The Devil's Whore s01e04 Episode Script

Part 4

I ask only that you let me serve you.
I'll go to Ireland EDWARD!! Master Joliffe is not the true owner of the land.
We are the owners of the land for we make it fruitful.
I've led her by the nose like a willing sow.
There are those who believe that love can save us all.
They're called the High Attainers and I've made friends amongst them.
Do you lie with him? subsBusters proudly presents The Devil's Whore Part 4 If you pray until you can pray no more.
If you sigh to the breaking of your loins.
And every sigh a tear, and every tear a drop of blood.
Yet will you have lost all by the commission of that one sin of disobedience! When your hearts swelled with false pride and God's command was disobeyed, then came all the other sins.
Of murder and adultery and fornication! And when God's voice in England was stopped, when our great nation descended into darkness, Then came female licentiousness and whoredom all around us.
For what woman now knows her place in the world? SURPRISED MUTTERING Who are you? I am as I am.
Pull him down.
Leave him! CROWD SHOUTS There is no Hell.
She blasphemes! Except when your children cry, No women preachers! with empty bellies.
There is no heaven, except where you find the universal love that is there in your hearts.
Be not afraid of these phantoms that are nothing but the nightmares of his foolish imaginings and all like him that would keep you in your accustomed places.
DOORS OPEN (SHOUTS) Arrest her! Bring her out! (SHOUTS) Away with her! Take her away.
Bring her.
What shall I call you now, madam? Your prisoner, my Lord? No.
Mistress Sexby, then.
Your friends, the Ranters, the High Attainers They find holiness in tobacco and alcohol and fornication.
God in an ivy leaf, God in yourselves.
And the Bible is wastepaper.
Who tells you this? I fear you mean to crush us as you did the Levellers.
Bluntly, madam, in a world without Hell, how will I uphold the law? Was this the freedom you fought so bravely for, my Lord General? All that we fought for is in the balance.
There is anarchy abroad and the Parliament want an iron hand.
The Parliament wants money and land.
It took my land, gave it to Master Joliffe to enjoy till the term of his life.
Master Joliffe, who called me a whore.
Aye, there are some that would like the clocks to be turned back.
But I will not let them, for all their bleating in Parliament.
Then leave my friends free to speak the love in their hearts.
You are certain of their hearts? We seek an honest way to live on earth now, not in terror of what's to come.
Yet you blaspheme, madam.
What, will you burn me? Put a branding iron on me? Hang me? Have a care, Angelica.
There is a world of difference between freedom and licentiousness.
And think of me as your friend.
And visit me.
My old friends, they veer away from me now.
My lady.
This is the body of Christ.
This is the blood of Christ! CHEERING I must confess to you.
My heart is not true.
It betrays me every hour that I'm with you.
I'm lured on a desire that a world tells me what I conceive with you is sin.
Is love a sin, madam? Tell me it is not a sin.
I am married, Christian.
In outward form only.
Yet I will not dishonour him.
Why did you resign your commission? Still no better man for a fight in these islands.
I am finished with fighting.
Well then, I have other work for you.
Honest John has met with the Cavaliers.
They've talked about bringing in the King's son from France.
I know this to be true.
How "know it"? We have agents among the malcontents.
What work? Go to them, as one disaffected with me.
And seek out their thoughts and their strength.
Where is Honest John now? Have you read this? He calls upon the nation to rise up against you.
Do you not sleep easily in your palace at Hampton, my Lord? The country was pleased to show its gratitude to my Lord for his many services.
Parliament gave it.
I remember not the country being asked.
Perhaps Master Sexby need not act the part of disaffected.
I could not tolerate this, Edward.
This is open rebellion.
Then put him on trial.
Where's the jury that will find him guilty? No.
No trial.
If you move against him without the law, the whole of London will burn.
Do you smell smoke? Honest John is even now sailing for Jersey where the writ of Habeas Corpus does not run.
Give me your answer tomorrow.
Have it now.
I will not act parts.
Have a care, Edward.
We must all bend to the times, all of us.
What will not bend may break.
Tomorrow.
You must pull your wife out of the Ranters, sir.
She does not wear my reins, sir.
A pity for her and for you.
She runs to her utter destruction.
MUSIC PLAYS CHATTER APPLAUSE How's the game? Near won, sir.
Is she debauched? Have you had her yet? Not yet.
Not too slow.
It must happen today.
For all to see.
Troopers come to arrest the fornicators.
Aah! Cry out, Master Joliffe, and I will open your nose like a fig.
Now, tell me what must be done today? A whore will be unmasked Aah! (SHOUTS) Kill him! Christian I know you have a true heart but I (LAUGHS) CHEERING AND YELLING You wanted freedom, madam.
It's found you.
PLATES CLATTER You wanted universal love.
