MASTER ROSALIND

by John and Patricia Beatty ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 7, 1974

She has no lordly hound like Holdfast (KR. 1972) to help her, but, as did Holdfast's Catriona, Rosalind Broome gets to meet Queen Elizabeth I. In fact her boy's disguise is so convincing that Will Shakespeare and the whole Globe company accept her as an apprentice player and patiently tutor her in the art of playing female parts while, meanwhile, a paid assassin searches in vain for the girl who is heir to the Broome baronetcy. As usual, the Beattys portray everyone from the London underworld to Shakespeare's players to the court clique of Sir Robert Cecil with well documented surface accuracy; only their humanity remains in question. If you care to believe that Elizabethan brigands were as kindly as those who kidnap our ""Master"" Rosalind. . .that good Will Shakespeare was so muddled by his own gender-switching plots that he could no longer tell which was which in real life. . .that Queen Bess would confide in this particular twelve year-old -- then Rosalind's resourcefulness is bracing. But the Beattys squander a cast of historical heavyweights on an ephemeral one-act entertainment. Thin as the result is, the combination of period setting and can-do heroine has a double.barreled appeal.

Pub Date: Aug. 7, 1974

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Morrow

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1974

Categories: FICTION