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THE ROLE OF TOOL VILLAINS IN REVENGE TRAGEDY Revenge tragedies were among the most popular of plays during the last decade and a half of the sixteenth century in England. The tragedy of revenge has been classified as a definite, small subdivision of the Elizabethan tragedy of blood. These tragedies were known as “blood revenge” tragedies because murder was the central tragic fact and the real dramatic motivation behind much of the blood and violence. Thomas Kyd’s version of a revenge tragedy is more complex and thoughtful, and it is Kyd’s version which became the model for later Elizabethan dramatists, most notably Shakespeare, in Hamlet. Kyd’s characters seek revenge in his play The Spanish Tragedy and what strikes any reader or audience member, is the presence of revenge as the central motivating force of the play; it is what drives the action from the beginning through the end. The revenge may be conceived either by a hero or by a villain, who may be either protagonist or antagonist. Kyd’s version of tragedy was that the revenge must be carried out by the revenger himself or his interested accomplices. In other words, they do not always do it single-handedly. They are abedded by other characters known as �