The Spanish Tragedy Society and Class Quotes

These are some of the first words in the play, so it's telling that Andrea feels the need to announce his social status. And he's very specific about his status. He's not at the bottom of the social barrel (or "ignoble"), but he's also world's away from the higher-ranking characters in the play. We also learn that through "gracious fortune" and "duteous service" he was able to possess (loaded word) the "worthy dame," Bel-Imperia. His language suggests that through hard work he earned something of worth—an attitude we might think of as blue-collar work ethic (and sexist). But the snobby boys of privilege (Lorenzo and Balthazar) view his relationship with Bel-Imperia as a total affront. Either way, they all refer to Bel-Imperia as property to possess. Which means that you could read the play as a class struggle to own the "worthy dame." If this all sounds like an 80's teen flick, you're right. And you're probably thinking of Pretty in Pink.

Nothing says class distinction like calling one person "him" and the other "this." The "him" is Lorenzo and the "this" is Horatio. Notice also how the king speaks to Balthazar. Even though Balthazar was just captured as an enemy, the king orders Horatio and Lorenzo to immediately release the prince's arm upon his "privilege." And of course he calls him "worthy prince." Social rank trumps just about everything in this culture, even when the person in question is an enemy. Knowing this, the prince uses the pronoun "him" and the article "this" to make everyone in the scene certain about his relative worth.

Do you think Balthazar is a bit irked about being captured by a "this?" You betcha. In fact, there are real questions about whether or not Lorenzo had anything to do with subduing the haughty prince. It might be that Balthazar is just saving face by insinuating a nobleman caught him. Imagine how he'll feel when he later finds out that the lady of his dreams prefers the more humbly ranked Horatio.

This is pretty straightforward. But still crucial because this speech illustrates how class identification brings our villainous twosome together. And you don't have to be S.E. Hinton to know how cliques form down class lines. Oh yeah, Hinton wrote Outsiders, the classic youth novel on how class identification can lead to violent clashes between cliques from opposite sides of the tracks. Take a peek.

After this speech, the two well-born buddies team up to commit mayhem and murder. And it all happens because Lorenzo's house is way better than Horatio's. Kings usually grant the right to house a royal prisoner to the person who captured said royal. In this case, the king interpreted that both Lorenzo and Horatio deserve credit. But he splits the credit based on social class. Which means the king gives the money to the poorer dude and the honor of housing a prince to his own nephew with a lavish pad. The rest is history because the friendship between Balthazar and Lorenzo leads to the murder of Horatio—and unlike in the Outsiders, nobody "Stay's Gold."

Before Balthazar realizes that Bel-Imperia despises him and has a new lover in Horatio, he waxes badly poetic while trying to wrap his head around why this woman doesn't immediately fall into his arms. He attempts to use logic to figure out love (bad move), and his logic is very telling. He surmises that Bel-Imperia has a good reason to love him because he can "uprear her state." Which is to say, Bel-Imperia would be "movin' on up" the social scale by marrying a prince.

The only problem with this, according to his logic, is that there's always someone nobler. He doesn't even stop to consider that he could possibly lose out to a man beneath his social station. And this probably explains why murder sounds like a good option after he finds out Bel-Imperia favors Horatio. The elitist, out-of-touch snob sees the fruits of life as his privilege, and this includes living, breathing human beings endowed with freewill. What a jerk.

Here we see that royal marriages in the 16th century had nothing to do with love—it was about movable property and national relations. The king wants to marry Bel-Imperia to Balthazar to create peaceful ties between Spain and Portugal. And because he apparently doesn't have children of his own, the match gives him a way to make sure his family retains control of Spain. So yeah, there's a bit of pressure on Bel-Imperia.

Later, the king makes this pressure heavily concrete by saying, "If she (Bel-Imperia) neglect him (Balthazar) and forgo his love/ She both will wrong her own estate and ours." The king essentially treats Bel-Imperia as just another commodity beside the dowry and tribute money he references. And wait a second, wasn't that tribute money supposed to go to Horatio's family? This is a necessary passage to help modern folks (like us) understand just how scandalous it is for Bel-Imperia to degrade her worth (from the king's perspective) by dating below her station.

