266 A BOOK OF ENGLISH GARDENS 



doeth most delightfully teach, and so obtain the 

 very end of poesy." 



The tragedy was written when Sackville was 

 only twenty-five; he took his plot from "The 

 History of the British Kings," by Geoffry of 

 Monmouth. Each act began with a dumb show 

 and ended with a chorus (save the last) ; the former 

 custom was very usual in the early English drama, 

 and gave scope for a series of pageants greatly 

 appreciated by the audience. 



The first authorised edition of "Gorboduc" 

 appeared in 1571, but the play was performed 

 before Queen Elizabeth by the gentlemen of the 

 Inner Temple at Whitehall in January, 1561. 



Court entertainments were nearly as dear to 

 Elizabeth as were her magnificent progresses 

 through England, and although she was forced to 

 curtail the expense of her amusements, they were 

 ever costly affairs, though nothing to the splendour 

 and beauty of the masques of later date given by 

 James I. and Charles I. 



Through the recommendation of Pope, one of 

 Sackville's greatest admirers, "Gorboduc," the first 

 of English tragedies, was revived at Drury Lane 

 in 1736, oddly enough with marvellous success, as 

 it is a tedious and gory play at best. It is curious 

 to note that the first tragedy was produced and 

 the first comedy printed when Shakespeare was a 

 child of a few years old ; therefore it might prac- 



