Gorboduc

Alternative title(s): Ferrex and Porrex  
Author(s): Norton, Thomas; Sackville, Thomas
Note: Date of performance (6 January 1562) from Wiggins, vol. 1, p. 377.
Date of composition:
  • 1562 (latest)
Date of first performance: 1562
Date of first publication: 1565
Genre (Annals): Tragedy

Catalogue references: Wiggins: 351 (Vol. 1)
HIERONIMO/EMOTHE text(s): 1992 modern edition by W. Tydeman
  • 1565 octavo Griffith, William Printed title: THE TRAGEDIE OF GORBODVC single-play print
      ESTC: S111262 18684 59 39a
      EEBO-TCP: A08360 - Huntington Library - EEBO record - TCP HTML XML HTML
      Observations: Substantive textual version. Unauthorized.
      Facsimile: Sackville, Thomas and Norton, Thomas. Gorboduc: the Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex (1570). Menston: Scolar Press, 1968.  (Reprint of first ed., second impression).
  • [1570] octavo Day, John (1) Printed title: The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex single-play print
      ESTC: S121996 18685 60 39b
      EEBO-TCP: A08361 - Huntington Library - EEBO record TCP HTML XML
      Observations: Substantive textual version. Authorized. Omission of eight lines. Also included in Thomas Norton's All such treatises, London, [ca. 1570] (STC 18677)
  • 1590 quarto Allde, Edward Perrin, John Printed title: THE Tragedie of Gorboduc single-play print
      ESTC: S109002 17029 (pt. 2) 61 39c
      EEBO-TCP: - Huntington Library - EEBO record
      Observations: ESTC and EEBO refer to The serpent of deuision, London, 1590 (STC 17029). "'The tragedie of Gorboduc' [...] has separate dated title page and register and may have been issued separately" (ESTC).

  • STC/WING: 18684 (1565); 18685 ([1570]); 17029 (pt. 2) (1590)
  • ESTC:
  • DEEP: 59 (1565); 60 ([1570]); 61 (1590)
  • Greg: 39a (1565); 39b ([1570]); 39c (1590)
  • Wiggins:

Early Performances

  • Company: Venue: Innter Temple Date: 1562
    Cast:
      Location: Venue type:
      Note: 6 January
      Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 1: 1533-1566. 2012.
    • Company: Venue: Whitehall Palace Date: 1562
      Cast:
        Location: Venue type: palace / court
        Note: 18 January. (In Harbage et al. the venue of this performace is the Inner Temple)
        Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 1: 1533-1566. 2012.
      • Company: Venue: Dublin Castle Date: 1601
        Cast:
          Location: Venue type: palace / court
          Note: 7 September
          Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 1: 1533-1566. 2012.

        Modern editions

        • Tydeman, William, ed. Two Tudor Tragedies. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1992. Penguin Classics.
        • Fraser, Russell A.; Rabkin, Norman, ed. Drama of the English Renaissance I: The Tudor Period. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1976, pp. 81-100.
        • Irby, B.; Cauthen, Jr., ed. Gorboduc, or Ferrex and Porrex. Norton, Thomas; Sackville, Thomas. Lincoln1970. Regents Renaissance Drama..
        • Walsh, Sister Maureen A Critical Edition of 'Gorboduc'. In: . St. Louis Univ., 1964. Unpub. Doct. Diss.[Abstr. in Dissertation Abstracts International, XXV, 4693.].
        • Gassner, John, ed. Medieval and Tudor Drama. New York: Bantam Books, 1963.
        • Adams, Joseph Quincy, ed. Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas.. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1924, pp. 503-35. Supposes, pp. 536-67.
        • Cunliffe, J. W., ed. Early English Classical Tragedies. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912, pp. 1-64.

        Select Bibliography: Translations

        • FR:
          • Norton, Thomas; Sackville, Thomas. "Gorboduc". Tra. Lascombes, André. Ed. Cottegnies, Line; Laroque, François; Maguin, Jean-Marie. Théâtre élisabéthain. Paris: Gallimard, 2009. Vol. 1.

