The old cat with the gammy leg

 

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one happy Bungle.  He'd be a Bengal but he doesn't have the dignity for it

Glossary of terms for Bess

Glossary of terms:

Berfrois           A stand for spectators, originally for tourneys, a level above the ground

Bonded           those who have made a mental bond, may refer to a pair, one human one dragon, or to either of the pair.  Written with a capital to refer to those Bonded to dragons, but in lower case if bonded to a drakeling

By my troth    today we should say ‘upon my word!’ or ‘My goodness!’ if used in surprise, or the phrase may be used to express a serious promise eg ‘by my troth, mistress, I shall protect you with my life.’

Certes              Certainly

Common

Wyrms            Topaz dragons, a mistaken name

Coney             the name used at the time for a full-grown rabbit; rabbit was used only for the young, as pig was used for what today we call piglet, hog being the full grown animal.

Coruscation    a flock of drakelings; coined recently.

Dominie          schoolmaster

Dortoir            we’d call it a dormitory nowadays

Drakelings       tiny dragon-like creatures possibly made as pets by dragons in the past.

Draxery           the study and art of dragon care

Draxier            one who has Bonded with a dragon, an honorific even as ‘Doctor’ is

Farthingale      a wide, hooped skirt .

Fie!                  An expression of disapproval, may indicate surprise but in a negative way

Galligaskins    loose breeches caught under the knee, suitable for working in.

Good lack!      An expression of surprise

Gramercy!       An expression of surprised gratitude

Grow a rose    euphemism for relieving the bladder

Humanism       a belief that the actions of human beings are important individually and collectively, emphasising critical and rational thinking above acceptance of superstition or dogma. Humanists follow this belief.

Jakes               the toilet. Commonly outside, with a seat over a cess pit, dug out by a ‘gong farmer’ twice a year.  Often communal. 

Lackaday!       Also well-a-day, an expression of sorrow or misfortune.

Legr                a lair, or cave for a dragon to live.  When capitalised, it is a collection of legrs in a cliff

Leman             lover

Lorewyrms      Amethyst dragons, known for their knowledge.  The only dragons which would re-Bond

Marry!             An expression of surprise.

Nurture-

Wyrms            Topaz wyrms, mostly female, one of the two colours known to breed

Speedwyrms   Beryl dragons, notable for their speed

Spellwyrms     Diamond dragons, black in colour as diamonds of the time were not cut with the brilliant cut later discovered

Warwyrms      Ruby dragons, known for their aggression. Mostly male, one of the two colours known to breed.

Cast list year 1 for Bess

I think I got everyone.  

Cast list

Main Protagonists

Elisabeth ‘Bess’

Marlowe                      Orphaned daughter of dead playwright Christopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe.

Bess is the ward of Master William Shakespeare, playwright and actor, and his wife Anne, née Hathaway.

Richard ‘Diccon’

De Bercy                     Second son of Lord de Bercy,  a Yorkist family.

Tangwystl Goch           Welsh girl, poverty stricken but claiming descent from Uther Pendragon [father of the Legendary King Arthur]

The faculty

Master Piet Van Huys The Great Master, Principal of the School of Wyrm Lore and Draxery, Flemish, Bonded rider of Lorewyrm, Amethyst Skyshadow.

Savin Kettlewell           Teacher of Alchemy, married to Mistress Amie Kettlewell. Bonded rider of Diamond dragon Deepglim. Does not suffer fools gladly.

Dr. Roger Bray            Teacher of Astronomy and Astrology. Has hidden depths.

Elizabeth Carey           Teacher of the Magical Art, Bonded rider of Diamond dragon,, Glitterwing. Head of Diamond House. Decisive and caring.

Amie Kettlewell           Teacher of Apothecary and Herbal arts, wife of Master Savin Kettlewell.  Bonded rider of Topaz Goldgleam. Head of Topaz House. Kindly.

Richard Dowell            Teacher of History and Politics. Eyepatch, served against the Armada.  Bonded rider of Topaz Goldglimmer. A great believer in the maxim that he who would have peace, prepares for war.

Ralph Sackwild            Teacher of Logic and Rhetoric.  Does not like children.  Abrasive.

Ambrose Crooke         Teacher of Latin.  Bonds with Ruby June 1600. Enthusiastic.

John Coxe                   Teacher of the Arts of War, Bonded to Ruby dragon Firestorm. Head of Ruby House. Not academic but very knowledgeable.

Faculty electives

Josse Attwood             Teaches Mathematics, Bonds with Topaz dragon,  June 1600

Mayhew Parnell           Teaches Physical Sciences, Bonds with Amethyst dragon Dawnhaze, June 1600 and becomes Head of Amethyst House

Othello Parkes             Teaches Languages, specifically French and Italian.

Colin Glasse                Teaches Engineering, Bonds with Ruby dragon June 1600

Adnet Tomkin             Teaches Geography, Bonded with Beryl dragon Blueflash, Head of Beryl House. Something of a dandy.

Lady Anne de la Pole  Teaches Music. Private to the point of secrecy.

Classmates of Bess and friends

Audrey Woolfstone     Beryl House, wealthy and rather fond of herself.

Aloysius Cobb             Diamond House, pale dark sarcastic boy who resents girls learning, Soldier’s son

Jane Evrard                  Diamond House, fond of books and book learning, artisan’s child

John Seymour              Topaz House, well born, but impoverished

Will Smith                    Topaz House.  Gilota Danforth is hiding out from an unwelcome marriage and is dressed as a boy.

Lancelyn Webber        Ruby House, brash and rather loud

Amery Ellis                  Ruby House,  thinks before acting

Hal Pocock                  Ruby House, inclined to be jealous. Despises girls.

