at least one Englishman. Here, on the staging ground of Morocco, where his-
tory takes form “in view of all the world,” not only does cultural integration
trump isolation; cultural identity is neither pure nor stable. As Alcazarspeaks
of the Moor in terms that will carry through to Othello, it speaks thus across
assumptions of difference, asserting all the complicated distinctions and con-
nections between “Barbarian” and “barbarian” while making clear that lineage
and morality, ethnicity and attitude, color and behavior do not always,
though they may sometimes, go hand in hand. The plays that immediately
follow and absorb Alcazarwill take a darker turn as they position the Moor
within Europe. Titus AndronicusandLust’s Dominionbuild primarily on the
model of Muly Mahamet, centering almost exclusively on Moors who seem
to be as black in their looks and bloody in their deeds as he. Yet as these plays
produce terms—and reasons—for racial and cultural discrimination, their
starting point is close to Peele’s. For even within the spaces of Europe, as
Shakespeare and Dekker will suggest, the alienation of the Moor is not only
not assumed; it is also not assured.
44 chapter one