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The Sixteenth Century.
Shakespeare.
Nat Field is a member of the Company of Boys - an American company of boy actors. They are going to travel to London to give a performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream. The production is to be in the new Globe Theatre - the replica of Shakespeare's Globe. Also, as in Shakespeare's day, all the female parts are to be played by boys.
The Company go to England and rehearsals begin and a very strange thing happens to Nat. He suddenly finds himself in Elizabethan London and playing Puck opposite Shakespeare's Oberon. He hates sixteenth century London. He misses all the everyday things of the twentieth century - like electricity, gas, plumbing, running water, refrigeration, central heating, china, knives and forks, packaged food, canned food ... He makes an enemy of the senior apprentice Roper, who tries to make life difficult for him. But far worse is the cruelty of the age. Nat is taken to a bear baiting. He is sick when he sees a dog dashed to the ground and blood gushing from a ruptured artery. He is very much aware that the crowd roaring at the spectacle would also attend a hanging or an execution with equal relish. He is frightened. Is he trapped in Elizabethan London? Will he ever get back to his own time?
Then his attitude begins to change. He becomes used to the primitive conditions and even the smells. Even more important he falls under the magic spell of William Shakespeare himself. As if acting with Shakespeare is not enough Shakespeare finds out Nat's secret - that Nat is blaming himself for the death of his father. With his understanding of human nature Shakespeare manages to relieve his grieving. Later Shakespeare tells him he is a true actor and makes him promise never to stop. Nat hero worships Shakespeare and wants to stay and join his company.
But it is not to be. He suddenly finds himself back in his own time. But this is not the end. Far from it. There are questions to be answered. Why was Nat taken back through time? And what about his emotional problems? He has lost his father and now Shakespeare? Here the Director of the Company of Boys - Arby or RB - comes to his rescue in a very surprising way - a way which involves Shakespeare's last play The Tempest. And there is one last question the answer to which is just hinted at. Who actually is RB?
This book really brings Elizabethan London, the Globe Theatre and Shakespeare to life. Nat is a very believable character and we find that we care deeply about his problems.
Timeslip with a difference.
Teenage.
This book was first published in German in 1999. In this edition the story has been translated into English by Brian Murdoch, who has also added a historical note.
This is the story of Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice retold from the point of view of Shylock and his family. It fills in the background to Shakespeare's play.
Here Shylock is given a family. There is Jessica, his beautiful but flighty daughter, who is in the original play. But Mirjam Pressler adds two new characters -- Dalilah, his foster daughter, and Amalia the old housekeeper.
We are given much detail about the Jewish communities in Venice in 1568. The Jews live in two adjoining ghettoes. To Jessica the ghetto is a prison but Amalia tells her that it is actually a place of safety. There are two groups of Jews in the city. Shylock allows Jessica to visit the household of a rich Jewish doctor who belongs to the other group. It is in his house that Jessica meets Lorenzo.
The Shylock who emerges in this book is something of a tragic figure. He did not want to become a money-lender in the first place. He wanted to study medecine at the University of Padua and become a doctor but there was not enough money and, when his father died, he had to look after his mother and sisters. He is also a very lonely man. Although she had died many years ago, he still grieves for his wife Leah. He would have liked to have married Amalia, but her husband divorced her and Shylock belongs to a sect that will not allow him to marry a divorced woman.
Shylock dotes on Jessica, who is so like his dead wife. When she runs away with Lorenzo, becomes a Christian and marries him, Shylock is devastated. He even believes that his daughter has been stolen from him. This becomes an obsession with him and is partly the reason why he insists on his pound of flesh.
The background is filled in with great detail -- descriptions of the ghetto and the Jewish rules and customs: descriptions of the way in which the Jews are treated -- the distinctive clothes they had to wear when they left the ghetto, the raid on the ghetto and the burning of the sacred Jewish books. It is even brought out that the bond was Bassanio's idea in the first place and that, originally, Shylock did not want it.
