How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line.)
Quote #10
HIERONIMO:
Bethink thyself, Hieronimo;
Recall thy wits, recount thy former wrongs
Thou hast received by murder of thy son,
And lastly, not least, how Isabel,
Once his mother and thy dearest wife,
All woebegone for him, hath slain herself.
Behooves thee, then, Hieronimo, to be revenged!
The plot is laid of dire revenge,
On, then, Hieronimo, pursue revenge,
For nothing wants but acting of revenge. (4.3.21-30)
Consider this a memorial pep talk. Hieronimo is just about to kill his enemies, and he uses these bad memories as a rallying cry. It's worth noting that he speaks to himself in the third person. Does speaking to himself as if he's another person mean he's egotistical? Probably not. It's more likely the kind of third person speak we use when trying to pump ourselves up to achieve at something, like this: C'mon Shmoop, let's write the best study guide ever on The Spanish Tragedy.
But because so much of this is about memory, maybe he's talking about himself from outside himself because he knows he's about to die. Remember how the ghost talks about himself in the past tense? Maybe the same thing is going on here. That is, Hieronimo knows he's essentially already a memory and all that's left is his violent act and its subsequent history. After all, as readers we are the final judges of his acts. And given all the details of the play, it'll take both our acute memories and sensitive judgment to render just verdicts.
Quote #11
ANDREA:
Then, sweet Revenge, do this at my request:
Let me be judge and doom them to unrest.
Let loose poor Tityus from the vulture's gripe,
And let Don Cyprian supply his room;
Place Don Lorenzo on Ixion's wheel,
And let the lover's endless pain surcease
(Juno forgets old wrath and grants him ease);
Hang Balthazar about Chimera's neck,
And let him there bewail his bloody love,
Repining for our joys that are above;
Let Serberine go roll the fatal stone,
And take from Sisyphus his endless moan;
False Pedringano, for his treachery,
Let him be dragged through boiling Acheron,
And there live dying still in endless flames,
Blaspheming gods and all their holy names. (4.5.31-44)
Like we discussed before, the afterlife is the final memory of life. And as the initial victim of the play, Andrea (himself a ghost and memory) gets to decide how his enemies' memories will live on in the afterlife. Interestingly, Andrea has his enemies take on the torturous duties of the most famous inhabitants of hell: Tityus, Ixion, Chimera, and Sisyphus. We don't have time to get into all these mythological villains, but let's just say they're all forced to do horrible tasks for eternity. Sisyphus's eternity looks like this.
So why does Andrea suggest that his enemies should take the place of these eternal damnables? Andrea is essentially forgiving these old school bad guys so that the new bad guys can take their place. Does this mean that the flipside of condemning is forgiving? Is there a secret message that suggests that forgiveness is the only way to purge bad memories? The play leaves all of this just hanging in the air. But hanging ideas are the perfect place to start papers. So, good for us.