Before Orientalism: London’s Theatre of the East, 1576-1626

Studies of orientalism have chiefly concentrated on the eighteenth century and beyond, while Renaissance work on colonial discourse and travel writing has concentrated on the New World. Before Orientalism examines early Anglo-Indian cultural relations through trade (with the establishment of the East India Company), tourism and diplomacy and illuminates important differences between the reports of travellers and the representations of the London press and stage. Richmond Barbour examines exotic visions of the East as staged in the playhouses, at court, and on the streets of Shakespeare’s London. He follows the efforts of the newly established East India Company, and the troubled, deeply theatrical careers of England’s first tourist and first ambassador in India, Thomas Coryate and Sir Thomas Roe. The wide range of illustrations depict early modern London’s theatricalization of the world and exotic representations of the East and reveal European influences on Moghul art and the latter on English representations.