ABSTRACT
Abdelazer, or The Moor’s Revenge. A Tragedy is Aphra Behn’s only tragedy. It was performed on 3 July 1676 but may have had a premiere before this date. Abdelazer was theatrically quite demanding. Abdelazer was reasonably popular and was revived in 1695, probably at the beginning of April, to open the season for Drury Lane. Behn’s previous two plays The Amorous Prince and The Dutch Lover had taken plots from Don Quixote and Don Felipe. Abdelazer was the first of what might better be called her adaptations. Abdelazer retains his monstrousness but, in Behn’s version, the audience is invited to give him some sympathy, especially in his love for his wife. Like Dry den’s complex political play The Conquest of Granada, published in 1670, Abdelazer uses the Spanish material relating to the conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada and its aftermath.
