| Francis Pepys
was an ordinary sort of boy with quite an ordinary sort
of life, that is until he travelled to the city.When he
left from the country on his way to London, that was
where all his troubles began. He was travelling alone, for he had been separated from his parents 11 years ago when he was only one, the orphanage had taken him in just a few days after the tragic death of his parents. |
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| His knowledge of herbs and
remedies was not very good, and the only thing that
Francis knew really well was his way to London because of
all the hours of studying he had done in the orphanage
library. The journey was long and treacherous for him, due to take many days. He only took a few of the left overs from the last three meals, nothing else, mainly because he was very poor.He drank from the stream that he was following, which was probably one of the reasons why he fell ill with a horrifically bad cold. This was not the only problem he faced because he was coming to the bottom of his food supply. His cold was starting to get the better of him. He often had to stop and sometimes needed to lie down. After a few days of resting and only walking a little, he seemed to be on the road to recovery.The few coins that he had gathered were not enough to buy him a bulky meal at the few inns he passed or at the occasional market place. When London finally came into view Francis could have collapsed, he felt full of relief and happiness after the long trek.The smell that he had smelt was appalling and the drains were just a dip in the ground. Francis was nearly hit under the showering of falling dirty water, because the person hadn't even bothered to say "Guardez L'eau, " which means "watch out water."There was so much activity going on constantly in London that Francis never seemed to have any time on his hands. He managed to get a small job that had little pay. He was able to find shelter in a disused barn just in from the borders of London. The barn was made out of thick long planks of wood and a dark brown mouldy thatch roof, despite that it stayed dry, it was also a very good insulator and kept him warm. Francis used the old hay and straw that was left as bedding and as a blanket when it was cold.The days went quickly and the nights were long. Sometimes he went without food, but he was normally able to get some by begging or working to get a little money to buy food and drink.Days came and days went and all were on a different level of hardship but one particular day was his lucky day. It was the day that the school took him in to teach him because he had no parents. It was a damp miserable day when he first started school, which made it hard to concentrate because the smell was worse than usual but, in some ways it was easier because not as much commotion was covering the streets of the city. Summer was rolling on like a stream about to trickle down into a waterfall. Summer was the time his school puts on a play and this year the play was one of Shakespeare's plays called "A Midsummer Nights Dream." Francis the boy of twelve didn't really know anything about acting and performing but he thought it sounded very interesting.Francis studied Shakespeare and his plays long and hard with hours turning into days and days into weeks. All of this hard work finally paid off when the day came to audition. As Francis stood at the front of the queue he watched. He watched a boy performing so exceptionally well he thought he had no chance of getting through the auditions!Francis entered the big hall through the wide open shutter like doors. The hall had sturdy looking beams that seemed to be standing in the middle of the room instead of holding up the ceiling. The stone pillars holding up most of the building were connected to the bulky planks on the floor that felt as if it had only been polished a few minutes ago because it was still sticky on his feet as he entered this giant wooden hall. It was time for him to act like he had never acted before because, this play could mean a perfect future, for Shakespeare himself was going to be in the audience. "A Midsummer Nights Dream, " is about four Athenians who get into quite a lot of trouble in love. Francis auditioned for Demetrius one of the four Athenians. The atmosphere was tense as the people to play who were revealed. It was time to find out whether Francis had got the part he so desperately wanted or not!Lessons seemed to go so slowly that after noon because he could hear the echo of voices practising for the play. He didn't get through which had come as a big disapointment but, at least he had a good idea of what he wanted to be, an actor in Shakespeare's theatre! Amelia B |
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