. How he did this is by adapting elements from the recently rediscovered Sencan Tragedies (ancient Roman “closet drama” plays by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the tutor of crazytoga emperor Nero) for the (then) modern stage. Basically, he kept the highfalutin speeches and graphic descriptions of violence while making sure the violence described wasn’t just off-stage. Audiences (particularly Elizabethans) love buckets of blood, and boy did he give it to them.
The (Spoiler Free) Basics
Bloody-minded revenge is the order of the day in the court of Spain as political maneuvering in a peace treaty with Portugal gets really, really ugly. Take a shot every time you spot something Shakespeare used, it’ll be fun.
From here on there be spoilers….
Act I, Scene 1
Don Andrea and Revenge step onstage. In a long Senecan speech (lots of high language monologuing) Andrea tells the audience that he died in battle, misses his fiancée Bel-imperia, went down to the underworld and was sent back up to earth with Revenge by Prosperine (queen of the underworld) to observe the revenge about to happen to his killers. Revenge tells him to sit down on stage and watch. A revenge-minded ghost, why I believe that’s our first shot.
Act I, Scene 2
The King of Spain enters and asks a general how things are going. Things are great! The Spanish army gave the Portuguese a jolly good thrashing. Don Andrea gave a good account of himself and contributed to the win, but too bad he died. Don Andrea’s buddy Horatio went and captured Prince Balthazar (who killed Andrea) directly leading to victory. The duke of Castile verbally high-fives his brother the King. Hieronimo, Horatio’s father and Marshal of Spain, is very proud.
Balthazar is brought before the King by Horatio (Shakespeare shot) and Lorenzo, the son of Castile. Both claim to have captured Balthy but its pretty clear Horatio did the real work. The King turns Balthy over to Lorenzo as hostage/guest and splits up the spoils between Lorenzo and Horatio.
Act I, Scene 3
The Viceroy (ruler) of Portingale (Portugal) is having a bad day. He lost the battle. The noble Alexandro tells him his son, Prince Balthazar, is still alive. Scheming bastard Viluppo says that not only is the Prince dead, but Alexandre shot him in the back. Alexandre is arrested and taken away.
Act I, Scene 4
Bel-imperia mourns the dead Don Andrea. Horatio tries to cheer her up, one thing leads to another and after Horatio leaves, Bel-imperia tells the audience that she will fall in love with Horatio to piss off Lorenzo, her brother.
Lorenzo and Balthazar arrive, the latter flirting ineffectively with the fiancée of the man he killed before the play (go figure). She leaves and Lorenzo assures him that she’ll come around.
Horatio comes back, followed by the King, a Portuguese ambassador and a whole banquet. Feasting ensues. Hieronimo organizes a play for their entertainment.
Act I, Scene 5
Don Andrea complains to Revenge about the distinct lack of revenging going on. Revenge tells him to cool his britches and wait.
Act II, Scene 1
Lorenzo continues to talk about hooking up his sister with Balthazar. Pedrigano, Bel-imperia’s servant enters and is threatened until he tells the two that she loves Horatio. Moustache-twirling and conspiratorial cackling ensues.
Act II, Scene 2
Horatio and Bel-imperia make lovey-dovey speeches to each other as Horatio, Balthazar and Pedrigano watch on, not happy at all.
Act II, Scene 3
Castile tells the King that Bel-imperia’s not too keen on a marriage with Balthazar but will probably come around in time, you know how women are old sport. The King tells the Ambassador to go back to Portugal with the news that the marriage will go forward and that her dowry will be HUGE.
Act II, Scene 4
Horatio and Bel-imperia continue to make kissy-faces at each other in a garden at night. SUDDENLY and without any subtlety whatsoever, Lorenzo, Balthazar, Pedringano and some guy named Serberine show up in disguises and lynch Horatio and then stab him before carrying off a screaming Bel-imperia.
Act II, Scene 5
A groggy Hieronimo enters his garden to discover the body of Horatio in a literal interpretation of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.” Isabella, his wife, enters and both bewail his death.
