Thomas Kyd's Mystery Play (American University Studies IV : English Language and Literature, Vol. 29)

One of the most popular plays of the Elizabethan period, The Spanish Tragedy has long been accepted as the first major example of the revenge tragedy genre which enjoyed a great vogue in Tudor and Stuart England. However, in this first full-length study in English of the play, the author offers an original analysis of its mystery subtext. He shows how Kyd defines the play as a mystery by analogies between the large play and three plays-within-the-play, and then he discusses the ways in which the play is a mystery: as an allegory, as a prototypical detective story, and as a mystery ritual. This monograph not only expands our knowledge of Kyd's dramaturgy but it also broadens our understanding of the learned dimensions of Elizabethan popular drama.