Brother Dusty-Feet by Rosemary Sutcliff

What a beautiful book!  This is just the kind of children’s book I like best of all. My 1952 book for A Century of Books is a delightful little bit of historical fiction and so lyrically written that it sings. In Brother Dusty-Feet, Rosemary Sutcliff divulges the tale of Hugh Copplestone who runs away to become a traveling player in the Elizabethan era. Hugh is an orphan who has been taken in by his mother’s brother and the brother’s unkind wife. One day Aunt Alison threatens to kill Hugh’s dog Argos for having played with the baby ducks. Of course, the ducks didn’t realize that Argos was a friendly dog and just wanted new playmates. Mean Aunt Alison thinks that Argos wants to kill the ducks and calls him a poultry-killer.  

Hugh has the brilliant idea to run away to Oxford and wonders why he had not thought of this on the many times his Aunt Alison has abused him and his dog. His father had been a scholar and parson and had studied as a servitor to Sir Anthony Heritage. Hugh’s father had always planned that somehow Hugh would study there as well so Hugh steals away in the night planning to head toward Oxford to escape the utter cruelty of an aunt who would kill a boy’s dog.

 

Fortunately for his stomach he met a band of traveling players the second day out when he thought he would starve. The minute he saw them he knew he would throw in his lot with them if they would have him as a serving boy—they were life itself. The players recognize the rightness of his complaint against the home he had left. So they took him on as a player. The book then waxes long but beautifully about the English countryside and the life of the vagabond. The troop play almost every evening else they must tighten their belts because of no supper. They mostly do miracle plays but have one or two written by Hugh’s special friend and guardian among the troop, Jonathan.

Along the way they meet a pilgrim called the Piper who is on the way to Walsingham whose tales of Compostela and the Holy Land nicely while away some time. Hugh goes off with him for the day and the Piper pilgrim shows him how he can pipe and make the wild creatures come to him. He wants Hugh to keep traveling with him, but Hugh is too much enjoying the life on the road with the players. They also meet a Tom O’Bedlam who seems to be slightly mad or fey. I wasn’t quite sure of this.Tom O’Bedlams were those mentally ill (or pretenders) vagrants who begged on the roads. But this Tom seemed to have some magic about him as well. Abruptly he demands Hugh stand, then asks who will speak as a friend for Hugh. Of course, Jonathan stands straight away, then a bit later a quack doctor (who is also, according to Jonathan a staunch friend) stands as Hugh had done him a good turn earlier in the day and Hugh realizes that one can be a quack huckster and still be a good fellow. The madman then cuts a piece of sod, a seisin (a seisin was a kind of legal ritual to give a person a freehold or fiefdom) and makes Hugh receive it in both hands. By this he makes Hugh a brethren of the road, a distinction he can always claim if need be.

Soon after, Argos gets stuck in a trap and is lost for several days but is found by the Piper. Poor Argos has to figure out how he might find Hugh and the players and limps back to the inn just in time for Christmas Eve and his very important role in their play that evening.

One night at the end of winter, they did not heed the warning of a shepherd, and they nearly become lost in the mist on the Romney Marsh. Just as they are losing heart they have the good fortune to spy a light in the window of the home of Mr. Thomas Trumpington. He treats them as special guests and they give a special play for the entire household including the dogs, the cat, and the raucous parrot. What a treat for the players to feast on a delicious meal, to be treated as guests, and to sleep in the house as guests rather than the stables they normally lodged in.

Later while it was still rather cold, they arrive at a desolate village where the justice of the peace was away celebrating his daughters wedding. Players had to receive a license to perform at every place they stopped. This license could be given by the mayor, if there was one, or the justice of the peace. The players decide to risk performing without the license as otherwise no dinner or breakfast the next morning for them. But, the constable shows up and there is a big brawl (melee, set-to, ado, brouhaha, fracas, donnybrook, skirmish, affray, rumpus...have you ever thought how many great words there are for an all-out fight?). A young gentleman has joined the slugfest with them. The fight doesn’t end well as the troop is outnumbered by the villagers, who though they were enjoying the play also enjoyed a fight. The players are put in the stocks. Poor Hugh--it’s his first time and he doesn’t much like it. It’s cold and uncomfortable and the villagers pelt them with eggs. But after all villagers have gone to sleep, the young gentleman, Walter Raleigh, sneaks over to set them free and helps them escape.

Well, soon after comes the happy ending. I’ll tell it because this isn’t the kind of book you read to know the ending. One night as they are playing, a gentleman and his family seem to take an undue interest in Hugh. Soon we discover it is Sir Anthony Heritage. He and his young son, Martin, quiz Hugh about his life and why a son of Peter Copplestone is traipsing around the countryside as a player. He has recognized Hugh to be the son of his boon companion and wants to take him home. He offers Hugh the chance to go to Oriel as his son’s servitor. Hugh dearly wants to but feels his first loyalty is to his vagabond friends, but Jonathon makes him see he cannot squander an opportunity such as this. The players agree to return regularly to perform and visit with Hugh and his joy is complete when he sees the beautiful home and welcome he gets from Sir Anthony’s wife, their small daughters and Martin and realizes that he has found a home and family at last and will be able to achieve the dream his father had set out for him.

No outline of the story can give you the feel this book gives. I’ll just provide one lovely paragraph from the ending that engenders the feel.

It was a nice garden, with a straight strip of camomile lawn like a green riband leading down it instead of a path, and on either side a lovely drift of snapdragon and sweet-smelling yellow musk all humming with brown velvet bees. Right at the far end was a shady green vine-arbour; and in the arbour sat the crinkley-eyed man and the dark boy who looked as if he would be nice to have adventures with.

Well, I love the countryside of England and I love this genre of books (some other ones like it are Master Skylark by John Bennett, The Wonderful Winter and Innocent Wayfaring by Marchette Chute, Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Gray Vining, The Shakespeare Stealer trilogy by Gary Blackwood, and if anyone can help me remember, please, a book about a girl who runs away to her aunt who is in the textile trade in the middle ages or Elizabethan period). I hope you love it as much as I do!