Stage representations of the Ottoman world in the Low Countries. The case of Osman

Abstract

In 1622, two playwrights from the Low Countries each decided to use the news of the murder of Sultan Osman II as material for a tragic play. One of them was Denis Coppée, who came from the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, and the other was Abraham Kemp, from the Dutch Republic. The two tragedies have a lot in common: besides the theme, they also share the source, the genre (in part), and the year of publication (1623). Interestingly, however, the two plays offer different representationsof Osman’s end. In this article these differences will be illuminated by tracing the Ottoman/Turkish commonplaces in each play. In doing so, the author focuses on two main discourses: the international role of the Ottoman Empire, and the question of the legitimacy of rebellion against a tyrannical ruler.