Extra light is thrown on the ghetto in another way. Dalilah is sent to Jessica to try to persuade her to return. Dalilah has to make a long journey through the countryside. She has never been outside the ghetto before and her experiences put the ghetto into perspective.
The treatment of the Jews in Europe throughout the centuries tends to form something of a footnote to history. The fact that in 1290 all Jews were forced to leave England, the fact that other countries followed suit and expelled their own Jews -- these are mentioned only briefly in the history books. It is easier if we think of Hitler as something unique, a one-off. But this book shows that far from being unique Hitler had actually a long tradition behind him. Hitler was more brutal and savage, but there were precedents for his ideas. Something which we would all do well to remember.
This book would complement a study of The Merchant of Venice. It would also complement courses on the treatment of minorities, and other cultures and traditions.
Thought provoking.
Teenage
This is a novel about Shakespeare's Theatre.
After the death of his mother Owen Rhys is taken to London by his father. His mother's dowry has not been paid and Owen's father is engaged in a lawsuit. The lawsuit drags on and living in London is expensive. Owen's father tries to find work, but without success. Then he is told that a scrivener is needed at the Theatre. The result is that Owen and his father are taken on as singers, musicians and actors.
Owen and his father spend a year with the theatre company. The year is 1596 and Will Shakespeare (otherwise known as 'Quill') is only thirty two. There is much information about the theatre of the time - and also the Shakespeare family because Mrs Shakespeare comes to London for extended visits and brings her children with her. Owen becomes friendly with the twins Judith and Hamnet and there is the hint of an incipient romance between him and the elder girl, Susanna.
But a lighthearted romp through the England of Good Queen Bess's glorious times this certainly is NOT. The darker side of Elizabethan England is brought out very clearly. Public hangings, religious persecution, intrigue, the beggars and wounded soldiers, dirt, pollution and disease. (The London theatres were closed in the summer for fear of the Plague). Here is a typical description of the Thames.
'The sun, emerging from banks of cloud, gilded the great stream so that you forgot the filth flowing just beneath the bright surface, the debris being deposited on either shore and the bloated, hairless carcass, probably a dog's, bobbing along towards London Bridge.'
The three Shakespeare children drink polluted water and Hamnet dies.
After a year Owen's father marries a wealthy widow. Owen's grandfather dies and Owen inherits his farm. What is he to do? Stay with the theatre in London or return to Wales?
His position at the theatre is insecure. The elderly James Burgage does not have long to live and his sons do not have his abilities. The lease of the Theatre will expire within the year. Their elderly patron, the Lord Chamberlain whose servants they officially are, is in bad health.
'If he were to die they would lose that status and and lapse into the condition of landless men without a trade, with all the penalties that that condition incurred, ranging from whipping to hanging.'
This book brings out facets of Shakespeare's career which are often neglected - the problems and difficulties he had to face before he became established. It is a worthy and satisfying book for a serious reader.
12+
Peter Brownrigg is forced to flee from his home in Cumberland because he is identified as having helped to break down a wall which was enclosing common land. Peter escapes by hiding in a coffin - a stage coffin - used by a company of strolling players. He is at first, jealous of another young actor, Kit Kirkstone but then he discovers Kit's secret and they become friends. They travel to London, meet Shakespeare and act in Burbage's company. Peter is responsible for a new play of Shakespeare's being stolen. In trying to retrieve it he stumbles on a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth - a plot which involves a performance of Henry the Fifth. Peter is recruited by the Secretary of State, Cecil, to try to thwart this plot.
An exciting story with an extensive and authentic background. The two main characters, Kit and Peter, are both resourceful and believable.
The story is set partly in Cumberland and partly in London. It should appeal to all who know and love the Lake District.
10+
At the age of seven Widge is taken from the orphanage and apprenticed to a rector, Dr Bright. Dr Bright is a medical doctor as well as a rector and Widge is taught how to help him prepare his medicines and potions. But Widge also learns something else from Dr Bright. A form of shorthand which the doctor has worked out himself and which he calls "charactery." After he has mastered it Widge finds out why he had to learn it. The doctor cannot be bothered writing his own sermons so he sends Widge round all the local churches and makes him write down the sermons.
