A review by barnesstorming
The Spanish Tragedy by Thomas Kyd

5.0

Full disclosure: This is my first time reading "The Spanish Tragedy," and I'm no scholar of Elizabethan plays. But I'll say this feels, to me, like a definitive edition of the play -- with the additional passages added in the later, 1602 version not presented in-line with the earlier text but with their insertion points readily marked and the copy easily accessible in an appendix. There are scads of helpful footnotes to give context and definition to more challenging passages, and archaic words or unusual usages or more common ones are defined in the margins, so as not to break up the flow of the dialog. The 40-some page intro is a great scene setter as well, and there's plenty of further context in other appendices. So, if someone were to approach me with an interest in this proto-Shakespearean work, I would heartily recommend this particular edition for its breadth, ease of reading, and great context.