ABSTRACT
Cowley’s five-act oriental musical comedy Turkey was condemned by the critic of the Public Advertiser who considered the sofa scene only fit for pantomime: ‘the idea of converting Polygrec (the flippant French servant, A La Greque) into a seat by way of concealing him, ought only to have been effected by the mutable powers of Harlequin’s sword’. Cowley’s musical comedy was first staged during the pantomime season and was probably conceived as an alternative to pantomime, with its music, dance, spectacular scenery from Paris and the West Indies ‘like a masquerade’, and the ‘glitteringly’ costumed women. 1 The play was a success. There were nineteen performances at Covent Garden, between December 1791 and March 1794. 2 It was performed in Edinburgh and York, and translated into German in 1794. 3 Receipts at the first performance were £263. 16s, only £5 less than James Cobb’s very popular opera Siege of Belgrade (1791).
