The fugitive allegory
We are introduced to Peter as a heroic character. He risks his life for his beliefs, symbolized by the near-missed bullet through his hat, and he accepts responsibility for his decisions, symbolized by his admission of guilt. His punishment is essentially exile, because he cannot afford to let the throne catch him after his rebellious military stunt. His story begins to unfold as a scapegoated fugitive, and the drama of the novel is how his heroic character fares in a random life that he did not pick for himself.
The theater symbolism
The major intellectual domain of the novel is the theater. The novel itself is symbolized by this in a meta-narrative way, because both theater and the novel are fictitious attempts to capture an essential truth about the human experience, as Shakespeare himself discusses in the novel. The theater is the "stage" for Peter's dramatic growth as a character. It also symbolizes his need to conceal his identity from the authorities. He is an actor because of conspiracy against him, so his emotional life is like a theater performance.
Shakespeare as a symbol
Shakespeare is the god-parent of Peter's blossoming romance with Kit. They are both students of the renown theater legend. Shakespeare teaches them, which is a symbolic notion. It shows that they are in an archetypal experience, just like if a woman came out of a well with sword in hand. This archetype is the "bard," or the true artist. Shakespeare is a symbol for the interplay of entertainment and true art, and his commentary on acting is actually a commentary on human experience.
The Yellow Gentleman
These are the pixy-like agents of chaos that help precipitate the climax of the novel. Their secret meddling goes essentially unexplained for much of the novel. This raises the dramatic tension of the story, because the reader will likely feel paranoid alongside Peter who cannot afford to be caught by Sir Philip. Indeed, there is a connection between them, so Peter's indirect conflict with the Yellow Gentlemen is resolved when Sir Philip's fall is finally felled.
Gender and symbolism
Kit's story as a minor character symbolizes a philosophical consideration about gender. He is a boy that often plays a girl. Or wait, is she secretly a girl, playing a boy, playing girls? The intricacy of this minor character's plot development is a scandalous side story to Peter's because their intimacy emerges during a season of the book where Kit's gender is still hard to discover. Broadly speaking this symbolism points to a connection between artistic personalities and androgynous, mystical experiences of self.
