Doing Kyd

Doing Kyd reads Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, the box-office and print success of its time, as the play that established the revenge genre in England and served as a ‘pattern and precedent’ for the golden generation of early modern playwrights, from Marlowe and Shakespeare to Middleton, Webster and Ford. Interdisciplinary in approach and accessible in style, this collection is crucial in two respects: firstly, it has a wide spectrum, addressing readers with interests in the play from its early impact as the first sixteenth-century revenge tragedy, to its afterlife in print, on the stage, in screen adaptation and bibliographical studies. Secondly, the collection appears at a time when Kyd and his play are back in the spotlight, through renewed critical interest, several new stage productions between 2009 and 2013, and its firm presence in higher-education curriculum for English and drama.

‘Thomas Kyd’s oft-taught revenge play The Spanish Tragedy engages with issues resonant in our time: authoritarianism, economic and social inequality, global­ization, and the seeming impossibility of worldly justice. Though this collection emerged from a 2006 workshop at the University of Warwick and seems to have had a long gestation, its publication is well-timed for the current political moment.’Early Theatre 20.1, Marianne Montgomery, East Carolina University‘This valuable compendium, which revisits the critical reception of a landmark play and confirms its relevance for modern-day audiences, concludes with Cinpoes¸’s comprehensive bibliography of Kyd studies from 1993 to 2013 as well as an index.’Dana E. Aspinall, Alma College, Cahiers Elisabethains: A Journal of English Renaissance Studies XX (X)

Nicoleta Cinpoes is Senior Lecturer in English – Shakespeare at the University of Worcester