Kyd's 'Absalon.' (Thomas Kyd)

IT seems probable that the killing of Horatio in The Spanish tragedy (c. 1590?)(1) was contrived by Kyd in part to recall the biblical story of the death of Absalom as related in 2 Samuel 18. In verse 9 of that chapter, Absalom's head is caught in the branches of a tree as he rides to evade David's men in battle. When Joab, commander of King David's forces, learns of Absalom's misfortune, he takes three |darts' and stabs him through the heart |when he was yet alive in the midst of the oak' (AV). The King's reaction to the news of his son's death is given (with very minor syntactical differences) in both the Geneva Bible (1560) and the Bishops' Bible (1568) as follows:

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