The Spanish Tragedy

Thomas Kyd (1558-94) was an English playwright, about whose life and works little is now known. Kyd was a contemporary of Spenser and a friend of Marlowe. He was criticized by the court poets for his lack of formal education but enjoyed great popularity as a dramatist. None of his early work having survived, he is chiefly remembered for The Spanish Tragedy (c. 1589), the first English revenge tragedy. This violent and bloody play proved extremely popular and was revived after the Restoration in a production remarked upon by Samuel Pepys. Its influence can be seen in English tragedy throughout the 17th century, most notably in Shakespeare's Hamlet, which employs not only the revenge theme but also the use of a play-within-a-play to reveal the identity of the murderer. Largely because of this, Kyd has often been suggested as the most likely author of the so-called 'ur-Hamlet' (c. 1594), a lost play that is known to have supplied many of the basic plot elements of Shakespeare's masterpiece. In recent years much attention has been paid to Kyd's possible role in the events leading to the death of his friend Christopher Marlowe. In May 1593 Kyd was arrested for possession of a 'heretical' treatise denying the divinity of Christ. Under severe torture he stated that the document had been given him by Marlowe, a noted freethinker who seems to have been the authorities' real target. Kyd's evidence led to an arrest warrant being issued against Marlowe, who was killed in murky circumstances a few weeks later. Kyd himself never recovered from his treatment in prison and died the following year.