Almyna: or, The Arabian Vow. A Tragedy

Almyna is a she-tragedy that was written during the Restoration by Delarivier Manley. The play was first performed in 1706, and in the following year it was published. In the play's preface, Manley characterizes the play as a fable, noting her primary influences for the play as the life of Caliph Valid Almanzor, as well as The Arabian Nights' Entertainments, which was translated into English by Antoine Galland in 1706.

Caliph Almanzor: Sultan of Eastern Arabia
Abdalla, Sultan's brother
The Grand Vizier, father to Almyna and Zoradia
Alhador, Chief of the Dervis
Morat, Chief of the Eunuchs
Almyna, eldest daughter to the Grand Vizier
Zoradia, sister to Almyna, youngest daughter to the Grand Vizier

In Almyna, the sultan of eastern Arabia, Caliph Almanzor, has just executed his wife for committing adultery with one of her slaves. The sultan is so enraged over his wife's infidelity that he resolves to take revenge on all women by taking a new, virginal wife every night, and then executing her on the following morning. Now that the sultaness has been executed, Caliph no longer has an heir to the throne, so he makes his brother Abdalla his heir. Caliph expects Abdalla to adopt the same marriage practices that he does, but Abdalla is in love with Almyna, the Grand Vizier's eldest daughter. In Act 1, Both Abdalla and The Grand Vizier ask for the sultan's blessing so that Abdalla and Almyna can begin their courtship, arguing that if the sultan "Cou'd . . . but read Almyna's noble soul" and see that she is "wise and good" then he would gladly give his blessing on the match (1.1.266, 269). The sultan hesitantly gives his blessing to Abdalla, concluding that "for vain, 'tis found, to Combate youthful Passions" (1.1.357).

While Abdalla asks for the sultan's blessing on his engagement, Almyna and her sister Zoradia congregate in a garden in the sultan's palace. The title character does not speak until Act 2, which begins with Almyna comforting her sister Zoradia while they're in the garden. Zoradia is distraught over an undisclosed concern, and she refuses to tell Almyna why she is upset. At the end of the act she admits that she and Abdalla used to be in a secret courtship:

'Tis two years since, the Prince pretended Love,
And gain'd no easy Conquest over mine;
I charg'd him keep the Secret from my Father.
(A fault for which I have severely suffered)
Till over-come at length by his Persuasion,
I gave him Leave, to ask me of the Vizier,
Just in that fatal Moment, thou arrived'st
With thy Superior, and too dazling Charms! (2.1.349-356)

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