In British Celtic mythology,Ferrex was a son of Gorboduc and Judon and the brother of Porrex.Porrex and Ferrex had a quarrel over the succession,and Porrex plotted to ambush Ferrex.H,however,found out about this and escaped to Gaul to raise an army.This attempt to save his life was in vain,as Porrex killed him upon his arrival back in Britain.Judon went mad on hearing of the death of Ferrex and hacked Porrex to pieces.Thus,on the death of Gorboduc,there was no-one left to continue the line of descent,a line supposed to have come down from Brutus.

The ancient Greek tragedies informed the Roman tragedian Seneca, whose work was in turn part of the source of the English tradition of tragedy, starting with the authors of Gorboduc, through Marlowe, and passing from him to Shakespeare

This was not an uncommon thing in Elizabethan theatre. Shakespeare himself does it in Romeo and Juliet. Indeed the Peter Quince production of Pyramus and Thisbe is like a comic parody of Romeo and Juliet.

The idea is that the more often the audience heard about or saw the drift of the play, the more likely they were to get it. "Dumbshows" (as seen in The Murder of Gonzago in Hamlet and Gorboduc in real life) served the same purpose.

To show the high status of a character, or the elevated status of a particular speech. Many characters speak in blank verse sometimes and prose in others, including a number of kings. Hamlet, for example, speaks often in prose.

Thomas Norton has written:

'An addition declaratorie to the bulles, with a searching of the maze' -- subject(s): Catholic Church, Catholic Church. Pope (1566-1572 : Pius V), Controversial literature, Early works to 1800, History

'A warning agaynst the dangerous practises of papistes' -- subject(s): Early works to 1800, Controversial literature, Catholics, History

'Gorboduc (1570): the tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex'

'Orations [by] Arsanes'

'Gorboduc; or, Ferrex and Porrex'

'To the Quenes Maiesties poore deceiued subiects of the north countrey, drawen into rebellion by the Earles of Northumberland and Westmerland. Written by Thomas Norton. And newly perused and encreased. Seen and allowed according to the Queenes iniunctions' -- subject(s): Early works to 1800, History