tell him Marius holds within his hands
Honour for ladies, for ladies rich reward;
But as for Sylla and for his compeers,
Who dare 'gainst Marius vaunt their golden crests,
Tell him for them old Marius holds revenge,
And in his hands both triumphs life and death.

* * * * *

Only two plays, _The Spanish Tragedy_ (before 1588) and _Cornelia_
(printed 1594), are definitely known to have been written by Thomas Kyd.
There are two others, however, which are commonly attributed to him,
_Jeronimo_ and _Soliman and Perseda_. _The Spanish Tragedy_ continues
the story of _Jeronimo_ with so much care in the perpetuation of each
character--Villuppo and Pedringano are examples--that it is natural to
suppose them both by the same author; in which case 1587 may be guessed
as the date of the latter. Different but strong internal evidence points
to Kyd's authorship of _Soliman and Perseda_. It has many features
corresponding to those found in _The Spanish Tragedy_. The Chorus of
Love, Fortune and Death, in its attitude to the play, closely resembles
that of the Ghost and Revenge. Most of the characters come to a violent
end, and in each play the list of deaths is carefully enumerated by the
triumphant spirit, Death or the Ghost. Then there are similarities of
lines and phrases and remarkable identity in certain tricks of style,
notably in the love of repetition and in a peculiar form of reasoning
after the fashion of a sorites.--Curiously enough, these same tricks are
found, in equally emphatic form, in _Locrine_, an anonymous play of
somewhat later date.--We may compare, for example, the two following
extracts:

(1)

_Erastus._ No, no; my hope full long ago was lost,
And Rhodes itself is lost, or else destroy'd:
If not destroy'd, yet bound and captivate;
If captivate, then forc'd from holy faith;
If forc'd from faith, for ever miserable:
For what is misery but want of God?
And God is lost if faith be overthrown.
(_Soliman and Perseda_, Act IV.)

(2)

_Balthazar._ First, in his hand he brandished a sword,
And with that sword he fiercely waged war,
And in that war he gave me dangerous wounds,
And by those wounds he forced me to yield,
And by my yielding I became his slave.
(_The Spanish Tragedy_, Act II.)

Finally, the play acted at the close of _The Spanish Tragedy_