Introduction

The most popular and familiar border crossings in the Romantic period were marked by the proscenium arch. Theater was at once an international venue and a showcase for national prejudice toward other countries and other customs. Robert Young, in White Mythologies argued that "the creation of the Orient signifies the West's own dislocation from itself, something inside that is presented, narrativized, as being outside". William Wordsworth, as he related in The Prelude, attended a performance of The Maid of Buttermere at Sadler's Wells in April 1803. The broad range of "otherness", The Beauty of Buttermere and The Gamblers provide reminders of how "otherness", as Freud says of the Unheimliche, begins at home. Byron in Sardanapalus uses orientalism to lay claim to luxurious opulence in a climate of treachery and intrigue. W. T. Moncrieff's The Cataract of the Ganges directly engages the public concerns Britain's military campaigns in India.