This state of affairs continues until Widge is fourteen when a mysterious stranger comes to Dr Bright and buys Widge's apprenticeship from him. He is taken south to Leicester where he meets his new master, a Simon Bass, who tells him that he is to be taken to London. There he will be taken to the theatre where he will copy down -- in Dr Bright's "charactery" -- all the words of Hamlet. In due course Widge sets out for London in the company of the terrifying Falconer.
All goes according to plan. They reach London and Widge is taken to the theatre. He transcribes the text of Hamlet. And then he loses his notes. Too frightened to go back to Falconer without the script he goes back to the theatre to look for it. When discovered by the players he tells them he wants to become an actor. They accept this explanation -- and Widge, who now becomes an apprentice. He intends to search for his notes, and, if he does not find them, steal the play-book and slip away back to Falconer. But things do not work out like that.
Once with the company Widge soon starts to learn just what it would mean to steal the text of Hamlet and just how important it is to The Chamberlain's Men that they keep control of it. He soon realises how wrong it would be of him to betray them.
Then Widge begins to make friends, and he has never had friends before. More than that, Widge, a boy without even a proper name, begins to feel for the first time in his life, that he is now a member of a family.
But, at the same time, he is afraid that if he does not give a copy of Hamlet to Falconer, then Falconer will seek him out and kill him. It is a case of friendship and loyalty versus survival and betrayal. What choice does Widge make?
This is an exciting story written around Shakespeare and it contains much detailed background information about the way the Elizabethan theatre functioned at that time. The duties and lessons of the apprentices -- particularly fencing -- the "properties" with udders filled with sheep's blood, and the command performance put on in front of the Queen in Whitehall. But there are also details about Elizabethan London with Alsatia and the "shooting" of the bridges.
This story of Shakespeare's time has a curious relevance to our own. The protection of copyright is once again a burning question with the advent of the internet and electronic publications. A fact about which I was very conscious all through the book.
A fascinating and unusual book. Exciting and thought-provoking.
10+
This is a sequel to The Shakespeare
Stealer.
The plague comes to London and all the theatres are closed but
it is decided to take the company on tour round the country. While
doing so the actors experience many difficulties and hardships.
Bad roads made worse by wet weather which churns them up to mud,
towns which turn them away because they are afraid of the plague,
other fraudulent players impersonating them, an arson attack on
their wagons and an attack by highway robbers. And in the midst
of all this Shakespeare breaks his arm and he has to dictate his
latest play to Widge.
Over and above this Widge has his own problems. The company has
a new apprentice, a Sal Pavy who begins to get many of Widge's
parts. Widge fears for his position in the company. Then they
reach York and Widge pays a visit to the orphanage where he was
brought up. He gets some information which might help him to find
out who his mother was. He meets a Jamie Redshaw who leads him
to believe he is his father and he takes him back to the company.
But Jamie turns out to be a scoundrel. Where do Widge's loyalties
lie? He has always wanted to be part of a family but is Jamie
really his father? And is the company of actors not his actual
family?
Widge is told that one of the reasons why his rival Sal Pavy is
such a good actor is that he has suffered much hardship in his
life but he has learned how to make use of it in his acting.
Can Widge learn to do the same? Can he express his emotions on
finding Jamie Redshaw when he is on the stage and can he finally
find himself as an actor?
A story which really holds the interest set against a realistic
background of Elizabethan England, the theatre and The Lord Chamberlain's
Men and Shakespeare in particular.
10+
This is the first volume of a planned new series set in Tudor times. Each book in the series will have two strands. The first one will be about a young boy who becomes one of Walsingham’s spies. The second strand will centre round the plays of Shakespeare. After each of his adventures the young spy will tell Shakespeare of his adventures and Shakespeare will use this as the basis for one of his plays. In this way it is hoped that the series will help to interest young people in Shakespeare.
