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Gorboduc (play)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gorboduc, also titled Ferrex and Porrex, was an English play from 1562. It was performed before Queen Elizabeth I on January 18 of that year, by the Gentlemen of the Inner Temple. The authors were Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, said to be responsible for the first three Acts, and the final two, respectively.
The play was entered into the Stationers' Register on Sept. 22, 1565. The first quarto, published by the bookseller John Day, is undated, but is thought to have been issued ca. 1571. A second quarto followed in 1590, printed by Edward Allde for the stationer John Perrin.[1]
The play is notable for several reasons: as the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse; for its political subject matter (the realm of Gorboduc is disputed by his sons Ferrex and Porrex), which was still a touchy area in the early years of Elizabeth's reign; for its manner, progressing from the models of the morality play and Senecan tragedy in the direction which would be followed by later playwrights. That is, it can be seen as a forerunner of the whole trend that would later produce King Lear.
- ^ E. K.Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage, 4 Volumes, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1923; Vol. 3, pp. 456-7.