Of Gorboduc, Lamb says, "The style of this old play is stiff and cumbersome, like the dresses of the times.

There may be flesh and blood underneath, but we cannot get at it." With the awakened interest of the people, the drama now made steady progress.

In 1568 the tragedy of _Tancred and Gismunda_, based upon one of the stories of Boccaccio, was enacted before Elizabeth.
A license for establishing a regular theatre was got out by Burbage in 1574.

Peele and Greene wrote plays in the new manner: Marlowe, the greatest name in the English drama, except those of Shakspeare and Ben Jonson, gave to the world his _Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus_, which many do not hesitate to compare favorably with Goethe's great drama, and his _Rich Jew of Malta_, which contains the portraiture of Barabas, second only to the Shylock of Shakspeare.

Of Marlowe a more special mention will be made.
PLAYWRIGHTS AND MORALS .-- It was to the great advantage of the English regular drama, that the men who wrote were almost in every case highly educated in the classics, and thus able to avail themselves of the best models.