The Third Voyage Journals - by R Barbour (Hardcover)

About the Book

These previously unpublished journals of England's first voyage to India illuminate a fascinating cultural achievement: the first performances of Shakespeare outside Europe. The journals of the London East India Company voice the ambitions, divisions, and traumas of a pivotal moment in the emergence of global capitalism, as London's merchants strived for distant markets and cultivated relationships with non-Europeans. Barbour's commentary situates the voyage historically, describes the key personnel and writing community, examines the culture of performance at sea, and consolidates the evidence for the shipboard productions of "Hamlet "and "Richard II."

Book Synopsis

This volume publishes for the first time the collected journals of the East India Company's Third Voyage (1607-10), England's first to reach India, which proved pivotal to England's emergence as a global player.

Review Quotes

"Barbour s volume makes available essential documentation for the history of the East India Company in the critical opening years of its existence. The journals of the first English voyage to reach the Indian subcontinent are here fully edited and described for the first time; they are essential for an understanding of the beginnings of the British colonial enterprise, but they also relate in surprising ways to the mercantile enterprise that constituted the Shakespearean stage. Barbour is a gifted expositor and an excellent editor. This is an exciting and important book." - Stephen Orgel, J. E. Reynolds Professor in the Humanities, Stanford University

"Barbour s extensive and thorough introduction shows some of the riches here: ethnography, commerce, literacy, sailing, grievous danger, performance in a variety of forms, including, it seems, Shakespeare s Hamlet and Richard II performed aboard General Keeling s Dragon. Combined, the journals mesmerize and surprise as English merchants and sailors risk unknown seas and interact with the skilled sailors and sophisticated merchants of East and Southeast Asia." - A. R. Braunmuller, Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UCLA

About the Author

RICHMOND BARBOUR is Associate Professor of English at Oregon State University, USA.