Ruled Britannia

by Harry Turtledove

  "Before God, Mistress Sellis, I think you speak sooth," Shakespeare answered.

  She stroked Mommet again. He was an uncommonly good-natured cat; as soon as she touched him, his purr boomed out, filling the room. She said, "I have once or twice before been styled soothsayer. I do not say I am such, mind, but I have been so styled."

  Shakespeare nodded. "I believe it. If it be so, belike you make a good one." He intended no flattery, but meant every word. What she'd said about a rich man's restless desire for more showed she could see a long way into the human heart. That had to be as important for a soothsayer as for a poet crafting plays.

  She studied him again. He had rarely known such a measuring glance from a woman-or, indeed, from a man. Marlowe's gaze came close, but it always held an undercurrent of mockery absent from her expression. Her eyes did shine like a cat's. He wondered what trick of witchcraft made them do that. Of nights, a cat's eyes, or a dog's, gave back torchlight. A man's eyes, or a woman's, did not. But Cicely Sellis' did.

  Mommet suddenly stopped purring. His fur puffed out till he looked twice his proper size. He hissed like a snake. A freezing draught blew under the door, making the hair on Shakespeare's arms prickle up, too, and sending a swarm of bright sparks up the chimney as the flames flared.

  In a deep, slow voice not quite her own, Cicely Sellis said, "Beware the man who brings good news, and he who knows less than he seems."

  "What?" Shakespeare said.

  The one word might have broken the spell, if spell there was. The cat's fur smoothed down on his back.

  He sprawled on his side, licked his belly and privates, and began to purr once more. The fire eased. And the cunning woman, her eyes merely human eyes again, frowned a little and asked, "Said you somewhat to me?"

  "I did." Shakespeare went on to repeat, as best he could, what she'd told him.

  Her frown deepened. " I said that?" she asked.

  "On my oath, Mistress Sellis, you did." Shakespeare crossed himself to show he meant it.

  Witches were supposed to fear the sign of the cross. Cicely Sellis showed no such fear. She only shrugged her shoulders and laughed a nervous-sounding laugh. "I will believe you, sir, for that you have no cause to lie to me thus. But as for the words. " She shook her head. "I recollect 'em not."

  "No?" Shakespeare pressed it a little. Cicely Sellis shook her head again and pressed a hand to one temple, as if she knew pain there. Being a player himself, Shakespeare knew acting. As best he could judge, the cunning woman was sincere in her denial. Bemused, he tugged at his little chin beard. " 'Tis passing strange, that."

  "So it is." Mistress Sellis rubbed the side of her head once more. She yawned. "Your pardon, but I'm fordone. Mommet, come." The cat followed her into the room she'd hired from Widow Kendall as obediently as if it were a dog.

  Was it a cat? Or was it the cunning woman's-the witch's-familiar spirit? Shakespeare had trouble imagining a familiar spirit, a demon surely reeking of brimstone, purring with such content as it lay on the floor. But then, what know you of demons? the poet asked himself. As little as may be, and wish it were less.

  He tried to write a bit more. That bothered him less than it would have the day before. He yawned, too.

  He could go to bed with a clear conscience now. He knew where Love's Labour's Won was going, and knew he would finish it in a day or two. Then on to King Philip, and to. the other play.

  His bedroom was dark when he went in. Jack Street's snores made the chamber hideous. Shakespeare knew he himself would have no trouble sleeping despite the racket; he'd had time to get used to it.

  How-indeed, whether-Sam King could manage was a different question.

  Shakespeare didn't bother with a candle when he stowed his writing tools in the chest by his bed. He'd dealt with the lock so often in darkness, he might almost have been a blind craftsman whose fingers saw as well as most men's eyes. The click of the key in the lock made Street the snoring glazier mumble and turn over, though how he heard that click through his own thunderstorm was beyond Shakespeare. The poet sighed-quietly-and yawned again.

  As he slipped the bottle of ink back into the chest, his fingers brushed a new and hence unfamiliar bulk: the translation of the Annals he'd picked up in front of St. Paul's. " 'Sdeath," he whispered: a curse that was at the same time at least half a prayer. The translation itself was innocent. But if anyone thought to search for it, his death was likely whether it were found or not. That would mean Lord Burghley's plot was betrayed.

