‘For Few Mean Ill in Vaine’: Roxolana and the Clash of Passion and Politics in the Ottoman Court in Fulke Greville's <i>The Tragedy of Mustapha</i> (1609) and Roger Boyle's <i>The Tragedy of Mustapha</i> (1665)
Journal: Renaissance Studies
Year: 2023

Abstract Despite the many historical references to wealth, military strength and political efficiency, Turks were generally represented as violent, lustful and despotic figures in early modern cultural discourses. The stereotyped cultural Turk soon populated the London stages, thus moulding a recognisable dramatic type whose brutality and sexual appetite were also combined with political corruption. However, as this contribution seeks to demonstrate, Fulke Greville's Mustapha (1609) and Roger Bo