Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard by Richard B. Wright

was born, a village called Coxton in Gloucestershire. Most people in this cityare from somewhere else,’ she added. ‘We all have come to make our fortunes or our misfortunes.’
    “Her name, she said, was Mary Pinder and she had been in London five years. I was grateful for someone to talk to, someone who knew the countryside, and so I told her my name and circumstances—a widow and working in a milliner’s shop for my brother-in-law. She nodded and listened, friendly enough, though she had an air of menace about her. I imagine it was her size, as she didn’t look like anyone you’d want to meddle with.
    “She told me she rented a room near Bishopsgate. ‘Beyond the wall,’ she laughed. ‘Shoreditch. A free-and-easy neighbourhood and a lively place, especially on Saturday and Sunday evenings when the players have done with their work and are refreshing themselves. They’re a merry lot when they’re not quarrelling. Have you been to a playhouse yet?’
    “‘No,’ I said, because I could not imagine ever telling Philip or Eliza that I was bound for a playhouse. I had heard them remark on what foul places they were and how they should be scourged from the earth even though many of their customers, especially the young men from the Inns of Court, often talked with approval of a performance they had seen.
    “Pointing across the river, Mary said, ‘The new one over there, the Rose, is offering a colourful spectacle. It’s full of blood and death, but there’s poetry in it too. Called
Tamburlaine the Great
and half of London is flocking to see it. I’ve gone myself and plan to go again. Composed by a young Cambridge wit called Marley. He’s got London by the short hairs, I can tell you that for a fact.’
    “I told her that I would love to see a play performed, but the Boyers did not approve of such entertainments.
    “‘Puritans, are they?’ asked Mary. ‘Well, they hate the playhouses, and with some cause, perhaps. The plays can draw a rowdy bunch and sometimes the apprentices with too much drink can fight among themselves. It’s nothing to fret about, though the city aldermen do, fearing a general uprising of the people with every little brawl. For my part, I find plays diverting. They take you out of your life for an hour or two, and where’s the harm in that?’
    “‘None, so far as I can tell,’ I said.
    “‘Well put and true, Elizabeth,’ said Mary Pinder, and turned to me with a broad smile. ‘Why don’t we talk more on this and other subjects? Do you have free time from that milliner on Saturdays?’
    “I told her I was finished at six o’clock and then given an hour or two in the evenings, though with the darkness closing in sooner now, I had to be careful.
    “‘They have you on a curfew? And you a grown woman?’ She shook her head in astonishment. ‘Can you find your way to the Dolphin after six o’clock next Saturday? It’s a worthy inn up Bishopsgate, a little beyond the wall, withproper food and drink. Some of the players can get a little rough, but you are not to worry. I can handle that. We’ll talk about getting you to the playhouse. Tell your Puritan relatives that you’ve had a change of heart about your spiritual health and are going to Evensong.’
    “I said I would go, though I wasn’t at all sure at the time. Why, I had only just spoken to this big woman for half an hour and I knew little more than that she came from a village in Gloucestershire. But I never asked what she was doing in London, for I hadn’t the nerve. I certainly couldn’t tell the Boyers I was going to Evensong, as they would never believe me. In the end, I decided to tell them that I was going out for an hour or two of air, and so I did, though Eliza thought my best dress a little proper for just a walk. I told her that presenting a well-dressed appearance discouraged idlers, and her husband nodded in agreement.
    “It was only twenty minutes to the Dolphin, and Mary was waiting for me under