Bassano Lanyer, Aemilia:
England's first professional woman poet. Mistress of Henry Carey. Sadly, not appearing in this book because I did not have room for her.
Bassano, Augustine:
Court musician to Elizabeth, Venetian Jew, father to Aemilia, and intimate of Roderigo Lopez. Also not appearing in this volume, but I promise you, he and Aemilia and Roderigo and Alfonso had many interesting adventures that Will never found out about. Someday I will write the Jews of Elizabeth's Court book and you can find out all about it.
Bradley, William:
Stabbed by Thomas Watson in Bankside. Dead.
Brahe, Tycho:
An Astronomer
Burbage, Cuthbert:
Brother to Richard Burbage
Burbage, James:
Father to Richard Burbage. Owner of the Theatre in Bankside.
Burbage, Richard:
A player. A Promethean. Principal Tragedian of Lord Strange's Men, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and the King's Men. Eventual Shareholder at the Globe.
Burghley, Baron:
(William Cecil) Lord Treasurer. A Promethean. Member of the Privy Council. Father to Robert Cecil.
Cairbre:
A bard, the Master Harper of the Daoine Sidhe
Cecil, Anne:
Wife to Edward De Vere, daughter to William Cecil, sister to Robert Cecil
Cecil, Robert:
Secretary of State. A Promethean. Member of the Privy Council. Later, the Earl of Salisbury.
Catesby, Robert:
A Catholic recusant
Chapman, George:
a playmaker and poet
Cobham:
Briefly, Lord Chamberlain
Coquo, Oratio:
Edward de Vere's catamite, a former choirboy. I am not making that up.
Corinna:
The love object in Ovid's fifth elegy, and a character in
Tamburlaine
Davenant, Jenet Shepherd and John:
Innkeepers along the road to Stratford
Dee, Doctor John:
An astrologer
Drake, Sir Francis:
A privateer
Ede, Richard:
A keeper at the Marshalsea prison
Edward:
A player. A member of the company of Lord Strange's Men.
Essex, Earl of:
(Robert Devereaux) A Promethean
Faustus:
A Scholar
Fawkes, Guido:
A Catholic recusant
Findabair:
A princess of Faerie. Dead.
Fletcher, John:
A vile playmaker
Forman, Simon:
A physician of sorts
Frazier, Ingrim:
A servant to Thomas Walsingham
Ganymede:
Jove's cupbearer. Euphemistically speaking, a term for a catamite.
A gardener
Gardner, William:
Justice of the Peace for Southwark
Gaveston, Sir Piers:
Leman to Edward II, formerly King of England
Geoffrey:
A Faerie, with the head of a stag
Green, Robert:
A vile playmaker and pamphleteer
Henslowe, Philip:
Owner of the Swan Theatre
Holinshed:
A historian, of sorts
Hunsdon, Lord:
(George Carey) Lord Chamberlain. A Promethean. Member of the Privy Council.
Hunsdon, Lord:
(Henry Carey) Lord Chamberlain. A Promethean. Member of the Privy Council. Father to George Carey.
John:
A carriageman
Jonson, Ben:
A vile playmaker, son of a bricklayer, educated at Westminster. Formerly a soldier in the low countries.
Kemp, Will:
A player. Clown for the Lord Chamberlain's Men
Kyd, Thomas:
A vile playmaker
Langley, Francis:
A moneylender
Lanyer, Alfonso:
A court musician, and husband to Aemilia Bassano. Sadly, also not appearing in this volume.
Lavinia:
A victim of rape and dismemberment in Titus Andronicus
Lopez, Doctor Roderigo:
A Promethean. Queen's Physician and Ambassador from Antonio, pretender to the throne of Portugal. Of Jewish descent.
Lucifer Morningstar:
An Angel, once, and most dearly loved of God. Gave Ned Alleyn rather a bad turn, on one occasion.
A mare
Marley, Christofer:
(Kit; Christopher Marlowe; Sir Christofer) A Promethean. The dead shepherd. A playmaker and intelligencer. Dead (to begin with).
