Gorboduc, by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, was performed in 1561 and later before Queen Elizabeth I. It is the earliest known English tragedy in blank verse and used a divided kingdom to warn against political disorder. Its form drew on Senecan drama and Tudor anxieties about succession.

Gorboduc prepared the way for the blank verse stage that Shakespeare and Marlowe would transform. Its political allegory shows how drama could debate national crisis while avoiding direct commentary on living rulers.