Turks, Repertories, and the Early Modern English Stage (Early Modern Literature in History)

This book considers the relationship between the vogue for putting the Ottoman Empire on the English stage and the repertory system that underpinned London playmaking. The sheer visibility of 'the Turk' in plays staged between 1567 and 1642 has tended to be interpreted as registering English attitudes to Islam, as articulating popular perceptions of Anglo-Ottoman relations, and as part of a broader interest in the wider world brought home by travellers, writers, adventurers, merchants, and diplomats. Such reports furnished playwrights with raw material which, fashioned into drama, established ‘the Turk’ as a fixture in the playhouse. But it was the demand for plays to replenish company repertories to attract London audiences that underpinned playmaking in this period. Thus this remarkable fascination for the Ottoman Empire is best understood as a product of theatre economics and the repertory system, rather than taken directly as a measure of cultural and historical engagement. Acknowledgements 6 Contents 8 List of Tables 9 Chapter 1 Introduction 10 Historicising the Phenomenon 15 London Playmaking 19 Turks and Repertories 26 Chapter 2 1453 and All That 31 The 1453 Narrative and the History Play 34 The 1453 Narrative and Fantasising the East 39 The Irene Trope 41 Case Study: Osmond the Great Turk 46 Turning Turk 53 Case Study: A Christian Turned Turk 58 The Material Turk 69 Chapter 3 Henslowe’s Turks 72 Henslowe’s Diary 73 The Turk Play and the Rose Repertory 81 Sequences in the Diary 83 Some Conclusions, 1592–97 110 The Inventories 111 Chapter 4 The Turk Play and Repertory Modelling 123 The Tamburlaine Plays 124 Turn of the Century Turks 139 Repertory Scheduling Hypotheses 144 Reading the Data Geographically 149 Chapter 5 Shakespeare’s Turks 156 1 Henry VI 163 Richard III 170 Richard II to Henry V 175 Re-Orientating Othello 191 Chapter 6 Conclusion: Repertory Geographies and Theatregoing 199 Appendix A: The Turk Play, 1567–1642 207 Appendix B: From Richard Knolles, Generall Historie of the Turks (1603), pp. 350–353 222 Appendix C 229 Bibliography 232 Index 246 Annotation This title considers the relationship between the vogue for putting the Ottoman Empire on the English stage and the repertory system that underpinned London playmaking. The sheer visibility of 'the Turk' in plays staged between 1567 and 1642 has tended to be interpreted as registering English attitudes to Islam, as articulating popular perceptions of Anglo-Ottoman relations, and as part of a broader interest in the wider world brought home by travellers, writers, adventurers, merchants, and diplomats Front Matter ....Pages i-ix Introduction (Mark Hutchings)....Pages 1-21 1453 and All That (Mark Hutchings)....Pages 23-63 Henslowe’s Turks (Mark Hutchings)....Pages 65-115 The Turk Play and Repertory Modelling (Mark Hutchings)....Pages 117-149 Shakespeare’s Turks (Mark Hutchings)....Pages 151-193 Conclusion: Repertory Geographies and Theatregoing (Mark Hutchings)....Pages 195-202 Back Matter ....Pages 203-254