Reviewed by DAN STUMPF:


  CARYL BRAHMS & S. J. SIMON – No Bed for Bacon. Michael Joseph, UK, hardcover, 1941. Thomas Y. Crowell, US, hardcover, 1950. Various reprint editions exist.

   This book is about a lot of things.

   — Sir Francis Bacon’s Finagling to get one of Queen Elizabeth’s touring beds; the attempts of rival impresarios Henslowe and Burbage to burn down each other’s theatres; Sir Walter Raleigh’s efforts to out-dress the earl of Essex and the culinary debut of the potato — but the most intriguing sub-plot centers around rising playwright William Shakespeare and a young gentlewoman named Viola who aspires to be an actress and gets on stage by impersonating a boy playing girls’ parts — the makers of Shakespeare in Love disavow all knowledge.

   Be that as it may, No Bed stands very ably on its own merits as a shrewdly observed, deftly-plotted and often riotously funny comedy. Brahms and Simon are adept at broad slapstick, sly repartee, and the occasional jibe at History, as when Shakespeare and Bacon argue over how a scene should be played and Will asks rhetorically, “Master Bacon, did you write this play or did I?” There’s also a nice running gag about Shakespeare trying to write past the first page of his forthcoming hit, Love’s Labour Wunne.

   There was one rather lengthy bit here that puzzled me for a moment, though: late in the book there’s a long scene where the Queen and her favorites sit around reminiscing about Drake whipping the Spanish Armada out of the Channel. It’s not a bad passage, per se, but it goes on for some pages and doesn’t move the story along a bit. I wondered at first why the authors were spending so much ink on this, then I remembered this was written in England in 1941 — a time when memories of Britain beating back a vastly superior invading force must have appealed to readers and author alike.

   It slows things down perhaps, but it doesn’t dampen the irreverent charm and sly humor of the thing, and I can recommend No Bed to lovers of History, lovers of Shakespeare, and anyone who just loves a good laugh.