author
Thomas Preston
A Tudor scholar and possible dramatist, he is best remembered for the lively and violent play Cambyses, a work that helped shape early English drama. His life joined the worlds of the university, the royal court, and the stage.
1 Audiobook
A handy dictionary of mythology : For everyday readers
by Thomas Preston
About the author
Born in 1537 in Buckinghamshire, he was educated at Eton and at King's College, Cambridge. He went on to become an important academic figure at Cambridge, serving as Master of Trinity Hall and later as vice-chancellor of the university.
He is usually associated with Cambyses, a sixteenth-century tragedy that mixes grim history with comic scenes and moral lessons. The play is often mentioned as an example of early English drama before Shakespeare, though some scholars have questioned whether the university man Thomas Preston was definitely the same person who wrote it.
That uncertainty makes him a slightly mysterious figure, but it also adds to his appeal: he stands at the edge of both scholarship and theater, in a period when English drama was still finding its voice. He died in 1598.