5/31/2023 0 Comments Bajazet by Jean RacineFurthermore, historically speaking, the two female leads of Roxane and Atalide in Racine's play are entirely invented. Yet these were committed entirely out of a paranoid desire to sustain autocracy, as opposed to a conflict borne out of a meditated challenge to power by the princes. In historical fact, the murders of Prince Bayezid as well as his two other brothers, Prince Suleyman and Prince Kasim, were indeed arranged by Sultan Murat IV. The complicated and tragic storyline dissolves in Bajazet's murder and Roxane's execution. In the play, Prince Bajazet's thirst for ultimate power drives him to plot against his brother, Sultan Amurat, with Roxane, Amurat's favorite wife. The play, set in 1638, takes place in Constantinople during the reign of Sultan Amurat (Murat IV) and his brother Prince Bajazet (Bayezid). Racine's formidable tragedy, Bajazet, first premiered in Paris on 1 January 1672, only three years after the Ottoman envoy's visit. After this unfruitful political exchange, an Ottoman ambassador to France would not be appointed until 1721, but Ottomania - a fascination with all things Ottoman - would become a vogue in France resulting in plays such as Jean-Baptiste Racine's Bajazet. This short-lived mission was a disaster in terms of court protocol, but nevertheless the envoy's theatrical presentation added to the introduction of Turkish coffee made this a memorable event in the minds of the French. The first Ottoman envoy to France was sent to the court of Louis XIV in 1669.
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