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Bedtrick
Once a boy player in Shakespeare’s company, Sander Cooke is now a hired man playing female roles. When Frances Field reveals she is pregnant by Sander’s brother, Johnny, a fellow actor and aspiring playwright, Johnny makes it clear that marriage is not in his plans. But if Frances gives birth to a bastard, she’ll lose her shop on London Bridge and her position as one of Queen Elizabeth’s silkwomen. Sander would like to come to Frances’ only Sander has a secret, kept both onstage and off – she is actually a woman. Even their friend Moll Frith, who goes around blatantly as a man, wouldn’t marry a woman, but she does find Sander and Frances a wayward, short-sighted priest to solemnize the union. It is a marriage of convenience, but can these two women make a true union of it? Winding around this unconventional marriage, the London stage of the period comes alive, alongside political anxieties and rebellion, threats from the Spanish, troubles in Ireland, the plague, and the aging Queen Elizabeth’s failure to name a successor.
344 pages, Paperback
Published November 16, 2021
About the author
Jinny Webber
9 books3 followersJinny Webber's historical novel set in Shakespeare's England will be released November 1, 2021. See https://cuidono.com/Webber_Bedtrick.html
The story deals with an unconventional marriage of convenience set during the political and theatrical events of the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The title, BEDTRICK, refers both too this marriage, involving disguise relating to sex, and to Shakespeare's two comedies with a bedtrick central to the plot. Advance Reader Copies available: contact Cuidono Press or the author.
Ms. Webber's earlier hustiorical novel, THE SECRET PLAYER, is available in print and as an e-book.
Also see her blog, 'Sex and Gender in Shakespeare's England,' at www.jinnywebber.com.
The story deals with an unconventional marriage of convenience set during the political and theatrical events of the last years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The title, BEDTRICK, refers both too this marriage, involving disguise relating to sex, and to Shakespeare's two comedies with a bedtrick central to the plot. Advance Reader Copies available: contact Cuidono Press or the author.
Ms. Webber's earlier hustiorical novel, THE SECRET PLAYER, is available in print and as an e-book.
Also see her blog, 'Sex and Gender in Shakespeare's England,' at www.jinnywebber.com.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
January 23, 2022
What a Romp! Victor Victoria meets Shakespeare in Love, and believe me, some do like it hot! For anyone who loves theater, this novel takes readers backstage at The Globe, into dusty shadows where threadbare costumes are repurposed for each play, where ambiguity and connotation clash, where the audience roars in hilarity as players weep behind the scenes.
BEDTRICK author, Jinny Webber, taught theater, wrote poetry and plays, and guides the reader effortlessly into this other world. At the time, only men were allowed on stage, and young boys played women’s roles. But, could young boys really play Shakespeare’s complex and robust women as other than comic figures? Perhaps, hidden in plain sight were female actors, playing men, who played women. Such is our main character Alexander Cooke, who risks exposure while inspiring an insightful playwright to write dynamic women.
I enjoyed meeting actual historical women, who lived colorful lives despite legal restrictions, and having a front row seat to the social and political currents running through London. Despite pageantry and pub crawling, treason is in the air, mysterious, deadly diseases are dancing in the streets. When the Elizabethan era ends, will England dissolve into chaos? Will civil war break out with a vengeance? Will the economy plummet? Will theaters be closed forever? Familiar? BEDTRICK is a tale for our time.
BEDTRICK author, Jinny Webber, taught theater, wrote poetry and plays, and guides the reader effortlessly into this other world. At the time, only men were allowed on stage, and young boys played women’s roles. But, could young boys really play Shakespeare’s complex and robust women as other than comic figures? Perhaps, hidden in plain sight were female actors, playing men, who played women. Such is our main character Alexander Cooke, who risks exposure while inspiring an insightful playwright to write dynamic women.
I enjoyed meeting actual historical women, who lived colorful lives despite legal restrictions, and having a front row seat to the social and political currents running through London. Despite pageantry and pub crawling, treason is in the air, mysterious, deadly diseases are dancing in the streets. When the Elizabethan era ends, will England dissolve into chaos? Will civil war break out with a vengeance? Will the economy plummet? Will theaters be closed forever? Familiar? BEDTRICK is a tale for our time.
January 7, 2022
Bedtrick by Jinny Webber plunges the reader into the heyday of Shakespearean and Elizabethan England. You can almost smell the garbage in the streets, the waste thrown from the upper windows, the dank atmosphere in the alehouses, the fear from outbreaks of the plague. In contrast shines the glamour and wealth of the Court with its political intrigues, the drama and prose of Shakespeare’s plays performed at the Globe Theater and at private performances for the Queen.
In small flashbacks sprinkled throughout the beginning, we learn the protagonist Alexander Cooke was a girl whose desire to escape an unwanted marriage caused her to join a touring group of players (actors) disguised as a boy. At that time women were not allowed to perform on the stage.
In this third book of a trilogy, we meet up with Alexander as an established player of mostly women’s roles at the Globe Theatre in London where she maintains her secret with some difficulty. We are also introduced to the significant historical players of the period and their playwright William Shakespeare, as well as the historical figures of John Donne, Moll Frith, Amelia Bassano and the Queen herself.
The novel takes place from 1599 to 1603 during one of Shakespeare’s most prolific writing periods. Shakespeare lovers will revel in the inside peek at the processes of staging and performing his plays at that time, insight into the lives of players, and generous quotes from Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well, Henry V and others.
