Tancred and Gismund (Gismond variant spelling) is an English Elizabethan play published in 1591. It is a revised version of Gismund of Salerne, a play that was written and produced for the queen in 1566 by the gentlemen of the Inner Temple. The earliest extant English play derived from an Italian novel, each of the five acts was produced by a different author.
The play tells the story of a father, Tancred, whose widowed daughter, Gismund, returns home and begins a clandestine affair with one of her father's courtiers. He kills her lover and presents her with a gold cup containing his heart. She kills herself, and her father, stricken by grief and regret, does likewise, thereby extinguishing his kingly line.
The play has been seen as an admonition to Queen Elizabeth I to choose a husband so that she might bear an heir, based on suitability rather than love.