Black is the badge of true love lost.
The hue of daemons,
And the Shadow of Night.
Shakespeare sighed. Kit’s choice of meter never made any sense to him. And his melancholy humor and morbid fascinations were too dark for these sad times. They made audiences uncomfortable, and there was sufficient death in London. He twirled the quill.
True love lost. Indeed. Shakespeare snorted. He’d had quite enough of true love, though the paying customers never seemed to tire of it. He struck out the words and replaced them with a single syllable, one that more accurately captured what he felt.
Daemons. The success of Kit’s Faustus still rankled him. Shakespeare had no talent for writing about creatures beyond the limits of nature. He was far better with ordinary, flawed mortals caught in the snares of fate. Sometimes he thought he might have a good ghost story in him. Perhaps a wronged father who haunted his son. Shakespeare shuddered. His own father would make a terrifying specter, should the Lord tire of his company after John Shakespeare’s final accounts were settled. He struck out that offending word and chose a different one.
Shadow of Night. It was a limp, predictable ending to the verses—the kind that George Chapman would fall upon for lack of something more original. But what would better serve the purpose? He obliterated another word and wrote “scowl” above it. Scowl of Night. That wasn’t quite right either. He crossed it out and wrote “sleeve.” That was just as bad.
Shakespeare wondered idly about the fate of Marlowe and his friends, all of them as insubstantial as shadows now. Henry Percy was enjoying a rare period of royal benevolence and was forever at court. Raleigh had married in secret and fallen from the queen’s favor. He was now rusticated to Dorset, where the queen hoped he would be forgotten. Harriot was in seclusion somewhere, no doubt bent over a mathematical puzzle or staring at the heavens like a moonstruck Robin Goodfellow. Rumor had it that Chapman was on some mission for Cecil in the Low Countries and penning long poems about witches. And Marlowe was recently murdered in Deptford, though there was talk that it had been an assassination. Perhaps that strange Welshman would know more about it, for he’d been at the tavern with Marlowe. Roydon—who was the only truly powerful man Shakespeare had ever met—and his mysterious wife had both utterly vanished in the summer of 1591 and had not been seen since.
The only one of Marlowe’s circle that Shakespeare still heard from regularly was the big Scot named Gallowglass, who was more princely than a servant ought to be and told such wonderful tales of fairies and sprites. It was thanks to Gallowglass’s steady employment that Shakespeare had a roof over his head. Gallowglass always seemed to have a job that required Shakespeare’s talents as a forger. He paid well, too—especially when he wanted Shakespeare to imitate Roydon’s hand in the margins of some book or pen a letter with his signature.
What a crew, Shakespeare thought. Traitors, atheists, and criminals, the lot of them. His pen hesitated over the page. After writing another word, this one decisively thick and black, Shakespeare sat back and studied his new verses.
Black is the badge of hell
The hue of dungeons and the school of night.
It was no longer recognizable as Marlowe’s work. Through the alchemy of his talent, Shakespeare had transformed a dead man’s ideas into something suitable for ordinary Londoners rather than dangerous men like Roydon. And it had taken him only a few moments.
Shakespeare felt not a single pang of regret as he altered the past, thereby changing the future. Marlowe’s turn on the world’s stage had ended, but Shakespeare’s was just beginning. Memories were short and history unkind. It was the way of the world.
Pleased, Shakespeare put the bit of paper into a stack of similar scraps weighted down with a dog’s skull on the corner of his desk. He’d find a use for the snippet of verse one day. Then he had second thoughts.
Perhaps he’d been too hasty to dismiss “true love lost.” There was potential there—unrealized, waiting for someone to unlock it. Shakespeare reached for a scrap he’d cut off a partially filled sheet of paper in a halfhearted attempt at economy after Annie had shown him the last butcher’s bill.
“Love’s Labour’s Lost,” he wrote in large letters.
Yes, Shakespeare mused, he’d definitely use that one day.
