*beitungen von T. K.'s Sp. T. (1903, Litterarhistorische Forschungen, xxvi).
Cornelia. 1593 S. R. 1594, Jan. 26 (Dickins). 'A booke called Cornelia, Thomas Kydd beinge the Authour.' Nicholas Ling and John Busbye (Arber, ii. 644). 1594. Cornelia. James Roberts for N. L. and John Busby. ['Tho. Kyd' at end of play.] 1595. Pompey the Great, his fair Corneliaes Tragedie. Effected by her Father and Husbandes downe-cast, death, and fortune. Written in French, by that excellent Poet Ro: Garnier; and translated into English by Thomas Kid. For Nicholas Ling. [A reissue of the 1594 sheets with a new title-page.] Editions in Dodsley^4, iv. 5 (1874) and by H. Gassner (1894). A translation of the Cornélie (1574) of Robert Garnier, reissued in his Huit Tragédies (1580). In a dedication to the Countess of Sussex Kyd expressed his intention of also translating the Porcie (1568) of the same writer, but this he did not live to do. He speaks of 'bitter times and privy broken passions' endured during the writing of Cornelia which suggests a date after his arrest on 12 May 1593.
Lost and Doubtful Plays
The 'Ur-Hamlet'
Dissertations: J. Corbin, The German H. and Earlier English Versions (1896, Harvard Studies, v); J. Schick, Die Entstehung des H. (1902, Jahrbuch, xxxviii. xiii); M. B. Evans, Der bestrafte Brudermord, sein Verhältniss zu Shakespeare's H. (1902); K. Meier (1904, Dresdner Anzeiger); W. Creizenach, Der bestrafte Brudermord and its Relation to Shakespeare's H. (1904, M. P. ii. 249), Die vorshakespearesche Hamlettragödie (1906, Jahrbuch, xlii. 76); A. E. Jack, Thomas Kyd and the Ur-Hamlet (1905, M. L. A. xx. 729); J. W. Cunliffe, Nash and the Earlier Hamlet (1906, M. L. A. xxi. 193); J. Allen, The Lost H. of K. (1908, Westminster Review); J. Fitzgerald, The Sources of the H. Tragedy (1909); M. J. Wolff, Zum Ur-Hamlet (1912, E. S. xlv. 9); J. M. Robertson, The Problem of Hamlet (1919).
The existence of a play on Hamlet a decade or more before the end of the sixteenth century is established by Henslowe's note of its revival by the Admiral's and Chamberlain's on 11 June 1594 (cf. Greg, Henslowe, ii. 164), and some corroborative allusions, but its relationship to Shakespeare's play is wholly conjectural. The possible coupling of 'Kidde' and 'Hamlet' in Nashe's epistle to Menaphon has led to many speculations as to Kyd's authorship and as to the lines on which the speculators think he would have treated the theme. Any discussion of these is matter for an account of Hamlet.
Kyd's hand has also been sought in Arden of Feversham, Contention of York and Lancaster, Edward III, 1 Jeronimo, Leire, Rare Triumphs of Love and Fortune, Soliman and Perseda, Taming of A Shrew, and True Tragedy of Richard III (cf. ch. xxiv), and in Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus.
