Editing Thomas Kyd (section)

==Later life==
From 1587 to 1593 Kyd was in the service of an unidentified noble, since, after his imprisonment in 1593 (see below), he wrote of having lost "the favours of my Lord, whom I haue servd almost theis vi yeres nowe". Proposed nobles include the [[Henry Radclyffe, 4th Earl of Sussex|Earl of Sussex]],<ref>Arthur Freeman, ''Thomas Kyd: Facts and Problems'', Oxford, 1967</ref> the [[Henry Herbert, 2nd Earl of Pembroke|Earl of Pembroke]],<ref>Lukas Erne, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qjMVA_FmHHEC ''Beyond the Spanish Tragedy: A Study of the Works of Thomas Kyd''], Manchester University Press 2002, {{ISBN|0-7190-6093-1}}</ref> [[Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby|Lord Strange]].<ref>Charles Nicholl, ''The reckoning: the murder of Christopher Marlowe'', University of Chicago Press, 1995, {{ISBN|0-226-58024-5}}, p. 225</ref> and [[Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford|Edward De Vere]], 17th Earl of Oxford. He may have worked as a secretary, if he did not also write plays. Around 1591 [[Christopher Marlowe]] also joined this patron's service, and for a while Marlowe and Kyd shared lodgings, and perhaps even ideas.

On 11 May 1593 the [[Privy Council of the United Kingdom|Privy Council]] ordered the arrest of the authors of "divers lewd and mutinous libels" which had been posted around London. One libel was found on the property of a Dutch Church and contained violent anti-foreigner sentiments and multiple allusions to the works of Marlowe.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Freeman|first=Arthur |date=1973 |title=Marlowe, Kyd, and the Dutch Church Libel |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43446737 |journal=English Literary Renaissance |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=44–52 |doi=10.1086/ELRv3n1p44 |jstor=43446737 |s2cid=151720064 |issn=0013-8312}}</ref> The next day, Kyd was among those arrested; he would later believe that he had been the victim of an informer.<ref name=":0" /> His lodgings were searched and instead of evidence of the "libels" there was found an [[Arianism|Arianist]] tract, described by an investigator as "vile heretical conceits denying the eternal deity of [[Jesus Christ]] found amongst the papers of Thos. Kydd {{sic}}, prisoner ... which he affirmeth he had from C. Marley {{sic}}". Historians such as [[Frederick Boas]] believe that Kyd was tortured brutally to obtain this information.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Boas |first=Frederick |title=The Works of Thomas Kyd |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1901 |isbn= 979-8713135416 |edition=2nd |location=London}}</ref> Kyd told authorities the writings found in his possession belonged to Christopher Marlowe, a fellow dramatist and former roommate. Kyd "accused his former roommate of being a blasphemous traitor, an [[atheist]] who believed that Jesus Christ was a [[homosexual]],"<ref>Gainor, J. Ellen., Stanton B. Garner, and Martin Puchner. ''The Norton Anthology of Drama''. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton, 2009. {{ISBN?}}</ref> an uninformed confusion over the Arian and early [[Gnostic]] concept of [[homoousios]]. Following the accusation, Marlowe was summoned by the Privy Council and, while waiting for a decision on his case, was killed in an incident in [[Deptford]] involving known government agents.

Kyd was eventually released but was not accepted back into his lord's service. Believing he was under suspicion of atheism himself, he wrote to the [[Lord Keeper]], Sir John Puckering, protesting his innocence, but his efforts to clear his name were apparently fruitless. The last we hear from the playwright is the publication of ''Cornelia'' early in 1594. In the dedication to the [[Bridget (Morrison) Radcliffe (Countess of Sussex)|Countess of Sussex]] he alludes to the "bitter times and privy broken passions" he had endured. Kyd died later that year at the age of 35, and was buried on 15 August in [[St Mary Colechurch]] in London. In December of that same year, Kyd's mother legally renounced the administration of his estate, probably because it was debt-ridden.<ref name=":0" />

St Mary Colechurch was destroyed in the [[Great Fire of London]] in 1666, and not rebuilt.