MIRROR & LIGHT EB

Hilary Mantel, Ben Miles

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780008519506
• eBook ISBN: 9780008519513
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: British Drama
• Index: Literature

Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles' exhilerating stage adaptation of The Mirror and the Light, one of 2021's must-see theatrical events, and the long awaited conclusion to the Oliver Award-winning Wolf Hall Trilogy.

England, May 1536. Anne Boleyn's fate has been sealed by a hired French executioner. it now befalls Jane Seymour to deliver King Henry VIII the healthy heir he craves. Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son from the gutters of Putney, has knocked down everyone in his path: established at the right hand of the king, he is now the second most powerful man in England. But what will you do, an astute witness asks, when the king turns on you, as sooner or later he turns on everyone close to him?

Hilary Mantel's twice Booker Prize-winning trilogy is the outstanding literary achievement of recent times. Following Oliver and Tony Award-winning productions of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies, hailed as a landmark and must-see theatrical event on both sides of the Atlantic, Mantel and Ben Miles have adapted the trilogy's exhilarating conclusion, The Mirror and the Light, for the stage. It opened in London's West End in September 2021, directed by Jeremy Herring, co-produced by Playful Productions and the Royal Shakespeare Company, and with Miles returning to the role of Cromwell.

This volume contains the text of the play and an introduction by Hilary Mantel on each of the principal characters – and their fates, offering a unique insight into her trilogy and an invaluable resource to any theatre companies wishing to stage the play.

THE MIRROR AND THE LIGHT

Adapted for the stage by Hilary Mantel and Ben Miles
From the novel by Hilary Mantel

ACT ONE: MIRROR

Scene One

Present: June 1540: The Tower, the Queen’s Rooms.

A space filled with morning light. Velvet stools, a brocade chair or two, a velvet cloth on the table.

Enter THOMAS CROMWELL, SIR WILLIAM KINGSTON with keys.

KINGSTON. I never thought I’d see you here, my lord Cromwell.

CROMWELL. The Tower is my second home, Sir William. I’m here all the time. You and I have done much business together over the years.

KINGSTON. I mean here as a… prisoner.

CROMWELL. Shall we say guest? It sounds less conclusive.

KINGSTON. It gladdens me to see you cheerful, sir.

CROMWELL. Well, make the most of me while I’m here… I’ll be back home at Austin Friars soon.

KINGSTON. The King has sent money for your board and lodging.

CROMWELL. For how long?

KINGSTON. He asks for you to have every comfort.

CROMWELL. I will thank him for his kindness. I can smell the honeysuckle. The summer air is sweet. Will we walk in the gardens tomorrow?

KINGSTON. No.

CROMWELL. No?

KINGSTON. My orders, sir, are to keep you close confined.

CROMWELL. But I will have somebody here? From my household?

KINGSTON. It’s not our custom to leave a nobleman without attendance.

CROMWELL. Am I still a nobleman?

KINGSTON. You are Thomas Cromwell, Earl of Essex, until I’m told different.

CROMWELL. It will be Norfolk who tells you. His boot aches to kick me back to the gutter.

KINGSTON. The Duke of Norfolk will be here to question you this evening. With the Bishop of Winchester. Hence the queen’s chambers.

CROMWELL. Well, we can’t have them sitting in a dungeon, can we?

CHRISTOPHE erupts into the room and hugs CROMWELL.

CHRISTOPHE. Good Christ in Heaven, sir, I am glad to see you whole! I thought you were on the rack already.

KINGSTON. We don’t do that. Not to earls, anyway.

CHRISTOPHE. The King sent ruffians to our house. A hundred of them – breaking into our chests, carrying your papers away. I said, you beasts of the field, if you walk on that silk carpet, Lord Cromwell will personally shred the flesh from your bones. But no, they walked on it. Filthy boots, breaking windows.

CROMWELL. Who led them? Norfolk?

CHRISTOPHE. That viper in your own bosom, Thomas Wriothesley!

CROMWELL. Wriothesley? I can’t say I’m surprised.

CHRISTOPHE. He has taken your money. Your gold plate and jewels, all gone.

CROMWELL. I’ve had nothing before. Disarm yourself, Christophe.

CHRISTOPHE. Quoi?

CROMWELL. I can feel the knife in your jacket. If you are to be my man here, you must hand it to Sir William. Slowly.

CHRISTOPHE hands the knife over to KINGSTON.

KINGSTON. Thank you.

CHRISTOPHE. There is a hundred soldiers out there.

