Ferrex and Porrex, or Gorboduc. 28 Jan. 1562
S. R. 1565–6. ‘A Tragdie of Gorboduc where iij actes were Wretten by Thomas Norton and the laste by Thomas Sackvyle, &c.’ William Greffeth (Arber, i. 296).
1565, Sept. 22. The Tragedie of Gorboduc, Where of three Actes were wrytten by Thomas Nortone, and the two laste by Thomas Sackuyle. Sett forthe as the same was shewed before the Quenes most excellent Maiestie, in her highnes Court of Whitehall, the .xviij. day of Ianuary, Anno Domini .1561. By the Gentlemen of Thynner Temple in London. William Griffith. [Argument; Dumb-Shows.]
N.D. [c. 1571] The Tragidie of Ferrex and Porrex, set forth without addition or alteration but altogether as the same was shewed on stage before the Queenes Maiestie, about nine yeares past, viz., the xviij day of Ianuarie 1561, by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. Seen and allowed, &c. John Day. [Epistle by ‘The P. to the Reader’.]
1590. Edward Allde for John Perrin. [Part of The Serpent of Division.]
Editions in Dodsley1–3 (1744–1825), and by Hawkins (1773, O. E. D. ii), W. Scott (1810, A. B. D. i), W. D. Cooper (1847, Sh. Soc.), R. W. Sackville-West, Works of Sackville (1859), L. T. Smith (1883), J. M. Manly (1897, Spec. ii. 211), J. S. Farmer (1908, T. F. T.), J. W. Cunliffe and H. A. Watt (1912, E. E. C. T.).—Dissertations: E. Köppel (E. S. xvi. 357); Koch, F. und P. (1881, Halle diss.); H. A. Watt, G.; or F. and P. (1910, Wisconsin Univ. Bulletin, 351).
Day’s epistle says that the play was ‘furniture of part of the grand Christmasse in the Inner Temple first written about nine yeares agoe by the right honourable Thomas now Lorde Buckherst, and by T. Norton, and after shewed before her Maiestie, and neuer intended by the authors therof to be published’. But one W. G. printed it in their absence, ‘getting a copie therof at some yongmans hand that lacked a litle money and much discretion’. Machyn, 275, records on 18 Jan. 1561 ‘a play in the quen hall at Westmynster by the gentyll-men of the Tempull, and after a grett maske, for ther was a grett skaffold in the hall, with grett tryhumpe as has bene sene; and the morow after the skaffold was taken done’. Fleay, ii. 174, doubts Norton’s participation—Heaven knows why.
Malone (Var. iii. 32) cites the unreliable Chetwood for a performance of Gorboduc at Dublin Castle in 1601.
For the Inner Temple Christmas of 1561, at which Robert Dudley was constable-marshal and Christopher Hatton master of the game, cf. Mediaeval Stage, i. 415. It was presumably at the mask of 18 Jan. that Hatton danced his way into Elizabeth’s heart.
THOMAS NUCE (ob. 1617).