Well, here it is.
The genuine resurrection.
The world turned upside down.
And here, your portionthough you made me wait a weary year for it.
CHEERING AND CLAPPING SCREAMING (SHOUTS) Arrest her! He'd poisoned you is food for dogs now.
He was in paid service.
His task, to debauch you and bring further ridicule upon the Ranters.
Who? Joliffe.
That should have died in Wightham Woods.
Yet he will die and soon.
Leave him, Sexby.
He is an account that must be settled.
I will settle it.
There is food.
-Sexby -Call for coals.
I will return tonight.
Thank you.
Are you unwell? No.
All is well.
Nothing is ill.
I-I will return.
They have silenced Honest John.
They have murdered Thomas Rainsborough.
There is none but us now.
Can you love a fool? For that I have been.
My love began on the day you married Harry Fanshawe.
I did not know I had a heart until that hour.
You filled it with unknown creatures, whose names were joy and hope.
Both sharper blades than any that had cut me before.
I have something of yours.
I've kept it on me every day.
Then do not part with it now.
As I will not with you.
If you will take me.
You do not say "aye", sir.
I cannot take Rainsborough's widow to me while his murderers still walk the earth.
Even yesterday, scenes of abominable lewdness and fornication were uncovered among the Ranters.
While this House nods asleep and speaks of toleration.
Sirs, this "toleration" will undo us all! Let the fornicators be brought before magistrates and be punished.
Their lewd ill manners do not argue an end to religious toleration.
Now you have other business today, I am told.
The motion is that this House declares that no authority shall end this House's sessions Will you persist, sirs? except its own authority.
You will keep yourselves here in perpetuity?! Those for the motion say "Aye".
MEN SHOU Stop, enough! I'll put an end to your prattling.
You are no Parliament! Get you gone! Go, call them in! Get you gone.
MEN SHOUT IN DISAPPROVAL Take your hands from me! And take this bauble with you! What is this place? Mont Orgeuil.
In English - "Mount Pride".
It is your pride has got you your new home.
Do not hope to leave here.
This is your tomb, sir.
Bring me pen and ink.
-When Oliver hears of this -No pen and ink ever again, Master Lilburne.
It is the Lord General himself has sent you here.
And since you may not write, you have no need of candles.
You have doubts, Edward.
Will you play a part with the Cavalier party? Do you have agents among all the parties? That you need not know.
How long have you had agents amongst the Royalist party? Sir, I have other business Had you agents among the Royalists at the time of Thomas Rainsborough's murder? Why were those men heard to cry out that they came from Cromwell? I will tell my Lord that your answer was no.
He will not be pleased.
I will tell him myself.
Then find him at Westminster, for there he stays.
Sexby Only madmen oppose us now.
I pray you be not mad.
At Westminster.
Come.
Sexby, stay.
Talk with me.
We talked the night he was cut in pieces.
No more talk.
Edward! Are you with me again? Sexby! What is it, Edward? My Lord, we came to ask mercy for John Lilburne and to pray you, when will he have his trial? Never, madam.
Then when will he be free? Again, never.
When will his wife and children see him? Once more, madam.
Never.
Come, Edward, all this you know.
Stand out of my way.
Did you order the murder of Thomas Rainsborough? Sexby, no! He is unwell, my Lord.
His brain is hot, he is sick, he is ever your Lordship's loving servant.
Hurt not a hair on his head.
He was a brother to me.
Take him to the coast and put him out of England, tonight.
Sexby, if you return ever, I will have you hanged.
Away.
Farewell, Madam.
Settle all accounts.
Sexby! Pray you, let me go with him.
He is all I have left now.
Let him go, madam, from whence he came.
There is fighting in the Low Countries.
He will find wages there.
Edward was never happy except he was cutting throats.
He is not for you.
Why do you dally? Where's my wine? I came with what speed I could, sir.
Are you impatient? Truly this day has been a long while in the coming.
Hah! Well, the Whore is a man again.
You are an abomination in the eyes of God and of all godly men.
Why have you persecuted me, sirrah? Because you are the age, madam.
Weak, womanish, lustful and not a one of you knows where you should be.
Where should we be? You, madam, should be dead.
I watched you hang.
I saw your pretty ankles kicking at the clouds.
Would I had pulled the rope myself.
Then I would be a phantom.
And phantoms cannot harm us.
But, sir, I am not your crippled imaginings.
I am flesh and blood.
Speak not of Edward Sexby, I beg of you.
He is gone and that is flat.
Elizabeth Lilburne will not kneel before you because her husband forbade her ever ask a favour of the tyrant.
But I kneel on her behalf.
Walk with me.
I never looked for ought of this.
I was just a farmer.
God showed me the way to lead men in battle.
I never thought to have the nation's care in my weak sinner's hands.
