ior: "For die they shall, slaves are ordained to no other end" (III. iii. 119). Lorenzo has Pedringano kill Serberine, then he positions the Watch to catch Pedringano in the act. Furthermore Lorenzo promises Pedringano a pardon, but sends instead an empty box as a jest. In doing this, Lorenzo takes over and corrupts the judicial process, robbing it of meaning and turning it into rank theatre. The business of state execution is, as stated above, to act as a deterrant to crime and to reaffirm the authority of the state, whichfelony injures. In order to accomplish either of these goals it must be clear that justice is served and that the condemned, at the center of the spectacle, provide fearful proof of the terrible power of official sanction. Pedringano, believing to the end that his execution is merely a show before his timely reprieve, not only shows no fear or remorse but mocks the hangman at the scaffold, subverting the ritual so that it is of no use to the agents of law and ultimately serves no one's purpose but Lorenzo's. Hieronimo, the justiciar, walks away in disgust, only to be apprised in the next scene of the letter Pedringano held, in which he reveals that he and Serberine were confederates in the murder of Hieronimo's son, and that both murders were done at Lorenzo's behest. The second requirement of official sanction is denied--Pedringano hasbeen hanged for the wrong crime, and justice has not been served (Shapiro, 102-3). Yet ironies abound in Kyd's play. In his cunning, Lorenzo has unwittingly doomed himself and his allies, as Pedringano's letter confirms an earlier letter from Bel-imperia implicating Lorenzo (Ardolino, 112-3). Thus he has given Hieronimo a target and a weapon. The effect of these events is to drive Hieronimo into a frenzy,transforming him from an agent of law into a single-minded revenger. By the time he arranges the public massacre of all the play's villains and the dissolution of the nascent alliance b...
