These two novellas are prose divertimentos, creating intellectual fun in the playful way they juggle themes, characters, plots, and ideas. In "Lorenzo's Book," the priest who aided the star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet tells the tale the way it really happened. The action is driven by the selfish plots of a clever Rosaline, a dull and clumsy Romeo, a spirited and lustful Juliet, and a bawdily Machiavellian Lorenzo, whose manipulations of the others change as rapidly as his goals, which range from becoming Cardinal of Venice to having Juliet for himself. In "Luke's Book," Measure for Measure is relocated to the Old West. The New Mexico territory serves as the backdrop for this quick-witted musing on the values of the western frontier.