Herod the Great is a central character in Elizabeth Cary's The Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry (1613). The play is a work of historical fiction, set in 29 B.C., revolving around Herod's second wife, Mariam, and their families, when Herod is believed to have been killed by Octavian (later Caesar Augustus).
^David Staines, 'To Out-Herod Herod: The Development of a Dramatic Character', Comparative Drama, 10.1 (spring 1976), 29-53, doi:10.1353/cdr.1976.0015.
^R. Chris Hassel, Jr., '"No Boasting like a Fool?" Macbeth and Herod', Studies in Philology, 98.2 (Spring, 2001), 205-24.