Chapter 60“Love blooms amid danger most mortal," said Shakespeare. "Thus has it always been in life and thus in my work upon the stage."
Watching through a spyglass, he saw Mavis kiss King Arthur on a hilltop while Hercules capered, chasing a rabbit. Movement caught his eye, and he shifted the glass; now, through the entrance to the cave where Hercules had slept, he spied Stanza kissing Jonah on the cheek.
"What would Puck say, I wonder?" Shakespeare turned the glass back on Mavis and Arthur, who were still kissing...at least until Hercules showered them with handfuls of grass. "Some pithy jest, no doubt, reflecting on the folly of love and its predestined span—no more than a lifetime, no less than a breath.
"More like he'd play a trick, misleading all to stray from loving arms into
