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Act 2, Scene 4
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
Hieronimo enters the garden in his pajamas. He knows he has heard a woman cry his name, but the garden is deserted. He sees that a man has been hanged from the arbour, yet his murderers are nowhere in sight. Hieronimo cuts the man down and discovers with despair that it is his son, Horatio. Hieronimo cries over his son’s body, as his wife, Isabella, enters.
Hieronimo’s immediate despair upon finding Horatio’s body is evidence of the deep love Hieronimo has for his son. Given this love and subsequent grief, Hieronimo and Isabella are likely to experience a decline in mental health as they try to cope with Horatio’s death.
Themes
Hieronimo says that knowing the identity of Horatio’s murderers will ease his pain, for only revenge will heal his heart. He notices a scarf that Horatio is wearing and removes it, soaking it first in his son’s blood. Hieronimo vows to keep the scarf with him until he gets revenge for Horatio’s murder, but Isabella tells him to be patient. “The heavens are just, murder cannot be hid,” she says. “Time is the author both of truth and right, / And time will bring this treachery to light.”
Isabella’s comment that “the heavens are just” suggests that revenge and justice should be left up to God. God will serve justice upon His judgement, thus Isabella implies that revenge isn’t Hieronimo’s responsibility to take. However, from this point on, Hieronimo is driven by his desire for revenge, and Horatio’s scarf—the same scarf he took from Andrea—is symbolic of this desire for revenge.
Themes
Literary Devices
Hieronimo and Isabella pick up Horatio’s dead body, and Hieronimo draws his sword, putting it to his chest. He speaks in Latin, citing a pastiche of lines written by Lucretius, Virgil, and Ovid, and says he wishes to die with his son, but will not consent to death until he has revenge. Hieronimo throws his sword to the side and exits with Isabella, carrying Horatio’s body.
This passage, too, reflects Hieronimo’s love for Horatio, since in the acute pain of losing his son, Hieronimo contemplates suicide. Hieronimo, however, decides to live to get his revenge. Kyd’s reference to Lucretius, Virgil, and Ovid—all classical Roman or Greek writers—reflects Kyd’s classical influence.
Themes
Literary Devices
