Stages of Dismemberment by Margaret E. Owens

Author:Margaret E. Owens
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Delaware Press

The doubled impersonation of ethnicities that we find in the military pageant in Travels warrants identification as a case of "racial cross-dressing," a phenomenon which Robert L. A. Clark and Claire Sponsler have explored in late medieval drama. Clark and Sponsler draw attention to "the frequency with which crossdressing is not just a transgender but also ... a transracial masquerade," and argue that "the very definition of cross-dressing should be expanded to include instances of dressing across the boundaries of race and class" ("Othered" 62). The focus of their investigation is cross-dressing as a theatrical practice, specifically, the actor's impersonation of a character. However, in Travels the issue of racial cross-dressing carries thematic and metatheatrical resonance as several episodes feature characters assuming the clothing of another ethnic group.

Later in the play, ethnic difference threatens to collapse when Robert Sherley serves as a general in the Persian army and must decide the fate of his Turkish prisoners. Robert claims that, as "the Persian substitute" (7.14), he "cannot use our Christian clemency / To spare a life. Off with all their heads!" (7.14-16). However, he offers to spare the life of any prisoner who renounces his Sunni faith and agrees to "Bow to the deity that we adore" (7.18). Which identity is Robert speaking from when he utters these words—Christian or Shi'ite? Who is the "deity that we adore"—the Christian God or the prophets revered by Shi'a Moslems? After Robert asks the prisoners "to renounce your prophet Mahomet" (7.17), his Persian officers demand that the Turks revere Mortus Ali as highly as Mahomet. It is not clear whether the Persians are contradicting or correcting Robert's interrogation of the captives. In any event, it is an offer that the Turkish prisoners steadfastly refuse. No doubt, some of the ambiguity in this scene derives from the dramatists' imperfect grasp of the distinctions between Sunni and Shi'ite traditions. However, given that this scene raises the possibility that Robert may be a renegado, a convert from Christianity to Islam, it is telling that the dramatists did not draw the boundaries of ethnicity and faith more clearly.

More confusion ensues when a prisoner "in Turk's habit" (7.24) is brought before Robert and claims to be a Christian. Robert, who may himself be wearing Persian garb at this point in this play, at first refuses to believe that a Christian heart lies beneath a Turkish exterior.45 However, he is finally convinced when the prisoner exposes his arm, revealing a message inscribed on his skin from Robert's brother Thomas: "I am prisoner in Constantinople; use your best release. Thomas Sherley" (7.37-38). At this point, Robert decides to spare the lives of the remaining Turkish prisoners, reasoning that "Those thirty lives shall buy my brother's life" (7.56).46 In the multiple ironies enfolded in this scene, clothing and custom are shown to be potentially deceptive indices of ethnicity and faith: Oriental costume may cover Christian bodies. Only when the prisoner is stripped to the skin, can his identity (as a loyal friend

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