Mahomet: Difference between revisions
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==== Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary ==== | ==== Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary ==== | ||
Fol. 9<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 18]) | :Fol. 9<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 18]) | ||
:{| {{table}} | |||
| |||| | :::{| {{table}} | ||
|- | |||
| y<sup>e</sup> 14 of aguste 1594 | |||
| . . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahomet | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iij<sup>li</sup> v<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
:{| {{table}} | :Fol. 10 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 19]) | ||
:::{| {{table}} | |||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 27 of aguste 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 27 of aguste 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemet | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxx<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 9 of septmbʒ 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 9 of septmbʒ 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemett | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxv<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 21 of septmbʒ 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 21 of septmbʒ 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemett | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxviij<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 14 of octobʒ 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 14 of octobʒ 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemett | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvj<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
Fol. 10<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 20]) | :Fol. 10<sup>v</sup> ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 20]) | ||
:{| {{table}} | :::{| {{table}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 6 of novembʒ 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 6 of novembʒ 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemette | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 4 of desembʒ 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 4 of desembʒ 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemet | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xj<sup>s</sup> | |||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
Fol. 11 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 21]) | :Fol. 11 ([http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 21]) | ||
:{| {{table}} | :::{| {{table}} | ||
|- | |- | ||
| y<sup>e</sup> 5 of febreary 1594| | | y<sup>e</sup> 5 of febreary 1594 | ||
| . . . . . . | |||
| R''es'' at mahemett | |||
| . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvj<sup>s</sup> | |||
|} | |} | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
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==== Miscellaneous expenses in Philip Henslowe's diary ==== | ==== Miscellaneous expenses in Philip Henslowe's diary ==== | ||
F. 92/ [http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 145] | :F. 92/ [http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 145] | ||
:Layd owt at the a poyntment of the | ::Layd owt at the a poyntment of the | ||
:company the 2 of aguste 1601 for a parell | ::company the 2 of aguste 1601 for a parell | ||
:for mahewmet the some of . . . . . . . . . . x<sup>s</sup> iiij<sup>d</sup> | ::for mahewmet the some of . . . . . . . . . . x<sup>s</sup> iiij<sup>d</sup> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
:pd at the a poyntment of the company | ::pd at the a poyntment of the company | ||
:for mackynge of divers thing''es'' for mahewmett | ::for mackynge of divers thing''es'' for mahewmett | ||
:vnto dover the tayller . . . . . . . . . . xij<sup>s</sup> | ::vnto dover the tayller . . . . . . . . . . xij<sup>s</sup> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
:pd [''vn'']at the apoyntment of the company | ::pd [''vn'']at the apoyntment of the company | ||
:vnto w<sup>m</sup> whitte for mackynge of crowne''es'' | ::vnto w<sup>m</sup> whitte for mackynge of crowne''es'' | ||
:& other thing''es'' for mahewmet the 4 of | ::& other thing''es'' for mahewmet the 4 of | ||
:agust 1601 the some of . . . . . . . . . . l<sup>s</sup> | ::agust 1601 the some of . . . . . . . . . . l<sup>s</sup> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
==== Purchase of the play from Edward Alleyn in Philip Henslowe's diary ==== | ==== Purchase of the play from Edward Alleyn in Philip Henslowe's diary ==== | ||
F. 93/ [http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 147] | :F. 93/ [http://www.archive.org/stream/henslowesdiary00unkngoog Greg I, 147] | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
:pd vnto edward alleyn at the a poymtment | ::pd vnto edward alleyn at the a poymtment | ||
:of the company the 22 of aguste 1601 for the | ::of the company the 22 of aguste 1601 for the | ||