  He shut the chest, locked it, and pulled off his boots. The wooden bed frame and its leather straps creaked as he lay down and burrowed under the covers. Despite yet another yawn, sleep would not come. His mind spun faster than the spinning hand of a clock. How can Burghley's plan hope to escape betrayal? There's surely far more to't than one poor poet and a play that may never been seen.

  Can he do so much with so many under the Spaniards' very noses without their suspecting? 'Tis false we English breed no traitors. Would 'twere true, but these past nine years have proved otherwise.

  What did Burghley purpose? Shakespeare shook his head. Ignorance, here, is bliss. What I know not, no Spaniard can rip from me. He wished he didn't know it was tied to word of Philip's death. But the English nobleman had had to tell him that. He needed some notion of how long he had to write the play and to train the actors of his company to perform it.

  That thought made him shake his head. He still didn't know whether all of Lord Westmorland's Men would appear in a play that, if Lord Burghley's rising failed, could only be judged treason. If he sounded a player and the man refused, what could he do? Could he do anything? Would not the very act of doing something make a disaffected player more likely to go to the Spaniards, or to the lickspittle English who followed Isabella and Albert?

  Questions, questions. When questions come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. All the questions were out in the open. Answers skulked and hid and would not show themselves, either by light of day or in these miserable, useless, pointless nighttime reflections.

  Shakespeare shook his head again. His bed let out another creak. Jack Street grunted, shifted, and, for a wonder, stopped snoring. In the third bed in the room, Sam King sighed softly. Had he been awake all this while, poor devil? Shakespeare wouldn't have been surprised. Street's cacophony took getting used to.

  After some more squirming, Shakespeare felt sleep at last draw near. But then he thought of his curious meeting with Cicely Sellis, and rest retreated once more. She was a cunning woman indeed. Whoever called on her would get his money's worth, however much he paid. She was probably even cunning enough to keep from falling foul of the Church, which took Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live ever more seriously these days.

  What had she meant when her voice changed there for a little while? Some sort of warning, without a doubt. But did it come from her alone, from God, or from Satan? Shakespeare ground his teeth. How could he know? Come to that, did Cicely Sellis herself know?

  One more yawn, and sleep finally overmastered him. He woke in darkness the next morning. With the winter solstice at hand, the sun wouldn't rise till after eight of the clock, and would set before four in the afternoon. In the kitchen, porridge bubbled above the fire. Shakespeare filled a bowl with it. It was bland and uninteresting: barley and peas boiled to mush together, with hardly even any salt to add savor. He didn't care. It filled the empty place in his belly for a while.

  Most of the lodgers were already gone before Shakespeare rose. Regardless of whether it was light or dark, they had their trades to follow. Cicely Sellis, by contrast, came into the kitchen just as the poet was finishing. The cunning woman nodded but said nothing. She too had her own trade to follow, but could follow it here at the lodging house. By the way Widow Kendall beamed at her, she was paying a pretty penny for that room of hers. Enough to make the widow raise the scot for the rest of us?

  Shakespeare wondered worriedly. He doubted he could stand even one more vexation
on top of so many.

  When he went out into the street, he found he would have no accurate notion of when the sun came up, anyhow. Cold, clammy fog clung everywhere. It likely wouldn't lift till noon, if then. Shakespeare sucked in a long, damp breath. When he exhaled, he added fog of his own to that which had drifted up to Bishopsgate from the Thames.

  He should have gone straight to the Theatre. He might have found some quiet time to write before the rest of the company came in and began rehearsing for the day's play.

  Instead, though, he wandered south and east, away from the suburbs beyond the wall and down towards the river. He didn't know-or rather, didn't care to admit to himself-where he was going till he got there.

  By the time he neared the lowland by the Thames, the fog hung a little above the ground.

  But even the thickest fog would have had a hard time concealing the Tower of London. Its formidable gray stone wall and towers shouldered their way into the air. People said Julius Caesar had first raised the Tower. Shakespeare didn't know whether that was true or not, though he'd used the conceit in a couple of plays. The Tower surely seemed strong and indomitable enough to have stood since Roman days.

