Kyd, Thomas

Kyd or Kid, Thomas, 1558–94, English dramatist, b. London. The son of a scrivener, he evidently followed his father's profession for a few years. In the 1580s he began writing plays. His literary fame rests on The Spanish Tragedy (c.1586), which initiated an important Elizabethan dramatic genre—the revenge tragedy. Popular throughout the 17th cent., The Spanish Tragedy is notable for its exciting action, splendid rhetoric, and complex delineation of character. Kyd is believed by some scholars to be the author of an earlier version of Hamlet, which Shakespeare used as the basis of his play. In 1593, Kyd was accused of holding unorthodox religious and moral views; he was arrested and subjected to torture. Although he extricated himself by implicating his friend Christopher Marlowe, his reputation was severely marred, and he died in poverty the following year.

Bibliography

See studies by A. Freeman (1967) and C. L. Barber (1988).

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Kyd, Thomas

(born Nov. 6, 1558, London, Eng.—died c. December 1594, London) English dramatist. With The Spanish Tragedie (1592), he initiated the revenge tragedy, a favourite dramatic form in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras in which the main motivation was revenge. One of the most popular plays of its time, it prepared the way for William Shakespeare's Hamlet and other plays. The only other play certainly by Kyd is Cornelia (1594). He was arrested and tortured in 1593 after “atheistical” documents were found in his room; he claimed the papers belonged to Christopher Marlowe, with whom he had shared lodgings. His reputation ruined, he died the next year at age 36.

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Kyd, Thomas 

Born Nov. 6, 1558, in London; died there in 1594. English playwright.

Kyd was a representative of the “university wits” in Elizabethan drama. He is the author of The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587), a work that is typical of the pre-Shakespearean “bloody drama.” Kyd’s influence, particularly on Shakespeare, reveals itself in the delineation of character through the development of the action.

WORKS

The Works. Oxford, 1901.

REFERENCES

Istoriia angliiskoi literatury, vol. 1, fase. 1. Moscow-Leningrad, 1943.
Bowers, F. T. Elizabethan Revenge Tragedy, 1587–1642. Princeton, 1940.
Rossiter, A. P. English Drama From Early Times to the Elizabethans. New York [1959].
Murray, P. B. Thomas Kyd. New York [1969].