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)
Fame.
Words
251
Characters
1307
Typicality
0.30 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01836
BritDrama no.
1889
Cluster
Cluster 2 — Allegory, Nature & pageant voices
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Brave Macedon, how truly hast thou weighed, The reason of men birth, who is equal born, For all the world, as well as for himself. The world's a field to oh narrow for thy worth! And although Nature, hath her enacted bounds For Sea and Earth, nay for the Heavens themselves, Nor Sea nor Earth, shall coop thy valour up: Valour of Nature ever this attains That it breaks forth, far, and beyond her chains, And this I'll trumpet out. the whole world's Ball In which thou art so great, to thee is small; When men want world's to hew their virtue in, That is the crime o'th ods, and not their sins: * It's a decree of a true Soul iers mind, Lu and de ill crede cum Queen a sset age To think nought done, when ought is left behind, On (valiant youth) for, know I will appoint; A Grecian Prince who so shall steep his quill To paint out thy name in W ls of eloquence, That this thy soorne of Lust shall be Proposed to all Kings example to posterity, Know mortals that the men the Gods most love In hard and Dam gerous Arts, they always prove, When men live brave at first, then fallen to crimes, Their bade I Chronicle to future times: For, who begins good Arts, and not proceeds He but goes backward in all noble deeds. Death consecrates those men whose awful end, Though most men fear, yet all men must commend.
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.