Description
The Battle of Alcazar revolves around the theme of succession to the Moroccan throne and the fatal interference of Portugal in the conflict. The play occupies a unique place in the English Literature in that it is the first piece to usher Morocco to the London stage. The treatment of the matter of Morocco won the play immediate success and unprecedented popularity among Elizabethan audiences, which inspired a number of playwrights, poets and novelists to employ Morocco as a subject of matter in their literary creativity. The introduction to the present edition of The Battle of Alcazar looks at Anglo-Moroccan relations in the sixteenth century, with particular focus on the historical conditions that made possible the entry of Morocco in English Literature. Departing from readings that interpret the action as an allegorical conflict between good and evil, the introduction presents the play as a text which, because of political and ideological tensions, is fraught with inherent thematic and structural contradictions and haunted by counter-hegemonic voices. All this makes The Battle of Alcazar a rich and complex text and entitle it to be admitted into the cannon of great drama. -- Back cover.