Fascinating, Mathew! I hadn't heard of Thomas Kyd, nor about this infamous incident concerning the Dutch Church, a building I've been meaning to write about at some point.
Also: "a perfect example of the problems posed by the erosion of evidence over time, since what little we do know seems wholly arbitrary in its survival, yet also hints at the enormity of what we have lost" -- this I can identify with from my previous work on rare syntactic constructions in medieval Germanic languages!
As the late linguist William Labov said of historical linguistics, it's "the art of making the best use of bad data". Strikes me as also a fitting description for this interesting piece!
Mathew, you always write so beautifully, so forgive me but this one was difficult to read because of its content. Chilling is right. I hear talk, often, about the terrible time we are living in. Oh my dears, you have no idea. Whew. I always learn so much from your work, Mathew, and I'm grateful for this, very much so. Before reading this piece I did know that Kyd's Hamlet plot was taken by Shakespeare and duly transformed into a work of great art. Do you know Kyd's actual play? I only know the one line or so in The Waste Land "Hieronimo's mad againe". Thank you.
Thank you, Marian. You're so kind. Yes I've read Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, although not recently. It's brilliant - particularly its plot structure - but the poetry is not in Shakespeare's class.
Thank you, Mathew, I will check out Spanish Tragedy. It's funny that Kyd seems ancient to me, and Shakespeare doesn't. He's so much a part of our lives.
Fascinating, Mathew! I hadn't heard of Thomas Kyd, nor about this infamous incident concerning the Dutch Church, a building I've been meaning to write about at some point.
Also: "a perfect example of the problems posed by the erosion of evidence over time, since what little we do know seems wholly arbitrary in its survival, yet also hints at the enormity of what we have lost" -- this I can identify with from my previous work on rare syntactic constructions in medieval Germanic languages!
As the late linguist William Labov said of historical linguistics, it's "the art of making the best use of bad data". Strikes me as also a fitting description for this interesting piece!
Mathew, you always write so beautifully, so forgive me but this one was difficult to read because of its content. Chilling is right. I hear talk, often, about the terrible time we are living in. Oh my dears, you have no idea. Whew. I always learn so much from your work, Mathew, and I'm grateful for this, very much so. Before reading this piece I did know that Kyd's Hamlet plot was taken by Shakespeare and duly transformed into a work of great art. Do you know Kyd's actual play? I only know the one line or so in The Waste Land "Hieronimo's mad againe". Thank you.
Thank you, Marian. You're so kind. Yes I've read Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, although not recently. It's brilliant - particularly its plot structure - but the poetry is not in Shakespeare's class.
Thank you, Mathew, I will check out Spanish Tragedy. It's funny that Kyd seems ancient to me, and Shakespeare doesn't. He's so much a part of our lives.