CHAPTER 3

“The other guilds have only lately begun to ready their plays,” Basset said.  “Word is out that the shearmen and tailors are set to spare nothing this year to make their own splendiferous beyond anything it’s ever been before.  It being the Annunciation and Nativity –”

“And a half dozen other things, like jumble in a box,” Ellis muttered.

“– there are chances in plenty to fulfill their desire,” Basset continued, ignoring him, “and I gather that the other guilds are taking up the challenge to rival whatever the shearmen and tailors are doing.  So there’s now something of a scramble for a greater leavening of skilled players among the general rout of once-a-year folk.  Remember William Sendell?”

Despite what might be thought, there was indeed professional theater in medieval England, and modern scholarly studies show it was thriving.

Documents tell, of course, of travelling companies of players all over the country, performing in all sizes and kinds of venues.  Many of these companies belonged to great and lesser lords and even gentry, and they were certainly more numerous than we know.  Between 1450 and 1496, we have record in Yorkshire’s West Riding alone of performances by companies of players belonging to King Henry VI, the duke of York, Lord Plumpton, J. Harrington, Lord Eure, Sir Edward Hastings, Sir John Selbayne, King Edward IV, Lord Fitzhugh, Lord Lovell, the earl of Westmorland, Lord Tyrell, the duke of Gloucester, Lord Scroop, Lord Percy, and King Henry VII. [1]

We also know that “players of large centres such as Coventry whose core of professional players were familiar figures on the roads of Warwickshire, Oxfordshire, and Gloucestershire”[2] and that there were professional players who hired out individually to produce and direct local efforts, such as for parishes, since “parish drama in its many forms was a money-making venture that allowed the churchwardens to keep the fabric of their ancient churches together.”[3]  For instance, we “know that in Essex and Kent in the early sixteenth century [when things had changed little from the 1400s] they could already call on professional help from ‘property players’ (producers) from London who would organise the set and special effects, using their expertise and local labour.”[4]  And: “By all accounts the non-cycle plays were performed for profit rather than as a display of power and wealth or as a means of pious education for the unlettered.  These plays . . . sometimes acted as an important part of parochial capital building campaigns; they helped build whole church towers, replace roofs, and add aisles to parish churches.  They brought . . . a nearly surefire source of income to ailing or ambitious parishes everywhere in [East Anglia] . . . during the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.”[5]

Add to all of that the undoubted fact that a number of cities and towns found it worth their while the mount the elaborate and costly cycle plays on a regular basis for more than a century, drawing on professional help to augment their citizens’ participation, and you have every indication that professional theater was alive, widespread, and doing very well in medieval England.

So the little I was able to use about players and their work in A Play of Heresy leaves much, much more to tell.

– Margaret

[1] John M. Watson, ‘A Parish Play in the West Riding of Yorkshire’, English Parish Drama, ed. Alexandra F. Johnston, p.156.
[2] Alexandra F. Johnston, ‘What Revels are in Hand’, ibid., p.101.
[3] ibid.
[4] Meg Twycross, ‘The theatricality of medieval English plays’, The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theater, ed. Richard Beadle, 1994, p.65.
[5] John C. Coldewey, ‘The non-cycle plays and the East Anglian tradition’, ibid.

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CHAPTER 2

He was shortly overtaken by a trotting line of pack-horses, their rope-bound bundles strapped firmly to backs and sides.  Their rider at lead did not give him so much as a look, but Joliffe and the rear man shared friendly nods as they passed.  The titupping of hoofs faded, the rain gave up, and for a time Joliffe was alone on the road again, except companioned now by regret at how much of ease was gone from his day.  He had been looking forward to being simply a player in Coventry.  Now he was supposed to find out what he could about this Master Kydwa.  And Lollards…

Near the beginning of the outline for A Play of Heresy, Joliffe, having parted company with his fellow-spy, “goes on, alone again, into Coventry.  He finds Basset and the others…”  There.  Done.  Joliffe arrives in Coventry; Joliffe finds his friends; now we can get on with murdering people.  Simple enough, yes?

