Blank Verse, Rhymed Verse, Prose, Stichomythia, and Soliloquy
The Spanish Tragedy is a blank verse tragedy, with rhymed verse and prose thrown into the mix. Kyd also uses conventions borrowed from classical drama to move his plot ahead and tie his original work with dramatic traditions of the past. The two most notable stylistic conventions are stichomythia (that's a mouthful) and soliloquy. Stichomythia is used to convey urgency and combativeness in dialogue. And soliloquy is a convention that gives the audience direct access into the mind and motives of a character.
Let's take a closer look at these terms so we can gain a better appreciation for Kyd's style choices.
Never Blank on Blank Verse Again
Blank verse is a term for unrhymed iambic pentameter. Totally clarifying, right?
Okay, maybe not. So, here goes: iambic pentameter is a ten-syllable line in which each unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed one. Professor-types call each set of two syllables a foot, which means that there are five feet in each line (adding up to ten syllables).
Those are the basics. And this isn't as complicated as it sounds, we promise. It's probably best to give an example at this point. So, let's start with an example from the play.
What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,
And chill my throbbing heart with trembling fear?
First, count the syllables of each line. 1, 2, 3… you get the point. There are ten syllables in each. Next take a look at the feet in the first line.
What out (1 foot) cries pluck (two feet) me from (3 feet) my na (4 feet) ked bed (5 feet)
As you can see, feet are all about syllables, so they often cut words into their syllabic parts.
Now comes the fun part: let's look at how alternating unstressed and stressed syllables create rhythm, or verse.
What outcries pluck me from my naked bed,
And chill my throbbing heart with trembling fear?
As you read these lines, give the bolded parts extra emphasis. Giving extra emphasis probably felt pretty natural, right? Well, that's because it was natural. Authors who write in blank verse take advantage of the way that our language naturally emphasizes certain syllables. This means that authors who write in blank verse not only have to come up with the right words to express their intended meaning, but they also have to come up with words that put emphasis in the right places in each line.
Can you imagine how much work this is? But don't it sound pretty? And blank verse gives a powerful rhythm to language. Authors use it to craft majestic, important sounding lines. So, blank verse becomes kind of a no brainer for the lofty genre of tragedy. But of equal importance, the sing-songy effect makes it easier for actors who had to memorize massive amounts of dialogue.
And guess what? Thomas Kyd was one of the first English playwrights to use blank verse. So know that you're reading a technical innovation hot off the press when you take on The Spanish Tragedy. People were oohing and ahhing over the new technology like it were the new iPhone.
No really, we promise.
Rhymed Verse Is Neither Better Nor Worse
There are also portions of rhymed verse interspersed throughout the play. So, what is rhymed verse? Oh, man, this is going to be tough. Here goes: rhymed verse is verse that rhymes. Phew, we're glad to get that out of the way.
But seriously, verse is any line that has rhythm. You'll of course recall the rhythm of iambic pentameter, where alternating unstressed and stressed lines make speeches sound majestically important. Authors can use the natural stress in words to create all kinds of different rhythms: in addition to iambic verse, there's trochaic verse, spondaic, anapestic, dactylic, and more. And lines can have as many feet as you'd like, giving us dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, and so on.
But let's not worry ourselves over all the terms we just threw around. We just did that to look smart. For the purposes of our play, the rhymed verse portions are mostly rhymed iambic pentameter. Meaning, ten syllable lines, with five feet of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables, and rhyming couplets. So, the rhymed verse in the play is just like blank verse but with rhyming couplets. And what about rhyming couplets? A quick example from the play will make this term easy as easy can get.
Horatio: If Cupid sing, then Venus is not far.
Ay, thou art Venus, or some fairer star.
Bel-Imperia: If I be Venus, thou must needs be Mars,
And Where Mars reigneth there must need be wars.
Get the picture? Rhyming couplets happen when pairs of lines rhyme together. In this case, the couplet spoken by Horatio almost rhymes with the couplet spoken by Bel-Imperia. Maybe Kyd was trying to create a bond between the two. Can you think of other reasons he might break out of unrhymed verse in favor of rhymed couplets? Is it because they are in love? Maybe.
What if we told you that the other large section of rhymed couplets takes place in the first private exchange between Lorenzo and Balthazar, the closely tied villains of the play? Why would Kyd do this? We'll let you explore this question on your own: the rhymed verse sections of the play are 2.1.1-40 and 2.4.24-49. Have fun.
