author
Thomas Preston
A lively figure from Tudor England, he is remembered as a Cambridge scholar long linked to the boisterous tragedy Cambyses. His story sits at the crossroads of university life, court performance, and the early English stage.
1 Audiobook
A handy dictionary of mythology : For everyday readers
by Thomas Preston
About the author
Thomas Preston was an English scholar and churchman born in 1537 at Simpson, Buckinghamshire. He studied at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, later becoming a fellow there before moving on to Trinity Hall, where he eventually served as master.
He is most often associated with Cambyses, King of Persia, a forceful and sometimes darkly comic early English play. Scholars have long connected the work to him, though the attribution is not treated as completely certain in every source. A famous moment in his career came in 1564, when Queen Elizabeth I visited Cambridge and Preston won royal favor through his performance and academic wit.
Alongside his academic life, Preston held church positions and remained an important university figure until his death in 1598. Even with some uncertainty around his authorship, he still stands out as part of the energetic world of 16th-century English drama, when learning, performance, and public display were closely intertwined.