In this first book, Dangerous Times, the boy actor Nathan Fox is brought to the attention of Walsingham who thinks that his agility could be put to good use. He asks Nathan if he would like to join his service and Nathan agrees and then goes for a short but intensive period of training. Then Nathan leaves for his first mission in the company of another spy John Pearce. Their task is to persuade the Venetians to form an alliance with England. They become drawn into Venetian politics and the war against the Turks. Nathan sails with General Othello in his flagship and takes part in a naval battle before rejoining John Pearce and his sister Marie in Crete. Nathan overhears the treacherous Iago plotting against Othello and Desdemona and tries to avert the tragedy but to no avail. Once safely home again in England Nathan tells his friend Shakespeare all about Othello and Shakespeare writes furiously.
In this way the story of the play Othello is explained to the reader in an interesting and innovative way.
This book is just packed with information about Tudor times. There is great detail about weapons and fighting but there is also much about codes and how Walsingham’s men communicated. To say nothing of Marie’s knowledge of healing.
Nathan also meets, for a short time, the father who left him years ago. The father is a gypsy and no doubt more will be made of this in future books in the series.
The first book in a promising new series.
10+
This is an imaginative reconstruction of how a very young William Shakespeare came to write his first play. Jan Mark has based her idea on two facts. For centuries the Medieval Mystery Plays had been performed on church feast days by ordinary men who were members of their trade guilds. After Henry VIII broke away from the Church of Rome these plays gradually died out but no doubt Shakespeare had seen some of them. And then there is the play within a play in A Midsummers Nights Dream. What was Shakespeare remembering when he wrote that?
In Stratford trade is bad and money short. The council decide that something should be done to lift the people’s spirits. The council decide on a Whitsun pastime. Adrian Croft, the son of one of the councillors, discusses this with the young William Shakespeare. Adrian remembers that Will’s father has a playbook. Why do they not get hold of it and put on their own play? They find it. It was a Corpus Christi play about Cain and Abel which had been given to Will’s father by a man from the north country. But the mice have been at it and much of it is missing. Will starts to rewrite the missing bits himself. Then he abandons the original play and writes a complete new one himself.
The rest of the book describes the efforts of Will and Adrian to stage the play and their many difficulties one of which is the reluctance of the schoolboys to play the parts of women. And then they have to fuse the two factions of schoolboys and tradesmen into one company working together. To say nothing of being able to find capable actors. And then when it comes to the actual performance they face an attempt to sabotage all their efforts.
To all this is added a good picture of Stratford with its tradesmen, market and council. Will’s family is brought to life with a series of warm descriptions.
Interesting and humorous and told with great insight.
12+
In 1594 Dr Rodriguez Lopez, one time physician to Queen Elizabeth, was accused of High Treason on very insubstantial evidence, and hanged. His death sparked off a wave of anti Jewish feeling in London and Jews were reviled as poisoners. Against this background, Christopher Marlowe wrote a play, The Jew of Malta about the horrible, greedy Jew Barabas - a hideous monster. This was received by frenzied audiences with jeers and cheers. Yet a year later William Shakespeare wrote a very different play about a Jew. Shylock is still the villain of the play, but Shakespeare still manages to show him in a sympathetic light. What made Shakespeare write a play which was actually contrary to the public opinion of the time? In Plots and Players Pamela Melnikoff has given her own answer.
The Fernandez family are part of the Marrano community in London. The parents had come to England from Portugal to escape persecution. They practise their Jewish faith in secret because, if they are discovered, they will be sent back to Portugal - and the Inquisition. The two sons in the family attend a school where they are taught singing and music. One day William Shakespeare visits the school and chooses Robin to be in one of his plays. Robin's father disapproves but he is persuaded to let Robin take part.
The Fernandez family are also friendly with the kindly old physician, Dr Lopez and we follow their horror and sadness when Dr Lopez is accused of treason on the flimiest of evidence, arrested, imprisoned and finally hanged.
After the performance of The Jew of Malta Robin becomes disenchanted with the stage and when his former friend, Shakespeare, visits him he loses his temper.
