The Merry Devils

Nicholas Bracewell came behind him to pick up the pieces.

'Be not downhearted, lads!'

'I quake,' said George Dart.

'I quail,' said Roper Blundell.

'There is no just cause.

'I cannot do it, Master Bracewell,' gibbered Dart. 'I will not, I must not, I dare not.'

'Nor I,' said his fellow. 'This is work for a younger man.'

'For no man at all,' returned Dart. 'I am young enough but I'll not venture upon it. I hope to be as old as you one day, Roper, and I would not be dragged off to Hell before my time.'

'That will not happen,' promised Nicholas.

'The play is cursed!' said Blundell.

'We are fools to touch it again,' added Dan.

'Lord Westfield has spoken,' reminded the book holder.

Blundell wheezed, 'Then let his lordship face that foul Fiend!'

They were chatting during a break in rehearsal at The Curtain. Neither of the assistant stagekeepers was cast in Cupid's Folly and they were pathetically grateful. Any acting ambitions they might have nursed were dashed to pieces at the Queen's Head and all they sought now was backstage anonymity. They made a curious pair. George Dart, with his face of crumpled hope, was dog-loyal to a company whose reward was to treat him like a dog. The most menial and degrading jobs were always assigned to him and he was a convenient whipping-boy if anything went wrong. Roper Blundell had such a gnarled visage that it looked as if it had been carved inexpertly from a giant turnip. Hair sprouted all over it. His body was small, wiry and surprisingly nimble for his age but lie was often short of breath.

'I understand your feelings in the matter,' said Nicholas.

'Then do not press us,' said Roper Blundell.

'Someone must persuade you.'

'We are beyond persuasion,' asserted George Dart. 'Nothing would drive us back into those red costumes.'

'You must speak with Edmund Hoode.'

'He will have no influence over us,' said Blundell. Hear him out,' advised Nicholas. 'He will tell you how he has altered the play to render it harmless. There is no chance of summoning up another devil. Were he to explain that, might you not both think again?'

'No!' they said in unison.

'Would you let Westfield's Men down in their hour of need?'

'We must put our lives first,' said Dart.

'What life would you have without this company?' asked Nicholas.

His voice was gentle but it did not muffle the blow. The two small figures were shaken. George Dart suddenly looked very young and vulnerable, Roper Blundell, very old and desperate. In the hazardous world of the theatre, jobs were scarce and companies in a position to choose. If they were cut adrift from Westfield's Men, neither of them would find it easy to secure employment elsewhere.

Nicholas Bracewell was highly sympathetic to their plight. He liked them both and would not willingly part with either, bur the decision did not rest with him. He thought it only fair to warn them of what might lie ahead.

'Master Firethorn is adamant.'

George Dart was distraught. 'Would he turn us out?

'We must have merry devils at The Rose.'

'Help us,' begged Roper Blundell. 'You have been our good friend this long time, Master Bracewell. We would not go through that torture again and yet we would not leave the company cither. It is our home. We have no other. Help us, sir.'

Nicholas nodded and put a consoling arm around each of them.

'I will bethink me.'

*

Henry Drewry waddled around the room to build up his moral indignation.

'Why did you not tell me of this dreadful visit beforehand?'

'You did not ask, Father,' said Isobel.

'I have a right to be consulted about your movements.'

'You were not here. Had you been so, you would not have listened.'

'Do not he insolent, girl!'

'I am being truthful,' she replied levelly. 'Mother will say it as well as I. You are deaf to any words that we speak.'

'I am still the master or this house!' he blustered.

'That is why I do not bother you with trifling matters.

'This is no trifling matter, Isobel!'

'I went to a play, that is all. Wherein lies my crime?"

'In that, young lady!'

Henry Drewry stopped in the middle of the room ro confront his daughter. Everything about her irritated him, not least the fact that she was a few inches taller. Isobel had her mother's looks, her father's ebullience and a stubbornness that was all her own. Her serene smile enraged him.

Do not smile at me so!'

'How, then, should I smile at you, Father?'

I will not endure this impudence!'

But I am not trying to upset you, sir.'

'You study it,' he accused. 'Why did you visit the Queen's Head?'

'To see a comedy.'

'Is there laughter in blasphemy?'

'I shared in the laughter but saw no blasphemy.'

'Who enticed you to that evil place?

'Grace Napier,' she said. 'But it was not evil."

He blenched. 'The two of you? Unchaperoned?'

'Her brother escorted us there,' she lied.

'So the Napier family is to blame for leading you astray.'

No, Father. I went of my own free will.'

'That is even worse,' he said, stamping a foot. 'Can you not see the peril you courted? Plays are a source of corruption!'

'Have you never been to a playhouse?' she asked with a giggle. 'Come, I know you have. Mother has told me. There was a time when you organised an interlude at the Salters' Company. And you often went to see a comedy at the Bel Savage in Ludgate. You liked plays then, Father, and they did not corrupt you.'

'Leave off these jests!'

'Grace and I watched three merry devils in a dance.'

'It was an act of profanity!'

'It was the funniest sight that ever I saw but it did me no harm except to make my ribs ache from laughing.'

'I will not bear this!' he howled.

Drewry took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure. Why was it that other fathers had so little trouble with their daughters when he had so much? What fatal errors had he made in rearing the girl? Had he been too soft, too indulgent, too preoccupied with his civic duties and his business affairs? By now, Isobel should be married and ready to present him with his first grandchild, but she had rejected every husband that he chose for her and done so in round terms. It was time she learned that she could not flout his authority.