Emissaries in Early Modern Literature and Culture »

With its emphasis on early modern emissaries and their role in England's expansionary ventures and cross-cultural encounters across the globe, this collection of essays takes the messenger figure as a focal point for the discussion of transnational exchange and intercourse in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It sees the emissary as embodying the processes of representation and communication within the world of the text, itself an "emissary" that strives to communicate and re-present certain perceptions of the "real." Drawing attention to the limits and licenses of communication, the emissary is a reminder of the alien quality of foreign language and the symbolic power of performative gestures and rituals. Contributions to this collection examine different kinds of cross-cultural activities (e.g., diplomacy, trade, translation, espionage, missionary endeavors) in different world areas (e.g., Asia, the Mediterranean, the Levant, the New World) via different critical methods and approaches. They take up the literary and cultural productions and representations of ambassadors, factors, traders, translators, spies, middlemen, merchants, missionaries, and other agents, who served as complex conduits for the global transport of goods, religious ideologies, and socio-cultural practices throughout the early modern period. Authors in the collection investigate the multiple ways in which the emissary became enmeshed in emerging discourses of racial, religious, gender, and class differences. They consider how the emissary's role might have contributed to an idealized progressive vision of a borderless world or, conversely, permeated and dissolved borders and boundaries between peoplesonly to further specific group interests.

List of Illustrations

Introduction Brinda Charry Charry, Brinda Gitanjali Shahan Shahan, Gitanjali 1

Pt. 1 Discourses of Diplomacy

1 The Shah's Two Ambassadors: The Travels of the Three English Brothers and the Global Early Modern Jonathan Burton Burton, Jonathan 23

2 Of Gifts, Ambassadors, and Copy-cats: Diplomacy, Exchange, and Difference in Early Modern India Ania Loomba Loomba, Ania 41

3 Representing the King of Morocco Virginia Mason Vaughan Vaughan, Virginia Mason 77

Pt. 2 Agents of Exchange

4 Just Passing: Abbe Carre, Spy, Harem-lord, and 'made in France' Pompa Banerjee Banerjee, Pompa 95

5 'After my humble dutie remembered': Factors and / versus Merchants Barbara Sebek Sebek, Barbara 113

6 Passengers, Spies, Emissaries, and Merchants: Travel and Early Modern English Identity M. G. Aune Aune, M. G. 129

Pt. 3 Language and Technologies of Mediation

7 The Translator as Emissary: Continental Works about the Ottomans in England Linda McJannet McJannet, Linda 147

8 The Queen of Onor and her Emissaries: Fernao Mendes Pinto's Dialogue with India Hannah Chapelle Wojciehowski Wojciehowski, Hannah Chapelle 167

9 Listening to the Emissary in Middleton's No Wit, No Help Like a Woman's Marianne Montgomery Montgomery, Marianne 193

Pt. 4 Transmission and Transformation

10 'Backward and Abysm of Time': Negotiating with the Dead in The Tempest Brinda Charry Charry, Brinda 207

11 'Thrown from the Rock': Emissaries as Midwives and Impediments of a New World Sheila T. Cavanagh Cavanagh, Sheila T. 225

Bibliography 237

Index 257