among rocks and weeds.
Shakespeare’s dog tangles with Ashley,
caroms against Shakespeare:
Shakespeare falls.
November 7, 1615
| F |
og sopped the grass and weeds when I fought my duel, by Caesar’s castle. I could barely make out Jonson, Pericles, and friends, among the pines and bush below the castle ruins. Phantasma? I asked myself.
Ashley and I had quarreled over money: as one of the King’s Men he had cheated me roundly; now he faced me, privateer, poet, rich man’s bastard who would defy immortal Caesar: on twelve-foot legs, bearded, cloak over shoulder, rapier in hand, fog creaking against him, he closed in. On stage I had dueled many times; today I must put fakery to test.