Soliman and Perseda

by Thomas Kyd

Text Is Old English.

First published November 10, 1599

About the author

Thomas Kyd (baptised 6 November 1558; buried 15 August 1594) was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama.

Although well known in his own time, Kyd fell into obscurity until 1773 when Thomas Hawkins (an early editor of The Spanish Tragedy) discovered that Kyd was named as its author by Thomas Heywood in his Apologie for Actors (1612). A hundred years later, scholars in Germany and England began to shed light on his life and work, including the controversial finding that he may have been the author of a Hamlet play pre-dating Shakespeare's.

Reviews

[David Redden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Came upon this while studying John Donne elegies. Donne's The Bracelet is possibly written in part to lampoon what Donne probably saw as the well-worn sentiments and silly (but enjoyable) tragicness of Soliman and Persida, which is written by one of Shakespeare's contemporaries.

[jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

genuinely one of the crazy bisexual erotic triangles of all time. thank god. soliman is like if proteus was aufidius and i'm a little obsessed. cannot say the racial politics play are ~good~ but he might be the most complex and compelling turkish character i've come across in early modern english drama because he's largely too busy being in love with perseda and erastus to act like a caricature. probably 3.5 stars but i'm embarrassingly easy to appeal to.

[Ella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for an early modern artifact analysis assignment and it was actually amazing! Written really well for the time period. This is basically a political love triangle where the chorus of the play argues about whether love, fortune, or death has the greatest effect on tragedy.