Marley, John:
Father to Christofer Marley, a Master Cobbler of Canterbury
Marley, Tom:
Brother to Christofer Marley
Mathews, Mistress:
Landlord of the Groaning Sergeant
Mebd, the:
A Queen of Faerie
Mehiel:
An Angel of the Lord
Mephostophilis:
A demon of Hell
Merlin:
A legendary bard
Monteagle, Baron:
William Parker, a cousin of William Shakespeare
Morgan le Fey:
The half sister to Arthur, King of England. The Queen of Air and Darkness. And, formerly, Cornwall and/or Gore.
Murchaud:
Morgan's son, a Prince of Faerie
Nashe, Tom
: A vile playmaker
Northampton, Earl of:
A friend to Sir Walter Raleigh
Nottingham, Earl of:
The Lord Admiral, a patron of players.
Orpheus
: A legendary musician who sought to rescue his love from Hell
Oxford, Seventeenth Earl of:
(Edward de Vere) A Promethean, alleging himself a poet
de Parma, Fray Xalbadore:
A Promethean. An Inquisitor.
Plantagenet, Edward:
(Edward II of England) A historic king, the title character of
Edward II
by Christopher Marlowe
Peaseblossom:
A Faerie
Poley, Mary:
Sister to Thomas Watson, estranged wife to Robert Poley, mother of Robin Poley
Poley, Robin:
Son of Mary Poley
Poley, Robert:
A Promethean. A moneylender and intelligencer. Eventually, a Yeoman Warder of the Tower.
Raleigh, Sir Walter:
A sea captain, sympathetic to the Prometheans
A lame raven
Robin Goodfellow (aka Puck):
A Faerie
Rosalind, also Ganymede:
The heroine of
As You Like It
Sackerson:
A bear.
Shakespeare, Anne:
(Annie) Wife to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Edmund:
Brother to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Gilbert:
Brother to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Hamnet:
Son to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Joan:
(Joan Hart) Sister to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, John:
Father to William Shakespeare. A glover of Stratford-upon-Avon.
Shakespeare, Judith:
Daughter to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Mary:
Mother to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Richard:
Brother to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, Susanna:
Daughter to William Shakespeare
Shakespeare, William:
A vile playmaker. Principal player of Lord Strange's Men, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and the King's Men. Eventual Shareholder at the Globe.
Sidney, Sir Philip:
A respected poet. Husband to Frances Walsingham. Dead.
Skeres, Nicholas
: An intelligencer
Sly, Will:
A principal player with the Lord Chamberlain's Men
A sorrel gelding
Southampton, Earl of:
(Henry Wriothesly) Patron to William Shakespeare, Promethean
Spencer, Gabriel:
A player
Spenser, Edmund:
A respected poet
Strange, Lord:
(Ferdinando Stanley) A Promethean, and patron to players
Stuart, James:
(James VI, James I): King of Scotland and eventually England
Stuart, Mary:
(Mary, Queen of Scots) Mother to James VI of Scotland. Dead.
Stubbs, Philip:
A Puritan, dismembered for treasonous writings
Taliesin:
A legendary bard
Tam Lin:
A legendary nobleman kidnapped by Faeries
Thomas the Rhymer:
A legendary bard
Topcliffe:
The Queen's torturer
Tresham, Francis:
A Catholic recusant
A troll
Tudor, Elizabeth:
(Elizabeth I, Bess, Gloriana) The Queen of England, or perhaps Pretender to its throne
Tudor, Henry:
(Henry VIII of England, Great Harry) Dead
de Vere, Elizabeth:
Daughter of the seventeenth Earl of Oxford
Wade, William:
The Queen's other torturer, clerk of the Privy Council
Walsingham, Etheldreda (Audrey):
Wife to Thomas
Walsingham, Frances:
(Frances Sidney, Frances Devereaux) Daughter to Sir Francis, widow of Sir Philip Sidney, wife of the Earl of Essex
Walsingham, Sir Francis
: A Promethean. Spymaster to the Queen. Formerly, her Secretary of State.
Walsingham, Thomas:
Cousin to Sir Francis, Patron to Christofer Marley
Watson, Thomas:
A poet and intelligencer. A Promethean. Dead.