Libri Personæ: The People of the Book
Those noted thus * acknowledged by historians.
Part I: Woodstock: The Old Lodge
Diana Bishop, a witch
Matthew de Clermont, known as *Roydon, a vampire
* Christopher Marlowe, a daemon and maker of plays
Françoise and Pierre, both vampires and servants
* George Chapman, a writer of some reputation and little patronage
* Thomas Harriot, a daemon and astronomer
* Henry Percy, the Earl of Northumberland
* Sir Walter Raleigh, an adventurer
Joseph Bidwell, senior and junior, shoemakers
Master Somers, a glover
Widow Beaton, a cunning woman
Mister Danforth, a clergyman
Master Iffley, another glover
Gallowglass, a vampire and soldier of fortune
* Davy Gam, known as Hancock, a vampire, his Welsh companion
Part II: Sept-Tours and the Village of Saint-Lucien
* Cardinal Joyeuse, a visitor to Mont Saint-Michel
Alain, a vampire and servant to the Sieur de Clermont
Philippe de Clermont, a vampire and lord of Sept-Tours
Chef, a cook
Catrine, Jehanne, Thomas, and Étienne, servants
Marie, who makes gowns
André Champier, a wizard of Lyon
Part III: London: The Blackfriars
* Robert Hawley, a shoemaker
* Margaret Hawley, his wife
* Mary Sidney, the Countess of Pembroke
Joan, her maid
* Nicholas Hilliard, a limner
Master Prior, a maker of pies
* Richard Field, a printer
* Jacqueline Vautrollier Field, his wife
* John Chandler, an apothecary near the Barbican Cross
Amen Corner and Leonard Shoreditch, vampires
Father Hubbard, the vampire king of London
Annie Undercroft, a young witch with some skill and little power
* Susanna Norman, a midwife and witch
* John and Jeffrey Norman, her sons
Goody Alsop, a windwitch of St. James Garlickhythe
Catherine Streeter, a firewitch
Elizabeth Jackson, a waterwitch
Marjorie Cooper, an earthwitch
Jack Blackfriars, a nimble orphan
* Doctor John Dee, a learned man with a library
* Jane Dee, his disgruntled wife
* William Cecil, Lord Burghley, the lord high treasurer of England
* Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex
* Elizabeth I, queen of England
* Elizabeth (Bess) Throckmorton, maid of honor to the queen
Part IV: The Empire: Prague
Karolína and Tereza, vampires and servants
* Tadeáš Hájek, physician to his Majesty
* Ottavio Strada, Imperial librarian and historian
* Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Bohemia
Frau Huber, an Austrian, and Signorina Rossi, an Italian, women of Malá Strana
* Joris Hoefnagel, an artist
* Erasmus Habermel, maker of mathematical instruments
* Signor Miseroni, a carver of precious stones
* Signor Pasetti, his Majesty’s dancing master
* Joanna Kelley, a woman far from home
* Edward Kelley, a daemon and alchemist
* Rabbi Judah Loew, a wise man
Abraham ben Elijah of Chelm, a wizard with a problem
* David Gans, an astronomer
Herr Fuchs, a vampire
* Melchior Maisel, a prosperous merchant of the Jewish Town
Lobero, a Hungarian dog sometimes mistaken for a mop, probably just a Komondor
* Johannes Pistorius, a wizard and theologian
Part V: London: The Blackfriars
* Vilém Slavata, a very young ambassador
Louisa de Clermont, a vampire and sister to Matthew de Clermont
* Master Sleford, keeper of the poor souls of Bedlam
Stephen Proctor, a wizard
Rebecca White, a witch
Bridget White, her daughter
Part VI: New World, Old Worlde
Sarah Bishop, a witch and aunt to Diana Bishop
Ysabeau de Clermont, a vampire and mother to Matthew de Clermont
Sophie Norman, a daemon
Margaret Wilson, her daughter, a witch
Other Characters in Other Times
Rima Jaén, a librarian of Seville
Emily Mather, a witch and partner to Sarah Bishop
Marthe, housekeeper to Ysabeau de Clermont
Phoebe Taylor, very proper, who knows something about art
Marcus Whitmore, Matthew de Clermont’s son, a vampire
Verin de Clermont, a vampire
Ernst Neumann, her husband
Peter Knox, a witch and member of the Congregation
Pavel Skovajsa, who works in a library
* Gerbert of Aurillac in the Cantal, a vampire and ally of Peter Knox
* William Shakespeare, a scrivener and forger who also makes plays
Acknowledgments
So many people helped bring this book into the world.
