Thomas Kyd

Very little is known about the life of Renaissance playwright Thomas Kyd (1558?-1594). Though scholars say that often, in this case there is an especially frustrating dearth of information (and surviving texts). Thomas Kyd was born in 1558 in London, the son of Francis and Anna Kyd. Francis was a scriviner. From 1565 he attended Merchant Taylors' School, where he was a contemporary of Edmund Spenser, who later authored The Faerie Queene. At some point after he left school Kyd shared a room with fellow playwright Christopher Marlowe. Though little of his work survives, we know he was successful in his day as Ben Jonson called him "famous Kyd", and Francis Meres wrote he was among "our best for tragedy". It is possible that some time before 1589 he wrote what is known as the Ur-Hamlet, the lost version of Hamlet on which Shakespeare's play was based 16th century illustration of 'The Spanish Tragedy', by Thomas Kyd. [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons In 1589 he wrote his most famous play, The Spanish Tragedy. The bitter tale of family revenge and courtly corruption was a smash-hit. It was published in 1592, and went through at least nine...