Wanton Angel [Hardcover]

It is yet another harrowing and trying experience for these Elizabethan actors, who faced--and overcame--the previous nine threats to their existence as one of the leading acting companies in London!

And Marston has convincingly--as always--set the stage (as it were!) for a clever and intriguing mystery in "The Wanton Angel."

Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council has decided that the "wicked and lascivious ways of the theatre and its crowd" must be curtailed. Thus, it has proclaimed that henceforth, only two theatre companies will exist in London. On top of that, all acting companies performing in courtyards will be curtailed as well. Hence, the Westfield Men face what appears to be the "final curtain" of their careers. Their patron, Lord Westfield, has his own misgivings and is ready to release his sponsorhip. What to do!

Behind the guidance of Bracewell, the company decides to build its own theatre and to compete intensely for the right to perform. Murder and mayhem follow as the plot sickens! One of the actors is found murdered under the pilings of their new theatre; Nicholas is badly beaten; members of the company are being lured away by the rival companies, one by one. Alas, a secret benefactor appears, ready to save the company and to provide a much needed loan in order to continue operating and to build the new theatre, named The Angel. And along the way, there are bits and pieces of romance! We continue to be enthralled by the thespian antics of the leading actor, Lawrence Firethorn, and the other members of the company: Edmund Hoode, Barnaby Gill, Owen Elias, and the actors' nemeses: Sybill and Alexander Marwood (owners of the Queen's Head, where the company performs).

Marston is able to sustain the mystery, the interest, the intrigue of this well- researched novel of Elizabethan England and theatre and it is to his credit that the storyline carries well. Needless to say, in keeping with the series, there is a happy ending--which veteran readers know is bound to happen--but the trip along the way is good reading. The author is well-versed in his historical applications. Indeed, it seems that "all the world really is a stage"!

Did the Elizabethans never use contractions? Were they always playing verbal games (compliment me/stab me in the back) with each other?

A little more realism and less rigidness would be appreciated - even if it means that the characters appear less than heroic or predictable.

I prefer that our historical brethren live and think and feel, within the context of their times of course, as we do now, even if means putting up with all the imperfections and sillinesses that quantify us, then and now.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to relate to Marston's characters. And this feeling of too much distance is the only imperfection of his novels: his people are too rigid to reach across the hundreds of years that separate us, however much we want to touch them - or they, us.