Up to the point of scene 13, we as a class have taken a harmonious holiday from the bloody affair that is love in Renaissance drama. Unlike The Spanish Tragedy, Dekker’s characters have proposed a dubious, yet non-lethal scheme to achieving inter-class love. Rose is attempting to reclaim her affair with Lacy but through his new identity of Hans. Rather than Rose killing off her father or herself for love’s sake, she has devised a romantic plan of deception and triumphant love. Surprisingly enough, Lacy seems to agree, and exits scene 13 with Sybil to go see Rose. Ironically, the two characters are not desperately searching for each other, but have shown that they desperately love each other. They fatefully cross paths at a celebration for Eyre. It seems to me that Dekker substitutes bloodshed for fate. If fate achieves love, then bloodshed may be avoided.
Also adding an ironic twist, Dekker gives us Hammon. He desperately seeks love but cannot obtain it from a woman. Whether from Rose or Jane, Hammon just wants somebody to love. He “will do any task at your command” he tells Jane (12.37). Hammon is a “gentleman” and from descriptions a handsome man, but he cannot woo a woman to love him. What seems like fate to him, Ralph’s name on the list of the dead, is actually a lie. After seeing Ralph’s name, Jane forces herself to agree that if she marries another man it would be Hammon.
It seems as though Dekker has removed the bloodshed to project his opinion on fate. In the case of Rose and Lacy/Hans, their love is true and not sought for class, wealth, or to fill loneliness. On the other hand is Hammon. He so desperately wants love, but everyone he seeks it with loves another person. His persistence forces Jane to believe her love is dead but gains no love for himself. I can only hope in the following scenes that fate brings Jane and Ralph back together to show that fate and true love prevail.
As Lysander says in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “the course of true love never did run smooth.” How true Hammon’s love is seems problematic, but his final gesture is magnanimous if a little forced.