in The Courageous Turk, or Amurath the First — Goffe, Thomas
Metadata
Play
The Courageous Turk, or Amurath the First
Author
Goffe, Thomas
Year (catalogued)
1632
First performance
1619
Decade
1630s
Genre
Tragedy
Play type
University
Theater
at University;
Speech prefix(es)
Bass. | Bass •… . | Bassa.
Words
266
Characters
1493
Typicality
0.62 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01836
BritDrama no.
1889
Cluster
Cluster 6 — Battlefield messengers & soldiers
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Their vigor and strong hearts becomes such service, For to overcome them made our soldiers sweat, Much Turkish blood: the Servians kept the Fight, With stubborn hard resistance, The Bulgarians Left the right wing; there set I forward first, And Like a torrent rolled destruction on, Raising huge storms of blood, as does the Whale, Puff up the Waves against a mighty Ship; Me thinks I see the Rivers of their gore: Their Leaders trampled on by Turkish Horse, The body of their army quite dispersed; Themselves all floating in Vermilion pools, With their own weapons hasting to their death. And such a slaughter did we make of them, As Nature scarce can ere repair again. One hasting to others death, pulling to ground, Him that held up, so they each other drowned. Yes, such a superstition does possess them, For when they looked for nothing but their fate, And danger stood in sweat upon their brows? They yet scorned Mahom to, and profaned his rites, And nought but horror made them to believe him; So many men were fighting on his side: As might have changed my seat, and partly ith' world, (Though Nature stood against) to a new place: Or carry Sestos whereby Abydos stands, Or pull down Atlas with so many hands To add more triumph, I present my Liege, Bass & Schahin presents Amurath with Cap ives for Janizaries. With these young Rebels, which you may bring up, In all the precepts of our Mahomet: General now trust me these young slaves, To be full of Valour, they have mettle in them.
Plot summary
Plot — The Courageous Turk, or Amurath the First
Amurath the Turk is diverted from his programme of European conquest when, having subdued Greece, he falls in love with a Greek concubine, Eumorphe, and marries her. He asks his tutor Lala-Schahin to furnish a wedding masque about the classical gods’ amours; Lala-Schahin does so, but appends a second masque in which Fame extols the military glory of dead heroes. His objective is to turn Amurath back to martial pursuits, since there is no need for him to marry: he has already produced enough heirs. Amurath is troubled, but also melancholy at the limitations his royal status imposes on his love-life. Schahin dresses up as the ghost of Amurath’s father and, as he goes to his marriage bed, rebukes him for squandering his imperial legacy. Amurath beheads Eumorphe in her sleep and plans to attack Europe again. There is discord in the Christian ranks, and the Turks are victorious: many Christians are slain. The prisoners of war are recruited to Amurath’s service as an elite bodyguard of janissaries. Amurath negotiates a marriage treaty between his son Bajazeth and the daughter of the King of Phrygia; this secures him further territorial control in Asia Minor. Amurath breaks off his European campaign to suppress a rebellion by his son-in-law Aladin. He invades Caramania and burns its cities; Aladin is routed, but uses his wife and children to secure Amurath’s pardon. Amurath turns his attention back to Serbia, and appoints Aladin to lead one wing of the army. A series of portents foretell Amurath’s death at Kosovo, but Schahin encourages Amurath to fight anyway. The Turks are victorious, and dead bodies pile up. Amurath goes to the field intending to show mercy to Kobelitz, the Christian general and last survivor, but Kobelitz stabs him to death. Bajazeth becomes King and strangles his brother to forestall sedition.