The Botany of Colonization in John Fletcher’s The Island Princess

Abstract

et on Tidore and Ternate, John Fletcher’s 1621 colonial romance, The Island Princess, looks back to Portugal’s occupation of the islands. The Malukan archipelago, also known as the Spice Islands, attracted European colonizers and merchants because of their coveted natural resources, including cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon—plants and spices rumored to cure a number of ailments and increase longevity. By the time Fletcher staged his play at court, plants traversed continents with increasing frequency; Londa Schiebinger estimates that, between 1550 and 1700, the number of plants known to Europeans quadrupled. In