The earliest surviving edition of the play, whose full title is The Spanish Tragedy, Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio and Bel-imperia: with the pitiful death of old Hieronimo, was published anonymously in 1592 and remained in print until 1633. The play demonstrates a firm command of structure and characterisation and although the author is strongly influenced by Seneca, rather than adhering to the classical unities, he opens up the play, employing effective and original stagecraft. Though critics find it lacks the poetry of a play by Shakespeare or Marlowe, they recognise that its high flown rhetoric matches the play’s contents of revenge, dissemblance and surprise. The Spanish Tragedy is a complex revenge drama in which Hieronimo, the Marshal of Spain, despite many obstacles, finally, under the cover of a presentation of a play before the King of Spain, exacts bloody revenge for the murder of his son. The most popular play to come out of the Elizabethan theatre was not written by William Shakespeare or even Christopher Marlowe, but by an author who for many years remained in obscurity. The most popular Elizabethan play was not by Shakespeare, but by someone who would have a profound influence on him.
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