Paul Garrard                Ruby House.  A very literal child but also honourable.

Scholars a year more advanced than Bess

Jane Edmonton            Amethyst House.  A humourless girl of limited imagination

Scholars two years more advanced than Bess

Coll Brewster               Amethyst House. Illegitimate son of priest.  Prankster, holds wager book

Roger White                 Amethyst House, son of whitesmith.  Prankster, crony of Coll

Katherine Keene          Diamond House, prone to chilblains.  Roger is sweet on her

Scholars three years more advanced than Bess

Hal Shimpling              Ruby House, Bonded rider of Ruby dragon Swiftfire

Lawrence Stephens      Amethyst House, schoolmaster’s son. Bonds June 1600 with Amethyst dragon Nimbus

2 boys in Ruby House who are muscle for Perkin Aston [year above]

Scholars four years more advanced than Bess

Matthew ‘Matt’ Tyler   Amethyst House, Bonded rider of Amethyst Dragon Hazedancer. Son of a potter, ran away to gain education.

Tom Michaels              Diamond House, Bonds with Diamond dragon June 1600

Sencey Pargetter          Diamond House, beautiful girl Queen of the May, Bonds with Diamond dragon Darkstar June 1600

Perkin Aston                Ruby House, wealthy boy who thinks he can buy everything.  Expelled from school summer 1600

Others

John Wolfe,                 servant to Amethyst House

Mitchel,                       Servant

Edward Stoat               Servant

Mentioned

Real

Queen Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, Queen of England and the colonies

Sir Walter Raleigh, sea captain, explorer

Sir Francis Walsingham [deceased] the Queen’s spymaster and patron of Kit Marlowe

Sir Thomas Walsingham, his nephew and patron of Master Will Shakespeare

Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State and probably spymaster

William Shakespeare, playwright and actor

John Shakespeare, Will’s father, sometime wool merchant, glover, rogue

Anne Shakespeare, née Hathaway, Will’s wife

Judith and Hamnet Shakespeare, twins, younger children of Will and Anne; Hamnet died aged  11

Fictional

Don Garcia de Halcon y Veneme, Spanish ambassador to Queen Elizabeth  and necromancer

Doña Violante, his wife

Elixabete, a young Basque girl kept as a maid and hostage

some pics and some starters

these are the other pics and some starters posted on Heather's writing support page.  In case it inspires anyone!

 The mists that play in Farsea Brake
Are cool and clammy to the touch
Beware and do not linger late
Or brave the mists to see too much

Being the daughter of Professor Mayall, said by so many to be mad, could be trying. Imogen Mayall had found it hard at times. She was laughed at by society girls for her learning, and not taken seriously by the scholars of Oxford for her support for her father.
When her father's endeavours paid off, and his steam yacht flew over the skies of Oxford, everything changed ....

New Shenzen was a bustling city, and being in an environment controlled dome on the moon of a gas giant did not alter that. But wherever humanity goes in the stars, two things follow. Rats; and criminals.

Phoebe loved the house where she grew up, especially the lands. As summer turned to autumn, she would rise with the sun, just to enjoy the peace of the beautiful natural landscape, unspoilt by the likes of 'Capability' Brown.
And then, as her eighteenth birthday approached, her father shattered her peace and happiness with careless words at breakfast.

As an unloved niece with no prospects, the best that Miss Elizabeth Sutton could hope for was a genteel position as a governess. She could never hope to aspire to the hand of someone like the handsome young man in the regimentals of the Lilywhite Seventh, who passed daily down the street. But she could manage to be engaged in a task like dusting the windowsills in order to see him.

And on the exercise of picking up two points of view of one scene, here's another:
Captain Felix Philby, of the Seventh Hussars, wondered who the lovely, but pale, girl was, whom he saw every day. She was always gazing out of the window as he walked by, and sometimes jerked away, hurriedly, as though turning to speak to someone.

White horses and black, a poem

I belong to a facebook group where those of us who are founder members post pictures or sentences to help other writers and each other to take inspiration, and just write what is inspired by the imagery for 15 minutes - which can always be expanded later.  This grew from a throwaway line in a discussion of the seaside over Heather, the true founder, riding her horse on the beach.  I had a vision of a black horse on the shore, and the so-called white horses of the breakers, which became an anapestic balladic poem. It is not a happy ever after, so be warned!  

 White Horses and Black

White horses crashing and rolling, white horses that rise on the sea

A single black horse gallops onwards,  it carries my sweetheart to me

Galloping on through the shallows, galloping over the sand

White horses fret at the edge of the shore where the water is met by the land

The waves shatter hard on the shoreline, the waves being horses no more

But my lover will ride on regardless, riding onwards across the dark shore

He will gallop across the dark causeway, racing the tide as it floods

And when he has reached my lone island his kisses will sing in my blood.

He will gallop across the dark causeway, revealed by the ebb of the tide

And will gather me into his arms once again, and will ne’er more be reft from my side

Together upon my lone island we will hear all the sounds of the sea

And the white horses race o’er the causeway which carries my lover to me

Oh my lover! Please hurry, please hurry, the waves are encroaching too fast

And the white horses play on the causeway, and the safe time for riding is past

I look out from my lonely island, and in the dark waves I can see

Amidst the white horses one black horse’s head, swept away by the herd from the sea.

In the morning the shoreline is quiet, an exhausted black horse on the sand,

And the white horses born of the ocean just shake their soft manes at the land

But the man who was recklessly riding is gone now forever below

For defying the horses of Neptune far under the waters that flow