Divine Justice in the Portuguese sub-plot in Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy

This paper is concerned with the theme of divine justice in The Spanish Tragedy (1592) by Thomas Kyd (1558-1594), a famous English Elizabethan dramatist. It first defines the term "didactic", and then moves to discuss the Portuguese playlet in The Spanish Tragedy as a miniature play-within-the-play which reveals the issue of divine judgment. This paper concludes by asserting that this play is a tragedy of divine justice and punishment.