All this fascinating history winds itself around the heart of the story--Alexander’s marriage of convenience to Frances Field who has become pregnant by Alexander’s brother Johnny. The brother refuses to marry Frances whose reputation and position as the Queen’s silkwoman (a designer and repairer of gowns worn at the Court) could be destroyed by birthing an illegitimate child. Of course, if anyone suspects that Alexander is a woman who has married a woman, the times decreed a much worse fate than that.
The very appropriate title Bedtrick comes from a plot device used several times by Shakespeare, where a character thinks they are bedding one person while unsuspectingly bedding another.
I highly recommend this time travel into 16th century England. Bedtrick appeals not only to the mind with its historical grounding and appreciation of Shakespeare, but also to the heart with its unconventional love story.
In small flashbacks sprinkled throughout the beginning, we learn the protagonist Alexander Cooke was a girl whose desire to escape an unwanted marriage caused her to join a touring group of players (actors) disguised as a boy. At that time women were not allowed to perform on the stage.
In this third book of a trilogy, we meet up with Alexander as an established player of mostly women’s roles at the Globe Theatre in London where she maintains her secret with some difficulty. We are also introduced to the significant historical players of the period and their playwright William Shakespeare, as well as the historical figures of John Donne, Moll Frith, Amelia Bassano and the Queen herself.
The novel takes place from 1599 to 1603 during one of Shakespeare’s most prolific writing periods. Shakespeare lovers will revel in the inside peek at the processes of staging and performing his plays at that time, insight into the lives of players, and generous quotes from Twelfth Night, Much Ado About Nothing, All’s Well That Ends Well, Henry V and others.
All this fascinating history winds itself around the heart of the story--Alexander’s marriage of convenience to Frances Field who has become pregnant by Alexander’s brother Johnny. The brother refuses to marry Frances whose reputation and position as the Queen’s silkwoman (a designer and repairer of gowns worn at the Court) could be destroyed by birthing an illegitimate child. Of course, if anyone suspects that Alexander is a woman who has married a woman, the times decreed a much worse fate than that.
The very appropriate title Bedtrick comes from a plot device used several times by Shakespeare, where a character thinks they are bedding one person while unsuspectingly bedding another.
I highly recommend this time travel into 16th century England. Bedtrick appeals not only to the mind with its historical grounding and appreciation of Shakespeare, but also to the heart with its unconventional love story.
January 2, 2022
London, 1599-1603. Alexander (Sander) Cooke plays female roles in Shakespeare’s company, but she has a secret: she is a woman. To escape an unwanted marriage, she disguised herself and joined a troupe of traveling players, and despite the dangers, she has avoided discovery so far. But when Johnny, her brother and fellow player, suggests she marry the woman he impregnated but refuses to marry himself, she is indignant at his irresponsibility. Johnny, however, remains adamant, and since Frances is a good friend, other friends prove supportive, and alternatives seem worse, they do indeed wed, despite their misgivings.
The relationship between Sander and Frances survives a rough stretch after the infant dies shortly after birth, but this is more than a romantic tale of a (female) marriage of convenience developing into one of love. Not only do we witness the uncertainties of life faced by actors in Elizabethan theatre, but they engage in an insightful discussion of their roles in Shakespeare’s plays. Increasingly, however, the focus shifts to the impact upon ordinary people of the turbulent political events during the dying years of Elizabeth’s reign, particularly the Earl of Essex’s failed attempt to seize power and the uncertainty over the succession.
Most of the significant characters are historical figures, even Sander himself, though making him a woman is Webber’s invention. ‘Bedtrick’ is defined as sex with a partner who pretends to be someone else, as occurs in Shakespeare’s so-called problem comedies. In this case, however, the deception is not between Sander and Frances: ‘the lie is to the world.’
Though Sander is fortunate to find so many sympathetic and influential friends who penetrate her secret (including Shakespeare and the queen herself!), this is an absorbing and credible picture of the world of Elizabethan theatre. Highly recommended.
HNR Issue 98 (November 2021)
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...
The relationship between Sander and Frances survives a rough stretch after the infant dies shortly after birth, but this is more than a romantic tale of a (female) marriage of convenience developing into one of love. Not only do we witness the uncertainties of life faced by actors in Elizabethan theatre, but they engage in an insightful discussion of their roles in Shakespeare’s plays. Increasingly, however, the focus shifts to the impact upon ordinary people of the turbulent political events during the dying years of Elizabeth’s reign, particularly the Earl of Essex’s failed attempt to seize power and the uncertainty over the succession.
Most of the significant characters are historical figures, even Sander himself, though making him a woman is Webber’s invention. ‘Bedtrick’ is defined as sex with a partner who pretends to be someone else, as occurs in Shakespeare’s so-called problem comedies. In this case, however, the deception is not between Sander and Frances: ‘the lie is to the world.’
Though Sander is fortunate to find so many sympathetic and influential friends who penetrate her secret (including Shakespeare and the queen herself!), this is an absorbing and credible picture of the world of Elizabethan theatre. Highly recommended.
HNR Issue 98 (November 2021)
https://historicalnovelsociety.org/re...
August 11, 2022
A marriage between two women set against the vibrant background of late Elizabethan theater and politics. The author definitely knows her Shakespeare and offers an actor's view of a handful of plays, with new insights into staging and interpretation. Numerous luminaries of the time make their appearance, showing the intertwined literary and political worlds of the time, with both sharp and gentle observations. We get a sense of what that world was like for women - and the range of unconventional lives that seemed possible under the reign of Elizabeth. The story of the two women's marriage is treated delicately, testing the boundaries of today's questions of gender and sexuality, while staying within the language and understanding of the time.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews