Publisher's Synopsis
This is an easy-to-read retelling of Robert Greene's comedy FRIAR BACON AND FRIAR BUNGAY. Reading this version first will help you read and understand the classic play much better.In this book, Prince Edward sends Lord Lacy to woo Margaret, the gamekeeper's daughter, for him, but Lord Lacy decides to woo her for himself.Also in this book, Friar Bacon proves that he is England's greatest magician. With the help of a spirit, he creates a Brazen Head (a Head of Brass) so that the Head will tell him truths unknown to Humankind.- Scene 1 -Near the town of Fremingham, approximately 90 miles northeast of London, Prince Edward, who was melancholy, stood apart from Lacy, Warren, Ermsby, and Ralph Simnell. Lacy is the Earl of Lincoln, Warren is the Earl of Sussex, Ermsby is a gentleman, and Ralph Simnell is the Jester, aka Fool, of the royal family. "Why does my lord look like a troubled sky when Heaven's bright shining Sun is shadowed and obscured by a fog?" Lacy asked about Prince Edward. "Just now we chased the deer, and through the clearings we outran with our horses the proud, tall, frolicsome bucks that swiftly ran before the teasers like the wind. Never before were the deer of merry Fressingfield so vigorously and successfully hunted by jolly friends. Nor have the farmers shared such fat and generously given venison since one hundred years before this day."Fressingfield is a town about nine miles north of Fremingham. The teasers were hunting dogs that were trained to rouse the game.The aristocratic hunters gave their game to the local citizens, who were not allowed to hunt without permission in the royal forests.Lacy continued, "Nor have I seen my lord more frolicsome in the hunt, but now his mood has changed to melancholy.""Prince Edward got to the gamekeeper's lodge and was cheerful in the lodge for awhile, drinking ale and milk in country cans," Warren said. "But for some reason, whether it was the country's sweet content, or else the bonny, pretty damsel who filled our drinking cups and who seemed so stately and dignified in her red clothing, or else a qualm that crossed his stomach then and made him nauseous, he immediately fell into his melancholy mood.""Sirrah Ralph, what do you say about your master?" Ermsby asked the Jester. "Shall he all dejected and spiritless live melancholy like this?""Do you hear me, Ned?" Ralph the Jester asked Prince Edward, using a nickname.Brooding, Prince Edward did not hear him. Ralph the Jester said to the others, "Look and see if he will speak to me! He will not!" "What did thou say to me, Fool?" Prince Edward asked."Please, tell me, Ned," Ralph the Jester said. "Are thou in love with the gamekeeper's daughter?""And if I am, so what?" Prince Edward replied."Why, then, sirrah, I'll teach thee how to deceive Love," Ralph the Jester answered."How, Ralph?"
