Kyd

Kyd, THOMAS, dramatist, born in the autumn of 1558, seems to have been educated at Merchant Taylors' School, and was most likely brought up as a scrivener under his father. His bloody and bombastic tragedies of the Titus Andronicus order early brought him reputation. These were the two plays having for their hero Jeronimo, marshal of Spain. The first, dealing with the hero's earlier history, was not published till 1605; the second was licensed in 1592 as The Spanish Tragedy, but the earliest extant copy is dated 1594. The production of both may perhaps be dated between 1584 and 1589. Kyd published, in 1594, a tedious tragedy on Pompey's daughter Cornelia, translated from the French, almost certainly produced The Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune (1582) and Solyman and Perseda (1592), and has been credited with a greater or less share in other plays. He was a close friend of Marlowe, shared the odium of his irreligious opinions, and is supposed to have died in poverty in 1595. His name now survives only in Jonson's 'sporting Kyd and Marlowe's mighty line.' F. S. Boas edited him in 1901.