Capture of Stuhlweissenburg, The: Difference between revisions
 
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== Historical Records ==
== Historical Records ==


===Personal Sources===
::'''Diary'''
On the 18th of September 1602, Frederic Gerschow, tutor and secretary to Philip Julius, Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, recorded the following in his travel diary:
::: 13 [September] On the thirteenth a comedy was played, of the taking of Stuhl-Weissenberg, firstly by the Turks, and thereafter back again by the Christians. [[Works Cited|Chambers, ''ES'' 2.367]]
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== Theatrical Provenance ==
== Theatrical Provenance ==


Theater historians have not agreed on which playhouse Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania attended to see the play long-identified as "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg" (obviously echoing the phrasing of the journal entry). They agree that it was one of the commercial houses with adult male companies, making the most obvious choices either the Globe or the Rose. In a note to his entry (cited above), Chambers cites Charles W. Wallace as having assumed "that the theatre visited on 13 Sept. was the Globe, but it might have been the Rose" (''ES'', 2.367, note #1).
Knutson, without fresh evidence, assigns "Stuhlweissenburg" to the Chamberlain's men at the Globe (p. 204).
[[Works Cited|Wiggins, #1342]], having absorbed "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg" into Henslowe's entry for "Albere Galles," assigns the play to the Rose, as does Steggle (p. 112).
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== Probable Genre(s) ==
== Probable Genre(s) ==
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== Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues ==
== Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues ==


If, as current opinion now has it, the play formerly known to theater historians as "The Capture of Stuhlweissenberg" was indeed the "Albere Galles" for which Philip Henslowe authorized payments for theatrical properties as well as the script, then the play the Duke of Stettin-Pomerania saw on 13 September was yet another in a cluster of plays about military sieges (as Steggle suggests, pp. 113-16).
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== References to the Play ==
== References to the Play ==
In 1602 Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania visited England, and while in London, the nobleman attended plays. The duke's diary records that "on the 13th a play was acted showing how Stuhl-Weissenberg was gained by the Turks, and then won again by the Christians" (quoted from Steggle, p. 112).
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== Critical Commentary ==
'''Chambers''', in a discussion of playhouses (''ES'' II, p. 367), cites the diary of Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania. He does himself not specify which theater was the location where the play described by the duke as "a comedy ... of the taking of Stuhl-Weissenberg, firstly by the Turks, and thereafter back again by the Christians" was performed, but in a note to his comment he cites Charles W. Wallace as having assumed "that the theatre visited on 13 Sept. was the Globe," to which Chambers then adds "but it might have been the Rose" (p. 367, n.1). 


'''Knutson''' echoes the implicit bias among theater historians about the most desirable playhouses in 1602 and assigns "Stuhlweissenburg" to the Chamberlain's men at the Globe: "The attribution is based on the conjecture that the foreign visitors, having been [to] the newest pubic playhouse in London in 1602 (the Fortune), would have attended performances at the second newest one, the Globe" (p. 204).   


== Critical Commentary ==
'''Wiggins''' does not have a separate entry for this play. He considers the title, "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg," to be a formulation "later assigned" to ''Alba Regalis'' (#1342, q.v. ''LPD'' entry for "Albere Galles").


'''Steggle''', using EEBO-TCP. also identifies the "Stuhlweissenberg" play as the "Albere Galles" performed by Worcester's men at the Rose (a.k.a. ''Alba Regalis''; q.v. ''LPD'' entry for "Albere Galles"). He observes that Stuhlweissenberg is the German name for the city known in Hungarian as Székesfehérvár and in Latin as Alba Regalis.
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== For What It's Worth ==
== For What It's Worth ==
[[Works Cited|Wiggins, #1342]] labels Henslowe's rendering of the title a corruption on evidence that the play was a dramatization of the siege of the Hungarian city, "Alba Regalis," which was held by the Turks for many years. In addition to connecting Heywood's and Smith's play with an historical moment (and thus untangling Henslowe's mangled "Albere Galles"), Wiggins gathers payments for various properties (including costumes) which might have been acquired for this play; in that discussion he considers whether the Turk's head ("tvrckes head") purchased on 24 August 1602 might have been used in "Albere Galles/Alba Regalis," and if so whether it was "an elaborate costume headdress" more like "an enormous turban" or a "severed head," thus marking the Turkish warlord-prince's roles from ruler to one of the vanquished.


