Emblematic Staging and Its Cartographic Influence in Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1 Anonymous College

Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Part 1 is one of the greatest examples of the use of emblematic staging in the early-modern period. The more iconographic style which preceded in the theatres, gave way to a much more fluid visual culture which focussed more on perception. As Ruth Lunney suggests in Viewing the Sign, theatre began to break away from the appropriation and control over representations of ‘truth’ to make it possible to make sense of the visual in non-traditional ways (47). Marlowe’s Tamburlaine certainly took advantage of the transformation from more literal reflections of truth into the trend of emblematic staging to play with the possibilities and potential in visual culture, but, more importantly, to comment on current events. Act 4.2, where Tamburlaine cages Bajazeth after he has defeated him in battle, displays Marlowe’s use of emblematic images as it highlights the relationship between space and power through the use of props. Tamburlaine’s ability to overcome, limit and contain space reflects the rise of cartography during the early-modern period. It is in this way that Marlowe makes use of props and theatrical space to encourage thoughts on the contemporary geographical ambitions of the British...