The Renegado by Philip Massinger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


A simply fabulous play.



Grimaldi the Venetian "turns Turk" -- abandoning his Christian roots to become a Barbary Corsair in the employ of the Muslim Viceroy of Tunis, Asambeg.



He kidnaps the beautiful and virtuous Paulina and sells her to Asambeg, who falls in love with her but, disarmed by her beauty, refuses to force her to submit.



Paulina's brother Vitelli travels to Tunis in disguise to rescue his sister, accompanied by his Jesuit confessor Francisco and his comical, materialist servant Gazet.



Mustapha, a Muslim general, courts Donusa, niece of the Turkish Sultan. But she prefers Vitelli, who she seduces, threatening both his masculinity and his faith.



This tragicomedy about seventeenth-century English fantasies about the Ottoman Empire is made up of equal parts terror and fascination, and it reveals how European anxieties over religious, economic, and gender identities were bound up with one another. And not only is it rather well written, with a few really excellent speeches, but its pretty damn funny too, and especially topical in today's political climate.



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