The Life and Death of Jack Straw and The Tragical Reign of Selimus: A Note on some Verbal and Thematic Parallels

Abstract

AT first glance The Life and Death of Jack Straw (c. 1590), an English history play which dramatizes a popular rebellion in Medieval England, does not seem to invite comparison with The Tragical Reign of Selimus (1592), a conqueror play about power struggle in the early sixteenth-century Turkish court. Despite the apparent differences in time, setting, and plot, however, both plays explore rebellion as a main theme, and a close examination will reveal that there are some intriguing parallels between them. The anonymous writer of Jack Straw presents us with a series of alternating scenes which take place among the rebellious commoners and the members of the aristocracy, emphatically drawing attention to what the rebellion means for each party. A salient stylistic feature in the play is that the word ‘unnaturall’ is repetitively used by the king and the ruling elite to describe the rebels and their actions. The word appears thirteen times in the play.1 The rebels are accused of ‘unnaturallie’ seeking ‘wreak upon their Lord’ (232), who is referred to as their ‘naturall Liege’ (237).2 They are called ‘unnaturall Rebels’ (300, 605, 1151), ‘unnaturall men’ (416) or ‘unnaturall Englishmen’ (1144), who have committed an ‘unnaturall injury’ (629) and caused ‘fowle unnaturall broyles’ (987) because they have degenerated from their ‘naturall obedience’ (1089).3