Examines exotic visions of 'the East' as staged in the playhouses of Shakespeare's London.

Prelude: the cultural logistics of England's Eastern initiative; Part I. Staging 'the East' in England: 1. 'The glorious empire of the Turks, the present terrour of the world'; 2. Exotic persuasions in the playhouse: Tamburlaine the Great; Antony and Cleopatra; 3. Imperial poetics in royal and civic spectacle; Interlude: imaging home and travel; Part II. Inaugural Scenes in the Eastern Theatre: 4. Thomas Coryate and the invention of tourism; 5. Sir Thomas Roe and the embassy to India, 1615-19; Afterword.