Thomas+Kyd

= Thomas Kyd = =  = **__Early life __** Thomas Kyd was the son of Francis and Anna Kyd and was baptized in the church of St Mary Woolnoth in the Ward of Langborn, Lombard Street, [|London] on 6 November 1558. The baptismal register at [|St Mary Woolnoth] carries this entry: "Thomas, son of Francis Kydd, Citizen and Writer of the Courte Letter of London". Francis Kyd was a [|scrivener] and in 1580 was warden of the [|Scriveners' Company]. In October 1565 the young Kyd was enrolled in the newly-founded [|Merchant Taylors' School], whose headmaster was [|Richard Mulcaster]. Fellow students included [|Edmund Spenser] and [|Thomas Lodge]. Here, Kyd received a well-rounded education, thanks to Mulcaster's progressive ideas. Apart from Latin and Greek, the curriculum included music, drama, physical education, and "good manners". There is no evidence that Kyd went on to either of the English universities. He may have followed for a time his father's profession; two letters written by him are extant and his handwriting suggests the training of a scrivener. **__Career __** //The Spanish Tragedie // was probably written in the mid to late 1580s. The earliest surviving edition was printed in 1592; the full title being, //The Spanish Tragedie, Containing the lamentable end of Don Horatio, and Bel-imperia: with the pittifull death of olde Hieronimo//. However, the play was usually known simply as "Hieronimo", after the [|protagonist]. It was arguably the most popular play of the "Age of Shakespeare" and set new standards in effective [|plot] construction and character development. In 1602 a version of the play with "additions" was published. [|Philip Henslowe] 's diary records payment to [|Ben Jonson] for additions that year, but it is disputed whether the published additions reflect Jonson's work or if they were actually composed for a 1597 revival of //The Spanish Tragedy// mentioned by Henslowe. The success of Kyd's plays extended to [|Europe]. Versions of //The Spanish Tragedy// and his //Hamlet// were popular in [|Germany] and the [|Netherlands] for generations. The influence of these plays on European drama was largely the reason for the interest in Kyd among German scholars in the nineteenth century. He is also the presumed author of a pamphlet in prose entitled [|The Murder of John Brewen] (1592), a grisly report on murder in a family, in which a goldsmith is murdered by his wife. **__Later life __** From 1587 to 1593 Kyd was in the service of an unidentified noble, since, after his imprisonment in 1593 (see below), he wrote to have lost "the favors of my Lord, whom I haue servd almost theis vi yeres nowe". Proposed nobles include the Earl of Sussex, the [|Earl of Pembroke] and [|Lord Strange]. He may have worked as a secretary, if he did not also write plays. Around 1591 [|Christopher Marlowe] also joined this patron's service, and for a while Marlowe and Kyd shared lodgings, and perhaps even ideas. On 11 May 1593 the [|Privy Council] ordered the arrest of the authors of "divers lewd and mutinous libels" which had been posted around London. The next day, Kyd was among those arrested; he would later believe that he had been the victim of an informer. His lodgings were searched and instead of evidence of the "libels" there was found an [|Arianist] tract, described by an investigator as "vile heretical conceits denying the eternal deity of Jesus Christ found amongst the papers of Thos. Kydd //(sic)//, prisoner ... which he affirmeth he had from C. Marley //(sic)//". It is believed that Kyd was tortured brutally to obtain this information. Marlowe was summoned by the Privy Council after the events of this, and, while waiting for a decision on his case, was killed in an incident involving known government agents. Kyd was eventually released but was not accepted back into his lord's service. Believing he was under suspicion of atheism himself, he wrote to the [|Lord Keeper], Sir John Puckering, protesting his innocence, but his efforts to clear his name were apparently fruitless. The last we hear from the playwright is the publication of //Cornelia// early in 1594. In the dedication to the Countess of Sussex he alludes to the "bitter times and privy broken passions" he had endured. Kyd died later that year, and was buried on 15 August in London. He was only 35 years of age. In December of that same year, Kyd's mother legally renounced the administration of his estate, probably because it was debt-ridden

**__ List of Plays __** // The Spanish Tragedie (1580’s) // // The Householder's Philosophy // (1588) // Soliman and Perseda // //[|King Leir] // //[|Arden of Feversham] //

**__ External Links __** <span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[] <span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[] <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-decoration: none; textunderline: none;">[]