The Elizabethan explorers and travellers took deep interest in the Orient. Their vessels traversed the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. The accounts of the explorers like Hawkins, Frobisher, Davis, Ralegh etc. fanned the fascination of the Elizabethans towards the Orient.

The result is that Elizabethan and Jacobean writers like Marlowe, Shakespeare, Webster, Ford, Dekker, Green etc. produced some Oriental plays. However, Shakespeare far outshines the rest.

With the publication of Edward Said’s canonical book W. Orientalism, Shakespeare’s plays are being studied from fresh perspectives. The present book Shakespeare and the Orient seeks to enquire, in the light of the content of his plays, how authentic Shakespeare’s knowledge of the Orient is and how fairly and convincingly he presents the Oriental elements.