Or not.

In a story set in a modern setting much can go unsaid.  “He pulled up outside the motel office where ‘Vacancy’ glowed in the window.”   That’s all understandable enough to a modern reader.  But “arrives in Coventry” – and medieval Coventry at that – conveys no real sense of place.  Those bald words contain no sense of what Joliffe actually experiences in arriving there in 1438.  So, as the author, I have to make Coventry happen for the reader right along with Joliffe, and that simple statement in the outline —  “Joliffe goes into Coventry” — led to my digging into my files folders for photos, maps, and descriptions of Coventry that I had accumulated over the years, plus accessing my memories of several visits there, plus finding a wonderful site online that amplified and clarified much I already had.

Every bit of all that was then distilled into a few paragraphs of description mixed with action, as Joliffe arrived in Coventry by way of the Warwick road.  Such are the delightful travails of research – much learned so it can be refined down to precisely the little needed in the story itself.  But without the much, a writer can’t be sure exactly what little is needed.

Of course threaded through the whole story, as Joliffe wanders the town in search of secrets and truths, are more details about Coventry.  Drawn from all those maps and photos and descriptions, they help to build a picture of a thriving town full of proud, prosperous citizens – an everyday setting of normal lives into which the story’s deceptions and murders are woven.  To this day, after all the time I’ve spent “walking through Coventry” with Joliffe, I have the nagging suspicion that, if I had to, I could now find my way in medieval Coventry fairly handily.

But of course there’s nearly nothing of medieval Coventry left for us to wander in for real.  Unlike many towns that still have their medieval streets, Coventry’s medieval heart is gone, bombed and burned along with its cathedral during World War II and afterward rebuilt to meet more modern needs.  Only in our imaginations, drawing on what facts remain, can we still wander there.  But that’s what historical novelists should delight in doing – helping us to walk where otherwise we never could, because that’s one of the reasons we read historical novels, right?  To experience another place in another time, where otherwise we could never go.

I, at least, greatly enjoyed my time in medieval Coventry and deeply hope that you will, too.

– Margaret

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CHAPTER 1

The day was dove-gray, soft under low clouds, with the rain mist-gentle on Joliffe’s face and beading silver on his horse’s dark mane.  His cloak was a long way yet from soaking through nor had he troubled to pull up his hood; the rain felt good against his face.  Too, he judged by blue patches of sky showing in the east that clearing weather was on the way and there would likely be sun enough to dry his hair and cloak well before he came to Coventry, especially since he was making no hurry of his going…

In the opening chapter of A Play of Heresy, I wanted to layer in some details of the spy-work Joliffe had been at before the story starts, both to give a sense of what sort of man he is and build a feeling for the reader of the wider world beyond the circle of the book’s immediate action.  In historicals, this sense of the wider world is useful in making sure the characters are seen as existing in a complex context, not simply in the narrow bubble of the story.  In this case, rather than rather gratuitously resorting to mention of unrelated famous events of the time with no bearing on the story (to be avoided at all costs, in any case), I enjoyed involving Joliffe in more local – but no less real – issues among the region’s gentry and lower nobility, at just the level Bishop Beaufort could make best use of his skills.

Happily, I had my notes from Christine Carpenter’s Locality and Polity: A Study of Warwickshire Landed Society, 1401-1499 and her article “The Beauchamp Affinity: A study of bastard feudalism at work” (English Historical Review xcv, 1980) to draw on for all the details I needed (and more).

Interestingly, this isn’t a book or article I had just read, or even read specifically to use for A Play of Heresy.  In fact, I read them a good many years ago simply because they cover the period in which I’m particularly involved and would serve to add to my layers of my knowledge about the time and people.  I didn’t know if I would ever have particular use for what I read, but this is what it’s like for a fanatic researcher – reading and studying not simply what seems to be needed for your immediate purpose but everything that comes to hand, because you never know what, at some point, will suddenly be of use.

