ABSTRACT THE RISE AND FALL OF VOIVODE PETER EARRING ACCORDING TO THE STORIES AND JOURNALS OF HIS COMPANION, FRANCO SIVORI THE MAKING OF A ROMANIAN HISTORICAL PLAY By Cristian Petru Panaite The critical side of this creative thesis has at its core the developmental process of my full length play “The Rise and Fall of Voivode Peter Earring According To The Stories and Journals of His Companion, Franco Sivori”. The play was written after extensive research done in the summer of 2006 in Romania and Hungary. The writing proved to be an exercise of will and skill, and I can only hope to provide the reader with an insightful image over the whole creative process. To that extent, I have divided the critical paper into three chapters (historical background, sources of inspiration and dramaturgical analysis/choices) each independent yet all interconnected to serve a better understanding of the body of work. Finally the Conclusion is meant to provide the reader with an insight over the future of this play. THE RISE AND FALL OF PETER EARRING… THE MAKING OF A ROMANIAN HISTORICAL PLAY A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Miami University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Theatre By Cristian Petru Panaite Miami University Oxford, Ohio 2007 Advisor ________________________ (Dr. Howard Blanning) Reader ________________________ (Dr. Roger Bechtel) Reader ________________________ (Dr. Clive Getty) © Cristian Petru Panaite 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Chapter 1. The Renaissance in Europe. The Ottoman Empire, Romanian 1 Principalities as buffer states. The historical plays of modern Romania. Chapter 2. Historical sources. Walachia in the 16th Century 15 Facts versus Fiction. Chapter 3. Sources of Dramaturgical Inspiration. 26 Conclusion 38 The Rise and Fall of Voivode Peter Earring (text of the play) 40 Bibliography 143 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my Romanian thanks and appreciation to: Prof. Howard Blanning who was a true mentor in my journey at Miami University Prof. Clive Getty for challenging me to reach beyond my academic comfort zone Prof. Roger Bechtel for offering me priceless professional insight Thanks to everyone who participated in the cold reading of my thesis project Thanks to the Miami University Department of Theater for supporting my Off- Campus/New York artistic endeavors iv CHAPTER 1 Great effort is required to arrest decay and restore vigor. One must exercise proper deliberation, plan carefully before making a move, and be alert in guarding against relapse following a renaissance. Horace It is not hard to think that a reader scrolling through the first pages of The Rise and Fall of Voivode Peter Earring According to the Journals and Stories of His Companion, Franco Sivori and getting acquainted with the historical time of action will associate it with the period of European Renaissance, even for the simple reason that the starting date of our plot is right in the midst of the Elizabethan age. And between 1579 (when Petru Cercel/Peter Earring, - the hero of our play- receives unconditional support from the French Gate, planning his journey to Istanbul and bid for the throne) and 1590 (when the Voivode’s life is cut short1) Michel de Montaigne publishes his collection of Essays, Sir Francis Drake not only reaches what is now California but sails around the globe, Portugal loses its independence to Spain, and the Gregorian calendar is implemented. These are just a few of the emblematic events the curious reader might find while turning from the play to a chronology of the times. The purpose of this thesis is not to comment on the importance of the Renaissance over the ages, and its nature and limited length will not allow us to paint a vivid description of this movement without falling into superficiality and mediocrity. However, several things must be noted before heading in the direction of the historical and dramaturgical resources that influenced my work. Scholars agree that the Renaissance2 can be defined as a movement and not as a historical period which can be plotted from point A to point B. It includes the progressive nations of Europe (starting with the states of Italy in the XIIIth century, moving to France and Germany, and ending up in Spain and England by the XVIIth century). It begins with the formation and the development of a new class, the bourgeoisie, and of secularism. It involves the 1 Voivode- Slavic word denoting commander of a military force and later on, the position as a governor of a province. 