Sultan Speaks

The Sultan Speaks is the first study of English historical plays about the Turks in relation to their sources and analogues, including works originating in Greek, Arabic, and Turkish. Drawing on Bakhtin's concept of the dialogic, McJannet demonstrates that, while the historians typically contain the sultan's words with adverse authorial commentary, playwrights such as Marlowe and Fulke Greville use both dialogue and commentary to enhance the sultan's stature and to mitigate his negative acts.