Divers demons, ifriti, faeries, prentices, goodwives, publicans, recusants, damned souls etc as required.
And since we all have suck'd one wholesome air,
And with the same proportion of Elements
Resolve, I hope we are resembled,
Vowing our loves to equal death and life.
âCHRISTOPHER MARLOWE,
Tamburlaine the Great,
Part 1, Act II, scene vi
Prologue
And since my mind, my wit, my head, my voice and tongue are weak,
To utter, move, devise, conceive, sound forth, declare and speak,
Such piercing plaints as answer might, or would my woeful case,
Help crave I must, and crave I will, with tears upon my face,
Of all that may in heaven or hell, in earth or air be found,
To wail with me this Loss of mine, as of these griefs the ground.
âEDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL OF OXFORD, “Loss of Good Name”
Christofer Marley died as he was born: on the bank of a river, within the sound and stench of slaughterhouses. The news reached London before the red sun ebbed, while alleys fell into straitened darkness under rooftops still stained bright.
It was a bloody end to the penultimate day of May, in the thirty-fifth year of the reign of the excommunicate Elizabeth.
The nave of the Queen's chapel at Westminster lay shadowed when, at the secluded entrance of a secret room, the seventeenth Earl of Oxford hesitated. Edward de Vere pushed his hood back from fine hair and wiped one ringed hand across his mouth. The panel slid open at his touch, releasing the redolence of oil. The sputter of candles along the walls reassured him that he was not the first.
Four men waited within the stifling chamber.
“Marley is dead in Deptford.” Oxford tossed the words on the table like a poacher's take. “Stabbed above the eye by
your
cousin's man, Sir Francis. And we are lost with him: have you so thoughtlessly betrayed your Sovereign?”
“Marley dead?” Sir Francis Walsingham's chair skittered on stone as Elizabeth's hollow-cheeked spymaster lurched upright.
Seated beside Walsingham was Henry Carey, Lord Hunsdonâ the Lord Chamberlainâwho blanched white enough that it showed in uncertain candlelight. Beyond him was the Queen's physicianâ and Walsingham'sâDoctor Rodrigo Lopez. A final man stood by the wallâround, short, but of undeniable presence: the player Richard Burbage, famous already at twenty-six.
“Not on my orders,” Walsingham said. “Is't certain?”
“We are undone.” Oxford pulled a chair forth from the table and sat heavily, a dark metal ring on his thumb clicking. “The magicâwe can perhaps manage that without Kit. I taught him what he knew, and it was not all I learned at Dee's left hand.” Oxford concealed a tight smile; that learning ranged from the science of astrology to the arts of summoning succubae.
Lopez, a swarthy Portugall and well-known a Jew, whatever his protests of conversion, leaned forward over folded hands. He stared at Walsingham with significance and said, “This is not the first attempt on one of our numberâ”
“Our aims may have diverged,” Walsingham answered, “but the others have not forgotten our names.”
“And there's plague in the city,” Lopez said. “Think you 'tis unrelated to those
other
Prometheans?”
“Can
you
discern a native plague from a conjured one, Physician?”
“Some would argue there are no native plagues, but only devil's workâ”
Oxford cleared his throat and his memories. “But with Marley, we lose the Lord Admiral's Men, leaving us without a companyâ”
“There is my company,” Burbage put in, but Oxford's voice rose over the player's effortlessly.
“âand without a playmaker under whose name to perform our works. Never mind Kit's ear for a verse.”
Walsingham extended a long, knotty hand, bony wrist protruding from dusty velvet, skin translucent as silk over gnarled blue veins. “Oxfordâ”
But Oxford shook his head. “I have not Kit's grasp on an audience, Sir Francis.”
Hunsdon's hands lay flat on the scarred tabletop. He closed his eyes. “It risks Elizabeth.”
Walsingham's chin jerked sharply. “We'll find another way.”
He stared down at his hands until his attention was drawn outward again when Burbage coughed.
“What is it, then?”
Burbage drew himself up. “I know a man.”
Act I, scene i
O God, that men should put an enemy in their mouths to steal away their brains!