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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2017
Copyright © Bernard Cornwell 2017
Cover design by Holly Macdonald © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018. Cover images © World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo (London panorama); Ian Dagnall/Alamy Stock Photo (Shakespeare’s last will and testament).
Bernard Cornwell asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Part One illustration: 17th century view of London © Private Collection/Bridgeman Images
Part Two illustration: Elizabethan theatre scene © Lebrecht Music and Arts Photo Library/Alamy
Part Three illustration: The Globe Theatre from ‘Old and New London’ by Edward Walford © Montagu Images/Alamy
Part Four illustration: Scene from an Elizabethan playhouse © Chronicle/Alamy
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it, while at times based on historical figures, are the work of the author’s imagination.
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Source ISBN: 9780007504145
Ebook Edition © APRIL 2018 ISBN: 9780007504138
Version: 2018-10-17
Fools and Mortals
is dedicated, with affection,
to all the actors, actresses, directors,
musicians and technicians of the
Monomoy Theatre
Contents
Map
Part Three: Things Base and Vile
The SHARPE Series (in chronological order)
The SHARPE Series (in order of publication)
PUCK: Lord, what fools these mortals be!
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Act III, Scene 2, line 115
HIPPOLYTA: This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
THESEUS: The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them.
HIPPOLYTA: It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
THESEUS: If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves, they may pass for excellent men.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Act V, Scene 1, lines 207ff