https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1097 Index des publications de auteurs James Seth fr 0 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1091 This article advances the argument that the East India Company performed Shakespeare aboard the Red Dragon flagship in Sierra Leone in September 1607 during the Company’s third voyage on route to Surat, Aden, and Bantam. I propose that these performances were political gestures of diplomacy during a crucial point in England’s economic expansion. I will consider the claims in the journal of General William Keeling (1577-1620) as evidence for shipboard performance of Shakespeare. Though the Keeling journal is notoriously problematic in its authorship, I will draw on a range of sources, including journals by other EIC officers and crew members, The Merchants Avizo (1607), and Shakespeare plays, which reveal important intersections between theatrical and maritime cultures. The EIC performances of Hamlet and Richard II in Sierra Leone helped strengthen the bond between the EIC and foreign diplomats like African dignitary Lucas Fernandez, who may have been part of the first non-European audience of Shakespeare. My argument expands on the work of Graham Holderness, Gary Taylor, Ania Loomba, and Richmond Barbour, and positions itself against critics like Bernice Kliman, whose interest in this subject is predicated mainly on the authorship of the Keeling journal, rather than the political implications of these performances. The EIC’s staging of Hamlet in September 1607 is often considered by scholars to be an unusual or improbable footnote in performance history, but historical evidence reveals that this event was a major example of mercantile strategy in Africa. The EIC continued to stage elaborate performances of hospitality in later voyages as they established factories in Asia and tightened the trade networks on both continents. As the EIC literally and figuratively carried England’s economic future, shipboard performance engendered diplomatic relations, contributed directly to the English Commonweal, and positioned the EIC members as major players in a maritime political theatre. mer., 27 sept. 2017 11:47:59 +0200 mer., 20 déc. 2017 21:01:09 +0100 https://shakespeare.edel.univ-poitiers.fr:443/shakespeare/index.php?id=1091