Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

Thomas Kyd

1558–1594

Introduction

Except for two copies of an answer by T. K. (KyT 1-2), possibly but not certainly Kyd, to well-known verses by Chidiock Tichborne (TiC 2-46), there are no known manuscripts of any of Kyd's works. Not even his most celebrated play, The Spanish Tragedy, is to be found quoted in miscellanies.

Kyd's handwriting would seem to be preserved, however, in at least one of two letters which he is generally thought to have written in 1593 denouncing the atheism of Marlowe and defending himself against a similar charge (see *KyT 3-4). The first of these in particular, written in a formal secretary hand, is a reminder that Kyd was son of a professional scrivener and therefore perhaps inherited some measure of his father's writing competence. The authorship of the second letter is less certain and has been debated, although it must be remembered that variation of handwriting style was also a common feature of scriveners. A third, somewhat incriminating document, in someone else's hand, but found among Kyd's papers, is also preserved (KyT 5).

Abbreviations

  • Boas — The Works of Thomas Kyd, ed. Frederick S. Boas (Oxford, 1901).
  • Freeman — Arthur Freeman, Thomas Kyd: Facts and Problems (Oxford, 1967).
  • Wraight & Stern — A. D. Wraight and Virginia F. Stern, In Search of Christopher Marlowe (London, 1965).

Verse

Hendecasyllabon T.K. in Cygneam Cantionam Chidiochi Tychborne ('Thy prime of youth is frozen with thy faults')

First published in Verses of Prayse and Ioye (London, 1586). Boas, pp. 340-1. Probably not by Kyd.

KyT 1

Copy, written in oblong format, headed Answer.

Edited from this MS in The Complete Poems of Richard Barnfield, ed. A.B. Grosart (London, 1876), pp. 211-12.

In: A duodecimo miscellany of verse and some prose, in a secretary hand, largely written in oblong format, 36 pages (including blanks), in vellum wrappers (a recycled medieval religious text).
Early 17th century

Formerly among the manuscripts of the Isham family at Lamport Hall, Northamptonshire.

Recorded in HMC, 3rd report (1872), Appendix, p. 253.

KyT 2

Copy, headed The Aunsweare to the same [i.e. Tichborne's poem] and here beginning Thy theyme of youthe, is frozen with the faults.

In: A folio volume of transcripts of state papers, in a secretary hand, i + 41 leaves, in contemporary vellum with remains of ties.
c.1610

Names inscribed on f. [ir]: John Humphreys and D [?] Wynn.

Yale, Osborn, others (Osborn MS fb 9 f. 30v)

Letters

Letter(s)
*KyT 3 1593
Autograph

Autograph letter signed, to Sir John Puckering, Keeper of the Great Seal, [1593].

Edited in Boas, pp. cviii-cx, and in Freeman, pp. 181-3. Facsimile examples in Boas, frontispiece; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XV(a); in Wraight & Stern, p. 314; and in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 32.

In: A folio composite volume of state papers and parliamentary speeches, in various hands, 337 leaves, in modern red morocco gilt.
*KyT 4
Autograph

A letter unsigned, possibly by Kyd, to Sir John Puckering or to one or more other Lords of the Privy Council, [1593].

Edited in Freeman, pp. 182-3. Facsimile example in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XV(b). Discussed, and the identity of the handwriting questioned, in Freeman, p. 30; in Robert D. Parsons, Thomas Kyd's Letters, N&Q, 225 (April 1980), 140-1; and in Rebekah Owens, Thomas Kyd and the Letters to Puckering, N&Q, 250 (December 2006), 458-61.

In: A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in various hands.

Documents

Document(s)
KyT 5 c.1593

Fragments of an anonymous heretical disputation found among Kyd's papers (though not in his hand).

Edited, with a facsimile of one page, in Boas, pp. cx-cxiii. Facsimile of another page in Wraight & Stern, p. 239.

In: A folio composite volume of state letters and papers, in various hands.

Contents