Mahomet

George Peele? (>1594)

Historical Records

Performance Records (Henslowe's Diary)

F. 9^v/ Greg I, 18

ye 14 of aguste 1594	……….	R[d] at mahomett	. . . . . . . . . .	iijli vs

F. 10/ Greg I, 19

ye 27 of aguste 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemet	. . . . . . . . . .	xxxxs
ye 9 of septmber 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemett	. . . . . . . . . .	xxxvs
ye 21 of septmber 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemett	. . . . . . . . . .	xxviijs
ye 14 of october 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemett	. . . . . . . . . .	xxvjs

F. 10^v/ Greg I, 20

ye 6 of november 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemette	. . . . . . . . . .	xvs
ye 4 of desember 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemet	. . . . . . . . . .	xjs

F. 11/ Greg I, 21

ye 5 of febreary 1594	……….	R[d] at mahemett	. . . . . . . . . .	xxvjs

Payments (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 . . . . . . . . . . x^s iiij^d

pd at the a poyntment of the company

for mackynge of divers thinges for mahewmett

vnto dover the tayller . . . . . . . . . . xij^s

pd [vn]at the apoyntment of the company

vnto w^m whitte for mackynge of crownees

& other thinges for mahewmet the 4 of

agust 1601 the some of . . . . . . . . . . l^s

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 . . . . . . . . . . xxxx^s

Henslowe Papers

Greg, Papers 116:

Under Henslowe's title, "The Enventary tacken of all the properties for my Lord Admeralles men, the 10 of Marche 1598" is:

Item, j wooden canepie; owld Mahemetes head.

Theatrical Provenance

"Mahomet" was performed at the Rose playhouse by the Admiral's men, 14 August 1594-5 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 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 (23).

If "Mahomet" is "The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek"

n 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.

References to the Play

If "Mahomet" is The Battle of Alcazar

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.

Critical Commentary

"Mahomet" as The Battle of Alcazar

W. W. Greg offered the identification of Mahomet as The Battle of Alcazar in 1923 (12), and in so doing, he cast doubt on the long-standing identification of Muly Molloco (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 (II.223). Andrew Gurr revives the identification by interjecting The Battle of Alcazar into the repertorial list of the Admiral's men and noting that "just possibly it is the same play as the one revived in August 1594 under the name of Mahomet" (252, n.111). However, he treats Mahomet in its own entry "rather reluctantly ... as a separate play" from The Battle of Alcazar (206, n.16).

"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 J. P. Collier (39), A. H. Bullen (I.xxxvii), and F. G. Fleay (II.153). W. W. Greg (II.167) hesitated, 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. E. K. Chambers (III.462) condensed vague suggestions by Greg and added two other lost plays in the Amiral's repertory—The Grecian Comedy and The Love of a Grecian Lady (1594-5)—as possible evidence of Peele's lost play. Samuel Chew considered and rejected the identification of The Turkish Mahomet and Hiren the Fair Greek with Greene's Alphonsus and the two lost Grecian comedies. He opined that Peele's lost play was the best match with Henslowe's Mahomet (484-5).

"Mahomet" as neither

Yoklavich, by not identifying The Battle of Alcazar with Mahomet, with Muly Molocco, or Mahomet with 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 discrete play from Peele's lost or extant ones 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.

Works Cited

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