Honour and Deceit in The Warres of Cyrus , Classical Persia, and Elizabethan Politics

The role of drama in counselling the early modern monarch is well established, as is the centrality of classical Greek and Roman histories in early modern political culture. Through analysis of the Elizabethan play, The warres of Cyrus , this article argues that Achaemenid Persia should be placed alongside Greece and Rome as a key framework for early modern political discussion. The Achaemenid setting facilitated a vision of rule distinct from the usual classical models. In this Persian context, the virtuous prince was opportunistically ruthless, and unequivocally authoritarian. Performed by the children of the Chapel Royal in the 1570s, and published in the highly charged atmosphere of the 1590s, this drama casts light onto Elizabethan politics during times of marked political tension. Its emphasis on the disjuncture between appearance and reality evokes a political climate characterized by widespread fear of dissimulation. Elements at court, this article contends, met these fears with an emphasis on the stabilizing potential of a prince’s capacity for ‘policy’. At its first performance, The warres of Cyrus seems also to have sought to persuade Elizabeth to act leniently towards the captive Mary, Queen of Scots.