Early Modern playwrights in England often depicted characters who somehow represented the exotic or the "other."  Jews and "Moors" or Muslims were common figures on the stage, and received a range of treatments.  Although they often appeared as superficially conceived caricatures, these "other" figures sometimes appeared as more complex characters, such as Shakespeare's Shylock.  Despite this interest in "otherness" demonstrated by Early Modern playwrights in England,  American natives rarely appear as characters in plays of this period.  In fact, few natives of any land colonized by Europeans appear as characters in Early Modern English plays.   The few examples of colonized natives as dramatic characters reveal a superficial understanding of these people's cultures and a dichotomous view of their natures.
    
This dichotomy in European thinking about the "savages" that European colonists encountered comes up early on in John Fletcher's play The Island Princess, which Fletcher wrote around 1619.  The play's plot revolves around a Portuguese colony in the Molucca or Spice Islands and has a loose basis in actual events from the 1580s.  Although the colonists in the play are Portuguese, the English interest in overseas colonies at the time that Fletcher wrote the play may have affected Fletcher's depiction of the relationship between colonists and colonized.  At the play's opening, three Portuguese soldiers have the following conversation:

These soldiers' representation of Quisara as an exception to the general character of the island natives parallels an idea found in non-fiction accounts of the English colony in Virginia.  Many Englishmen, including King James, characterized Americans as savages, whose natural tendency was to be false and subtle.  Any Virginian native who showed kindness to the colonists appeared in the narratives of the time as exceptional.

Drawing of an "Indian Torchbearer" by Inigo Jones, a costume design for a masque, 1613. Jones' design reflects the recurring image of Americans in feathered headdresses which appeared in artwork by European colonists.

George Chapman's The Memorable Masque of the Two Honourable Houses or Inns of Court, (which was performed in 1613 as part of the wedding celebration of King James' daughter,) contains a presentation by a group of "Virginian Priests."  The published description of the masque contains a detailed account of the physical appearance of these Virginian characters.

This description conjures a vision of opulence and depicts Virginians as possessors of great wealth.  This image of American natives came from English hopes that the colonists would find gold in Virginia.

Phillip Massinger's The City Madam, from 1632, does not have actual Virginian natives appear as characters, but rather Englishmen who disguise themselves as Virginians.  This episode reveals quite a bit about English knowledge Native American cultures.  In this passage, Sir John, disguised as an "Indian," describes to Luke the nature of Virginian religion.

Sir John, as mock-Indian, claims to be a devil worshipper and to practice human sacrifice.  Many European explorers, unfamiliar with the religious practices of peoples they encountered, assumed that the devil had drawn those people into mistaken religious practice.   Europeans of the period also often ascribed the practices of human sacrifice and cannibalism to all non-Christian religions.

Early Modern plays offer more depictions of European colonists and explorers than they do of colonized natives, although these depictions also tend  to present a set of extremes.  Colonists appear in the plays of the period either as opportunists of questionable character or as virtuous Christian crusaders.

John Fletcher's The Sea Voyage, from the early 1620s, contains excellent examples of the prevalent  negative stereotypes of colonists:

In this passage, the ship's crew discovers that the potential colonists they have aboard are a usurer whose native country has banished him and a nobleman who has sold his title to seek his fortune in a colony. 

In their depictions of colonists, Early Modern playwrights explored the connection between class issues and the colonization of the New World.  Many of the non-fiction accounts of the Virginia colony reflect a tension between the highly structured English class system and the possibility that a person with no noble title could attain high status by demonstrating skill and merit in the colonies.

Eastward, Ho!, which George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston wrote in 1605, presents the debate over what constitutes true nobility in a number of different ways.  In this play, the prospective Virginian colonist is Sir Petronel Flash, who has a title but no fortune, and who plots to steal his new wife's dowry and flee for America.  He reveals his true character in Act II, scene iii:

English people also imagined that those who left for Virginia were the dregs of society, as the following passage from Massinger's The City Madam illustrates.

In contrast to these negative portrayals of colonists, Early Modern playwrights also crafted characters who fit the category of virtuous adventurers.  These men are often commoners or lesser noblemen who prove their worth in dangerous exploits in far away places, or high status noblemen who prove their willingness to undergo hardship and perform labor in the extreme circumstances of travel and exploration.

Day, Rowley, and Wilkins' 1607 The Travels of the Three English Brothers, which the playwrights based on the lives of the real Sherley brothers, depicts all three brothers as virtuous, brave, steadfast in Christian faith, and patriotic.  In the play's first scene, Anthony Sherley's courage and virtue are so immediately apparent that even the Sophy of Persia wishes to be like him:

Thomas Heywood, in his The Fair Maid of the West, from around 1610, creates a similar hero figure in the character Spenser, who also braves a Muslim court to rescue his love interest.  The characters of Ferdinand in Shakespeare's The Tempest and Armusia in Fletcher's The Island Princess also belong to this virtuous adventurer type.  To learn more about characters who playwrights present as heroic explorers or colonists, see Class and Status and Conversions.