The Pros and Cons of Using Prose
So, who knows prose? You do, that's who. You know prose because you talk in prose. Prose is our every day speech. It's also the kind of writing you read in novels, newspaper articles, websites, and pretty much everywhere. It's just our everyday, run-of-the-mill speech. It's not that prose can't be beautifully expressive, dramatic, and inspired—it's just that it doesn't have a consistent pattern or rhythm to it.
Kyd breaks rhythm to write in prose for three sections of the play (3.5, 3.6.41-89, and 3.7.19-28). Why in these parts? Let's take a closer look.
In 3.5 we only get a speech by a messenger boy. And in 3.6.41-89 we have an exchange between the hangman and Pedringano. Finally, in 3.7.19-28 there is a discussion between the hangman and Hieronimo. Are you detecting a pattern?
Yeah, these are scenes in which common folk speak for an extended period of time. Kyd would never think of having his commoners speak in verse. From his perspective it would have been absurd to have a messenger or a hangman speak beautiful poetry. There's a snobbery about verse, so typically it's only the higher ups (and maybe the ambitious) that get to speak with rhythm.
This will thankfully change over time. Part of what makes Shakespeare's A Midsummer Nights Dream so novel and funny is that his common characters make great efforts to speak in verse. Just know that an author's choice of style says a lot about the kind of character he or she is trying to create.
Stichomythia: Sounds Sticky, but It's Easy
And we mean really easy. But first with the stuff that sounds hard. Stichomythia derives from two Greek words: stikhos, which means "row, or line of verse" and muthos, which means "speech or talk." When combined we get a literary term for a dramatic technique that gives single alternating lines to alternating characters in conversation. Let's look at an example of stichomythia from the play:
LORENZO: Sister, what means this melancholy walk?
BEL-IMPERIA: That for a while I wish no company.
LORENZO: But here the Prince is come to visit you.
BEL-IMPERIA: That argues that he lives in liberty.
BALTHAZAR: No, madam, but in pleasing servitude.
BEL-IMPERIA: Your prison then belike is your conceit.
BALTHAZAR: Ay, by conceit my freedom is enthralled.
BEL-IMPERIA: Then with conceit enlarge yourself again.
Authors use alternating one-liners to convey heated arguments. Whenever you see alternating lines like these, know that there is some serious tension and probably some real trouble brewing between the characters. This makes the convention work as a kind of foreshadowing for heightened conflict on the horizon. This definitely proves true in this case (spoiler alert), because Lorenzo will soon conspire with Balthazar to kill Bel-Imperia's lover, in return for which Bel-Imperia will collaborate to kill both Lorenzo and Balthazar.
You'll probably also notice that these quick lines make you grab for your dictionary. This is because stichomythia is all about being quick-witted, which means you'll see a lot of puns and other linguistic jokes that take a moment to set in. They're some of the most delicious moments in the English language, so have fun with the witty repartee. We love using the word "repartee": repartee!
In using stichomythia, Kyd is giving the nod to his greatest influence, Seneca. Seneca also used stichomythia to linguistically portray heated relationships. Classical stichomythia usually features repetition and antithesis from line to line—which is just a fancy schmancy way of saying, "I'll repeat what you say and give you a smart aleck reply that means the exact opposite." You can see how Kyd kind of sticks to the old formula and kind of makes it his own. The big point is that it's just another style technique that Kyd uses to give his readers insight into character and plot.
O Solo Mio, I Talk to Myself: or the Soliloquy
Soliloquy just means a character talks to himself (unless he is a she, and then she talks to herself). But really, he (or she) is talking to the audience. Look at the beginning of the play. Notice how Andrea goes on and on by himself. That's a soliloquy.
They're easy to spot. But let's talk more about what they accomplish. You know how a novel can have tons and tons of writing that isn't spoken dialogue? You know, just saying lots of stuff—stuff like narration, what's going on in the heads of characters, stories about what happened in the past, stories that happen outside the action of the novel, and what a setting is like. Well, plays can't do this because they are all dialogue with no narration. Renaissance playwrights realized that this was a problem, so they invented the soliloquy.
Through soliloquies the audience gets insider information like what motivates a character, who made who mad in the past, and even what a character's secret plans might be for the future. Before the soliloquy was invented, all of this information came from the chorus. But choruses are usually stuffy old men with stuffy old man stuff to say. Soliloquies can be dynamic, philosophical, and even scary.
Oh, and be careful that you're really solo while soliloquizing in your own life—people might think you're crazy. Here at Shmoop we'd think you're perfectly normal. It's just those other people. Take a break and watch the most famous soliloquy of all time, as delivered by Sir Kenneth Branagh.