Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell

To me, Bernard Cornwell is best known for writing the Sharpe novels and The Last Kingdom novels, with both sagas being made into successful TV series over the years.  So I was curious when I came across a stand-alone Bernard Cornwell on the Bargain Book Table last year, especially one with the intriguing premise that Fools and Mortals promised on the back cover.

Fools and Mortals is lifted from a line in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Puck says “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”  It’s a nice choice of title because one of the main plot lines of the book is William Shakespeare and his company planning and rehearsing the inaugural performance of the play to celebrate the wedding of the Lord Chamberlain’s granddaughter. Having said that, one of the great conceits of the book is the story isn’t really about William Shakespeare at all, even though he’s one of the chief protagonists. It’s about Richard Shakespeare, one of his brothers.

Cornwell has taken the fact that Richard actually did exist, then used him for his own nefarious purposes (because authors' intentions are always nefarious...) which is always fun. In this story Richard is part of his brother William’s company, spending his younger years playing girls and women because of course in Elizabethan times, women weren’t allowed on stage. But as Richard gets into his early twenties, his credibility, not to mention his patience in playing female roles is growing thin and he’s desperate to play meaty male roles in his brother’s plays. Unfortunately, those roles are already taken by popular actors like Francis Burbage, Will Kemp and William Shakespeare himself. This leaves Richard frustrated and also vulnerable to offers from other playhouses that want to make their mark and have owners that are also interested in stomping hard on William Shakespeare’s growing success as a playwright.

I would call Fools and Mortals a really good romp. Cornwell seeds his ground with Richard’s frustration, William’s creative arrogance and Elizabethan politics and encourages all these flowers to bloom in a satisfying manner. Cornwell also adds in the religious politics of the time where fanatical Puritans, supported by their Pursuivants are scouring London and the surrounding area for Catholics or anyone protecting people espousing heretical viewpoints. Since actors are seen to live less than pure lives and act out scenarios that explore all sorts of shenanigans, Shakespeare’s company comes under fire from this direction as well as from their theatrical rivals.

Cornwell handles all these plot points with panache and weaves them into the main story which is a combination of Richard falling in love (giving a lovely ‘what if’ to the possible subject of ‘Who is Sylvia’), a plot to steal the manuscript of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the rehearsals and production of the play itself. It’s all hugely enjoyable and I have to say one of my biggest takeaways from the story was a greater appreciation of the role of ‘The Mechanicals’ in the play.

It’s obvious Cornwell has done a ton of research on Shakespeare, his company and the political and social era in which the plays were written and first performed. The historical details are well done and even if the real Richard Shakespeare likely never left Stratford, his presence as the protagonist in this story feels plausible and is really engagingly done.

Would I recommend Fools and Mortals to anyone else? Yes I would. If you want a story that rattles along, is well written and satisfyingly crafted then it fits the bill nicely. Does it make me want to read more Bernard Cornwell? Yes it does and I can’t pay it a bigger compliment than that.

Fools and Mortals was first published in 2017 and my copy was published by Harper Collins.