The Role of "Senex" in Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy

Authors

Joost Daalder, Flinders University of South Australia

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, the first paragraph of the essay follows:

In the edition of The Spanish Tragedy prepared by Philip Edwards for the Revels Plays series, Act III, Scene xiii introduces a new character into the play who is called an "Old Man" when he is first referred to in the stage direction after line 50: "Enter three Citizens and an Old Man." But, somewhat surprisingly, afterwards he is styled "Senex" and "Bazulto." Edwards comments: "There is some inconsistency in referring to characters. Balthazar is Balthazar or Prince. Castile is The Duke of Castile, Castile, Don Cyprian, the Duke, Page becomes Boy. In III, xiii, an Old Man enters, who is Senex in the speech-headings and is referred to in a stage-direction as Bazulto. These variations would hardly be tolerable in a prompt-book."¹Edwards sees the variations as likely to be authorial, and in this I agree with him. But I think we may well ponder why they occur.

Recommended Citation

Daalder, Joost (1986) "The Role of "Senex" in Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy," Comparative Drama: Vol. 20: Iss. 3, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/compdr/vol20/iss3/5