4 - Island Chains
Military Law and Convict Transportation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Summary
Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, –
… for no kind of traffic
Would I admit; no name of magistrate:
Letters should not be known: riches, poverty,
And use of service – none: contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard – none:
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil:
No occupation, all men idle, all:
And women too, but innocent and pure:
No sovereignty –
– Shakespeare, The TempestI was lord of the whole manor. … I might call myself king or emperor over the whole country which I had possession of; there were no rivals; I had no competitor, none to dispute sovereignty or command with me.
– Daniel Defoe, Robinson CrusoeShakespeare's Gonzalo was entertaining a vision that belonged to a tradition of utopian imagery about island life that pervaded European colonial writings. Overseas posts strung along travel routes were an invitation to an “archipelagic imagination” already developed in medieval representations of islands as wild and holy places and as stopping points along spiritual itineraries. Islands served as settings for reveries about primitive communalism and a revival of ancient custom. European imaginings of colonial landscapes as enchanted idylls – wondrous prospects – influenced early colonial writings and took on new forms in the context of emerging representations of nature as both an object of scientific study and a setting for contemplation, leisure, and erotic pleasure.
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- A Search for SovereigntyLaw and Geography in European Empires, 1400–1900, pp. 162 - 221Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009