A Certain Slant of Light

Shakespeare here is not so much a detached Olympian as an absent-minded professor. Simply SO engaged with his proofs that Nick CANNOT get his attention as Cicely's kidnapper walks past! Thus forcing Nick to be the hero himself, which may indeed have been the whole point of making Shakespeare so absent-minded, so Nick who has spent most of the book being kidnapped and unable to escape can do something a bit more active and heroic in the end.