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)
•… ac. | 〈◊〉 . [Jacup]
Words
486
Characters
2589
Typicality
0.35 (cosine to cluster centroid)
TCP id
A01836
BritDrama no.
1889
Cluster
Cluster 21 — Old fathers & plain counsel
Important excerpts
No keyword-matching excerpt could be extracted (the cluster label doesn't share vocabulary with this character's speech).
Full speech
Yes, we do: And (Brother) do you think it's crime enough To die, because I am son to and Emperor? Then name of Brother do I thus shake off, For it's in vain, their mercy to implore When impio S Scatists have decreed before. Yet King although thou take my life away See how le die in better state then thou! Who Like (my Father) after his greatest glor May fallen by some base hand: The Minister To take my breath, shall be to thy self, a King. Yet give me leave a while to Prophesy, You that so Puppetlike delude your Hope's, And Miser-draw that ancestry from Kings, Thinking, that fates dare not app oach your blood Till they do seize you, then you leave this Earth Not as you went, but by compulsion dragged; Still begging for a morrow from your Grave, And with such shifts you do deceive your selves: As if you could deceive mortality, No (Brother King) nor all the Glowworm state, Which makes thee be a Horseleech for thy blood, Not all the Parasites Minions thou maintains Nor the restorative Dishes that are found out. Nor all thy shifts a worser tricks can cheat mortality, Or keep thee from a death that's worse then mine. Shoul all this fail, age would profess it self A slow, but a sure Executioner. Oh it's a hard thing well to temperate Decaying happiness in great estate But this example by me may you gain: That at my death I not of Heaven complain P ll then, and with my fallen pull on thy self Mountains of burdenous honour which shall curse thee Death l ades the willing by the hand But spurs them headlong on, that dares command. Take up this Trunk; and let us first appoint Oh Father's and our Brother's Funerals, The senseless body of that Can fe slave, Hurl to a Ditch, Posterity shall hear Our less ill Chronicled, but time shall hear These minutes rather, then repeat their woe. Now Primacy, on thee isle medi , Which who enjoy thee, are in blessed estate. Whose age in secure silence fleets away, Without disturbance to his funeral day; Nor ponderous nor unquiet honours can Vex him but die a primate ancient man, What greater powers threaten inferior men A greater power threatens him again: And Like to wasted Tapers Ki gs must spend Their lives to light up others: So a l end. And is't ene so? How have that see Dogs fawned on me licked my feet When A that yet lived? Felt all my thoughts, And soothed them to the sighed of Empyrie And now the first would set their politic hands To strangle up that breath, a blast of which Their nostrils have sucked up Like perfumed air Well brother well by all men this is spoke, That heart that cannot bow, may yet be brok .
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.