Elizabethan Tragedy

Though tragic narrative, as illustrated in the Fall of Princes and Mirror for Magistrates, had a great hold on readers, there was hardly any tradition of tragedy on the English stage when Elizabeth came to the throne. 1 Thus, although Seneca was acted at schools and original tragedies in Latin were produced at the universities—several of which, e.g., Grimald’s Archipropheta (1547), have great merit—there appears to have been no popular interest in English tragedy till after 1580. Up to that time such tragedies as appeared in the vernacular were exotics, quite unlike in that respect to the early comedies. They could be produced only before elite groups such as the Inns of Court, and, with their emphasis upon musical and spectacular adornment, had somewhat the same limited appeal that grand opera has today. Influence of Seneca