2 Sources of this brief introduction include: Robert Ergang’s The Renaissance, Basil Oldham’s The Renaissance. Also we must differentiate between the western Renaissance and the Islamic one. The Renaissance of Islam is considered a movement that started as a reaction towards Westernization at the beginning of XIXth century. It included countries such as Syria and Egypt. (Thomson, 59). The Romanian National Renaissance includes the Revolution of 1848 1 development of trade, guilds, the new arts of war, power and politics while placing the individual in the vortex of the earthly world. Among the many reasons3 of why the Renaissance occured the Fall of Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottomans, is considered a key one. But before considering the fall of one empire, it is important to recognize the rise of a religion and the close connections between Islam and Medieval Christianity and on how over centuries the two creeds have complemented each other. William Thomson in The Renascence of Islam concludes that there are two main differences between Christianity and Islam: Islam did not belong to the so-called religion of salvation but it had its Messianic hopes. It was solidly anchored in a revelation of law like Judaism and therefore can be characterized as a religion of law. It should not be forgotten however that a revealed law was an essential part of the Christian faith (Thomson, 53). The other main difference refers to the fact that Islam “entered history as a conquering religion in a rather decadent world and not as an insignificant Oriental sect in a pre-established order”. Thomson stresses that the development and establishment of Islam4 as a religion occured in a world and age where, after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire5, society had arrived at a dead end. The Holy War (Jihad) was meant, however, not to destroy the darulharb6 but to subdue it. Long before the Crusades and long after the fall of Constantinople, Christians and Jews were allowed to practice their religion while respecting two terms: obedience and paying a poll tax. As the Ottomans occupied the Balkans, they offered protection and the choice of voluntary submission before the use of warfare (Inalcik,7). Perhaps such a protective choice came about from the great similarities the two faiths shared: 3 Other reasons for the emergence of the Renaissance include: inventions, the growth of city states, the influence of Antiquity, and the reaction against the dark Middle Ages, ages which included absolute power of the Church, submissiveness to authority, unity of social and political organization while “Beauty was a snare, pleasure a sin” 4 Muhammad “the most perfect creation by Allah or God, established Islam with its Five Pillars of Faith by 629 A.D. 5 It is generally agreed that the final collapse of the Western Roman Empire occurred in 476 A.D. 6 Lands outside Islam, and therefore populated by infidels 2 Both however were rooted in a Semitic religion7 of revelation. Both inherited and assimilated more or less Greek science and philosophy. Life in both was regulated by the social, economic and political practices and principles of the Greco-Roman world. And even their hostility was an heirloom of the religious and political divisions of the world” (Thomson, 52). We can say that the battering of the Byzantine walls of Constantinople by Mehmed II for fifty three days, using the greatest firepower of those days, was a jump start for the Western culture. Over the centuries, the capital of the Byzantine or Eastern Roman Empire had been a haven for scholars, ancient texts, ideas and ideals which once sprung from the glory of the Greek and Roman Golden Ages. Therefore once the siege occurred, many of the enlightened elite fled to better and safer shores, such as the ones of Italy, carrying with them the seeds for what was to become, by 1637, “I think therefore I exist”.8 Also with the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, many of the old commerce routes to the East were closed, and before any trading pacts were put into practice, attempts of tracing new naval routes to the Orient have led to the discoveries made by Columbus and Vasco da Gama. Scrolling through Western sources and scholarly research, one is quick to notice that the Renaissance is not recognized (or at most semi-recognized) as having reached the states and principalities east of Hungary, such as Walachia, Moldavia, Albania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Macedonia. This is not to say such a movement did not occur, but considering the imminent Ottoman threat, the change of rulers, the loss and gain of terrain in a region that was considered a buffer zone between Christianity and a militant Islam, reaching for humanism and artistry was at best difficult when placed between the hammer of Islam and anvil of Christianity. A century before the fall of Constantinople, in mid of the XIVth century the Ottomans began a conquest campaign over the Balkans while their own state was “stretching from Ankara to the Dardanelles” (Inalcik, 14). The confirmation of the Ottomans as a force in the East, and one to be feared by the Hungarians (who were trying to gain control of the Danube region as well) occurred after the crusade of Nicopolis in 13969, when Bayezid managed to occupy the 7 An example would be the recognition of Jesus Christ (Jesus Isa) as one of the highest ranked prophets in Islam, along with Moses (Musa), Ibrahim (Abraham),and Noah (Nuh).