More lines than is in the new map': Modern and Ptolemaic Cosmography in Twelfth Night

In 1599 Edward Wright (1558?-1615), professor of mathematics at Cambridge, published The Correction of Certain Errors in Navigation. This volume contained new mathematical tables and described a method to plan straight line routes on maps based on the Mercator system. Drawing inspiration from Ptolemy, Mercator had utilised coordinate geometry not only as a reliable foundation, but also as a tool for creating and implementing a mathematically coherent map. His famous projection not only facilitated navigation but also conveyed the concept of an inhabitable and interconnected Earth – which stood in contrast to the classical Greek notion of four separate continents, where communication between their inhabitants was limited. This double attitude to Ptolemy’s cosmography also informed Wright’s ‘Chart of the World’ based on his own projection of a globe which his former associate and business partner, the artisan and mathematician Emeric Molyneux, had cast in 1592. The map was attached to a limited number of copies of Richard Hakluyt’s 1599-1600 edition of the Principall Navigations. This revolutionary, foldable map was the first of its kind in England and one of the first to mention Virginia in the early modern era. It quickly became famous; in Twelfth Night (1599-1602; probably 1601), Malvolio is described as one who “does smile his face into more lines than is in the new map with the augmentation of the Indies” (3.2.60-1). This paper explores the links between Wright, Hakluyt, and Sir Walter Ralegh’s circle, pointing to the fertile negotiation between modern and Ptolemaic cosmography which informs both their works and the imagination of Shakespeare’s time.