Plays on Plot of Tamerlane and Bayazet on Russian Stage of Late 17th — Early 18th Centuries: Northern European Sources

• Published in: Nauc̆nyj dialog (Online) no. 6; pp. 207 - 224
• Main Author: Kaplun, M. V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English; Russian
• Published: Tsentr nauchnykh i obrazovatelnykh proektov 24-06-2021
• Subjects: 17th-18th centuries; baroque drama; english drama; german drama; northern european sources; play about tamerlane and bayazet; russian drama; the court theater
• ISSN: 2225-756X; 2227-1295
• DOI: 10.24224/2227-1295-2021-6-207-224

The article is devoted to the little-studied Northern European sources of Russian plays on the plot  about  Tamerlane  and  Bayazet  of the late 17
th
— early 18th centuries. The material was the play “Temir-Aksakovo Action” in 1675, a not preserved version of the play  of the early 18th century “The Clear History  of Tamerlane, the Tatar Khan how he defeated Saltan of Tursk Bayazet”, plays from the repertoire of “English comedians” of the 17
th
century, plays by the German playwright Andreas Gryphius and the English playwright Nicholas Roe. It is shown that the interludes of the play “Temir-Aksakovo Action” could be taken from the little-known play “The Comedy of Tamerlane”, staged in Nuremberg in 1667. Analysis of the play by German playwright Andreas Gryphius “The Armenian Leo” in 1656 makes it possible to  talk  about  general  formulas  in constructing the theme of  the  overthrow of tyranny, the baroque theme of the mutability of life in the German and Russian drama of the 17
th
century. The play “The Clear History of Tamerlane  ...”,  staged  at  the  court of Peter I in the 1700s, has been brought into consideration. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the typological commonality of the Russian play with the play by the English playwright Nicholas Rowe “Tamerlane” in 1701, containing real historical allusions to the present.