The first tragedy in English. A great piece if only one can imagine Queen Elizabeth watching it enacted. ( )

[The Tragedie of Gorboduc] by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville 1561
This is another early play that claims to have a number of firsts. Its original title was “The Tragedie of Gorboduc" and it may have been the first precursor to the great Shakespearean tragedies starting with Titus Adronicus in 1591. It would seem to be the first tragedy that was not just a direct translation from the Roman playwright Seneca. It was the first verse drama in English to employ blank verse and on paper it is starting to look like a play with characters that are real people rather than allegorical similes. However in the main it does consists of long speeches, there is very little dialogue and although there is plenty of action; this all happens off stage and is relayed to the audience as a series of reports, giving very little opportunity for play acting. It is not surprising therefore that there have been no notable modern productions of the play. However, there is more to it than just a series of speeches: there is a dumb show with music at the beginning of each act (there are five) and a chorus at the end that serves to bring the audience up to date. It also has a political content that explores issues around primogeniture making it of great interest to lovers of Tudor History.

At the play's beginning, the argument gives the following summary of the play's action: "Gorboduc, King of Britain, divided his realm in his lifetime to his sons, Ferrex and Porrex. The sons fell to dissension. The younger killed the elder. The mother that more dearly loved the elder, for revenge killed the younger. The people, moved with the cruelty of the fact, rose in rebellion and slew both father and mother. The nobility assembled and most terribly destroyed the rebels. And afterward for want of issue of the prince, whereby the succession of the crown became uncertain, they fell to civil war in which both they and many of their issues were slain, and the land for a long time almost desolate and miserably wasted.”

Reading it today the play seems overtly political. We know that at the time of its performance in 1562 the big issue of the day was the succession to the throne. Queen Elizabeth the virgin queen had no thoughts of marrying, even though the parliament of the day were pressing her to provide or name a successor. Recent Tudor history would have provided an object lesson on the dangers of no clear successor to the throne and the play rams home this point. Gorboduc by dividing the kingdom in to two unequal parts is laying the foundations for a battle of succession and by abdicating in favour of his two young sons each of whom have their own coterie of advisers he is creating his own tragedy. There are speeches made by the kings advisers on the wisdom of the decision, but only one dissenting voice that of Eubulus. Gorbodocs decision results in the death of all of the Royal family and England is not only plunged into civil war with all its atrocities vividly described, but also in danger of foreign invasion. At the end of the play with panic and rioting in the streets it is left for Eubulus to lament on the disaster that has befallen them all. The closing speech despairs at any resolution and looks back to opportunities missed, significantly that the King and parliament together could have avoided the mayhem. It was the kings wilful decision to divide the kingdom on the back of the flattery from his personal advisers that brought on the tragedy. The authors Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville were lawyers at the Inner temple in London and the grand theme of their play is good counsel.

The long speeches certainly to not aid the drama in any way, but they do contain some good lines and are generally well written. It is easy to follow the plays construction. The character of the two sons Ferrex and Porrex who are responsible for setting the disastrous events in motion are shaped in such a way that it is not clear which one of them is the aggressor and leaves the audience to provide its own interpretation. The dumb shows at the start of each act with their backing music provide for some of the drama and they would have set an interesting puzzle for the audience. The descriptions of the actions are fairly graphic especially the maids report on the death of Porrex killed by his mother. This is an interesting read and so 3.5 stars. ( )