Note:  All quotations are from William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. 

“‘Things base and vile, holding no quantity, / Love can transpose to form and dignity. / Love looks not with the eyes, but with the’…with the…oh, bloody hell, what’s the curséd line! I’ve forgotten! Looks with the tongue? As a snake?” Edmund adjusted the blonde wig that sat crooked upon his head and placed his hands about his waist.

“Thou art an ass! It’s ‘Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,’” shouted Samuel, his irritation becoming more and more apparent. “Why the devil would William write the words that fled thy lips? ‘Looks with the tongue? As a snake?’ Such asinine fodder thou keepest in thy brain! Thou shouldest know thy lines by now, we have rehearsed like savage curs.”

Edmund, apparently quite hurt by the words of the older actor Samuel, ceased adjustment of his wig and hung his head down low. He was a young child of eighteen years, but had nevertheless been in a number of dramatic productions. William had seen him perform for a number of years in other theatres about the London area, and was quite impressed with his prodigal abilities. Edmund often acted the female roles in plays due to his boyish appearance, prettiness, and high voice, traits that he managed to sustain throughout his adolescence into young adulthood.

Proceeding Edmund’s performance in an obscure play entitled The Golden Age of Bronze, held at the private playhouse of a nobleman, William approached the young actor and invited him to contribute his dramatic services to the production of his newest play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Having tired of the childish little buggers who frequently portrayed his feminine characters, William wished for Edmund to depict Helena, a character whom he felt deserved a just representation on the stage and not the sloppy effort one of his more immature actors would have more than likely put forth. Edmund accepted William’s offer with great excitement and anxiety. Though an excellent actor, he was still rather unsure of his abilities, and the proposal to work side by side with the Lord Chamberlain’s Men left him stirring with a variety of conflicting emotions.

“Let the poor boy be! ‘Twas but a minor slip of the mind, Samuel. He has more than demonstrated his ability to recall William’s rather difficult prose. Edmund would have a much less difficult time of it if thou wouldest only end thine incessant denigrations!” stated Nicholas, the actor performing as Demetrius. Edmund was infinitely grateful for the kinds words with which Nicholas chose to speak of him. He viewed Nicholas as his mentor and admired the style and fervor with which he performed. Edmund idealized the man as the epitome of an “actor”—passionate, gifted, eloquent, artistic, and endowed with an immeasurable beauty. Both his mind and body proved to be an attractive force on Edmund.

Samuel Crosse, on the other hand, was by far the harshest of Edmund’s critics. He secretly felt jealous of the young man’s talents and attempted to undermine him at every given opportunity in order to reinforce his own delusions of superiority. Edmund’s latest slip fed Samuel’s ego as a rotting carcass does a scavenging vulture. Samuel circled in the air around every word spoken by Edmund, scrutinizing