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The Political Import of the Norton Half of Gorboduc

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

S. A. Small
S. A. Small*
Affiliation:
DePauw University
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Extract

The political purpose of Gorboduc, which was first noticed by Leonard H. Courtney, has been elaborated by Professor H. A. Watt in his dissertation, Gorboduc: or, Ferrex and Porrex. The two authors wrote the play rather from the point of view of legal advisers than from that of students. It served as a tactful approach to Queen Elizabeth on the question of the limitation of the succession which would necessitate her marrying. Professor Watt, in his discussion, cites numerous pages from Sackville's portion of the play, but he does not discuss the political significance of Norton's portion, although Norton is believed to have been chairman of the committee appointed to wait upon Elizabeth to present the petition of parliament for limitation of the succession. Norton's “personal interest in the question,” as Watt remarks, “has been well established.” One might reasonably expect, therefore, to find references to the political lesson which the tragedy was to convey to the Queen in the portion of Gorboduc written by Norton. It is the purpose of this paper to examine particularly, with this in view, Norton's part of the text of Gorboduc.

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 46 , Issue 3 , September 1931 , pp. 641 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1931

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References

1 Notes and Queries, Series 11, Vol. 10, pp. 261–3.

2 Bulletin of the University of Wisconsin, No. 351, (1910).

3 Ibid., Ch. vi.

4 It was suspected that Elizabeth was receiving advice from Cecyl and Huic, her physician, not to marry. Parliament openly accused them of this in 1566. (William Camden, The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth Late Queen of England, London, 1688, Bk. i, p. 83.)

5 This is the only mention of Sackville's idea in the Norton half, but its appearance in the mouth of Gorboduc in this place in the play, immediately following a wish for advice, makes it an exception that proves my contention, since the two ideas were consciously put together at the beginning of the play to express succinctly the combined petition of both authors.

6 All quotations in this paper are taken from J. Q. Adams, Chief Pre-Shakespearean Dramas.

7 v, ii, 234–252.

8 L. T. Smith, Gorboduc, p. xix.

9 i, ii, 1–10.

10 v, ii, 234–252.

11 I.e., moral unity.

12 This whole chorus is thoroughly Senecan; hence my quotation ought to be regarded as the Senecan equivalent to “take advice.”

13 ii, i, 194–213, and ii, ii, 67–82.