Seneca's plays were widely read in medieval and Renaissance European universities and strongly influenced tragic drama in that time, such as Elizabethan England (William Shakespeare and other playwrights), France (Corneille and Racine), and the Netherlands (Joost van den Vondel). English translations of Seneca's tragedies appeared in print in the mid-16th century, with all ten published collectively in 1581. He is regarded as the source and inspiration for what is known as "Revenge Tragedy", starting with Thomas Kyd's "The Spanish Tragedy" and continuing well into the Jacobean era. "Thyestes" is considered Seneca's masterpiece, and has been described by scholar Dana Gioia as "one of the most influential plays ever written". "Medea" is also highly regarded, and was praised along with "Phaedra" by T. S. Eliot.