The immense popularity of Kyde’s The Spanish Tragedy (1587) is accounted for:

(i) The people wanted romantic melodrama and Kyde gives them what they wanted.

(ii) It is the first really effective tragedy in Seneca style.

(iii) Despite its classical influence, the tragedy does not follow the classical rules of dramatic composition.

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(Iv) It fore-shadows Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in detail as well as in spirit.

(v) It gave rise to the vogue of the revenge tragedy, a kind of tragedy which enjoyed immense popularity throughout the Elizabethan era.