"'All you care for is your theatre, sir,' he said bitterly, 'and yet it breeds hatred against us.'" He continues,
"Why must the Jew be the villain. Why can't he be the hero?"
Shakespeare gently explains that no audience would accept such a thing. Robin is still not satisified.
"Then if we can't be heroes why can't we at least be human beings? ... You won't let us be giants but why do we have to be horned beasts?"
Shakespeare goes home and takes a manuscript he has written and throws it in the fire. A year later he meets Robin again. He tells Robin that he taught him that Jews are human beings and should be presented as such on the stage. He arranges for Robin to get leave from work to see The Merchant of Venice - which is, in a sense, Robin's play.
Robin sees the play and realises that despite his evil intentions Shylock retains his humanity. This gives Robin a great feeling of comfort.
The harsh fate of Dr Lopez is at the heart of the story but there is also a happier side to the book. We are given a warm, sympathetic picture of the Fernandez family practising their faith in secret, the two boys attending school and their sister, Frances, preparing for her arranged marriage with the dull, boring Thomas who only opens his mouth to put food in it. There are also fascinating descriptions of the theatre and of a masque before the Queen herself.
A well researched, gripping story with an interesting interpretation of how Shakespeare came to write The Merchant of Venice.
10+
This is the fifth in the series about young William Marsden of Marsden Hall near Newcastle and Meg the servant girl who is something more than a servant. The title makes it quite clear who this book is going to be about. The Lord of the Dreaming Globe can refer to only one person - William Shakespeare.
The bare facts about Shakespeare's career are known but there is still a great deal of mystery about his life, as is also the case about the life of another great contemporary playwright, Christopher Marlowe. Marlowe died in a fight but there is a theory that he did not really die and that his death was faked. It is believed that Marlowe was one of the spies of the Secretary of State, Cecil. Shakespeare, too, may have been another spy.
Terry Deary has taken these theories and woven them into his story and given his own solution to an unsolved mystery.
Will and Meg are on their way to Stratford - to William Shakespeare. On the way they cross the path of two spies, Skeres and Frizer who get the idea that Will and Meg are also spies who are taking a message to Shakespeare. They plot to kill Will and steal his message.
Then follows the description of a cat and mouse game in Stratford. Meg and Will escape in a theatre wagon and go north to Marsden Manor where they will be safe. But when they arrive there they find a message from Shakespeare's wife saying that her elder daughter Judith has been kidnapped. So resourceful Will and Meg have to plan how to rescue her.
A character from earlier books in the series plays an important part in this book - Hugh Richmond the actor/spy. Meg, Will, Shakespeare and Hugh travel in a theatre wagon and perform in towns and villages en route and this is described in detail - especially the "properties" used to give special effects. This applies particularly to the play Titus Andronicus. This is a particularly violent play with characters getting their hands chopped off and being beheaded. We are shown all the tricks of the trade. An actor has a pink glove stuffed to look like a hand and a bladder of pig's blood up his sleeve. When the wrist is chopped off the bladder is burst at the same time. Later in the play another actor appears waving fake heads which also drip pig's blood.
We are, however, given these gory facts for a reason. Later on these stage "properties" are used to trick Skeres and Frizer into telling where Judith Shakespeare is hidden.
The book ends with a confrontation between Shakespeare and Skeres. There is an unanswered question. Is Skeres really Marlowe? He probably is. Terry Deary's own answer to a historical mystery.
The story is told in the first person by Will and Meg alternately but Shakespeare himself and Hugh Richmond also get a chapter each.
There is plenty of gore and violence in this book but I must stress that it is all STAGE violence. Not real. In other words harmless. Will and Meg are not killers and Frizer and Skeres are allowed to escape to France.
No matter what adults may think about this book I think that children will enjoy it and, at the same time, learn a great deal about Shakespeare. It might even stimulate children to try to find out more about the Bard themselves.
I certainly enjoyed this book myself. I think this is the best of the Tudor Terror series. The story is much clearer than the earlier ones.