        Select Bibliography: Criticism

        • Kim, Jaecheol. "The North-South Divide in 'Gorboduc': Fratricide Remembered and Forgotten". Studies in Philology. 2014, vol. 4, 111, p. 691-719.
        • Estill, Laura; Kelly, Erin E. "New Contexts for Early Tudor Plays: William Briton, an Early Reader of 'Gorboduc'". Early Theatre: A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama. 2013, vol. 2, 16, p. 197-210.
        • Hunt, Alice. "Dumb Politics in 'Gorboduc'". Ed. Betteridge, Thomas; Walker, Greg. The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 547-565.
        • Cunningham, Karen J. "'So Many Books, So Many Rolls of Ancient Time': The Inns of Court and 'Gorboduc'". Ed. Kezar, Dennis. Solon and Thespis: Law and Theater in the English Renaissance. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P, 2007, p. 197-217.
        • Winston, Jessica. ""Expanding the Political Nation: 'Gorboduc' at the Inns of Court and Succession Revisited". Early Theatre: A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama. 2005, vol. 1, 8, p. 11-34.
        • Reilly, Terry. "'This Is the Case': 'Gorboduc' and Early Modern English Legal Discourse Concerning Inheritance". Ed. Kermode, Lloyd Edward; Scott-Warren, Jason; Van Elk, Martine. Tudor Drama before Shakespeare, 1485-1590: New Directions for Research, Criticism, and Pedagogy. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004, p. 195-210.
        • Dunn, Kevin. "English Literary Renaissance". {Falta título revista}. 2003, vol. 3, 33, p. 279-308.
        • Kobayashi, Junji. "'Gorboduc' and the Inner Temple Revels of Christmas". Shakespeare Studies. 2003, 41, p. 25-43.
        • Walker, Greg. "Allegory in the Interludes: Chronology, Taxonomy, and 'Gorboduc' (Again)". Medieval English Theatre. 2003, 25, p. 54-70.
        • Pincombe, Mike. "Robert Dudley, Gorboduc, and 'The Masque of Beauty and Desire': A Reconsideration of the Evidence for Political Intervention". Parergon: Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies. 2003, vol. 1, 20, p. 19-44.
        • Herman, Peter C. "'He Said What?!?': Misdeeming Gorboduc; or, Problematizing Form, Service and Certainty". Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 2001, vol. 1, 13, p. 287-321.
        • Berg, James Emmanuel. "Gorboduc as a Tragic Discovery of 'Feudalism'". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 2000, vol. 2, 40, p. 199-226.
        • Vanhoutte, Jacqueline. "Community, Authority, and the Motherland in Sackville and Norton's 'Gorboduc'". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 2000, vol. 2, 40, p. 227-39.
        • Peyré, Yves. "'Excellent Dumb Discourse': Le Symbolisme des dumb shows de la tragédie élisabéthaine: De 'Gorboduc' à 'Locrine'". Ed. Lascombes, André. Tudor Theatre: 'Let There Be Covenants ...': Convention et Théâtre. Bern: Peter Lang, 1998, p. 89-102.
        • Jones, Norman; White, Paul Whitfield. "Gorboduc' and royal marriage politics: an Elizabethan playgoer's report of the premiere performance". English Literary Renaissance. 1996, vol. 1, 26, p. 3-16.
        • Lascombes, André. "Time and Place in Tudor Theater: Two Remarkable Achievements-'Fulgens and Lucres' and 'Gorboduc'". Ed. Maguin, Jean-Marie; Willems, Michèle. French Essays on Shakespeare and His Contemporaries: 'What Would France with Us?'. Newark: U of Delaware P--Associated UP, 1995, p. 66-80.
        • Breitenberg, Mark. "Reading Elizabethan Iconicity: 'Gorboduc' and the Semiotics of Reform". English Literary Renaissance. 1988, vol. 2, 18, p. 194-217.
        • Dust, Philip. "The Theme of 'Kinde' in 'Gorboduc'". Ed. Hogg, James. Salzburg Studies in English Literature: Elizabethan Studies. Salzburg: Inst. fur Englische Sprache und Literatur, Univ. Salzburg A-5020, 1973, p. 43-81.
        • Babula, William. "'Gorboduc' as Apology and Critique". Tennessee Studies in Literature. 1972, 17, p. 37-43.
        • Talbert, Ernest W. "The Political Import and the First Two Audiences of 'Gorboduc'". Ed. Harrison, Thomas P; Mossner, Ernest C; Sledd, James. Studies in Honor of DeWitt T. Starnes. Austin: Univ. of Texas, 1967, p. 89-115.
        • Bacquet, Paul. "Structure et valeur dramatiques de 'Gorboduc'". Filoloski Pregled: Casopis Saveza Drustava za Strane Jezike i Knjizevnost SFRJ. 1964, vol. 2, 1, p. 247-259.
        • Bacquet, Paul. "L'imitation de Sénèque dans 'Gorboduc' de Sackville et Norton". Ed. Jacquot, Jean. Les Tragédies de Sénèque et le Théâtre de la Renaissance. Paris: Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 1964, p. 153-74.
        • Turner, Robert Y. "Pathos and the Gorboduc Tradition, 1560-1590". Huntington Library Quarterly. 1962, 25, p. 97-120.
        • Bacquet, Paul. "L'influence de Sénèque sur 'Gorboduc'". Etudes Anglaises. 1961, 14, p. 344-345.
        • Carneiro de Mendonça, Barbara Heliodora. "The Influence of 'Gorboduc' on King Lear". Shakespeare Survey. 1960, 13, p. 41-48.
        • Watson, Sara R. "'Gorboduc' and the Theory of Tyrannicide". Modern Language Review. 1939, 34, p. 355-366.
        • Baker, Howard. "Some Blank Verse Written by Thomas Norton before 'Gorboduc'". Modern Language Notes. 1933, vol. 8, 48, p. 529-30.
        • Schmidt, H. "Seneca's Influence upon 'Gorboduc". Seneca's Influence upon 'Gorboduc. 1887, vol. 2, 2, p. 28-35.

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