Besides – all right: I’ll admit it – I find this sort of reading-for-research just out-and-out plain fun!

– Margaret

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The virtual bookclub for A Play of Heresy is starting tomorrow. You’ll want to check in here for my first behind-the-scenes essaylet and then join the discussion at Facebook and Twitter.

In the mean time, here are some early reviews for the book:

Nobody does the Middle Ages better than Margaret Frazer…

There are a number of plot threads here, all intriguing in their own right: the goings-on within Joliffe’s regular troupe; the creation of a remarkable dramatic production by an experienced director, whose mostly amateur cast is endowed with wildly divergent skills; the amorous pursuit of a young widow by two men; and Joliffe’s relationship with the secretive and obsessive Sebastian, who’s also part of the spy network.

One of Frazer’s talents is making even her minor characters distinct and well-rounded. There are no cardboard stereotypes here! These people live and breathe and stride right off the page, which makes them remarkably appealing despite the hundreds of years between their world and ours.

Roberta Alexander – January Magazine

Margaret Frazer takes readers back to the fifteenth century in her latest book, A Play of Heresy, the seventh book in the Joliffe the Player series. This is an English historical cozy that will have fans of both genres enthralled. Joliffe first appeared in Frazer’s Dame Frevisse series and has gone on to become quite the crime solver himself. Joliffe, a stage performer makes a wonderful sleuth and spy taking Coventry by storm in this latest installment to the series.

This is my first experience with Joliffe the Player and Margaret Frazer, but it won’t be my last…

The mystery aspect of the novel was well written and very tightly plotted. Everything had to fall into place just right. The clues were well drawn and hard to figure out, a hallmark of a good mystery writer. I didn’t nail this one down until very close to the reveal. Frazer throws in many twists and turns and her work is full of historical referencing and side stories that will interest the mystery reader with a penchant for history.

Debbie’s Book Bag

The rich historical detail brought the story alive in my imagination and included how plays were run, how official murder investigations were done, and information about the Lollard’s beliefs…

It’s more like how a real murder would be solved than a clever puzzle-mystery. The characters were varied… The suspense was created by the mystery of whodunit and wondering if they’d be able to pull off a play that was poorly written and had few good or experienced players in it.

GenreReviews

If you’ve written a review (or just spot one out in the wild), please link it in the comments!

I’ll see you all tomorrow at our virtual bookclub!

– Margaret

A Play of Heresy has officially arrived! (I know that some of you are still waiting for the postman to bring your copy, but I hope the wait will be worth it.)

I am very pleased to announce that we’ll be celebrating the release of the book — my 24th and the seventh in the Joliffe series — with a virtual book tour starting on December 10th. Each day we’ll be focusing on a chapter from the book and I’ll be featuring little behind-the-scene essaylets here on the website.

If you want to join the conversation — or just eavesdrop on the proceedings — you’ll want to follow the virtual bookclub at all three of its “hubs”: Here on the website, at my Facebook fanpage, and on my new Twitter account. If you want to jump in on the latter, we’ll be using the #MFbookclub hashtag for the proceedings.

– Margaret

Look what arrived in the mail today! A Play of Heresy is officially being released on December 6th, but I received a box full of advance copies. They’re very handsome volumes indeed.

A FESTIVAL OF MURDER…

In the early summer of 1438, Joliffe and his fellow players have arrived in Coventry for the theatrical festival of Corpus Christi Day. Employed by one of the city’s rich and powerful merchant guilds, they plan to present two of the many plays which will extravagantly depict all of God’s Story in a parade of pomp and pageantry.

But even as they prepare to perform the Nativity, Joliffe may be called on to play a wise man off the stage as well. When the merchant Master Kydwa goes missing and is presumed dead, the cunning Bishop Beaufort calls on Joliffe’s skills as a spy to uncover the mysteries of Coventry’s elite. As suspicion falls on his own companions, Joliffe is drawn into the devilish machinations of a secret sect of heretics bent on destroying the Church. The players may be forced to present the harrowing of Hell, but will Joliffe be able to unravel a confession of corruption before Coventry’s dark enigmas unleash a medieval massacre of the innocents?

