elizabethan drama
Preserved but no longer current.
He had his capital at Samarkand, was ruler of vast territories in central Asia and a great part of India, and died while preparing to invade China. Tamburlaine the Great (acted in 1587), a blank verse tragedy, was Marlowe's first play. In Rowe's play, Tamerlane (1702), the warrior appears as a calm, philosophic prince — out of compli- ment to William III.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “elizabethan drama” mean?
He had his capital at Samarkand, was ruler of vast territories in central Asia and a great part of India, and died while preparing to invade China. Tamburlaine the Great (acted in 1587), a blank verse tragedy, was Marlowe's first play. In Rowe's play, Tamerlane (1702), the warrior appears as a calm, philosophic prince — out of compli- ment to William III.
Is “elizabethan drama” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.