Chapter 2After the actors took their final bow, Stephen was in no hurry to leave the theatre. Even if The Rose was not at full capacity for this repeat performance of a classic, there had still been well over a thousand people present. He was happy to sit and wait and prolong the epic majesty of a play that always captured his imagination as the crowd gradually dispersed.
Being summer, he reasoned, it was light outside and no great risk to loiter around dangerous Bankside. He was not richly dressed and so he wouldn’t be an obvious target for cut-purses or the notorious Winchester Geese as the local whores were known. Together with his modest attire, he was of average height and build and slightly stooped in the shoulder from his scribing. His hair was neither brown nor fair, his features