Trade Paperback – Kindle – PubIt

PRAISE FOR THE JOLIFFE MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

“If you are an historical mystery fan…you’ll want to rush out and get this wonderful series … Entertains and confounds with its intricately plotted mystery and richly detailed writing…” – The Romance Readers Connection

“Brings the period to lush life… Such richly imagined mysteries come around too rarely.” – Roundtable Reviews

Now if you’ll excuse me, I must stagger back to my tryptophanic coma.

– Margaret

(click for sample PDF)

I’ve put together a little booklet containing the first chapter from A Play of Heresy. If you click here you’ll get a PDF that you can read online; peruse on your Kindle, Nook, or other e-reader; or print out as a cute little pamphlet.

– Margaret

I was not entirely in error when I posted I was “slowly bettering”, but a more accurate report seems to be “getting along, yes, but taking a boringly long time about it” and it’s keeping me from doing nearly as much as I would like.

Meanwhile, having posted notice here of Joliffe’s next book, A Play of Heresy, I have to comment on the description of it offered on Amazon.com, beset with errors as it is.  To the good, the first sentence is only slightly misleading – if it’s understood that “only slightly” is in comparison to the second sentence which has a completely false statement in it.  Still, on the whole, the description is better than what my publisher originally had in mind for the cover.  For reasons best known to those who wrote it, it gave away every major plot point except the answer to the final mystery.  A masterpiece of its kind, it did everything in its power to completely spoil just about every surprise the story contained.  I’m afraid you’ll have to take my word for it; for obvious reasons, I’m not going to quote it here!

I’ve come to appreciate that what goes on a cover to describe a book is a finer art than you might think.  Ideally, what goes on the cover should give enough detail to interest a reader in trying the book without giving so much away that there’s no point in reading the book at all.  At the same time, in an attempt to rouse interest, it shouldn’t be so inaccurate that the reader is annoyed when he discovers how badly he’s been misled.

Before my editor began kindly letting me see the proposed cover copy and allowing me to make changes to it, I had two unhappy experiences with too much being revealed, spoiling carefully crafted plot points.  Only once since then – due to a confusion of circumstances – has cover copy gone without my seeing it, and so on the jacket flap of the hardcover The Traitor’s Tale there are at least eleven errors of fact, including the name of the title character.  An impressive display of inaccuracy, to say the least!

– Margaret

A Play of Heresy is scheduled to arrive December 6th!

A FESTIVAL OF MURDER…

In the early summer of 1438, Joliffe and his fellow players have arrived in Coventry for the theatrical festival of Corpus Christi Day. Employed by one of the city’s rich and powerful merchant guilds, they plan to present two of the many plays which will extravagantly depict all of God’s Story in a parade of pomp and pageantry.

But even as they prepare to perform the Nativity, Joliffe may be called on to play a wise man off the stage as well. When the merchant Master Kydwa goes missing and is presumed dead, the cunning Bishop Beaufort calls on Joliffe’s skills as a spy to uncover the mysteries of Coventry’s elite. As suspicion falls on his own companions, Joliffe is drawn into the devilish machinations of a secret sect of heretics bent on destroying the Church. The players may be forced to present the harrowing of Hell, but will Joliffe be able to unravel a confession of corruption before Coventry’s dark enigmas unleash a medieval massacre of the innocents?

Preorder Trade – Preorder Kindle

PRAISE FOR THE JOLIFFE MEDIEVAL MYSTERIES

“If you are an historical mystery fan…you’ll want to rush out and get this wonderful series … Entertains and confounds with its intricately plotted mystery and richly detailed writing…” – The Romance Readers Connection

“Brings the period to lush life… Such richly imagined mysteries come around too rarely.” – Roundtable Reviews

A Play of Heresy will be the seventh Joliffe book (for a total of 10 appearances including those in the Frevisse novels).

– Margaret