Act II, Scene 6
Don Andrea tells Revenge that the wrong guy just died. Revenge tells him to keep waiting.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
The Spanish Tragedie, Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio, and Bel-imperia: with the pittifull death of olde Hieronimo (that's the full title)
The granddaddy of Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy that influenced pretty much all future/contemporary Elizabethan playwrights including Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare. Thomas Kyd (1558-1594) is something of a cipher to the modern world. The son of a London scrivener (a kind of pro writer who copied legal texts and whatnot), he was roomies with Elizabethan bad boy Christopher “Kit” Marlowe for a while, worked as an actor in Lord Strange’s Men (the most awesomely named acting company I’ve ever heard of), and was arrested and tortured in 1593 on charges of treason based on illegal books found in his & Kit’s flat, but released. Kit Marlowe was arrested too, but released with less hassle because of [insert conspiracy theory here]. He died the next year, so its quite possible he got worked over pretty hard. Aside from the Spanish Tragedy, the only other surviving thing that he wrote is a translation of a French play that is neither as famous or as important. He’s been attributed/rumored to have written various OTHER plays, especially something called the “Ur-Hamlet,” which was allegedly the play Shakespeare remade/looted for his own play (not Hamlet performed by cavemen, even though that would totally rule). He was not a 17th century pirate who left a still-undiscovered treasure buried somewhere in the Caribbean, that was somebody else.
Why
Kyd revolutionized the stage, quite simply. How he did this is by adapting elements from the recently rediscovered Sencan Tragedies (ancient Roman “closet drama” plays by Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the tutor of crazytoga emperor Nero) for the (then) modern stage. Basically, he kept the highfalutin speeches and graphic descriptions of violence while making sure the violence described wasn’t just off-stage. Audiences (particularly Elizabethans) love buckets of blood, and boy did he give it to them.
The (Spoiler Free) Basics
Bloody-minded revenge is the order of the day in the court of Spain as political maneuvering in a peace treaty with Portugal gets really, really ugly. Take a shot every time you spot something Shakespeare used, it’ll be fun.
From here on there be spoilers….
Act I, Scene 1
Don Andrea and Revenge step onstage. In a long Senecan speech (lots of high language monologuing) Andrea tells the audience that he died in battle, misses his fiancée Bel-imperia, went down to the underworld and was sent back up to earth with Revenge by Prosperine (queen of the underworld) to observe the revenge about to happen to his killers. Revenge tells him to sit down on stage and watch. A revenge-minded ghost, why I believe that’s our first shot.
Act I, Scene 2
The King of Spain enters and asks a general how things are going. Things are great! The Spanish army gave the Portuguese a jolly good thrashing. Don Andrea gave a good account of himself and contributed to the win, but too bad he died. Don Andrea’s buddy Horatio went and captured Prince Balthazar (who killed Andrea) directly leading to victory. The duke of Castile verbally high-fives his brother the King. Hieronimo, Horatio’s father and Marshal of Spain, is very proud.
Balthazar is brought before the King by Horatio (Shakespeare shot) and Lorenzo, the son of Castile. Both claim to have captured Balthy but its pretty clear Horatio did the real work. The King turns Balthy over to Lorenzo as hostage/guest and splits up the spoils between Lorenzo and Horatio.
Act I, Scene 3
The Viceroy (ruler) of Portingale (Portugal) is having a bad day. He lost the battle. The noble Alexandro tells him his son, Prince Balthazar, is still alive. Scheming bastard Viluppo says that not only is the Prince dead, but Alexandre shot him in the back. Alexandre is arrested and taken away.
Act I, Scene 4
Bel-imperia mourns the dead Don Andrea. Horatio tries to cheer her up, one thing leads to another and after Horatio leaves, Bel-imperia tells the audience that she will fall in love with Horatio to piss off Lorenzo, her brother.
Lorenzo and Balthazar arrive, the latter flirting ineffectively with the fiancée of the man he killed before the play (go figure). She leaves and Lorenzo assures him that she’ll come around.
Horatio comes back, followed by the King, a Portuguese ambassador and a whole banquet. Feasting ensues. Hieronimo organizes a play for their entertainment.
Act I, Scene 5
Don Andrea complains to Revenge about the distinct lack of revenging going on. Revenge tells him to cool his britches and wait.
Act II, Scene 1
Lorenzo continues to talk about hooking up his sister with Balthazar. Pedrigano, Bel-imperia’s servant enters and is threatened until he tells the two that she loves Horatio. Moustache-twirling and conspiratorial cackling ensues.
Act II, Scene 2
Horatio and Bel-imperia make lovey-dovey speeches to each other as Horatio, Balthazar and Pedrigano watch on, not happy at all.
Act II, Scene 3
Castile tells the King that Bel-imperia’s not too keen on a marriage with Balthazar but will probably come around in time, you know how women are old sport. The King tells the Ambassador to go back to Portugal with the news that the marriage will go forward and that her dowry will be HUGE.
Act II, Scene 4
Horatio and Bel-imperia continue to make kissy-faces at each other in a garden at night. SUDDENLY and without any subtlety whatsoever, Lorenzo, Balthazar, Pedringano and some guy named Serberine show up in disguises and lynch Horatio and then stab him before carrying off a screaming Bel-imperia.