First, thanks to my always gentle, always candid first readers: Cara, Fran, Jill, Karen, Lisa, and Olive. And a special thanks to Margie for claiming she was bored just as I was struggling with the last edit and offering to read the manuscript with her discerning writer’s eye.
Carole DeSanti, my editor, served as midwife during the writing process and knows (literally) where all the bodies are buried. Thank you, Carole, for always being ready to lend assistance with a sharp pencil and a sympathetic ear.
The extraordinary team at Viking, who alchemically transforms stacks of typescript into beautiful books, continues to astonish me with their enthusiasm and professionalism. Special thanks go to my copy editor, Maureen Sugden, whose eagle eye rivals that of Augusta. And to my publishers around the world, thank you for all you have done (and continue to do) to introduce Diana and Matthew to new readers.
My literary agent, Sam Stoloff, of the Frances Goldin Agency, remains my most steadfast supporter. Thanks, Sam, for providing perspective and doing the behind-the-scenes work that makes it possible for me to write. Thanks are also due to my film agent, Rich Green, of the Creative Artists Agency, who has become an indispensable resource for advice and good humor even in the most challenging of circumstances.
My assistant, Jill Hough, defended my time and my sanity during the past year with the fierceness of a firedrake. I literally could not have completed the book without her.
Lisa Halttunen once again readied the manuscript for submission. Though I fear I will never master more than a few of the grammatical rules at her command, I am eternally grateful that she continues to be willing to straighten out my prose and punctuation.
Patrick Wyman provided insights into the twists and turns of medieval and military history that took the characters—and the story—in surprising directions. Though Carole knows where the bodies are buried, Patrick understands how they got there. Thank you, Patrick, for helping me to see Gallowglass, Matthew, and above all Philippe in a new light. Thanks also to Cleopatra Comnenos, for answering my queries about the Greek language.
I would also like to express my appreciation to the Pasadena Roving Archers, who helped me understand just how difficult it is to shoot an arrow at a target. Scott Timmons of Aerial Solutions introduced me to Fokker and his other beautiful raptors at the Terranea Resort in California. And Andrew at the Apple Store in Thousand Oaks saved the author, her computer—and the book itself—from a potentially terminal meltdown at a crucial point in the writing process.
This book is dedicated to historian Lacey Baldwin Smith, who took me on as a graduate student and has inspired thousands of students with his passion for Tudor England. Whenever he spoke about Henry VIII or his daughter Elizabeth I, it always seemed as if they had just had lunch together. Once, he gave me a brief list of facts and told me to imagine how I would handle them if I was writing a chronicle, or a saint’s life, or a medieval romance. At the end of one of my exceedingly short stories, he wrote “What happens next? You should think about writing a novel.” Perhaps that is when the seeds of the All Souls trilogy were first planted.
And last, but not least, I am sincerely grateful to my long-suffering family and friends (you know who you are!) who saw very little of me during my sojourn in 1590 and welcomed me back when I returned to the present.
ALSO BY DEBORAH HARKNESS
A Discovery of Witches
Table of Contents
Also by Deborah Harkness
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Contents
Woodstock: The Old Lodge
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
London: The Blackfriars
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
The Empire: Prague
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
London: The Blackfriars
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
New World, Old World
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Libri Personæ: The People of the Book
Acknowledgments