The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581): Re-Reading Anxieties of Anglo-Ottoman Exchanges Through Critical Race Theory

Abstract

Robert Wilson's The Three Ladies of London (ca. 1581) is the earliest extant Turk play that features one of the earliest instances of direct anxieties regarding Anglo-Ottoman encounters. Contemporary with the 1580 Ahdname (capitulations), the play provides a local point-of-view of the newly established Anglo-Ottoman commercial relations. We observe how seemingly overpriced Turkish goods, such as perfumes and jewels, metaphorically conquer the English market and pose a threat to local businesses. The play's multi-national commercial exchange is marked by how the Italian intermediate cheats both his Ottoman suppliers and his English customers. The play is usually studied for its use of allegory, its references to the anti-usury proclamations, how it stood apart from the staging history of Jews on the early modern English stage and how the positive attitude might have reflected the emerging Anglo-Ottoman relations, which have been analysed as separate entities. Yet, there is a need to focus on how the intersections of race, gender, class and early modern performance practices overlap and conflict with each other in order to have a comprehensive view about the anxieties about dominance within the Anglo-Ottoman context. Therefore, using a critical race theory framework this essay aims to analyse Wilson's The Three Ladies of London and re-examine how the anxieties about Anglo-Ottoman commercial and cultural exchanges were reflected on the early modern commercial stage.