|
|
October 22, 2002 At the beginning of the seventeenth-century the adventures of the Sherley brothers and the publication of Sir Anthony Sherley's Relations of Travels into Persia (1613) and Thomas Herbert's A Relation of Some Years Travaile (1634) inspired several plays, including Sir John Denham's The Sophy (1642), Robert Baron's Mirza, A Tragedy (1647), William Cartwright's The Royall Slave (1639). The lives of the Sherleys were also dramatised, as in Nixon's The Three English Brothers... (1607) and John Day's The Travailes of the three English Brothers (1607). One can find several allusions to Persia in the work of the renowned English poet and dramatist, William Shakespeare (1564-1616). Shakespeare probably became acquainted with Persia through the accounts of travellers such as Ralph Fitch (Account of the Voyage of Ralph Fitch, Merchant of London) and he had probably read or heard about the journal, "The long, dangerous, and memorable voyage of M. Ralph Fitch ...," in Richard Hakluyt's The Principal Navigations Voyages Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation (1589-1590). There are also echoes of the British merchant, Anthony Jenkinson's account of his visit to Kazvin (Qazvin) and to Shah Tahmasp's court which might have attracted the attention of Shakespeare and made him write about the Persian outfit. (Jenkinson had a meeting with Shah Tahmasp, and presented him with gifts, but upon finding that Jenkinson was a European and a Christian, the Shah was not interested in further contacts. Jenkinson's timing was also unlucky in this respect. The Shah had just signed a treaty of friendship with the Turks, who regarded almost all Europeans as enemies. Still, on request of his son, who warned him that doing evil unto strangers coming to his country might scare away other visitors, the Shah eventually let Jenkinson go without doing him any harm, and even sent him a rich garment.) In his A
Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare alludes to Persia when the Second Merchant
(Angelo's creditor), demanding the repayment of his money, says to Angelo: "I
am bound for Persia, and want guilders for my voyage." (IV. i).
The accounts of the travels of Robert Sherley, and other travellers, interested European kings greatly and sometimes prompted them to wear Persian costumes on special occasions. In one occasion, Louis XIV, and Charles II went so far as to compete with one another in richness of costume, as recorded by diarists as Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. In Merchant of Venice, the Prince of Morocco, addressing Portia, says:
Here Shakespeare probably refers to Jenkinson's account of his travels to Persia but has got the facts wrong. No Sophy / Shah or a prince was slain in the wars between Persia and Turkey in the sixteenth-century, only Shah Ismail was badly wounded and escaped capture in the battle of Chaldiran in 1514. In Twelfth Night, Shakespeare, once more alludes to Sophy. He probably refers to the pension which Shah Abbas had granted to the British mercenaries, Anthony and Robert Sherley. Sir Anthony was in Persia from Dec 1, 1599 to May 1600. He was given 5,000 horses to train the Persian army according to the rules and customs of the English militia. He was also commanded to reform and retrain the artillery. When he left Persia, he left his brother, Robert Sherley, behind with 14 Englishmen who lived in Persia for years. In 1609 Robert Sherley was employed, as his brother had been, by the Persian monarch, as ambassador to several princes of Christendom, for the purpose of uniting them in a confederacy against the Turks. He first went into Poland, where he was honorably entertained by Sigismond the Third. In June of this same year he was in Germany, and received from the Emperor Rudolph II the title of Earl.
In Twelfth Night, Fabian addresses Sir Toby saying,
In another instance, when Sir Toby is praising a knight's bravery and skill, he
says to Viola: "They say he has been fencer to the Sophy." (III. Iv.)
In another instance in the same play, Countess of Auvergne says,
In King Henry IV, in order to show the serious intentions of Falstaff in pursuing his aims, Shakespeare alludes to King Cambyses and writes:
|
|
|
|
Web design by BTC Consultants
Internet server Global Publishing Group