Shakespeare's Tutor

Darren Freebury-Jones is Lecturer of Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

• Introduction: Thomas Kyd’s dramatic oeuvre1 Kyd’s stylistic individuality2 Authorship versus influence3 Kyd’s influence on early Shakespeare4 Revision5 Collaboration6 Kyd’s influence on Shakespeare’s later plays7 Kyd and Shakespeare: A reappraisalAppendix: Rare tetragrams plus, shared between Kyd’s sole- authored playsIndex

'“Shakespeare’s Tutor: The Influence of Thomas Kyd is an accessible, lively, and deeply learned book. With admirable attention to both linguistic minutiae and the likely interests of an audience comprised of a wide range of readers, Freebury-Jones builds a compelling case for expanding the canon of works authored by Thomas Kyd and for rethinking the depth of the dramatist’s influence on Shakespeare … Freebury-Jones advances a compelling argument that remains generous to his interlocutors, charting—in both aspects—a clear path forward for future scholarship.”Christopher Crosbie, Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England“Darren Freebury-Jones works meticulously, using a clearly explained methodology, to give us a much-expanded canon of Kyd’s work … This does look like a plausibly coherent grouping of dramas, and it gives Freebury-Jones a lot to work with when he examines Kyd’s influence on Shakespeare, looking at features such as vengeful female characters, foreboding dreams, dramatic structure and multi-layered staging”.Bart van Es, Times Literary Supplement“Darren Freebury-Jones’s latest book represents a continuation of his revisionary scholarship on adaptation, imitation, and attribution … this path-breaking monograph … reveals deep, subtle, and multiform stylistic interaction between Shakespeare and his contemporaries … the author manages to convey an astonishing amount of evidence with concision in accessible and direct critical language”.Goran Stanivukovic, Modern Language Review“This stimulating book boldly claims a much more relevant role for Kyd in relation to Shakespeare. The two main objectives of the study are to prove that Kyd’s dramatic canon was larger than the three extant plays attributed to him and that his influence on Shakespeare has so far been underestimated … The book confidently asserts that Kyd played a far more important role than has been acknowledged so far.”Cristina Paravano, The Year’s Work in English Studies