The plot is simple: Ralph, a gay Lothario, courts as gay a widow, and the by-play includes a designing servant and an intriguing lady's-maid: these are the stock elements of a hundred comedies since.
Contemporary with this was _Gammer Gurton's Needle_, supposed to be written, but not conclusively, by John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells, about 1560.

The story turns upon the loss of a steel needle--a rare instrument in that day, as it was only introduced into England from Spain during the age of Elizabeth.

This play is a coarser piece than Ralph Roister Doister; the buffoon raises the devil to aid him in finding the lost needle, which is at length found, by very palpable proof, to be sticking in the seat of Goodman Hodge's breeches.
THE FIRST TRAGEDY .-- Hand in hand with these first comedies came the earliest tragedy, _Gorboduc_, by Sackville and Norton, known under another name as _Ferrex and Porrex_; and it is curious to observe that this came in while the moralities still occupied the stage, and before the interludes had disappeared, as it was played before the queen at White Hall, in 1562.

It is also to be noted that it introduced a chorus like that of the old Greek drama.

Ferrex and Porrex are the sons of King Gorboduc: the former is killed by the latter, who in turn is slain by his own mother.