:Boocke of mahemett the some of . . . . . . . . . . xxxx<sup>s</sup> | ::Boocke of mahemett the some of . . . . . . . . . . xxxx<sup>s</sup> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
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'''If "Mahomet" is "[[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek]]"''' | '''If "Mahomet" is "[[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek]]"''' | ||
:In ''The Palace of Pleasure'' (1566), William Painter appropriates the story of "Hyrenee the faier Greke" from Matteo Bandello's ''Novelle,'' Book I, #10. Painter prefaces the narration with this blurb: "Mahomet one of the Turkishe Emperours executeth curssed crueltie vpon a Greke maiden who''m'' he toke prisoner, at the winning of Constantinople" (''EEBO'', [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=129&fk_files=281435 Project Gutenberg]). Richard Knolles published ''The Generall History of the Turkes'' in 1603, too late to be literally a source for Peele, but the story is obviously not new with Knolles, and some details of his telling might have been "in the air," so to speak, for Peele's use. William Barksted's poem, "Hiren: or, the Fair Greek," 1611, is even later, but Barksted's history as a player locates him in the theatrical community and thereby lends his account special interest in regard to the lost play ([http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1557453&pageno=72 Project Gutenberg]). | :In ''The Palace of Pleasure'' (1566), William Painter appropriates the story of "Hyrenee the faier Greke" from Matteo Bandello's ''Novelle,'' Book I, #10. Painter prefaces the narration with this blurb: "Mahomet one of the Turkishe Emperours executeth curssed crueltie vpon a Greke maiden who''m'' he toke prisoner, at the winning of Constantinople" (''EEBO'', [http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?pageno=129&fk_files=281435 Project Gutenberg]). Richard Knolles published ''The Generall History of the Turkes'' in 1603, too late to be literally a source for Peele, but the story is obviously not new with Knolles, and some details of his telling might have been "in the air," so to speak, for Peele's use. William Barksted's poem, "Hiren: or, the Fair Greek," 1611, is even later, but Barksted's history as a player locates him in the theatrical community and thereby lends his account special interest in regard to the lost play ([http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1557453&pageno=72 Project Gutenberg]). | ||
See '''"[[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek]]"''' for an extended discussion of the story in these sources. | See '''"[[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek]]"''' for an extended discussion of the story in these sources. | ||
<br><br> | <br><br> | ||
'''If "Mahomet" is ''The Battle of Alcazar''''' | '''If "Mahomet" is ''The Battle of Alcazar''''' | ||
:If "Mahomet" is Henslowe's name for ''The Battle of Alcazar'', it is not a lost play. The definitive summary of sources for the extant play is in ''The Dramatic Works of George Peele'', vol. 2; John Yoklavich, editor of ''The Battle of Alcazar'', provides both a discussion of the sources (227-79) and a "Special Bibliography" of accounts of the historical battle (369-73). In ''The Stukeley Plays'' Charles Edelman discusses the sources also (10-16). However, Edelman does not identify "Mahomet" as ''The Battle of Alcazar'' but as the lost "[[Muly Molocco]]" in the repertory of Strange's men at the Rose, 1592-3 ([http://books.google.com/books?id=y_8F-FS58CAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Stukeley+plays&hl=en&ei=jKJuTaHUBoqr8AaFhPXIDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=table%20of%20contents&f=false 23]). | :If "Mahomet" is Henslowe's name for ''The Battle of Alcazar'', it is not a lost play. The definitive summary of sources for the extant play is in ''The Dramatic Works of George Peele'', vol. 2; John Yoklavich, editor of ''The Battle of Alcazar'', provides both a discussion of the sources (pp. 227-79) and a "Special Bibliography" of accounts of the historical battle (369-73). In ''The Stukeley Plays'' Charles Edelman discusses the sources also (pp. 10-16). However, Edelman does not identify "Mahomet" as ''The Battle of Alcazar'' but as the lost "[[Muly Molocco|Muly Molocco]]" in the repertory of Strange's men at the Rose, 1592-3 ([http://books.google.com/books?id=y_8F-FS58CAC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Stukeley+plays&hl=en&ei=jKJuTaHUBoqr8AaFhPXIDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCwQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=table%20of%20contents&f=false p. 23]). | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
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<br> | <br> | ||
'''If "Mahomet" is [[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The | | '''If "Mahomet" is [[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The |"The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"]]''' | ||
