Brother Dusty-Feet

Elizabethan England. Hugh Copplestone runs away from an abusive household with his dog Argos, hoping to reach Oxford and the world of the New Learning. On the road he falls in with a company of travelling players and discovers a life of rehearsals, makeshift stages, village audiences and constant movement.

The players offer Hugh fellowship and practical education, but their freedom is precarious in a society suspicious of masterless people. Encounters with jugglers, ballad sellers, quack doctors and local officials broaden his understanding of the country through which he walks. His time as one of the “dusty-feet” does not erase his scholarly ambition; it gives him the confidence and human experience needed to pursue it.