Reviewed by:

• Persia in Early Modern English Drama, 1530–1699: The Imagined Empire by Chloë Houston
• Bernadette Andrea (bio)

With increasing attention in early modern studies to English representations of Persia/Iran—both as an “imaginative geography” (to borrow Edward Said’s concept from Orientalism) transmitted via translations of classical Greek sources and as a vibrant economic, military, and political empire coeval with England’s nascent global ambitions—Houston’s book is the first to offer a synoptic view of dramatic renderings from the early decades of the sixteenth century to the end of the seventeenth century. This time span covers the initial stirrings of the English Reformation, the anxious transition to a “female king” with Elizabeth I, some of the earliest English travelers in Safavid Iran and their quixotic attempt to establish an Anglo-Persian alliance, the political challenges pre- and post-Interregnum, and the constitutional crisis pre- and post-Glorious Revolution. While assessing plays that have received more critical attention — such as Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Parts 1 and 2 (1587–88) and John Day, William Rowley, and George Wilkins’s The Travailes of the Three English Brothers (1607)—Houston also adduces lesser known writers and genres to give a fuller picture of English understandings of “Persia,” both ancient (Achaemenid) and contemporary (Safavid). This breadth of engagement with English drama in the period—including interludes, closet drama, and stage plays—makes for a book that anyone who deals with any portion of the early modern Anglo-Persian encounter should consult.

Chapter 1, “Introduction: The Imagined Empire,” maps out this vast terrain starting with the itinerary of Robert Brancetour, a man born in England who, in the 1530s, travelled to the court of the Safavid shah, Tahmasp I, as part of a multicultural caravan to propose an alliance against the Ottoman Turks. His partner, who died en route, was an Italian. After completing this journey, Brancetour worked for the Holy Roman emperor, Charles V, who was also king of Spain. Ten years later, the English king, Henry VIII, through his ambassador, Sir Thomas Wyatt, sought the return of Brancetour. As Houston explains, “Brancetour was viewed as a traitor because he had attempted to incite some Englishmen in Spain to rebel against Henry” during the fraught decades that saw Henry’s break with the Church of Rome (4). Charles V knew Brancetour as “he that hath been in Perse,” and refused to repatriate him to England for punishment. [End Page 486] The questions this episode provokes—“When Wyatt wrote ‘Perse’ in his letter in 1540, what did that word mean to him and to his English reader? What images did it conjure, and where did they come from?” (4)—frame Houston’s capacious study.

The rest of the book is divided into three sections arranged chronologically: “Tudor Plays of Persia,” covering 1530 to 1588; “Plays of Persia in the Stuart Period and the Inter-Regnum,” roughly from 1603 to 1660; and “Restoration Plays of Persia,” covering the rest of the seventeenth century. Chapter 2 focuses on an anonymous interlude from around 1530, The Godly Queene Hester, initially meant for Katherine of Aragon. The Persian court is presented as neither uniformly negative nor positive; rather, it serves as a mirror for princes and a conduct book for women. Printed in 1561, and perhaps performed then, this play of Persia was repurposed for the new sovereign, Queen Elizabeth, on both counts. Building on this close reading and careful contextualization, Chapter 3 focuses on non-canonical plays from the Elizabethan era—the anonymous Kyng Daryus (1565) and Thomas Preston’s Cambises (c. 1560)—that have been sidelined by Marlowe’s achievement in Tamburlaine. It is not incidental that the second documented Englishman at the Safavid court—Anthony Jenkinson, an agent of the Russia Company and envoy for Queen Elizabeth, who met Shah Tahmasp in 1562—had rekindled interest in contemporary Iran even as the “imaginative geography” from earlier interludes persisted. In Chapter 4, by pairing Marlowe’s canonical play with...

