Thomas Norton

English dramatist

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beginnings of English tragedy

  • Aeschylus
    In tragedy: Elizabethan

    by Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton, first acted in 1561, is now known as the first formal tragedy in English, though it is far from fulfilling the high offices of the form in tone, characterization, and theme. Thomas Kyd’s Spanish Tragedy (c. 1587) continued the Senecan tradition of the…

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“Gorboduc”

  • In Gorboduc

    Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville that takes as its subject Gorboduc, a mythical king of ancient Britain. First performed in 1561, it is the earliest English tragic play in blank verse.

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use of blank verse

  • In blank verse

    Thomas Sackville and Thomas Norton used blank verse for the first English tragic drama, Gorboduc (first performed 1561), and Christopher Marlowe developed its musical qualities and emotional power in Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus, and Edward II. William Shakespeare transformed the line and the instrument of blank verse into the…

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