Voices from the Past

hirelings kill him. I confided in Raleigh as we stood on a pier,

old him. Mouth tense, eyes afire, he grab

ght, Marlowe's murderers will be dead. Our Queen will know that she has been out-maneuvered, th

id nothing. How gutter-cheap we are in times of stress, how

xt

ith me and

all the pl

d valleys, da

eepy mounta

make thee a

and fragran

as to have a bed of roses,

s clowning, his patience, his kind words, his persuasive pen. Glover's son and shoemaker'

veins of rimi

its as clownag

to the statel

riding him hard. Our tankards full we worked in my place or his. I shied away f

Henry and Richard. M__ had learned to smoke and l

to light his pipe. Letting the paper b

a poem w

her "Shephe

n them published. Now I could not track d

etched rain...the rain it raineth every day...true, boy, come bring us to th

llen in Edinburgh, writing at home, ex

was afraid after Marlowe's death. "Will you write and reassure me?"

d through it, standing by his window, the rain leaded on the pages, long, grey, thin lines, tracing

er and I smelled stale bread an

between u

king to me..

yo

ing that comes bet

do I do to

hsayers...they're ready

w m

r life, your work.

id to talk

fall in love. Ju

atf

mber

-prisonment, I began a play, thinking to defend him, troubled by the ro

l was pu

D OF TH

Courtroom

inst the throne. At sea, I defended our country against all enemies. I supplied ships for th

t doubt of your perfidy! You defended Queen Elizabeth against the Earl of Essex but he was the King's friend, never his adversary. You

doubt it. Some call Sir Walter the "King of Liars." His letters f

family in-volvement at some unfore-seen ti

We were friends: those were good days b

ts us! Its quarr

ber 11

et at the taproom of t

sails creaking, I've felt it... I've felt it in the smash of waves and

d be a god! Pu

e bow, as spray hurls on board, there are certain certaint

felt those same declarati

t, Sir Walter. It shuts me in-side a cage and t

that each country

try has its diseas

you denying your

lly, no, inti-mately...that's a better word. I was trying t

t your table. Everyone's highly re-sp

: Ah, s

e didn't come

litics...or is it too hydra-headed to-n

But why c

ing something else, not so risky

Pour the

ost its bars. The bird of fear ha

reen velvet cloak, red trousers, black boots, black hat, sword; Jonson, Mar-lowe

er of L

stairway leads

s, Raleigh sits a

etters, book

iting; h

seems to b

d trudges by

atf

ber 15

about him. His door was flung wide: his pen moved: perhaps he was writing his History. Sun lay on the floor of his room. A wren sang. His hand stopped. I stepped for-ward, then fa

he had kept on. He had wanted to explore the world for himself, for mankind! Books on board his ships, books in his brain: wind stirred

around you. The liar is captive, will die behind these walls. They say he concocts an eli

eople said his rooms would be un-guarded...so they were. But I made no sound

a...Hispaniola...cloak-thrower...knight...names...and his map, a large parchment, came out of the wall and stared at me, rebuking me: clo

wall be-tween us. I shuffled down a few steps, disgraced, down to

h his History

right t

ed. Fog soaks the hole and then, then, there's the face of an attacker, scarred, piratical. Something behind him fades i

uneral p

et is accompanied

r in black,

from the casket

and puts it

ch bel

k over a

e pieces of bread on a dirt plate, sacrificed to whim and time? Our crosses top a hill, row on row

e wit

prow, now i

ery cabin, I fl

ivide and burn

, the yards, t

ey S

ber 23

nging for her, for intercourse, the ice of this winter-house ag

he orie

ey S

embe

of them, climbing the ivy, moulding thatch, hurting places of the mind, shiv

n: so, we, reduced, debased, encompassed, are carried to sea, to f

etting up, no sleep, only this endrenchment, intent on

enty-eig

I rehearsed. My costume didn't fit: the crown was badly torn. At four in the morni

m my thirty-seven plays. When I divide that by thirty years

ey S