:See [[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|"The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"]] for theatrical allusions to Peele's lost play. | :See [[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|"The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"]] for theatrical allusions to Peele's lost play. | ||
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'''If "Mahomet" is ''The Battle of Alcazar''''' | '''If "Mahomet" is ''The Battle of Alcazar''''' | ||
:The following plays allude to ''The Battle of Alcazar'' by way of Calipolis, the wife of Muly Mahamet, the villainous Moor: ''2 Henry IV'', William Shakespeare; ''Satiromastix'', Thomas Dekker; ''What You Will'', John Marston; and ''Poetaster'', Ben Jonson. Shakespeare's Pistol alludes to Calipolis and Hiren in the same context (II.iv.156, 175); in Dekker's play, the same character (Tucca) alludes to Calipolis and Hiren, but in separate contexts (IV.1.150, IV.iii.243-4). | |||
==Critical Commentary== | ==Critical Commentary== | ||
==== "Mahomet" as [[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The |"The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"]]==== | |||
:Scholarly tradition has inclined to identify "Mahomet" as Peele's lost play. That tradition includes [[WorksCited|Malone]] (p. 295, n.1), [[WorksCited|Collier]] (p. 39, n.2), A. H. Bullen (I.xxxvii), and [[WorksCited|Fleay, ''BCED'']] ([http://www.archive.org/stream/biographicalchro02flea#page/152/mode/2up 2.153 #5]). [[WorksCited|Greg II (#50, p. 167)]] hesitates, suggesting it "equally possible" that "Mahomet" was the play behind the reference to "Mahomet's Pow" in Peele's poem, "A Farewell" (1589), which had previously been linked to Robert Greene's ''Alphonsus King of Aragon''. [[WorksCited|Chambers, ''ES'' (3.462)]] condenses vague suggestions by Greg and adds two other lost plays in the Admiral's repertory—[[Grecian Comedy|"Grecian Comedy"]] and [[Love of a Grecian Lady, The|"The Love of a Grecian Lady"]] (1594-5)—as possible evidence of Peele's lost play. Samuel Chew considers and rejects the identification of "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek" with Greene's ''Alphonsus'' and the two lost Grecian comedies. He opines that Peele's lost play was the best match with Henslowe's "Mahomet" (pp. 484-5). | |||
==== "Mahomet" as ''The Battle of Alcazar'' ==== | |||
:[[WorksCited|W. W. Greg]] in 1923 offers the identification of "Mahomet" as ''The Battle of Alcazar'' (p. 12), and in so doing, he casts doubt on the long-standing identification of "[[Muly Molocco|Muly Molocco]]" (Strange's men, 1592) with ''The Battle of Alcazar.'' Yoklavich considers but does not choose Greg's suggestion of "Mahomet" for ''The Battle of Alcazar'' (2.223). Andrew Gurr revives the identification by interjecting ''The Battle of Alcazar'' into the repertorial list of the Admiral's men and noting that "[j]ust possibly it is the same play as the one revived in August 1594 under the name ''Mahomet''" (p.252, n.111). However, he treats "Mahomet" in its own entry "rather reluctantly ... as a separate play" from ''The Battle of Alcazar'' (p. 206, n.16). | |||
''' | :[[WorksCited|Wiggins, ''Catalogue'', #812]], sorely tempted to identify ''The Battle of Alcazar'' with "Mahomet," argues for a date of 1601 for the revival to which the plot belongs. Wiggins discusses the problems of dating that revival in further detail in a 2002 essay (see [[#Works Cited|Works Cited]] below); in that discussion, he disconstructs W. W. Greg's argument that the revival belongs to 1598-9. In that same article, Wiggins revisits the assignment of properties in Philip Henslowe's inventories to "Mahomet." | ||
:'''Hirrel''' argues for "Mahomet" as ''Alcazar''. In his opinion, the ''Alcazar'' quarto’s titlepage boast—"As it was sundrie times plaid by the Lord high Admirall his servants"—must refer to recent performances. He notes that the 1594 date on Q could refer to a date as late as 24 March 1595 in New Style dating (the Stationers’ Company was in the practice of recording Old Style dates for their operating calendar). At the lower limit of the date range, he observes that the Admiral’s were "reorganized in May 1594" (p. 6). He argues that during this period, "Henslowe was recording every play the Lord Admiral’s performed in London" (p. 7), hence by implication, ''Alcazar'' must be lurking somewhere in the diary under another name during this period. His preferred candidate for ''Alcazar''’s pseudonym is "Mahomet": "The company performed ‘Mahomet’ eight times from August 1594 to February 1595. Those dates fall within the range suggested by the 1594 quarto’s title page" (p. 7). | |||
==== "Mahomet" as neither ==== | |||
:Yoklavich, by not identifying ''The Battle of Alcazar'' with any lost plays including "Mahomet," "[[Muly Molocco]]," and [[Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek, The|"The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek,"]] comes close by default to suggesting that "Mahomet" is not identifiable with any plays now known, extant or lost. | |||
