Spanish Players at Tangier: A New Chapter in Stage History

Abstract

A. IMONG THE numerous features of historical interest in the recently published Journal of John Luke,1 the most important for students of the drama and comparative literature is the record of theatrical production in Tangier in the seventeenth century. Meager as Luke's account is, it provides the only information we have concerning this chapter in stage history.2 The English occupied Tangier for twenty-two years-from 1661, when Charles II acquired the African Pillar of Hercules as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza, to 1683, when it was abandoned after the demolishment of its walls and forts. The author of the Journal, a son of the well-known Sir Samuel Luke of Bedfordshire, went to Tangier with the first English governor, Lord Peterborough, and served five governors as secretary and judge advocate. From this privileged position, during portions of the years from 1670 to 1673, he recorded in his diary the daily life of the occupation.3