Act II, Scene 5
A groggy Hieronimo enters his garden to discover the body of Horatio in a literal interpretation of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit.” Isabella, his wife, enters and both bewail his death.
Act II, Scene 6
Don Andrea tells Revenge that the wrong guy just died. Revenge tells him to keep waiting.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
Introducing Acrimonius Annotations
Hello and welcome, I'm Kestifer, esrtwhile writer/grad student/adventurer, and none of that matters here in internet land.
This little project sprang from a couple inspirations. 1. I read a lot. A LOT. For school, for pleasure, for personal enrichment. So much so that I can’t begin to remember every little detail of everything. 2. I made a study guide for Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy which did a good job of summarizing the plot, characters and so on. So good, in fact, that I wanted to write more of those summaries for myself so that I’d be able to look back on them in the future instead of reading through the play again if I didn’t want to.
So that brings us here. I’ve decided to continue those study guides. Spoiler filled recaps, reactions and highlights of action, dialogue and author-message. A kind of bare bones plot & character guide with a dose of humor and sarcasm. If I find something that makes me throw the book against a wall, it will be mentioned.
If you haven’t read the books themselves, you’re doing yourself a disservice in reading this, because it’ll be full of spoilers. You’re not my audience. These are intended for people with at least some High School level of education or higher. Just because I'm infantile doesn't mean I'm going to dumb things down for you. Also, the more familiar you are with www.tvtropes.org the better.
Don’t think that this’ll be a good way of getting out of reading the actual stuff for class, because the analysis herein will not be in-depth. Its meant to be a refresher for people who actually HAVE read it in the first place and maybe forgot the details over the years. At best, it should provide some kind of context for when you're reading and confused by old timey words and or make things interesting/amusing. At worst, you'll be able to physically see my agony as I struggle through a book that makes me want to sign up with the Firemen of Fahrenheit 451. Either way, here's hoping its amusing.
The working title for the project was originally going to be called “Snark Notes,” but I was never very thrilled with it for a couple reasons. First, while it may seem clever at first glance and does convey the basic tongue-in-cheek gist of the matter, I don’t want to be getting sideways glances from the folks over at SparkNotes. I’m just sayin.’ Second, that title made me feel derivative and pretentious in an uncreative way. Change one letter and “dur-hur-hur, ain’t I clever?” So "Acrimonious Annotations" is what I settled on after cruising some thesaurus/dictionary sites for sarcasm. Now “acrimonious” is a word to get legitimately pretentious about!
Be aware (as though it hasn’t been abundantly implied), there WILL be spoilers. With that thought, on with the show.
This little project sprang from a couple inspirations. 1. I read a lot. A LOT. For school, for pleasure, for personal enrichment. So much so that I can’t begin to remember every little detail of everything. 2. I made a study guide for Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy which did a good job of summarizing the plot, characters and so on. So good, in fact, that I wanted to write more of those summaries for myself so that I’d be able to look back on them in the future instead of reading through the play again if I didn’t want to.
So that brings us here. I’ve decided to continue those study guides. Spoiler filled recaps, reactions and highlights of action, dialogue and author-message. A kind of bare bones plot & character guide with a dose of humor and sarcasm. If I find something that makes me throw the book against a wall, it will be mentioned.
If you haven’t read the books themselves, you’re doing yourself a disservice in reading this, because it’ll be full of spoilers. You’re not my audience. These are intended for people with at least some High School level of education or higher. Just because I'm infantile doesn't mean I'm going to dumb things down for you. Also, the more familiar you are with www.tvtropes.org the better.
Don’t think that this’ll be a good way of getting out of reading the actual stuff for class, because the analysis herein will not be in-depth. Its meant to be a refresher for people who actually HAVE read it in the first place and maybe forgot the details over the years. At best, it should provide some kind of context for when you're reading and confused by old timey words and or make things interesting/amusing. At worst, you'll be able to physically see my agony as I struggle through a book that makes me want to sign up with the Firemen of Fahrenheit 451. Either way, here's hoping its amusing.
The working title for the project was originally going to be called “Snark Notes,” but I was never very thrilled with it for a couple reasons. First, while it may seem clever at first glance and does convey the basic tongue-in-cheek gist of the matter, I don’t want to be getting sideways glances from the folks over at SparkNotes. I’m just sayin.’ Second, that title made me feel derivative and pretentious in an uncreative way. Change one letter and “dur-hur-hur, ain’t I clever?” So "Acrimonious Annotations" is what I settled on after cruising some thesaurus/dictionary sites for sarcasm. Now “acrimonious” is a word to get legitimately pretentious about!
Be aware (as though it hasn’t been abundantly implied), there WILL be spoilers. With that thought, on with the show.
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