Abstract
This article examines the sixteenth century Elizabethan perception of the racial dimension of the Turk in Mason and its influence on an individual’s character within the context of the play. John Mason's negative image of the Turks is associated with lust, violence, and treachery. The traditional European portrayal of Turks has been biased and largely hostile. Mason propagandized his play The Turke (1606) against the Turks. He attacks Turkish morals and sexual illegitimacy. Therefore, the Turk Mulleases has been shown to be lustful and brutal. His image is a unique portrayal of a damned Turkish noble in the Britons' eyes. Mason represents a stereotyped Turk to understand the Turkish Other. His Mulleases establishes the model of the Turkish sexuality, ambition and treachery in the Renaissance imagination. The play provides the distressed multitudes with entertainment and national polarization against the Muslim Turks and Catholic Venetians. The lascivious Venetian Catholic lady Timoclea possesses a bodily lust for life, sensation, and experience. She and her husband Borgias resemble Mulleases in sexuality and treachery.