Meadows Taylor and Other Predecessors of Kipling

india has fascinated Europe since time immemorial. From very early times she has been looked upon as a land of gold and jewels, and of magic and marvels. For many romancers in the Middle Ages, India was a country for the exercise of riotous imagination. Before Vasco da Gama discovered the Cape route to India, European knowledge of India was derived from scattered references in the classics or the wild imaginings of the fabulist. The Elizabethan travellers not only described the marvels of India but also drew attention to the ‘great profite’ that was ‘to be made with the commodities of this country’. 1 In Tamburlaine , Marlowe gave expression to that glamour with which the tales of the travellers had invested the East. Cosroe is pained and ‘resolves’ into tears because Men from the farthest equinoctial line Have swarmed in troops into the Eastern India, Lading their ships with gold and precious stones, And made their sports from all our provinces. (Tambw/aine , i. i.)