KINGSTON. I beg you will not attempt anything, sir.

CHRISTOPHE. Every last one of them has a sword and an axe.

KINGSTON. There are men on all the roads. They have blocked the ports.

CROMWELL. Quick work.

Enter a GUARD with the DUKE OF NORFOLK and STEPHEN GARDINER. They are struggling to keep their dignity but can barely hide their glee. They occupy a table. GWYN, a clerk, carries in files.

Hello, Gwyn. (In Welsh.) T’in iawn? [All right?]

GYWN (in Welsh, thudding his files down). Rwy’n ffieiddio. [Disgusted.]

KINGSTON. My lord Norfolk. Bishop Gardiner. Call for anything you need.

GARDINER. Oh, be sure we will.

Exit KINGSTON.

CROMWELL. I never thought you two would grow so friendly. More likely to insult each other, than sit elbow to elbow.

NORFOLK. One thing we have in common, Gardiner and I – when we scent the truth, we stick on the trail. Whatever we suspect, we will have out of you, one way or the other.

CROMWELL. Where did you get those papers?

GARDINER. Mr Wriothesley has impounded them.

NORFOLK. By tomorrow we will be at all your houses. We will search out all your words and deeds, sir.

CHRISTOPHE. Thomas Wriothesley, I curse him.

NORFOLK. Get out, boy.

CROMWELL. Where is Wriothesley?

GARDINER. He will be joining us. Come, you must expect that? He was my man. Then he was yours. Now he’s mine again. These personal betrayals, we learn to live with them, don’t we?

Enter RICHARD RICHE, with files and a nervous half-bow to CROMWELL.

CHRISTOPHE. Richard Riche, I grind your bones.

NORFOLK. It’s not for you to keep us waiting, Riche.

RICHE. You will find the delay to your profit. (Delivers a folio to GARDINER.) The King bade me look through Lord Cromwell’s papers. Put some order into them.

CHRISTOPHE. The devil take and eat you all.

NORFOLK (to GUARD about CHRISTOPHE). Get him out.

CROMWELL. Christophe, leave us, it’s for your own good.

CHRISTOPHE leaves. RICHE sits.

GARDINER. Sudden, isn’t it? Breakfast in pomp and glory. Dinner in disgrace.

NORFOLK. Not a halfpenny to your name. Not an acre.

GARDINER. Not a pin. We’ve all imagined how it would feel, if we had the misfortune to fall from grace.

NORFOLK. Not I. When I commit treason, the Thames will turn blue.

CROMWELL. Treason? Is that the charge?

GARDINER. For now. Heresy may be added.

GWYN. They’re working on it, my lord. Dau gythraul ydyn nhw. [They are two devils.]

CROMWELL. Ie, you can tell by their ugly faces. Satan a Beelzebub. [Yes… Satan and Beelzebub.]

NORFOLK. Get him out too.

RICHE. We must have a clerk, my lord.

NORFOLK. Then send Merlin here back to the mountains, and by St George, fetch me one who speaks only English! That shouldn’t be too difficult, should it? And one who is also unacquainted with the prisoner.

CROMWELL. That might prove harder.

Exit GUARD with GWYN.

NORFOLK. If the charge is treason, the hangman will have you. If it is heresy, you will burn. You don’t get the choice. We do.

CROMWELL. It will come to you, just wait. God he knows, you’ve all meddled enough in the King’s business.

NORFOLK. Are you threatening us?

CROMWELL. Yes, I am.

GARDINER. Be wise. Mend your manners.

CROMWELL. And you yours: I could be free tomorrow and you sitting here – you know the King. By tomorrow I could be free and you sitting here.

GARDINER. How long is it since you were sworn councillor?

CROMWELL. Seven years. But you are no useful witness to them. You were in France half the time.

GARDINER. I was pleased to serve my country as ambassador.

NORFOLK. ‘Pleased to serve’? You were bundled out of the realm by Cromwell here, so he could go about unhindered. Finger in every pie. Spies in every household.

CROMWELL. I had to work hard, my lord, even to get to where a man like you begins.

NORFOLK. You were nobody, Cromwell. You will soon be nobody again.

GARDINER. And in those seven years one can and must make mistakes… between ourselves, we serve no easy master. You will allow us to lead you through your actions...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title page
• Contents
• Original Production Details
• The Characters and Their Fates by Hilary Mantel
• Characters
• The Mirror and the Light
• Note
• About the Author
• Copyright and Performing Rights Information