Shakespeare's Globe by Valerie Wilding

to his lips and nodded, then said aloud, ‘When you did not turn up today, I wondered if you were ill, Billy. I am glad you are not.’
    ‘No I—’
    ‘I have persuaded your mother to forgive you for running away to join the company. She knows that I was minded to do the same thing once.’
     

     
    I looked from one to the other. I swear my mother blushed.
    ‘Will and I knew each other when we were young,’ she said softly. ‘He married another, then disappeared for a while, and I – I married his closest friend.’
    My eyes nearly popped from my head. Was my mother once in love with William Shakespeare?
    As he accepted a cup of wine from her, Master Shakespeare said, ‘I remember what it was like to want to go on the stage so badly that I would do anything to achieve it – even leave
home.’
    Mother cleared her throat. ‘Will tells me that you, Billy, are a promising young actor, and the keenest he has known for years. But I cannot have you hanging around the Globe waiting for
parts between sweeping and fetching and carrying for people.’
    To my dismay, Master Shakespeare said, ‘I agree.’
    ‘Oh,’ said I, feeling sick and hopeless.
    ‘So,’ he continued, ‘with your mother’s blessing, you will be apprenticed to one of the finest players in the company. You will learn to—’
    He talked on, but I barely heard a word, I was so full of joy. I hugged my mother. ‘Oh, thank you!’ I hugged my dog. I only just stopped myself from hugging Master Shakespeare!
    I saw Nelly’s eyes as big as frying eggs, peering through the stairway, but I cared not a jot for her. I was to be a player!
    But what was Master Shakespeare saying?
    ‘…there is one condition. If you do not agree to it, the King’s Men cannot accept you.’
    My stomach turned over. ‘What is the condition, sir?’
    ‘Hoppy must join the company, too. We have not seen so comical and clever an animal since Will Kempe and his dog left, years ago. There is a part for Hoppy as Launce’s dog, Crab, in
Two Gentlemen of Verona
. Can you teach your signals to the man who plays Launce?’
    I laughed. ‘I can indeed, sir!’
    I had heard of Will Kempe and his dog. When Master Kempe left the Chamberlain’s Men, he danced all the way to Norwich – more than a hundred miles – and called his dance the
‘Nine Days’ Wonder!’ He didn’t dance it all in one go, of course, but rested between each of the dance days.
    While Will Shakespeare and Mother talked awhile of things past, I stared into the fire, thinking of the wonderful future before me.
    Eventually, Master Shakespeare stood. He looked down at me. ‘Well, Billy-Odd-Job, we must call you by your proper name now. William Watkins, apprentice player!’
    That sounded so good! But it wasn’t
exactly
what I wanted.
    ‘If you please, sir,’ I said. ‘I would like to be known as Will. Will Watkins.’
    He laughed and clapped me on the back. ‘It is a fine name – Will!’
    *
    Mother was the guest of William Shakespeare at my first performance. She had an honoured seat in the lords’ room, and old John Merry was to sit beside her, so that no one
should bother her.
    She told me there would be a surprise for me after the performance, but I was too excited to take much notice. I was to be in the first scene of Act Three as well as in Act One, and I would be
on stage again at the end when the audience would cheer us. And so it happened. The only thing that concerned me was that when I glanced up at my mother, old John Merry was not beside her – I could not see his white beard gleaming
in the shadows. I could barely make out my mother’s features at all, but she seemed composed.
     

     
    When the play was over and it had been as wonderful as I had dreamt, Master Shakespeare came to me in the tiring house.
    ‘I wish you a long and successful career, Will Watkins,’ he said. ‘And by the way, I noticed that the letter you sent with Mistress Dippity was written with charcoal. I would