Therapeutic Travel in Richard Brome's The Antipodes

Abstract

Critics typically situate Richard Brome's The Antipodes (1636) in a satiric tradition of travel writing in the vein of Joseph Hall's Mundus Alter et Idem (1605), arguing that the play is "purely allegorical" and a "travel drama that is not about travel." This paper argues that The Antipodes is very much "about travel," but specifically about the psychology of travel, not the physicality of voyaging. Brome foregrounds travel tropes within the framework of Jonsonian comedy not merely for the sake of producing yet another entertaining quirk or eccentricity, but also so that the psychology of travel writing itself can be examined and the experiences of travelers and playgoers critiqued. Privileging the cultural role of the imagination and desire over the imperial and mercantile aspects of travel usually examined by critics, this paper addresses the principal concern of The Antipodes —the pleasures and risks of vicarious travel; a rich but relatively underappreciated aspect of travel writing in the early modern period.