'''Steggle,''' reinforcing Wiggins' identification with results from a search of EEBO-TCP using the initial "alb" letters of Henslowe's entry, turns up "Alberegalis," which has 30 hits that collectively deliver "a version of the whole solution" (p. 104). A common variant of Alba Regalis, "Alberegalis" is Latin for the city known by the Hungarian name, Székesfehérvár, as well as the German name, Stuhlweissenberg; and the identification of the city persuades Steggle (as it had Wiggins) that the play dramatized the successful assault on the Turkish occupiers in 1601 by an army of Christians. Turning to narrative events in the lost play, Steggle describes details of two sieges, one in 1543 when the Turks captured the city and the other in 1601 when the Christians regained it. Using also closely-dated entries in the diary of properties purchased, Steggle finds evidence for Collier's assignment of the lances and silk flag to this play; he also assigns the Turk's head that Wiggins discusses at some length (#1342). He adds a payment to Richard Perkins, noting the player's career in 1602 as "one of the rising stars of London theatre" (p. 111). In addition, Steggle contextualizes "Albere Galles" among a contemporaneous cluster of siege plays including the lost "Siege of London" and "Siege of Dunkirk" as well as the extant ''A Larum for London,'' which was played by a competitor-company, the Chamberlain's men, and printed in 1602. He points out that it was also a "Turk" play, as were the ''Tamburlaine'' plays, ''Othello,'' and the lost "Scanderbeg" (pp. 113-4). Further considering repertorial significances, Steggle observes that ''Albere Galles'' was "intensely topical" (p. 116) in its offering of a "a pan-European cultural context" (p. 115).
The editors of the ''Lost Plays Database'' have been scornful of a habit among theater historians of earlier generations for lumping a play for which the text is lost with one that survives. F. G. Fleay is the most enthusiastic lumper from yesteryear. In the instance of "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg," a lumping with "Albere Galles" is persuasive by a variety and proponderance of evidence.
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== Works Cited ==
== Works Cited ==
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{{Play/Attribution}}
{{Play/Attribution}}
[[category:Roslyn L. Knutson]][[category:Admiral's]][[category:Foreign History]][[category:Update]][[category:Matthew Steggle]]

Latest revision as of 14:14, 16 February 2024

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Historical Records

Personal Sources

Diary

On the 18th of September 1602, Frederic Gerschow, tutor and secretary to Philip Julius, Duke of Stettin-Pomerania, recorded the following in his travel diary:

13 [September] On the thirteenth a comedy was played, of the taking of Stuhl-Weissenberg, firstly by the Turks, and thereafter back again by the Christians. Chambers, ES 2.367


Theatrical Provenance

Theater historians have not agreed on which playhouse Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania attended to see the play long-identified as "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg" (obviously echoing the phrasing of the journal entry). They agree that it was one of the commercial houses with adult male companies, making the most obvious choices either the Globe or the Rose. In a note to his entry (cited above), Chambers cites Charles W. Wallace as having assumed "that the theatre visited on 13 Sept. was the Globe, but it might have been the Rose" (ES, 2.367, note #1).

Knutson, without fresh evidence, assigns "Stuhlweissenburg" to the Chamberlain's men at the Globe (p. 204).

Wiggins, #1342, having absorbed "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg" into Henslowe's entry for "Albere Galles," assigns the play to the Rose, as does Steggle (p. 112).

Probable Genre(s)

Foreign History

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

If, as current opinion now has it, the play formerly known to theater historians as "The Capture of Stuhlweissenberg" was indeed the "Albere Galles" for which Philip Henslowe authorized payments for theatrical properties as well as the script, then the play the Duke of Stettin-Pomerania saw on 13 September was yet another in a cluster of plays about military sieges (as Steggle suggests, pp. 113-16).

References to the Play

In 1602 Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania visited England, and while in London, the nobleman attended plays. The duke's diary records that "on the 13th a play was acted showing how Stuhl-Weissenberg was gained by the Turks, and then won again by the Christians" (quoted from Steggle, p. 112).

Critical Commentary

Chambers, in a discussion of playhouses (ES II, p. 367), cites the diary of Duke Philip Julius of Stettin-Pomerania. He does himself not specify which theater was the location where the play described by the duke as "a comedy ... of the taking of Stuhl-Weissenberg, firstly by the Turks, and thereafter back again by the Christians" was performed, but in a note to his comment he cites Charles W. Wallace as having assumed "that the theatre visited on 13 Sept. was the Globe," to which Chambers then adds "but it might have been the Rose" (p. 367, n.1).

Knutson echoes the implicit bias among theater historians about the most desirable playhouses in 1602 and assigns "Stuhlweissenburg" to the Chamberlain's men at the Globe: "The attribution is based on the conjecture that the foreign visitors, having been [to] the newest pubic playhouse in London in 1602 (the Fortune), would have attended performances at the second newest one, the Globe" (p. 204).

Wiggins does not have a separate entry for this play. He considers the title, "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg," to be a formulation "later assigned" to Alba Regalis (#1342, q.v. LPD entry for "Albere Galles").

Steggle, using EEBO-TCP. also identifies the "Stuhlweissenberg" play as the "Albere Galles" performed by Worcester's men at the Rose (a.k.a. Alba Regalis; q.v. LPD entry for "Albere Galles"). He observes that Stuhlweissenberg is the German name for the city known in Hungarian as Székesfehérvár and in Latin as Alba Regalis.

For What It's Worth

The editors of the Lost Plays Database have been scornful of a habit among theater historians of earlier generations for lumping a play for which the text is lost with one that survives. F. G. Fleay is the most enthusiastic lumper from yesteryear. In the instance of "The Capture of Stuhlweissenburg," a lumping with "Albere Galles" is persuasive by a variety and proponderance of evidence.

Works Cited

Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson; Last updated by Rlknutson on 16 February 2024 19:14:10