"Ship a-hoy! Ship a-hoy!"
The long cry came on the salt breeze from Plymouth Sound, one fine September morning in 1595. The Elizabeth, flagship of Plymouth's hero, Sir Walter Raleigh, had been sighted! Out of favor with the Queen, he had sailed months ago to faraway Guiana, seeking gold for Her Majesty. Men, women and children hastened to the docks to welcome him. But the one boy in Plymouth to whom Raleigh's return was to mean an exciting career went on calmly chopping wood in an innyard!
Thirteen-year-old Nat Horne was absorbed in other thoughts. Just this morning he had found a New World of his own. To the Red Dragon Inn, where he lived, had come a company of players from London. Nat watched them set up their stage, unpack their chests of costumes and wigs, put up their playbills — and fell straightway under the spell of the theatre. He knew a bit about plays, for his school sometimes acted stories from the Bible. Nat rather fancied himself an actor. Now that he had seen these fine, swaggering London gentlemen, he knew there could be no other future for him. His friend Dick Greenwood wanted to sail with Drake, and Nat had toyed with that idea, too, but this life which promised applause, fame and perhaps even fortune, was far more to his liking.
He dreamed of it all the time he did his chores at the inn, which was crowded with guests. Besides the players and a great earl's party, Raleigh came with Drake and Hawkins. Amused by Nat's enthusiasm, Sir Walter suggested he travel with him to London to join one of the companies of boy actors. Dick Greenwood thought he should go also, partly for adventure, partly to keep an eye on Nat, who was apt to be a trifle to cocksure for his own good.
This was indeed fortunate, for the boys soon lost Raleigh's protection and their journey was to prove unexpectedly eventful. Along the highways and over the rolling moors they traveled, meeting a troupe of morris dancers and a mystery, seeing great houses, lords and ladies, and so n by dangerous, devious ways to London Town and the Chapel Royal's famous school for young actors. At long last Nat reached the theatre at Shoreditch on the lively anniversary of Elizabeth's coronation.
Full of high adventure and amusing incident, Two for the Show also reflects countless aspects of the splendid Elizabethan scene. Nat's story leads young readers straight into the world of the famous sea dogs, the players and dramatists who foregathered at the Mermaid Tavern, even to the court and very presence of the red-haired Virgin Queen. Shakespeare's England still glows with a special brilliance in the panorama of history. Against this background the adventures of a spirited boy make a gay, swashbuckling tale.
Isabelle Lawrence is an experienced storyteller, with a sure instinct for what will interest and entertain her audience. The dramatic but always authentic plot grows out of her easy familiarity with the period and its great figures, and her feeling for its vitality and exuberance. Young readers will enjoy this story and its setting, and feel they have traveled with the boy Nat in the spacious days of Queen Elizabeth.
—from the dust jacket
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