The number of plays definitively attributed to the 16th-century English playwright Thomas Kyd has more than doubled following the publication of a major new scholarly edition of his work. The second volume of The Collected Works of Thomas Kyd, released this week, argues for Kyd’s sole or co-authorship of plays previously credited to William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, significantly reshaping the understanding of Elizabethan drama.
Although Kyd was previously known primarily for The Spanish Tragedy, a hugely popular revenge tragedy, and the lesser-known Soliman and Perseda and Cornelia, the new edition expands his accepted canon to eight plays. The most significant addition is the domestic tragedy Arden of Faversham, which scholars now attribute entirely to Kyd, dismissing previous assumptions of Shakespeare’s involvement.
“Kyd’s canon has now been expanded from three plays to eight,” said Dr. Darren Freebury-Jones, associate editor of the publication and a former academic at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. “In the cases of Arden of Faversham, Fair Em, The Miller’s Daughter of Manchester and parts of Henry VI Part 1 and Edward III, this is the first time they have been presented in a critical, collected play edition as Kyd’s, despite a long history of these plays being associated with him.”
The edition, the first critical collection of Kyd’s works since 1901, presents the playwright as a “tragically neglected major playwright,” according to its nine scholars. They contend that a fuller understanding of Kyd’s output positions him as a leading figure of the Elizabethan theatrical landscape, unfairly overshadowed by his more celebrated contemporaries. The research also promises to “broaden our understanding of a golden period of literature, and theatre.”
The attribution of these plays is based on a combination of linguistic analysis and stylistic similarities. Researchers employed computational methods to examine minute details of language, alongside comparisons of plot structures and character development. For example, the edition re-attributes portions of Henry VI Part 1, previously associated with both Marlowe and Shakespeare, assigning authorship to Kyd, Thomas Nashe, and Shakespeare. Edward III, previously unassigned in Kyd’s collected works, is now also included in his canon.
Freebury-Jones highlighted Kyd’s distinctive stylistic traits, particularly his use of rhyme. “He has this curious habit of breaking up his rhyme schemes. So, you’re reading his text, you’re thinking, ‘no, this is not rhyming’. And then a couple of lines later, you have a rhyming word. It’s quite different to Shakespeare.” He further noted that Arden of Faversham aligns with other Kyd texts in its stage directions, specifically the frequent use of the phrase “Then they,” a unique characteristic of Kyd’s dramatic writing.
The research also points to recurring internal repetitions within Kyd’s plays, such as the repeated imagery of “heart’s grief” and the phrase “fine device,” which are absent from the works of Shakespeare and other contemporary playwrights. “One can broaden our appreciation, as well as understanding of Shakespeare, by comparing his plays to those that were being performed at the same time,” Freebury-Jones added.
General editor of the Kyd edition, Prof Sir Brian Vickers of the University of London, emphasized Kyd’s relative obscurity despite his significant contribution to Elizabethan drama. “Apart from Shakespeare, Marlowe has enjoyed the most publicity of all the Elizabethan dramatists, although the number of plays that he actually wrote is very minor. This is partly the accident of being notorious, because he died in a terrible fight in a tavern in Deptford with a dagger thrust in his eye, which gives you a certain kudos.”
Vickers contrasted Marlowe’s notoriety with Kyd’s more unassuming career. “Whereas Kyd – who once shared a room with Marlowe – was a serious writer, who just went about his business as one of the hard-working, conscientious writers who never became notorious. He deserves to have his plays staged today.”
