written by Thomas Dekker, probably in collaboration with other playwrights,
was not published until 1657 , a reference to The Spanish Moor’s Tragedyap-
pears in Henslowe in 1599 – 1600 , and critics tend to take that play as Lust’s Do-
minion.^3 If it was, its appearance was especially timely. For its story of the
Spanish Moor, Eleazar, takes the issue of discrimination to its limits, playing
seriously with the possibility that Moors could be officially expelled from
Spain. At the end of the play, Philip (III) reclaims his rightful place on the
“Royall Spanish throne” from the usurping Eleazar ( 5. 5. 3798 ) and then closes
down that “perfect villainy” by equating and eradicating the individual and
collective body of the Moor ( 5. 5. 3794 ). In the text that we have, Philip com-
mands: “for this Barbarous Moor, and his black train, / Let all the Moors be
banished from Spain” ( 5. 5. 3812 – 14 ).^4 There is clearly no equivocation or limi-
tation in this couplet. All Moors, not just some, are to be banished. The rea-
son is clear: the “Barbarous” Eleazar and his “black train” have violated Spain,
and their violation justifies the expulsion of the Moors they thus are made to
represent. This is a moment, then, of straightforward racial discrimination, an
official targeting and banishing of Moors, grounded on the assumption that
if one Moor is evil, all Moors must be. This is, that is, the active construction
and authorization of a stereotype, a prejudice, an ideology. Like Queen Eliz-
abeth’s proposal of 1601 and Philip III’s policy of 1609 , this dramatic pro-
nouncement defines Moors as a justifiably expendable population.
Lust’s Dominionprovides an important bridge, ideologically if not
chronologically, between Titus, where ruling Romans demand the “direful
slaughtering death” of the “execrable” Aaron, and Othello, where ruling Vene-
tians lament the social displacement, psychological dissolution, and physical
self-destruction of the “valiant” Othello. As bold as Lust’s Dominionis in its
casting out of the Moor, its starting point is a place and past in which Moors
were obviously embedded, and its leading Moor is a figure who stands with
one foot outside and the other inside the European domain which he inhab-
its. Like Aaron, Eleazar works his way to power from a position of illegiti-
macy, “wantoning” with the Queen Mother of Spain just as Aaron wantons
with the empress of Rome, acting inscrutably, if centrally, behind the scenes
to destroy the court. But like Othello, he is also legitimately installed and em-
braced within European society: his wife, Maria, is a Spanish noblewoman,
and her father, Alvero, and other prominent members of the court are his
loyal supporters. If the tragic irony of Titusis that a villainous Moor is indeli-
bly written into Europe, do what it may to cast him out, and (as I will argue)
the tragic irony of Othello, that a valiant Moor is ultimately written out of
Banishing “all the Moors” 119