William Shakespeare has one goal, to be a playwright -a living playwright- and he is plunged into intrigues from all sides. He is first brought into a seditionist plot by Sir William Cecil, and asked to write a play that will whip the English populace to frenzy for revolution against the Spanish. Then to his horror he is hired by the Spanish to write a play that will honor the exploits of the aging Phillip II, emphasizing the conquest of Britain. Between these tasks he must dodge the eye of a playwright wanna-be, Lieutenant Lope de Vega, of their Spanish Majesties’ service.

There are the characteristic witch and magic elements, the lower-class bumpkins who solve the big riddle, the upper-class storyline that flits on above the dirt of the street, the soliloquies debating the idea of action vs. non-action, the personification of vice in Christopher Marlow, disguises, deceit, action and poetry.

It is a personal opinion of mine that people didn’t speak in the style that Shakespeare wrote unless it was to make a point. The only difficulty I had was reading all of the convoluted conversations, and I have to admit that I skipped many of the lines of "Boudicca" the first time around to get on with the action. One highlight of the work is the character of Constable Strawberry and his verbal exchanges with anybody. This character is so close to my expectations that I could not keep the image of Michael Keaton as Master Constable Dogberry from Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 version of "Much Ado About Nothing" out of my head.

I’m glad I read this book. At first I thought it was presumptuous for Mr. Turtledove to write for The Bard, but as I was pulled in I decided that I love a good Shakespearian play, no matter who writes it!