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Published by the Religion and Theatre Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education http://www.rtjournal.org Published by the Religion and Theatre Focus Group of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education The Journal of Religion and Theatre is a peer-reviewed online journal. The journal aims to provide descriptive and analytical articles examining the spirituality of world cultures in all disciplines of the theatre, performance studies in sacred rituals of all cultures, themes of transcendence in text, on stage, in theatre history, the analysis of dramatic literature, and other topics relating to the relationship between religion and theatre. The journal also aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge throughout the theatrical community concerning the relationship between theatre and religion and as an academic research resource for the benefit of all interested scholars and artists. All rights reserved. Each author retains the copyright of his or her article. Acquiring an article in this pdf format may be used for research purposes only. No other type of reproduction by any process or technique may be made without the formal, written consent of the author. Submission Guidelines • Submit your article in Microsoft Word 1998 format via the internet • Include a separate title page with the title of the article, your name, address, e-mail address, and phone number, with a 70 to 100 word abstract and a 25 to 50 word biography • Do not type your name on any page of the article • MLA style endnotes -- Appendix A.1. (Do not use parenthetical references in the body of the paper/ list of works cited.) • E-Mail the article and title page via an attachment in Microsoft Word 1998 to Debra Bruch: dlbruch -at- mtu.edu. (Please replace the -at- with @.) • Or send by regular post with the article on a zip disk, Mac format, in Microsoft Word to: Debra Bruch, Ph.D. General Editor, The Journal of Religion and Theatre Department of Fine Arts Michigan Technological University 1400 Townsend Drive Houghton, MI 49931 • DEADLINE: May 1st of each year The Journal of Religion and Theatre, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2005 http://www.rtjournal.org This Article: http://www.rtjournal.org/vol_4/no_2/dailey.html Christian Underscoring in Tamburlaine the Great, Part II Written by Jeff Dailey Who could possibly maintain that instances of religious sentiment could be drawn from the profane and impious mind of a Tamerlane? This is the question asked in one of the sources Christopher Marlowe used as the basis for Tamburlaine the Great, Part II – Petrus Perodinus' Magni Tamerlanis Scytharum Imperatoris Vita.1 The same question could be asked of the play itself. Is there a religious message, however subtle, behind all the carnage that occurs onstage and off during the play's five acts? The play seems to contain little associated with spirituality, and what empathy contained in it is overshadowed by an excess of barbarism; the audience witnesses the destruction of armies and cities, the ravishing of Turkish concubines, suicide, filicide, and regicide. Tamburlaine himself not only kills his own son onstage, but also mutilates himself for the edification of his children and the entertainment of the audience. Tamburlaine, Part II was first performed before November of 1587, and can be dated due to a reference in a letter by one Philip Gawdy to his father.2 The following year, Robert Greene wrote an attack on Marlowe in the preface to his play Perimedes the Blacksmith, where he speaks about another playwright "daring God out of heaven with that Atheist Tamburlan."3 This is one of many references to Marlowe's godlessness, comments that would continue well after his death. None of us will know in this life whether or not Marlowe was an atheist, or even what his critics meant by that; as Charles Nicholl points out, atheism, in Elizabethan terms, "covered 1Printed in Vivien Thomas and William Tydeman (eds.) Christopher Marlowe: The Plays and their Sources (Routledge, London and New York, 1994) p. 119 2 "My L. Admyrall his men and players having a devyse in ther playe to tye one of their fellows to a poste and so shoote him to deathe, having borrowed their Callyvers one of the players handes swerved his peece being charged with bullett missed the fellowe he aymed at and killed a chyld, and a woman great with chyld forthwith, and hurt an other man in the head very soore." Quoted in Constance Brown Kuriyama Christopher Marlowe: A Renaissance Life (Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London, 2002, p. 80). 3 Quoted in A.L. Rowse Christopher Marlowe: His Life and Work (Harper and Row, New York, 1964, p. 76) Copyright 2005 by Jeff Dailey PDF File Page #146 The Journal of Religion and Theatre, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2005 http://www.rtjournal.org This Article: http://www.rtjournal.org/vol_4/no_2/dailey.html all forms of religious dissent that were not specifically Catholic or Puritan."4 However, that Tamburlaine, Part II presents any non-Christian principles (apart from all the killing)5 is very debatable. Marlowe's dramas, and those of his contemporaries, form part of a theatrical continuum whose immediate predecessors were morality plays. While there are significant differences between the Tamburlaine plays and the allegorical content of plays such as Everyman, Mankind, and The Castle of Perseverance, it is a form that Marlowe was familiar with – his Doctor Faustus is a later work that more closely follows the older format6 – and there are several moral/religious messages to be found amidst all the carnage of Part II. This becomes especially apparent when the plays are staged. Even in his earliest works, Marlowe demonstrates his mastery of theatrical timing. F. P. Wilson states that When we read plays which we have no opportunity of seeing...we too often forget that he dramatist's lines were written to be spoken.7 And since, as the same author writes, "how many of us can boast that we are more than readers of Tamburlaine?"8 it is easy to see how critics whose only acquaintance with Marlowe's text is in print can misunderstand his intentions.9 This becomes apparent especially in the attack of distemper Tamburlaine feels after burning the Koran at the end of act five. As shown below, the amount time that elapses between the burning and the illness' onset, which may not be apparent to readers, is critical to interpreting this scene. Another issue to be considered is the fact that, on those rare occasions when the two Tamburlaine plays are staged, they are almost 4 Charles Nicholl The Reckoning (revised edition) (Random House, London, 2002, p. 52) 5 There are obvious connections between the audience approval of onstage murder in Elizabethan theatre with modern television programming. 6 Although the only allegorical characters are the Seven Deadly Sins that appear briefly at Mephistophele's command, the overall structure of the play focuses on the moral changes in a single character, as in Everyman and similiar works. However, in Doctor Faustus the character regresses in morality, and, after his demise, the audience is confronted with the consequences of impious actions. 7 F.P. Wilson Marlowe and the Early Shakespeare (Clarindon Press, Oxford, p. 29), quoted in A. L. Rowse, op cit. p. 74 8 Ibid. p. 33 and 75, respectively 9 The author directed a production of Tamburlaine the Great, Part II at the American Theatre of Actors (ATA) in New York City in September 2003. All references to stagecraft in this article are based on experiences encountered in this production. Copyright 2005 by Jeff Dailey PDF File Page #147 The Journal of Religion and Theatre, Vol. 4, No. 2, Fall 2005 http://www.rtjournal.org This Article: http://www.rtjournal.org/vol_4/no_2/dailey.html always severely edited into one evening's performance, with the greater number of cuts occurring in the episodes of Part II. Hence, even most of those critics who have seen a production of Tamburlaine have not experienced the script in its entirety.10 There are two specific places in Tamburlaine the Great, Part II where religion is the main topic. The first occurs in the subplot that is interwoven in the play's first two acts. Here, three Turkish sovereigns (Orcanes, Gazellus, and Uribassa) agree to an alliance with Sigismund, the King of Hungary, and his two generals (Frederick and Baldwin), in order to jointly combat the encroaching Tamburlaine. The Hungarians do this in spite of the fact that Orcanes previously besieged Vienna while Sigismund was Count of Palatine, and that respite only came from an ignominious surrender and payment of ransom. After signing a treaty and confirming it with prayers, respectively, to Christ and Mohammed,11 the Hungarians decide to take advantage of the Turks' weakness (as they have sent their armies to counter Tamburlaine), and attack. Before doing so, Sigismund questions whether it is moral to do so, inasmuch as they have sworn a pact, but Baldwin assures him that Christians are not bound by promises with infidels.12 When Orcanes hears about the Hungarians' treachery, he prays to Christ to revenge this perfidy. The battle takes place offstage, but, the triumphant Turks enter and announce that, in spite of their reduced numbers, they have defeated the Hungarians. Why does Marlowe include this story in his play? It has nothing to do with the historical Timur-the-Lame, given that he was long dead by the battle of Varna, which took place in 1444.13 10 The ATA production of Tamburlaine the Great, Part II was uncut. When the author directed Part I, also at ATA, in 1997, he cut only the four lines (II.i.23-26) that describe Tamburlaine's hair, as the actor playing the part did not have any.
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