  However strong it seemed, it hadn't kept the Spaniards out of London. And now, somewhere in there, Queen Elizabeth sat and brooded and waited for-deliverance? Can I help to give it her? Or give I but myself to death?

  V

  After Christmas mass, Lope de Vega and Baltasar Guzman happened to come out of the church of St. Swithin together. Lope bowed to his superior. " Feliz Navidad, your Excellency," he said.

  Guzman, polite as a cat, returned the bow. "And a happy Christmas to you as well, Senior Lieutenant," he replied. "I have a duty for you."

  De Vega wished he'd ignored courtesy. "On the holy day?" he asked, dismayed.

  "Yes, on the holy day." Captain Guzman nodded. "I am sorry, but it is necessary, and necessary that you do it today." He didn't sound sorry. He never sounded sorry. He was stubborn as a cat, too; he went on, "I want you to take yourself to the church of St. Ethelberge"-another English name he massacred-"and ask the priest there if this poet friend of yours, this Shakespeare, has come to partake of our Lord's body and blood on the anniversary of His birth."

  "Ah." However much Lope wished otherwise, Captain GuzmA?n was right here, as he had been with going after John Walsh-this was a necessary duty. "I shall attend to it directly. And if he has not?"

  "If he has not, make note of it, but do no more now," GuzmA?n replied. "Then we watch him closely ten days from now. If he celebrates Christmas by the old calendar, the forbidden calendar, we shall know him for a Protestant heretic."

  "Yes, sir." Lope sighed. "Heretic or not, we surely know him for a splendid poet."

  "And if his splendid poetry serves Satan and the foes of Spain, isn't he all the more dangerous for being splendid?" Guzman said.

  And he was right about that, too. Again, Lope wished otherwise. Again, he sighed. But, because Captain GuzmA?n was right, de Vega asked, "How do I find this church of St. Ethelberge?" He had almost as much trouble with the name as his superior had done, and added, "Where do the English find such people to canonize? Swithin here, Ethelberge there, and I hear there is also a St. Erkenwald in this kingdom.

  Truly I wonder if Rome has ever heard of these so-called saints."

  "I have plenty of worries, but not that one," Baltasar GuzmA?n said. "If the Inquisition and the Society of Jesus found these saints were fraudulent, the churches dedicated to their memories would not stay open."

  He's right yet again, Lope thought, surprised and a little resentful. Three times in a row, all of a Christmas morning. He'd better be careful. If he keeps that up, I may have to start taking him seriously. He wouldn't like that, and I wouldn't, either. Since GuzmA?n hadn't answered him the first time, he tried again: "How do I find St. Ethelberge's church, Captain?"

  "It's Shakespeare's parish church,? Shakespeare lives in Bishopsgate? Go to Bishopsgate. You know the way there?" Guzman waited for Lope to respond. He had to nod, for he did know the way to and through that district: it led out of London proper to the Theatre. "All right, then," the captain told him. "Go to Bishopsgate. If you find the church yourself, fine. If you don't, ask someone. Who wouldn't tell a man how to get to a church on Christmas morning?"

  He was, of course, right yet again. "I go," Lope said, and hurried off toward Bishopsgate as much to escape Captain GuzmA?n and his alarmingly sharp wits as to find out whether Shakespeare had been to Mass. Even though the day was gloomy, London's houses and public buildings made a brave show, being decorated with wreaths and strands of holly and ivy, now and then wound up with broom. Many of the ornaments had candles burning in them, too. In the first couple of years after the coming of the Armada, such signs of the season had been rare. Elizabeth and her heretic advisors discouraged them, as they'd discouraged so many observances from the ritual year. But, with the return of Catholicism, the customs that had flourished before Henry VIII broke with Rome were also coming back to life.

  Many doors stood open, the rich odors of cookery wafting out warring with those of garbage and sewage. From Advent, the fourth Sunday before the Nativity, to Christmas Eve, people restricted their diets. On Christmas Eve itself, meat, cheese, and eggs were all forbidden. But Christmas. Christmas was a day of release, and also of sharing. Only skinflints closed their doors against visitors on Christmas Day.

