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The Spanish Tragedy

From the edition of 1615. Reproduced in Shakespeare's England.

First published in 1592, Kyd's popular tragedy of blood is shown in an early woodcut: Horatio is murdered, hanging in an arbour, a stage property that could have been used in a number of Shakespeare's plays (the "thick-pleached alley" or "arbour" in Much Ado, 1. 2. 8; 2. 3. 35, for example).

In the centre of the illustration, Bell-Imperia cries for help ("Murder, helpe Hieronymo"); to the left, her husband Hieronimo discovers his son hanging ("Alas, it is my Son Horatio"), and on the right the villain Lorenzo says "Stop her mouth."