<br><br> | |||
[[category:John Payne Collier]] | [[category:John Payne Collier]] | ||
==For What It's Worth== | ==For What It's Worth== | ||
An advantage of considering "Mahomet" as a play discrete from Peele's | An advantage of considering "Mahomet" as a play discrete from Peele's extant one is that the property of old Mahomet's head could belong to this play; if so, then the play had an "old" Mahomet who was either beheaded or had a very fancy head-dress. In ''Chronicle History'' (p. 114), '''Fleay''' assigns not only the Mahomet head to this play but also the four gowns for Janissaries. Greg repeats both assignments, identifying at the same time "Mahomet" with Peele's lost "Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek" ("owld Mahemetes head" [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026119705/page/n133/mode/2up ''Papers'', APX. I., art. 1, p. 114, l. 65]; "iiij genesareyes gownes" [https://archive.org/details/cu31924026119705/page/n131/mode/2up ''Papers'', APX. I., art. 1, p. 114, l. 18]) | ||
[[category:George Peele]][[category:Costumes]] | |||
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<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Bullen, A. H. ed. ''The Works of George Peele''. 2 vols. London: John C. Nimmo, 1888.</div> | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Bullen, A. H. ed. ''The Works of George Peele''. 2 vols. London: John C. Nimmo, 1888.</div> | ||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Chew, Samuel. ''The Crescent and the Rose''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1937.</div> | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Chew, Samuel. ''The Crescent and the Rose''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1937.</div> | ||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Fleay, Frederick Gard. ''A Chronicle History of the London Stage 1559-1642''. 1890. New York: Burt Franklin, 1964.</div> | |||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Fleay, Frederick Gard. ''A | |||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Greg, W. W. ''Two Elizabethan Stage Abridgements: The Battle of Alcazar & Orlando Furioso''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.</div> | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Greg, W. W. ''Two Elizabethan Stage Abridgements: The Battle of Alcazar & Orlando Furioso''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923.</div> | ||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Gurr, Andrew. ''Shakespeare's Opposites:The Admiral's Company 1594-1625''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.</div> | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Gurr, Andrew. ''Shakespeare's Opposites:The Admiral's Company 1594-1625''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.</div> | ||
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<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Knolles, Richard. ''A Generall Historie of the Turkes''. London 1603. ''EEBO''</div> | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Knolles, Richard. ''A Generall Historie of the Turkes''. London 1603. ''EEBO''</div> | ||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Painter, William. ''The Palace of Pleasure.'' 1566. (vol. 1, #40, fols. 107v-112). ''EEBO''</div> | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Painter, William. ''The Palace of Pleasure.'' 1566. (vol. 1, #40, fols. 107v-112). ''EEBO''</div> | ||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Wiggins, Martin. | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Wiggins, Martin. "A Choice of Impossible Things: Dating the Revival of ''The Battle of Alcazar''." ''Shakespeare & Ses Contemporains.'' ed. Patricia Dorval. 2002. 185-202.</div> | ||
<div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Yoklavich, John, ed. ''The Battle of Alcazar.'' in ''The Dramatic Works of George Peele'', vol. 2. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961.</div>[[category:Update]] | <div style="padding-left: 2em; text-indent: -2em">Yoklavich, John, ed. ''The Battle of Alcazar.'' in ''The Dramatic Works of George Peele'', vol. 2. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1961.</div>[[category:Update]][[category:Plays]] | ||
[[category:Inventories]] | |||
[[category:Diuers thinges]] | |||
Site created and maintained by [[Roslyn L. Knutson]], Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; 4 March 2011. Updated [[David McInnis]], 27 Nov 2014. | Site created and maintained by [[Roslyn L. Knutson]], Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; 4 March 2011. Updated [[David McInnis]], 27 Nov 2014. | ||
[[category:all]][[category:Rose]][[category:Romantic tragedy]][[Category:Henslowe's records]][[Category:Turks]][[category:eastern]][[category:travel]][[category:Roslyn L. Knutson]][[category:duplicate plays]][[category:Secondhand plays]] | [[category:all]][[category:Rose]][[category:Romantic tragedy]][[Category:Henslowe's records]][[Category:Turks]][[category:eastern]][[category:travel]][[category:Roslyn L. Knutson]][[category:duplicate plays]][[category:Secondhand plays]][[category:Props]] |
