The Shakespeare Stealer Read Online Free Page B

I’d as soon you did not brand yourself as a complete rustic. Understood?”
    â€œAye—I mean, yes.”
    â€œExcellent.” His manner, which had become prickly, turned cordial again. “Now. When you go to London—”
    â€œLondon?”
    â€œYes, yes, London. It’s a large city to the south of here.”
    â€œI ken that, but—”
    â€œLet me finish, then ask questions. When you go to London, you will attend a performance of a play called The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark . You will copy it in Dr. Bright’s ‘charactery’ and you will deliver it to me. Now. Any questions?”
    I scarcely knew where to begin. “I—well, how—that is—they will not object? The men who present the play?”
    â€œOnly if they discover you. Naturally you will be as surreptitious as possible.”
    â€œAnd an they do discover me?” I asked, thinking of the sermon-copying affair.
    Bass blew out a cloud of smoke which made me cough. “The Globe’s audience is customarily between five hundred and one thousand. Do you suppose they can watch over every member of it?”
    â€œI wis not.”
    â€œYou wis not. Of course they can’t. You will use a small table-book, easily concealed.” He rummaged through the riot of papers on his writing desk. “You see how easily it is concealed? Even I can’t find it.” Finally he came up with a bound pad of paper the size of his hand. “There. Keep it in your wallet. You have a plumbago pencil?”
    â€œAy—yes.”
    â€œAny further questions?”
    â€œAn I might ask…for what purpose am I to do this?”
    Bass turned a penetrating look on me. “Does it matter?”
    â€œNay, I wis not. I was only curious.”
    He nodded and scratched the balding top of his head. “You’ll know sooner or later, I suppose.” He puffed thoughtfully at his pipe, then continued. “I am a man of business, Widge, and one of my more profitable ventures is a company of players. They are not nearly so successful as the Lord Chamberlain’s or the Admiral’s Men, but they do a respectable business here in the Midlands. As they have no competent poet of their own, they make do with hand-me-downs, so well used as to be threadbare. If they could stage a current work, by a poet of some reputation, they could double their box.”
    â€œBox?”
    â€œThe money they take in. And my profit would also double. Now someone, sooner or later, will pry this Tragedy of Hamlet from the hands of its poet, Mr. Shakespeare, just as they did Romeo and Juliet and Titus Andronicus .” He jabbed his pipe stem at me for emphasis. “I would like it to be us, and I would like it to be now, while it is new enough to be a novelty. Besides, if we wait for others to obtain it, they will do a botched job, patched together from various sources, none of them reliable. Mr. Shakespeare deserves better; he is a poet of quality, perhaps of genius, and if his work is to be appropriated, it ought to be done well. That is your mission. If you fulfill it satisfactorily, the rewards will be considerable. If you do not—” He gave a wry smile. “Well, Falconer will make certain that you do.”
    The anticipation that had been growing in me turned suddenly sour. “I—I did not ken ’a would go wi’ me.”
    Bass laughed. “Did you suppose I would send you off to London on your own? You can’t even speak the language properly. I might just as well send you to Guiana.” He patted one of my sagging shoulders. “Don’t look so inconsolable. Falconer will take good care of you, and you can learn a lot from him. Besides, looking on the bright side, this time you’ll have a horse of your own.”

    So the room that was to be mine was mine for two nights only. The following morning, we set out for London. Though my legs had not quite