Author Description

Hengist, King of Kent (also known as The Mayor of Quinborough) was one of the most popular plays of the 1630s and 1640s. Written by Thomas Middleton by 1619, its main tragic plot concerns the invasion of the Saxons, led by Hengist, into Britain and the division of the kingdom into heptarchies, one of which, Kent, Hengist comes to rule. The play exists in two manuscript texts (both from the 1640s) and an early printed quarto (1661); this is one of the rare plays of the period that exists in early manuscript copy.