Wow. Tell us what you really think of the common folks. The basic gist is that Lorenzo sees the lower classes as expendable people (or slaves, as he calls them) meant to die for his needs. Oh yeah, at least he pays them. While he's extraordinarily villainous, the play does speak to the rigidity and cruelty of the Renaissance class system. The speech is about Lorenzo paying henchmen to do his evil deeds. But the money won't do these guys much good since he intends to kill them off to cover his tracks. His reasoning? It's better for "base companions" to die than us noble folks of "good haps" (or good fortune). Yeah, you wouldn't want all that rich living to go to waste there, Mr. Thoughtful.

This soliloquy occurs directly after the above speech by Lorenzo. As such, Pedringano's ambition to make money and rise in station is haunted by serious dramatic irony (we know he's going to die). Remember, money is not the end-all, be-all as far as social class goes in the 16th century. So, Pedringano's "attempting spirit" (or ambition) to "shift" (or move up the social ladder) by taking aim with his gun is misguided. After Pedringano gets paid, people like Lorenzo would still just see him as a pawn, albeit one with money.

But all of this is really a moot point since Pedringano is as good as dead when his job's done. His misguided assertion that "it is no dream' that he ventures for is perhaps the most ironic statement he makes—his ambitions are just a dream, and he's about to be rudely awakened. Does this make you feel sorry for him? Is he just a hardworking, ambitious guy looking to get ahead in a rigged system? Actually, no, he's still a murderous, opportunistic scumbag. And yet, he's still a pawn in a rigged system. Isn't complexity fun?

Okay, let's start with this. Yeah, this thing is not like the others. Can you see why? Notice how the words aren't in neat little columns. Nope, they just keep going across the page like a regular old book. Sorry, we don't mean to patronize. But what you're noticing is that the page (or messenger) speaks in prose instead of verse. Prose is the way we speak in every day life, while verse has rhythm and meter—or rather, it's poetic. Typographers indicate verse by placing speeches in poetic columns, like stanzas.

So why did Kyd choose to make this speech prose rather than verse? Well, he did this because the page is of very low rank, and poetic speech is a class privilege. You'll see language as a class marker in a lot of Renaissance plays. And you might've also noticed that Pedringano speaks in rhyme a lot. That's because despite his rank he's one of the most pretentious snobs in the play. Keep an eye out for how characters speak in early plays and you'll learn a lot about their stations in life. And remember, poetry is classy.

It's manipulation time. And here's the trick: Lorenzo has just freed Bel-Imperia from captivity just to let her know that he killed her boyfriend and threw her in jail for her own good. Wow thanks, brother. He reasons that she's been slumming with a low-class boy, and that he wanted to spare her the pain of enduring such a trial. And try as he might, he "knew no readier mean" than killing Horatio to make his dad happy.

Ah, now that makes sense. Well, not really. This is a crucial point in the play because it's the only place where Lorenzo ever gives motive to his actions. Does he really murder Horatio because he's not good enough for his sister? Hmmm, could be. But maybe you don't want to trust him because he's clearly being all excusey here.

The choice is yours. At stake is whether or not Lorenzo likes being bad for bad's sake, or his snobbery is so extreme that he has to kill. As you make your decision, keep in mind that if his sister marries Balthazar Lorenzo can't be king. He's likely next in line for the throne as things stand, but the child from the arranged marriage would be king. Would a real snob kill to not become king?

The king is walking around doing his kingly business when Hieronimo abruptly interrupts and calls for justice. Lorenzo then uses his position of privilege to block Hieronimo's path to the king. Even though this is the only time we actually see Lorenzo blocking access to the king, we know from the duke's report that Lorenzo has been working behind the scenes to make sure Hieronimo never speaks with the king. All of this is possible because Lorenzo is the king's nephew. No access to the king means no access to legal paths of justice, which means Hieronimo must technically become a criminal to get justice.

The play wants to cast Spain as a corrupt place devoid of law. Spain was of course the chief rival to England, so Kyd was playing to the patriotic (or xenophobic) sensibilities of his audience. But the biggest thing to think about is whether or not Hieronimo is justified to go outside of the law even if he's subject to a corrupt system. It's a weighty philosophical problem, and one that the play never fully answers. While looking for your answer be sure to focus on the consequences of Hieronimo's actions. Does justice for Hieronimo's family justify the trail of bodies he leaves behind?