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Dayton, OH - Actor Bernard Chaumers feels he has been
unfairly typecast since his summer role at a Renaissance Fair
and is having a very difficult time finding new work.
Chaumers says that he's gone on several auditions since working
at "King Arthur's Court" in nearby Anderson County.
He blames his lack of work on small minded people who refuse
to see him as anything but an Arthurian peasant. That, and
a nasty bout of syphilis.
"'Twas a comely wench keeping mine company infected
with the dreaded syphilitic scourge," Chaumers said.
"It became my scarlet letter to bear."
The wench Chaumers referred to was former girlfriend, 20
year-old Molly Townshend, who insists she didn't actually
have syphilis but was playing the part -- as was common for
mistresses of the era to be infected with the disease. She
blames Chaumers for starting and continuing the rumor after
the summer because she broke up with him for a mutual friend.
"I didn't give [Chaumers] syphilis. I don't have syphilis.
I never had syphilis," Townshend said. "He's only
saying that because I dumped him for an Earl."
"Wherefore the scarlet letter was borne then?"
Chaumers asked. "Tis just the roguish dread-bolted ratsbane
and maggot-pie words of a syphilitic wench!"
While Chaumers laments his lack of new acting roles, he is
debating whether he will seek modern antibiotics for the disease
or spiral into insanity, as was customary of the period.
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