Hamnet: Chapter 15 Summary & Analysis

Eliza’s letter travels to the father. A neighborhood boy carries it to the inn, where a grain merchant headed to London picks it up. He, in turn, hands it to an innkeeper in Stokenchurch, who luckily recognizes the recipient as a recent lodger who had said he was bound for Kent. The innkeeper has his son re-address the letter to an inn in Kent. A couple headed that way carry the letter to Kent, where it eventually comes to the hand of the lodger, brother, husband, father, and player, as he stands in the dim light of a guildhall overseeing rehearsals. He receives it, thinking it must be yet another demand for money, complaint, or patron’s command.

The player registers his family’s seal on the wax and his sister Eliza’s familiar hand. He reads “verie sick” and “your daughter” and “not manie hours left.” He finds the breath sucked from his lungs. He has an overwhelming desire to rip off all his clothes, to run, to flee, to get to someplace where he can breathe. As he stumbles through the guildhall door, his perceptive eye takes in the blue sky, the green grass, and the blossoms of a flowering tree. The edges of his vision begin to blur. He wants to tear down the world, crumple it up to erase the distance between himself and his sick daughter. A hand grips his arm—his friend. The players crowd around, read the letter, spring into action. They call for a horse and place him on it, then send him flying down the road, still wearing his ludicrous costume.