The first fully-fledged example of a revenge tragedy, the genre
that became so influential in later Elizabethan and Jacobean drama, The
Spanish Tragedy (1589) occupies a very special place in the history of
English Renaissance drama. Hieronimo, Knight-Marshal of Spain during
its war with Portugal, fails to obtain justice when his son is murdered
for courting Bel-Imperia, the Duke of Castile's daughter, and decides
to take justice into his own hands...

This new student edition has been freshly revised by Professor
Andrew Gurr to incorporate the latest stage history and critical
interpretations of the play. It also appends the scenes that were added
in 1602, discusses Elizabethan attitudes to revenge, the Senecan
features of the play and the significance of the Anglo-Spanish conflict
in the 1580s.