  A man in what looked like a beggar's rags with a roast goose leg in one hand and a mug of wine in the other came up the street toward Lope. By the way he wobbled as he walked, he'd already downed several mugs. But he gave Lope an extravagant bow all the same. "God bless you on the day, sir," he said.

  "And you, sir," de Vega replied, returning the bow as if to an equal. On Christmas, as on Easter, were not all men equal in Christ?

  Lope did have to ask after St. Ethelberge's church. But people indeed proved eager to help him find it.

  He got there just when a Mass was ending. And he got his answer without having to ask the priest, for with his own eyes he saw Shakespeare coming out of the church in a slashed doublet of black and crimson as fancy as anything Christopher Marlowe might wear.

  Lope thought about waving and calling out a greeting. He thought about it for a heartbeat, and then thought better of it. He ducked around a corner instead, before Shakespeare spotted him. What excuse could he offer for being in Bishopsgate on Christmas morning, save that he was spying on the English poet? None, and he knew it.

  He got back to the barracks in the center of town without asking anyone for directions. That left him proud of himself; he was strutting as he made his way to Captain Guzman's office. And he'd been right, and GuzmA?n, for once, wrong. That added to the strut. He looked forward to rubbing his superior's nose in it.

  Whatever he looked for, he didn't get it. When he opened the door, Guzman wasn't there. His servant, Enrique, sat behind his desk, frowning in concentration over a quarto edition of one of Marlowe's plays.

  He read English better than he spoke it, though still none too well.

  He didn't notice the door opening. Lope had to cough. "Oh!" Enrique said in surprise, blinking behind his spectacles. "Good day, Senior Lieutenant."

  "Good day," Lope replied politely. "Where's your principal?"

  "He was bidden to a feast, sir," Guzman's servant replied. "He left me behind here to take your report.

  Did the priest at this church with the name no sane man could pronounce see Senor Shakespeare at Mass today?"

  "What do you do if I tell you no?" de Vega asked, trying not to show how angry he was. GuzmA?n could send him off to Bishopsgate on Christmas morning, but did the noble stay around to hear what he'd found? Not likely! He went off to have a good time. And if I'd been here, maybe someone would have invited me to this feast, too.

  "I bring his Excellency the news, of course," Enrique said. "After that, I suppose he sends out an order for Shakespeare's arrest. Do I need to go to him?"

 
; "No." Lope shook his head, then jabbed his chest with his thumb. "I myself saw Shakespeare leaving the church of St. Ethelberge"-he could pronounce it (better than most Spaniards, anyway), and didn't miss a chance to show off-"not an hour ago, so there's no need to disturb Captain GuzmA?n at his revels."

  "I'm glad," Enrique said. De Vega wondered how he meant that. Glad he didn't have to go looking for GuzmA?n? But then the servant went on, "From everything I can tell, the Englishman is too fine a poet for me to want him to burn in hell for opposing the true and holy Catholic faith."

  " Tienes razan, Enrique," Lope said. "I had the same thought myself." And if Enrique agrees with me, he must be right.

  "Do you have any other business with my master, Lieutenant?" the servant asked.

  Yes, but not the sort you mean-this shabby treatment he's shown me comes close to touching my honor, Lope thought. But he wouldn't tell that to Guzman's lackey. He would either take it up with the officer himself or, more likely, decide it wasn't a deliberate insult and stop worrying about it. All he said to Enrique was, "A happy Christmas to you."

  "And to you, senor." As Lope turned to go, Enrique picked up the play once more. He read aloud:

  " O lente, lente currite noctis equi:

  The stars move still, time runs, the clock will strike,

  The devil will come, and Faustus must be damned.

  O, I'll leap up to my God! Who pulls me down?'

  This is very fine poetry, I think."

  "And I," de Vega agreed, "even if he borrowed the slowly running horses of the night from Ovid."

  "Well, yes, of course," said Enrique, who, despite being a servant, somewhere had acquired a formidable education. "But he uses the line in a way that makes it his own. He doesn't just trot it out to show how learned he is."

  "A point," Lope said. "Marlowe is a very clever man-and if you don't believe me, ask him."

  Guzman's servant grinned. "Meaning no offense to you, senor, but conceit is a vice not unknown amongst poets."