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Estimate: $ 3,000 - $ 5,000
Kyd, Thomas (1558-1594) The Spanish Tragedy: Or, Hieronimo is Mad Againe. Containing the Lamentable End of Don Horatio, and Belimperia; with the pitifull Death of Hieronimo.
London: Printed by Augustine Mathewes for Francis Grove, 1633.
Tenth extant quarto edition, all other earlier editions extremely rare in libraries and practically unobtainable in commerce; large woodcut to title page; first two signatures with some instances of soiling to some openings, quickly resolved to a pleasantly clean interior with large margins, headlines and bottom lines intact; ex libris George R.M. Ewing Jr. with bookplate by Rockwell Kent inside front board; large Bridgewater Library engraved armorial bookplate and accompanied by portions of the earlier 19th century library with Bridgewater arms; 7 x 5 in.
STC 15094; Greg I 110 (j); ESTC S108148 listing seven copies in U.S. copies; rare at auction, the last two copies offered in 2006 and 1962.
Kyd was an important Elizabethan playwright whose reputation was rescued from obscurity by scholar Thomas Hawkins in 1773. The association between Kyd and The Spanish Tragedy was lost in the period after his demise, as it was always published anonymously. Hawkins noticed that Thomas Heywood mentions Kyd by name in his Apologie for Actors (1612), attributing The Spanish Tragedy to his pen. Kyd is now considered the most likely author of a Hamlet that pre-dates Shakespeare's and has not come down to modern scholars in any form other than references to the performance itself (likely circa 1587), the title character, and the existence of a ghost character who urges Hamlet to seek revenge (presumably on the ghost's behalf). Shakespeare wrote different versions of the story in 1603, 1604, and 1623, evolving the plot with each draft. Whether Kyd is the genuine author of a Hamlet that predates Shakespeare's work or not, the present play was one of the most popular produced during the Elizabethan flowering of drama, accounting for its scarcity today.
