Shakespeare & The Dragon

Chapter 5

Most every day, after the family broke their morning fast, Anne and Mary cleared the table, and did various work, before they began to prepare for the main meal of the day, dinner at midday.

Joan usually took her nieces and nephew to feed their livestock animals, mostly goats and lambs, which were held in an animal pen and a tanning area, at the rear of the house. The animals were kept for the family's business, which was making and selling gloves, and other leather items, such as belts and packs.

John and his sons worked in a room at the front of the same house they lived in, with shutters that opened to the street. The room served as a workshop and store.

As the boys made small talk, about strange new words they had heard, Shakespeare helped Gilbert open the shutters. Shakespeare saw the sky. He took a deep breath, It is so beautiful, I think I just might see the Lord riding upon a swift cloud, with great power and glory, to bring victorious change.

He noticed an unusually large number of birds already gathered near their house—on tree limbs, on the roofs of other houses. Most days there might be a dozen. Now there was more than one hundred.

Gilbert yawned, sleepy as usual. He usually overslept more than anyone else in the family, sometimes sleeping for more than six hours. Incredibly, he slept sometimes for as many as eight hours.

Gilbert scratched his head. He was doubtful, as usual— "Puzzle? What kind of word is puzzle? It doesn't seem like a real word, Will."

Shakespeare said, "Greenaway swears he heard it in London. He even heard it more than once."

Richard asked, "Are you certain that it is pronounced puzzle? Are you sure it is not poozel, or posall, or pusel, or pewsol?"

Shakespeare replied, "To the best of my knowledge it is puzzle. Puz-uhl."

Edmund laughed, "It sounds so funny! Puzzle!"

Gilbert frowned, "Greenaway doesn't know what it means?"

Shakespeare shook his head, "He doesn't even know if it is a noun or a verb—a puzzle, or to puzzle."

Richard asked, "But who invented the word? Who gave them the authority to make a new word? Can anyone make a new word? Can I make a new word?"

Shakespeare shared his brother's confusion, "And how did they invent it? Who could have imagined 'puzzle' as a word?"

Richard asked, "What word would you invent, Will?"

John cleared his throat. It was his way of telling them to change the subject. He had once heard a word very much like the word puzzle, and he knew that it had a very naughty meaning.

His sons heard him, but Gilbert and Richard were talking and not working. They talked noisily at the same time, their voices overlapping.

John raised his voice, not angrily but firmly, "I don't mind your clucking, as long as you are working. This is not a land of idleness, a land of Cockaigne."

Gilbert was about to say something in response. He was the only one who dared to say something to John, when John was telling them to be silent.

Before Gilbert said anything, John gave him a hard stare.

Gilbert stayed silent, and got to work. But Shakespeare could see that he was restless.

Shakespeare himself was not a very patient young man. He easily got lost in what he heard, what he saw, and he often found his mind wandering—especially to the history of the world, and the many famous women and men of the world. It took him considerable time to learn how to shut out the many distractions around him—the beautiful trees and sky, and especially the birds which easily caught his attention.