 校订者：

• 
  早期现代英国戏剧中的波斯，1530-1699 年：克洛伊·休斯顿 （Chloë Houston） 的想象帝国
•  Bernadette Andrea （生物）

随着早期现代研究中对波斯/伊朗的英语表现的日益关注——既作为通过古典希腊资料的翻译传播的“想象地理”（借用爱德华·赛义德从东方主义中的概念），又作为一个与英格兰新生的全球野心同时代的充满活力的经济、军事和政治帝国——休斯顿的书是第一本提供了从 16 世纪初到世纪末的戏剧性渲染的概要视图的书十七世纪。这个时间跨度涵盖了英国宗教改革的最初动荡、伊丽莎白一世向“女国王”的焦虑过渡、最早到达萨法维伊朗的一些英国旅行者以及他们建立英波联盟的异想天开的尝试、间期前后的政治挑战，以及光荣革命前后的宪法危机。在评估受到更多评论界关注的戏剧时，例如克里斯托弗·马洛 （Christopher Marlowe） 的《坦布尔莱恩大帝》（Tamburlaine the Great， Part 1 and 2,1587-88 年）和约翰·戴 （John Day）、威廉·罗利 （William Rowley） 和乔治·威尔金斯 （George Wilkins） 的《英国三兄弟的苦难》（The Travailes of the Three English Brothers，1607 年），休斯顿还引用了鲜为人知的作家和体裁，以更全面地了解英国人对“波斯、“古代（阿契美尼德王朝）和当代（萨法维王朝）。这一时期英国戏剧的参与之广——包括插曲、壁橱戏剧和舞台剧——使这本书成为一本任何处理近代早期英波相遇的人都应该查阅的书。

第 1 章“引言：想象中的帝国”描绘了这片广阔的地形，从罗伯特·布兰斯图尔 （Robert Brancetour） 的行程开始，罗伯特·布兰斯图尔 （Robert Brancetour） 出生于英格兰，他在 1530 年代作为多元文化商队的一员前往萨法维国王塔马斯普一世 （Tahmasp I） 的宫廷，提议结盟对抗奥斯曼土耳其人。他的搭档在途中丧生，是一名意大利人。完成这段旅程后，布兰斯图尔为神圣罗马帝国皇帝查理五世工作，查理五世也是西班牙国王。十年后，英国国王亨利八世通过他的大使托马斯·怀亚特爵士 （Sir Thomas Wyatt） 寻求布兰斯图尔的回归。正如休斯顿所解释的那样，“布兰斯图尔被视为叛徒，因为他试图煽动西班牙的一些英国人反抗亨利”，在亨利与罗马教会决裂的令人担忧的几十年里“（4）。查理五世知道布兰斯图尔是“在珀斯的人”，并拒绝将他遣返英格兰接受惩罚。[完第486页]这一事件引发的问题——“当怀亚特在 1540 年的信中写下'Perse'时，这个词对他和他的英语读者意味着什么？它让人联想到什么形象，它们来自哪里？（4）——构建休斯顿宽敞的书房。

本书的其余部分按时间顺序分为三个部分：“都铎王朝的波斯戏剧”，涵盖 1530 年至 1588 年;斯图亚特时期和王位间时期的波斯戏剧“，大约从 1603 年到 1660 年;以及“波斯复辟戏剧”，涵盖 17 世纪的其余时间。第 2 章重点介绍了 1530 年左右的匿名插曲，《神圣的海斯特女王》，最初是为阿拉贡的凯瑟琳准备的。波斯宫廷既不是一成不变的否定的，也不是积极的;相反，它是王子的镜子和女性的行为簿。这部波斯戏剧于 1561 年印刷，也许是在当时上演的，在这两个方面都被重新用于新君主伊丽莎白女王。基于这种细读和仔细的语境分析，第 3 章侧重于伊丽莎白时代的非正典戏剧——匿名的 Kyng Daryus（1565 年）和托马斯·普雷斯顿的 Cambises（约 1560 年）——这些戏剧因马洛在坦布尔莱恩的成就而被边缘化。萨法维王朝中第二位有记录的英国人——安东尼·詹金森（Anthony Jenkinson）——俄罗斯公司的代理人和伊丽莎白女王的特使，他在 1562 年会见了沙阿·塔马斯普——重新点燃了对当代伊朗的兴趣，这并非偶然，尽管早期插曲中的“想象中的地理”仍然存在。在第 4 章中，通过将 Marlowe 的经典戏剧与......