The Shaming of the Rake: Being a short but most delightful Commedia dell Arte play

by Craig Allen Heath

Lord Digitos, a nobleman and legend in his own mind, is a skirt chaser whose faithful wife has decided she's had enough. His friend, Lord Avari, is a miser but inveterate gambler whose betting debts will bankrupt the household and gain him a beating or worse. His wife, too, has decided it is time he learned his lesson. The two ladies contrive to turn the tables and make the lords suffer so as to shame them into becoming better men. With the help of the kitchen maids, the guards and even Avari's valet, they put on a show of a manor house gone The chaser of skirts is himself chased, the miser's gold is proven useless to save beloved lives, the faithful lady is wooed and fought for, then accused of witchcraft!Written in the language and style of the English-speaking Renaissance era, and meant to be performed in the Commedia style, this raucous and light-hearted tale of love and deception, loss and redemption is a play with a moral that does not preach. In the ancient tradition of comedy it holds up the worst in us for ridicule, and the best in us for applause.Craig Allen Heath writes and acts and enjoys the simple pleasure of telling a story, using whatever form best fits the moment. "All stories" he says, "are examinations of what it means to be a human being. I believe it is a brave and radical act to to explore that question."

92 pages, Paperback

Published April 23, 2017

About the author

Craig Allen Heath decided he wanted to be a novelist at age fourteen. He achieved that goal fifty years later by publishing his first novel, Where You Will Die, in 2022.

​In those five decades he wrote hundreds of poems, songs, stories, essays, articles, plays, and scripts. The published portion of that catalog earned him the equivalent of a long weekend’s lodging at a Comfort Inn somewhere along Interstate 5 in California’s Central Valley.

​He made his living during that time as a journalist, teacher, and technical writer. This portion of his output kept body and soul together, making him a decent prospect to marry, raise a son, see a bit of the world, and have enough left over to buy that comfy recliner his teenaged self never thought he'd want.

​He lives in southwest Washington state with his wife, Pat, too much lawn to mow, a vegetable garden, and a mischievous pair of doggos, shepherd Lobo and husky Aura, whose antics earn them the nicknames Thing 1 and Thing 2.

​He released the next Eden Ridge Story, Killing Buddhas in 2024, and is now working on the third in the series, Reason Not the Need. Having finally done what he said he wanted to do five decades prior, he says he’ll keep doing it until he runs out of ideas, or the sun explodes, whichever comes first.