Latest revision as of 12:38, 15 September 2022
Anon.? (>1594)
George Peele? (>1594)
Historical Records
Performance Records
Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary
- Fol. 9v (Greg I, 18)
ye 14 of aguste 1594 . . . . . . . Res at mahomet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iijli vs
- Fol. 10 (Greg I, 19)
ye 27 of aguste 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxxs ye 9 of septmbʒ 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxvs ye 21 of septmbʒ 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxviijs ye 14 of octobʒ 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvjs
- Fol. 10v (Greg I, 20)
ye 6 of novembʒ 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvs ye 4 of desembʒ 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xjs
- Fol. 11 (Greg I, 21)
ye 5 of febreary 1594 . . . . . . Res at mahemett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvjs
Payments
Miscellaneous expenses in Philip Henslowe's diary
- F. 92/ Greg I, 145
- Layd owt at the a poyntment of the
- company the 2 of aguste 1601 for a parell
- for mahewmet the some of . . . . . . . . . . xs iiijd
- pd at the a poyntment of the company
- for mackynge of divers thinges for mahewmett
- vnto dover the tayller . . . . . . . . . . xijs
- pd [vn]at the apoyntment of the company
- vnto wm whitte for mackynge of crownees
- & other thinges for mahewmet the 4 of
- agust 1601 the some of . . . . . . . . . . ls
Purchase of the play from Edward Alleyn in Philip Henslowe's diary
- F. 93/ Greg I, 147
- pd vnto edward alleyn at the a poymtment
- of the company the 22 of aguste 1601 for the
- Boocke of mahemett the some of . . . . . . . . . . xxxxs
Inventories
Philip Henslowe's papers
Under Henslowe's title, "The Enventary tacken of all the properties for my Lord Admeralles men, the 10 of Marche 1598" is the following Greg, Papers 116:
- Item, j wooden canepie; owld Mahemetes head.
Theatrical Provenance
"Mahomet" was performed at the Rose playhouse by the Admiral's men, 14 August 1594 to 5 February 1595. It is not marked "ne." It was apparently revived in 1601, perhaps as part of the revival of Edward Alleyn's star roles at the opening of the Fortune playhouse.
Probable Genre(s)
Romantic Tragedy? Heroical Romance?
Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues
If "Mahomet" is a discrete play, now lost
- Its sources are unidentified.
If "Mahomet" is "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"
- In The Palace of Pleasure (1566), William Painter appropriates the story of "Hyrenee the faier Greke" from Matteo Bandello's Novelle, Book I, #10. Painter prefaces the narration with this blurb: "Mahomet one of the Turkishe Emperours executeth curssed crueltie vpon a Greke maiden whom he toke prisoner, at the winning of Constantinople" (EEBO, Project Gutenberg). Richard Knolles published The Generall History of the Turkes in 1603, too late to be literally a source for Peele, but the story is obviously not new with Knolles, and some details of his telling might have been "in the air," so to speak, for Peele's use. William Barksted's poem, "Hiren: or, the Fair Greek," 1611, is even later, but Barksted's history as a player locates him in the theatrical community and thereby lends his account special interest in regard to the lost play (Project Gutenberg).
See "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek" for an extended discussion of the story in these sources.
If "Mahomet" is The Battle of Alcazar
- If "Mahomet" is Henslowe's name for The Battle of Alcazar, it is not a lost play. The definitive summary of sources for the extant play is in The Dramatic Works of George Peele, vol. 2; John Yoklavich, editor of The Battle of Alcazar, provides both a discussion of the sources (pp. 227-79) and a "Special Bibliography" of accounts of the historical battle (369-73). In The Stukeley Plays Charles Edelman discusses the sources also (pp. 10-16). However, Edelman does not identify "Mahomet" as The Battle of Alcazar but as the lost "Muly Molocco" in the repertory of Strange's men at the Rose, 1592-3 (p. 23).
References to the Play
If "Mahomet" is a discrete play, now lost
- No specific references to it are known.
If "Mahomet" is "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"
- See "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek" for theatrical allusions to Peele's lost play.
If "Mahomet" is The Battle of Alcazar
- The following plays allude to The Battle of Alcazar by way of Calipolis, the wife of Muly Mahamet, the villainous Moor: 2 Henry IV, William Shakespeare; Satiromastix, Thomas Dekker; What You Will, John Marston; and Poetaster, Ben Jonson. Shakespeare's Pistol alludes to Calipolis and Hiren in the same context (II.iv.156, 175); in Dekker's play, the same character (Tucca) alludes to Calipolis and Hiren, but in separate contexts (IV.1.150, IV.iii.243-4).
