within Europe derives from a history of conquest. As the Queen Mother tells
it, the “deceast King,” Philip (II), “made warr in Barbarie, / Won Tunis, con-
quered Fesse, and hand to hand, / Slew great Abdela, King of Fesse, and fa-
ther / To that BarbarianPrince,” Eleazar ( 5. 1. 2968 – 72 ). Consequently,
according to Eleazar, when the Barbarian king “with his Empire, lost his
life,” he “left [Eleazar] Captive to a Spanish Tyrant” ( 1. 2. 235 – 36 ). Contextu-
ally, what lies behind these events is a long history of conquest, extending
from the eighth century to 1492 , between Moors (the Umayyads), who con-
quered large parts of Hispania, and the Iberian Christians, who orchestrated
what they justified as a “reconquista” to get those domains back. Though we
might therefore read Eleazar’s coming in story as an extenuated after-effect
of a prior contention, the Moor himself does not. Rather, he translates the
past of conquest into a peculiar present of oppression, depicting himself as
uniquely and unjustly alienated within Spain. He “cannot ride through the
Castilian streets,” he asserts,
But thousand eies through windows, and through doors
Throw killing looks at me, and every slave
At Eleazar darts a finger out,
And every hissing tongue cries, There’s the Moor,
That’s he that makes a Cuckold of our King,
there go’s the Minion of the Spanish Queen;
That’s the black Prince of Divels, there go’s hee
That on smooth boies, on Masks and Revellings
Spends the Revenues of the King of Spain. ( 1. 1. 116 – 30 )Asking how one could “loose a kingdom and not rave,” he indeed raves—
especially against Spain’s “silken Courtiers” who, he says, “christen” him “a
Moore, a Devill, / A slave of Barbary, a dog” (1.2.239, 227 – 30 ).
IfTitushas taught us anything, it is that the legacy of conquest can rarely
be codified along such clearly cut political axes that separate insiders from
outsiders, Europeans from Moors. To be sure, very soon in Lust’s Dominion,
the contest over banishment will bring out the racist terms—for example, the
charge of “Devill”—that Eleazar says affronts him now. But, as I have argued,
their articulation becomes a vehicle for a power play that is less about the
Moor than it is about the monarchy. Moreover, as Eleazar emphasizes his
cross-cultural oppression, he lays the ground for his own unprecedented rise.
When he brings up his abuse on the Castilian streets, it is to accuse the Span-
128 chapter five