Cambyses, King

Cambyses, King,
subject of a tragedy ( 1569 ) by T. Preston , which illustrates the transition from the morality play to the historical tragedy. It is founded on the story of Cambyses (king of Persia) in Herodotus; its bombastic grandiloquence became proverbial and is referred to in 1 Henry IV , ii. iv: ‘I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein.’ Among the characters are three comic villains, Ruff, Huff, and Snuff, who figure again in the Martin Marprelate controversy in the course of Lyly's Pappe with an Hatchet .