Master Skylark

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Bennett, John. Master Skylark. New York: Century, 1922.

Image Source: University of Oregon Rare Books Collection

John Bennett’s 1896 novel combines a boy’s adventure and coming-of-age story with Shakespearean theater history and a portrait of Shakespeare as a kindly adult eager to help a youth in distress. The book’s 16th-century protagonist is abducted by an unscrupulous actor who wants to exploit his beautiful singing voice. The story is resolved when Shakespeare and fellow playwright Ben Jonson cooperate to rescue the boy and his female friend and then shower them with money.

Bennett’s book reflects his period’s inextricable association of Shakespeare with the education of children (see “Shakespeare as Children’s Literature”). His portrayal of Shakespeare as sympathetic and generous attests the 19th century’s moral hopes for their national poet. The book indulges later readers’ desires to imagine Shakespeare as friends with his most famous contemporaries, ending after dinner with Shakespeare’s nuclear and theatrical families: “some few of them the whole round world could not have matched then, and could not match now.” Images from Master Skylark reveal appealing illustrations and the happy resolution of the adventure story, with Shakespeare and Jonson taking the lead in helping the young protagonists.