Kyd, Thomas

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The role of "Senex" in Kyd's 'The Spanish Tragedy'

(Western Michigan University Department of English, 1986) Daalder, Joost

In the edition of The Spanish Tragedy prepared by Philip Edwards for the Revels Plays series, Act III, Scene xiii introduces a new character into the play who is called an "Old Man" when he is first referred to in the stage direction after line 50: "Enter three Citizens and an Old Man". But, somewhat surprisingly, afterwards he is styled "Senex" and "Bazulto". Edwards sees the variations as likely to be authorial, and in this I agree with him. But I think we may well ponder why they occur.
Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy", 3.6.89-94

(Heldref Publications, 1990) Daalder, Joost

Lines III.vi.89-94 are here quoted from the sole surviving copy of "The Spanish Tragedy" (1592), now in the British Library (shelf-mark C.34.d.7). They have proved puzzling to modern editors, and a possible "emendation" has been mentioned. Daalder asserts, on the contrary, that the lines make perfect sense as they stand, provided we realize that the punctuation marks serve to indicate rhetorical pauses rather than syntactical breaks.