Hieronimo, too, is guilty of betrayal-he betrays his country when he kills the Duke of Castile, an innocent man and the brother of the king. At the end of the play, Bel-Imperia betrays both Lorenzo (her brother) and Balthazar (the man she is supposed to marry) when she agrees to act in Hieronimo’s play-within-a-play and lure both men to their deaths. Lorenzo tricks Serberine and orders Pedringano to kill him, and after Lorenzo sets Pedringano up to be arrested, he refuses to help him get a pardon. Lorenzo later betrays Pedringano and Serberine, Balthazar’s servant, even though both men helped Lorenzo kill Horatio.
Despite being supposedly devoted to Bel-Imperia, Pedringano jumps sides with little thought and easily joins forces with Lorenzo. Bel-Imperia’s servant, Pedringano, betrays her as well by agreeing to help Lorenzo kill Horatio, even though Pedringano knows that his mistress is in love with Horatio and will be devastated. Horatio and Lorenzo are brothers in arms, yet Lorenzo easily betrays Horatio. After the war with Portugal, when Horatio and Lorenzo return to Spain with Balthazar as a prisoner, Lorenzo betrays Horatio and tells the King of Spain that he was the one to apprehend the enemy’s son, even though it was Horatio who really captured Balthazar. Indeed, betrayal permeates most of The Spanish Tragedy, and by highlighting it in a variety of contexts, Kyd effectively argues that betrayal is everywhere.īetrayal is rampant in the main plot of The Spanish Tragedy, which establishes betrayal as a common occurrence. Balthazar isn’t actually dead-he was captured during the war and is being held prisoner by the Spanish-but Alexandro is betrayed by Villuppo, a fellow nobleman, for a chance at glory and recognition. The Portuguese subplot involves the false accusation of Alexandro, a nobleman, for the murder of Balthazar, the son of the Viceroy of Portugal. There is also a subplot within The Spanish Tragedy, which takes place in Portugal after the war with Spain (whereas the main plot takes place in Spain). Betrayal between the characters is integral in setting the plot in motion, and it remains a crucial part of the play until the dramatic end, when five of the play’s limited cast of characters are killed, each of them a victim of betrayal in a different way. While it is certainly a lesser theme within The Spanish Tragedy, betrayal is nevertheless an important part of Thomas Kyd’s tragic play.
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