Critical Commentary
"Mahomet" as "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"
- Scholarly tradition has inclined to identify "Mahomet" as Peele's lost play. That tradition includes Malone (p. 295, n.1), Collier (p. 39, n.2), A. H. Bullen (I.xxxvii), and Fleay, BCED (2.153 #5). Greg II (#50, p. 167) hesitates, suggesting it "equally possible" that "Mahomet" was the play behind the reference to "Mahomet's Pow" in Peele's poem, "A Farewell" (1589), which had previously been linked to Robert Greene's Alphonsus King of Aragon. Chambers, ES (3.462) condenses vague suggestions by Greg and adds two other lost plays in the Admiral's repertory—"Grecian Comedy" and "The Love of a Grecian Lady" (1594-5)—as possible evidence of Peele's lost play. Samuel Chew considers and rejects the identification of "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek" with Greene's Alphonsus and the two lost Grecian comedies. He opines that Peele's lost play was the best match with Henslowe's "Mahomet" (pp. 484-5).
"Mahomet" as The Battle of Alcazar
- W. W. Greg in 1923 offers the identification of "Mahomet" as The Battle of Alcazar (p. 12), and in so doing, he casts doubt on the long-standing identification of "Muly Molocco" (Strange's men, 1592) with The Battle of Alcazar. Yoklavich considers but does not choose Greg's suggestion of "Mahomet" for The Battle of Alcazar (2.223). Andrew Gurr revives the identification by interjecting The Battle of Alcazar into the repertorial list of the Admiral's men and noting that "[j]ust possibly it is the same play as the one revived in August 1594 under the name Mahomet" (p.252, n.111). However, he treats "Mahomet" in its own entry "rather reluctantly ... as a separate play" from The Battle of Alcazar (p. 206, n.16).
- Wiggins, Catalogue, #812, sorely tempted to identify The Battle of Alcazar with "Mahomet," argues for a date of 1601 for the revival to which the plot belongs. Wiggins discusses the problems of dating that revival in further detail in a 2002 essay (see Works Cited below); in that discussion, he disconstructs W. W. Greg's argument that the revival belongs to 1598-9. In that same article, Wiggins revisits the assignment of properties in Philip Henslowe's inventories to "Mahomet."
- Hirrel argues for "Mahomet" as Alcazar. In his opinion, the Alcazar quarto’s titlepage boast—"As it was sundrie times plaid by the Lord high Admirall his servants"—must refer to recent performances. He notes that the 1594 date on Q could refer to a date as late as 24 March 1595 in New Style dating (the Stationers’ Company was in the practice of recording Old Style dates for their operating calendar). At the lower limit of the date range, he observes that the Admiral’s were "reorganized in May 1594" (p. 6). He argues that during this period, "Henslowe was recording every play the Lord Admiral’s performed in London" (p. 7), hence by implication, Alcazar must be lurking somewhere in the diary under another name during this period. His preferred candidate for Alcazar’s pseudonym is "Mahomet": "The company performed ‘Mahomet’ eight times from August 1594 to February 1595. Those dates fall within the range suggested by the 1594 quarto’s title page" (p. 7).
"Mahomet" as neither
- Yoklavich, by not identifying The Battle of Alcazar with any lost plays including "Mahomet," "Muly Molocco," and "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek," comes close by default to suggesting that "Mahomet" is not identifiable with any plays now known, extant or lost.
For What It's Worth
An advantage of considering "Mahomet" as a play discrete from Peele's extant one is that the property of old Mahomet's head could belong to this play; if so, then the play had an "old" Mahomet who was either beheaded or had a very fancy head-dress. In Chronicle History (p. 114), Fleay assigns not only the Mahomet head to this play but also the four gowns for Janissaries. Greg repeats both assignments, identifying at the same time "Mahomet" with Peele's lost "Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek" ("owld Mahemetes head" Papers, APX. I., art. 1, p. 114, l. 65; "iiij genesareyes gownes" Papers, APX. I., art. 1, p. 114, l. 18)
Works Cited
Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; 4 March 2011. Updated David McInnis, 27 Nov 2014.