Pierrot's Song

Author’s Note

Author’s NoteAlthough this is a work of fantasy fiction, it is based on the theatre of the Commedia dell’Arte, which thrived during the Italian Renaissance, and still survives today in fragments such as Punch and Judy shows, and companies dedicated to keeping the spirit of Commedia alive. To that end, I have used a few names of famous Commedia players. This is intended as a way of keeping their memory alive, but the characters with those names are in no way modelled on the personalities or behaviours of the true historical figures and should not be taken as such. The allusions to Shakespeare are deliberate and reflect the transition that occurred from improvised theatre in the Renaissance to scripted works in the Tudor and Elizabethan eras.