ABSTRACT
The Sophy begins, in fact, with a warning. At the outset of the tragedy the Ottoman Turks pose an evident threat to the English and the world of Christendom on the one hand, and to the Persians on the other. John Denham's attempt to draw political parallels also has a cultural dimension. Like that of Haly, the figure that Caliph represents would have been familiar to theatre audiences during the civil war. Anglo-Persian parallels were not confined to Denham's tragedy in the drama of the late Caroline period. By adopting the story of a tyrannical king preyed upon by an evil counsellor, Baron follows Denham's pattern in order to warn and criticise. John Denham and Robert Baron, therefore, used Safavid Persian dramatis personae for theatrical and nontheatrical purposes during a time when England was in a fraught political condition as a result of internal turbulence and instability.