10+
There is a theory that some one else wrote the plays of Shakespeare. This book claims to be the diary of Francis Bacon's half brother Eggbert. In it Eggbert says that he actually wrote the plays. His diary follows his life with Shakespeare and covers all the most important points of Shakespeare's career.
This is a brave effort to interest the less academic pupil in history and in Shakespeare. The style is chatty and humorous. Eggbert's nickname is "Streaky Bacon" and Shakespeare is "Inky Shakespeare." I think that sets the tone of the whole book.
Attention is drawn to the actual plays in an interesting manner. Eggbert writes something and then Shakespeare changes it - to something very familiar. For example from Richard III, Eggbert writes,
"Richard: Call me a horse, Catesby.
Catesby: Certainly Your Majesty. You're a horse."
Shakespeare, of course, changes this to the well known,
"A horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse."
In another instance Eggbert's first idea for a play is "Ronnie and Josephine" which of course becomes "Romeo and Juliet."
The book is also full of deliberate anachronisms such as Shakespeare continually smoking a cigar.
There are black and white cartoon style illustrations on nearly every page.
There is a serious historical note at the end pointing out the anachronisms and disproving the various theories that some on else wrote the plays of Shakespeare.
This book is certainly not for the traditionalists but a great deal can be learned from it about Shakespeare and his plays. And children often love this kind of humour.
10+
The Tanfield Rangers are a boys' football team. Some of the team think that the initials TR should really stand for Time Rangers as they can travel back in time.
In this book they are transported back to Elizabethan England. Queen Elizabeth is about to arrive for a visit and the villagers are having a fete in her honour.
They meet a very young William Shakespeare who has run away from school because of the long hours, Latin and floggings with a birch rod. He is making his way to London where he hopes to become an actor. Worm (short for Bookworm) knows that he will have to persuade Shakespeare to return to Stratford or the course of history will be changed and the plays of Shakespeare will never be written.
Worm tries to persuade Shakespeare to return to Stratford but before a decision is made the Rangers find themselves taking part in a tug of war. Then they play five a side football after which they are presented to Queen Elizabeth and Worm sees a chance to get Shakespeare back to Stratford.
Back in their own time the Time Rangers play their last - and disastrous - football match of their tour.
Although short this book contains a remarkable amount of information about Elizabethan England. Informative and at the same time entertaining and enjoyable.
The way in which the young William Shakespeare speaks in rhyming couplets is very effective.
'Nothing so fine as scoring a goal,
Sound that trumpet and lets the drums roll.'
Or another time when he wants help from the team captain, in words which sound familiar,
'O Jacko, Jacko, wherefore art thou Jacko?'
A good and humourous introduction to Shakespeare for young readers. An easy read for the nine plus age range.
This is one of the Sparks series of stories linking with the History National Curriculum Key Stage 2. It is between four and five thousand words long.
When Judith Shakespeare arrives in London to spend Christmas with her father she gets a shock. She had hoped to see some of her father's plays but instead she sees his theatre being demolished.
Her father soon explains matters to her. The landlord refuses to renew the lease on the land but the actual theatre building belongs to the theatre company so they are going to take it down, transport it to the other side of the Thames and rebuild it in Southwark. They take down the theatre - despite protests from the agent of the landlord - and then push the various timbers across the frozen Thames. Judith helps. It is not quite the Christmas she had planned. Judith goes home again but returns for the opening of the new Globe Theatre in April. In the meantime there have been a number accidents. Has the old landlord been trying to cause trouble? In the middle of the opening play "A Midsummer Night's Dream" the thatched roof of the theatre catches fire. Judith finds that she is the only person who can save the theatre as she is in the right position. But does she have the necessary courage?
This little book contains much information about Shakespeare and his theatre. The transportation of the Globe across the Thames actually happened. And later it was burnt down.
This book is entertaining and enjoyable as well as being informative. And Judith is a lively and determined heroine with an unusual ambition for a girl in Elizabethan times.
Comes with useful notes.
7+
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