Bedtrick spans the years 1599-1603, a dramatic time in London. Sander Cooke’s personal challenges define the plot, but so too the tensions during that era in politics and theatre. One change that subtly reflects the times is the nature of clowning. What audiences find funny changes, as do the ways performers create or adapt to these tastes. So we see in the humor Shakespeare displays through the players he writes for.

The company’s jesting player when Sander joined Lord Strange’s Men was Will Kemp, also spelled Kempe. A wildly popular comedian, he danced, performed acrobatics and improv, wrote bawdy ballads, and became known for his irreverent jigs before or after stage plays. Among the parts Shakespeare wrote for him were Peter in Romeo and Juliet, Bottom the Weaver in Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing.

In 1594 when the players formed their own company, the Lord Chamberlain’s Men, Will Kemp was one of the original share holders. His last role came barely five years later: Sir John Falstaff, Prince Hal’s drinking buddy in Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2.

At the end of Part 2, when the prince succeeds his father as King Henry V, Falstaff imagines they’ll continue as pals. Passing Falstaff with his regal entourage, the newly crowned king denounces him, ‘the tutor and feeder of my riots,’ and tells him not to come within ten miles of his royal person. The Epilogue promises that the story will continue, including Sir John, though he’s likely to die of a sweat.

This happens offstage, however: Falstaff does not appear in Henry V. The Hostess of the Boar’s Head speaks his eulogy: ‘Nay sure, he’s not in hell; he’s in Arthur’s bosom, if ever man went to Arthur’s bosom.’

The Merry Wives of Windsor is basically one long joke about Falstaff with everyone going home happy, including Sir John, despite being the butt of the humor. That play, set in the contemporary town of Windsor, has no connection to Prince Hal or British history. An early eighteenth-century critic describes Queen Elizabeth’s being so delighted with Falstaff in a court production of the Henry IV plays that she asked Shakespeare to write one about Falstaff in love—in fourteen days. Not an easy story to verify nor to establish the timing. I’d place Merry Wives between Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2, quickly tossed off. It has been dated as early as 1597. In any case, it would have been before 1599, when Kemp left Chamberlain’s Men.

The Hostess’ words in Part 2 are Kemp’s eulogy as well. As there was no place for Falstaff in the court of Henry V, there was no longer a a place for Will Kemp in the Lord Chamberlain’s Men. Shakespeare’s ideas about clowning had evolved. Kemp sold his shares in the company and left London, dancing through the countryside to cheering crowds, a feat he later wrote about, ‘Kemp’s Nine Day’s Wonder.’

In Bedtrick, Sander mourns Kemp’s departure. Before this book opens, back during her first summer with traveling players, Kemp too is on the road, playing at country fairs. He and the head of her troupe had gone to the Lowlands together with Leicester’s Men, so after their performances they sit around drinking together. Kemp, who’s seen their play, asks Sander and her friend Jack to show him what else they can do. They show off enough for him to say they should look him up if they come to London.

Sander arrives later than Jack due to the difficulties she encounters, but at last she finds Kemp. He can’t make any promises and doesn’t want an apprentice himself. Nonetheless he paves her way and introduces her to Tom Pope, who will apprentice her along with Jack. Her career with Lord Strange’s Men begins. Of course she never reveals her secret, and Pope isn’t attentive enough to guess. Kemp may or may not. He’s her friend; that’s what counts. Then suddenly, upset at Falstaff’s demise and for what ever other reasons, Kemp and his jovial humor depart.

Enter Robert Armin. This portrait engraving appears on the cover of one of Armin’s plays. Who would identify such a figure as a clown? Certainly not one of the old school!

Like Kemp, Armin had long been an entertainer. He wrote plays as well as performed, and didn’t go in for dancing. His reputation little resembled earthy Will Kemp’s: Armin was known for his biting wit and a more intellectual sort of fooling.

We see how Shakespeare employed his talents. Armin plays Touchstone in As You Like It, Feste in Twelfth Night, and of course, the Fool in Lear. His humor is more clever than side-splitting and sometimes actually bitter, as with Thersites in Troilus and Cressida. Armin in his way is a man of his times, the man Shakespeare required for the plays he was writing.

When Armin joins the Lord Chamberlain’s Men in Bedtrick, Sander’s wary of him. Perhaps that’s a good thing: she must stay alert. After all her years passing as male, is she now Alexander Cooke through and through? The sharp eyes of Robert Armin are her test.