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Ferrex and Porrex
Excerpt from Ferrex and Porrex
Date of Representation, C/ rc'ue/j' Date of Antborised Edition, 1570 Â 1 Reproduced in faejimi/e,be 111?q jfaczimile Warm.
Date of Representation, C/ rc'ue/j' Date of Antborised Edition, 1570 Â 1 Reproduced in faejimi/e,be 111?q jfaczimile Warm.
138 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1970
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 28, 2023
this would be 20 pages long if Eubulus learned to shut the fuck up
April 23, 2026
“And this great king, that doth divide his land
And change the course of his descending crown…
A mirror shall become to princes all
To learn to shun the cause of such a fall.”
And change the course of his descending crown…
A mirror shall become to princes all
To learn to shun the cause of such a fall.”
June 2, 2026
Tragic
February 7, 2022
More than any play I've ever read--more, even, than any radio play I've ever encountered--this work is composed entirely of dialogue. Just characters standing on stage, delivering formal speeches in fancy clothes. No action. No sword fights. No running. No death scenes. The notes in the edition I read (from the Elizabethan drama website) warned that there is virtually no action in the play, and I thought that was hyperbole.
Nope. Other than entrances and exits, everything happens offstage. People die, then the characters get together to talk about it.
I mean, it's surprisingly entertaining. It's a sort of King Lear story, set in pre-Roman Britain, where a kingdom divided in two falls into civil war and chaos, and it works, to a degree. But there is no spectacle here. It's all dialogue and, one supposes, costumes.
To be fair, the language is excellent. A little older than Shakespeare and pitched to sound even more archaic, it's pretty tough going without notes, but it's well done. It's fiercely committed to regular iambic pentameter and ornate, elevated language. Examples are found on every page, such as this bit of speech where Porrex explains that he had to kill his brother to save his own life:
Too much of a good thing, though. In a play filled with long speeches, one speech near the end runs to 100 lines, over 800 words, the longest (I'm informed) in Elizabethan theater. I can't imagine how hard it would've been to stage this effectively. But... hmmm... in a modern theater, imagine a screen showing the murders and battles and betrayals, the action playing out as they describe it...
I dunno. The play is interesting, though, if not deeply compelling. Recommended only for some folks.
Nope. Other than entrances and exits, everything happens offstage. People die, then the characters get together to talk about it.
I mean, it's surprisingly entertaining. It's a sort of King Lear story, set in pre-Roman Britain, where a kingdom divided in two falls into civil war and chaos, and it works, to a degree. But there is no spectacle here. It's all dialogue and, one supposes, costumes.
To be fair, the language is excellent. A little older than Shakespeare and pitched to sound even more archaic, it's pretty tough going without notes, but it's well done. It's fiercely committed to regular iambic pentameter and ornate, elevated language. Examples are found on every page, such as this bit of speech where Porrex explains that he had to kill his brother to save his own life:
When thus I saw the knot of love unknit,
All honest league and faithful promise broke,
The law of kind and troth thus rent in twain,
His heart on mischief set, and in his breast
Black treason hid; then, then, did I despair
That ever time could win him friend to me:
Then saw I how he smiled with slaying knife
Wrapped under cloak; then saw I deep deceit
Lurk in his face, and death prepared for me...
Too much of a good thing, though. In a play filled with long speeches, one speech near the end runs to 100 lines, over 800 words, the longest (I'm informed) in Elizabethan theater. I can't imagine how hard it would've been to stage this effectively. But... hmmm... in a modern theater, imagine a screen showing the murders and battles and betrayals, the action playing out as they describe it...
I dunno. The play is interesting, though, if not deeply compelling. Recommended only for some folks.
December 27, 2024
The first example of English blank verse in a dramatic piece, Gorboduc is a rhetorical tragedy of the English Renaissance with a solely political purpose, that is, to implant the idea in the audience that the issue of a secure, unitary, succession must be solved in order to ensure the stability of the realm - alongside the other more usual lessons such as listening to your advisors rather than flatterers, the virtues of elder rule, and the follies of youth.
The play is largely moral abstraction, with each character not truly representing any individual of depth, but a virtue, vice, event, or argument. This is made overt through the balance of dialogue, each character making a speech with some kind of reply. There is also moral dialogue between the symbolic dumb-show preceding each act and the chorus succeeding it, this elaborating the moral proposition that is to be arrived at as a sequence of events.
The language is largely unmemorable, and most events, as is tradition, take place off stage. Do not read this if you enjoy a character driven narrative - THIS IS A POLITICAL TREATISE.
The play is largely moral abstraction, with each character not truly representing any individual of depth, but a virtue, vice, event, or argument. This is made overt through the balance of dialogue, each character making a speech with some kind of reply. There is also moral dialogue between the symbolic dumb-show preceding each act and the chorus succeeding it, this elaborating the moral proposition that is to be arrived at as a sequence of events.
The language is largely unmemorable, and most events, as is tradition, take place off stage. Do not read this if you enjoy a character driven narrative - THIS IS A POLITICAL TREATISE.
August 16, 2023
As the first ever native English tragedy, Goboduc is fascinating (and considerably better than the first English comedies, Ralph Roister Doister and Gammer Gurton's Needle). The influence of Seneca is still around, so everyone stands around talking, while the action (fratricide, civil war, mothers murdering sons, Kings and Queens being torn apart by the mob, division of the Kingdom) goes on offstage, interspersed by some dumbshows.
But the development from Heywood's Senecan tragedies tens years before is profound: this is actually a performable (and speakable) play, with some bits that feel surprisingly modern.
But the development from Heywood's Senecan tragedies tens years before is profound: this is actually a performable (and speakable) play, with some bits that feel surprisingly modern.
January 5, 2019
The appeal of the first English tragedy based on the works of Seneca can't simply 'go wrong' (as opposed to the events in the play). The style anticipates the Bard's skills on many levels. A must-read for the Classicists.
April 19, 2019
Shakespeare's reading of this first tragedy of the Elizabethan era truly helped form his approach to the History plays. There are many lengthy soliloquies in this drama which are powerful whilst supplying needed background. I am glad to finally have read this early British history drama.
February 18, 2018
The first tragedy in English. A great piece if only one can imagine Queen Elizabeth watching it enacted.
November 3, 2022
it's no secret masterpiece as i was hoping but still pretty impressive, especially from the fourth act when sackville (supposedly) takes over
January 28, 2026
the most boring play to ever include fratricide, filicide, and a bloody revolt
February 4, 2026
King Lear if it was bad
March 9, 2026
LITERALLY the blue print for king lear
September 12, 2016
A piece that is more likely to incite long bouts of Ciceronian style oratory than any dramatic affect whatsoever, Gorboduc is a play that is more about the politics of power than the physical shifts of that power. If the dialogue were clipped and made more dynamic, the play would be a fine one. As it stands, it serves more as an instructional model for monarchs than as a play for the people.
August 20, 2014
Fans of declamatory oratory will like this play. Fans of Queen Mary I will like this play.
Fans of Elizabeth I and/or dialogue will not like this play.
It's good to see where Elizabethan drama started; it's hard to read it after you've dipped into the 1580s.
Fans of Elizabeth I and/or dialogue will not like this play.
It's good to see where Elizabethan drama started; it's hard to read it after you've dipped into the 1580s.
January 18, 2017
The darkest play I studies this semester..
Like how one decision can create all this chaos?
Like how one decision can create all this chaos?
June 29, 2017
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) the play has indirect message that the throne in unstable position and queen Elizabeth must take care
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews