Elizabethan Poetry

Drama was the chief literary glory of the Elizabethan age. In the beginning, these dramas were not so well- written, though the comedies were better than the tragedies. Ralph Roister Doister is taken as the first regular English comedy. It was a kind of farce in rough verse written by Nicholas Udall. Another comedy was Gammer Gurton’s Needle acted at Cambridge University in 1566. Lyly improved the comedy in his prose comedy Compaspe and Edimion. Gorboduc, written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, was the first regular tragedy. It was very dull and written in poor blank verse. Thomas Kyd improved the tragedy by writing The Spanish Tragedy. It is a tragedy of blood and revenge.
Christopher Marlowe The first great dramatist of the time was Christopher Marlowe. Though he lived a short life, he wrote some powerful tragedies, which are counted among the great works of English stage. He showed originality both in choice of subject matter and the use of blank verse. His powerful blank verse strengthens the drams and the development of character heightens the sense of tragedy. His first tragedy Tamburlaine the Great is written in blank verse with colorful images of power and violence.
| | |The play brought a new kind of life to the English theatre. |
| | |Tamburlaine is the shepherd and a robber. The play presents |
| | |his mad ambition for political power and his rise to it. The |
| | |kings who are defeated by his armies are ill treated. The |
| | |ruler of the Turkey is taken from place to place in a cage |
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