Will you eat a simple supper with me, Angelica? So have you forgiven me? For what? I took a husband from you.
You took two.
When you sent Thomas Rainsborough to Pontefract, it was to cut the head off the Levellers, was it not? Aye, it was.
Did you strike him down, Oliver? I would have faced him in the field.
I would have killed him there, with God's help.
He was murdered by the Cavaliers, Angelica, as God is my witness.
And if he had killed you in the field? A different England.
If Thomas sat here now, instead of Oliver, what would be different? With Thomas and freedom.
Oliver and tyranny? Oliver and order, Thomas and convulsion.
Then if convulsion, then famine.
If famine then where is the freedom? Where is freedom for Honest John? Each new day brings another plot to assassinate me and bring us closer to anarchy and terror.
In times like this some of the freedoms we fought for must be sacrificed.
There is nothing that now stands between us and utter destruction, but me.
Almighty God chose me, not Thomas Rainsborough nor any one else.
He chose me.
And he chooses the path I must now follow.
I would have your understanding of what I must now give to the nation.
Which is what? They will never be settled until they have a King again.
And what is the word "King" but a bauble, it's a feather in the cap.
Well, why not in mine? I thought Honest John had lost his senses when he told us this day would come.
So did I, madam.
Well, then King Oliver I.
And England will have another King, chosen by God.
Was so much blood spilt for so little? I came to petition you for Elizabeth Lilburne.
What is your answer, my Lord? Your petitions are granted.
She shall have a pension.
She may visit the island.
Angelica.
Prepare Elizabeth.
Freeborn John Lilburne is broken in pieces.
Fare you well, Oliver.
We shall never meet again.
What? Shall Honest John Lilburne die? Six and 60,000 will know the reason why! But where are the six and 60,000? Not here.
Nowhere.
Empty words spoken in another world.
John? John? The Tyrant commanded I should die with no further sight of you.
How can you be here? It matters not how, John.
We are here.
Do you bring me pen and ink? No, John.
I bring you what is better.
A first sight of your son, Benomy.
How here? The Tyrant will free me? No, John.
Angelica! Here is your son, sir.
If he frees me not, then by what means are you come here? He is ill.
Take the boy.
Come here, boy.
Behold! Behold your abandoned father! (BOY CRIES) Did I not forbid that you should ask the tyrant any favour? I asked him, John.
I don't know who you are, madam.
I don't know this boy child.
I have no son.
I know only this.
The woman I formerly loved.
The woman that you "formerly loved", gave her life without question or complaint to a man "In love with a crown of thorns"! Think, sir, what I might have been had I not loved a man who each new day nailed himself to the cross of freedom.
And where is that freedom now, sir? And where was that freedom ever for me? John, I couldn't bring you pen and paper.
I feared they might execute you if you took up the pen.
I have feared that all our lives.
No matter now, Beth.
It was all mistaken.
What was mistaken, John? To change the temporal world.
All that matters is what waits for us.
Elizabeth, he knows not what he says.
Indeed I do, madam.
When I am free, I will take up my cross.
I will crucify the pride in me.
I will tell Oliver do the same.
I cannot tell him.
Cannot tell me? Cannot tell me what, madam? Though he will call himself Lord Protector still, Oliver is to be King.
Forgive me.
For what? All.
Until the last of my days, my proudest boast will ever be that I was the wife of Freeborn John Lilburne.
Bring him! Hurry, sirs.
Put him in.
Here lies Freeborn No speeches.
I will be damned before I will let you silence her! This is my land you're standing on.
Madam, I was told no speeches.
To your work, sirs.
And you to your homes.
I thought I had lost you.
Not yet.
Good sir.
When the world began its turning, I little thought I would be turned so utterly.
Nor I.
Come.
Mistress mine.
First peep.
The dark is clearing like mist uprising from the water land where I began.
Jack has his Jill.
Then naught shall go ill.
Sexby, why have you come back? To kill the King.
Every schoolboy will learn the name of Edward Sexby.
That he set England free of its chains.
And I will be free.
What is it you look for? Nothing, madam.
But I swear on my life that I do love thee.
Then give this up .
.
and come with me to the New World.
You must have the life you choose.
I fear my ending will not be yours.
Must all end in blood? Aye all must end in blood.
One week hence, on the day of Oliver's glory, wait for me at the sea.
If the parish bells welcome England's new King, think not to see me again.
I will not be given to the butchers.
That day will shake the world, madam.
And all the blood will not have been in vain.
Do you know me, Angelica? Aye, Edward.
You are yourself.
Good morrow to you.
Good morrow, Your Highness.
Nay.
Let me be Old Noll a few hours more.
Toop? Today you ride before me.
I recall a time I rode before you, do you remember? At Kineton fight, My Lord.
It was a brave fight.
Aye, My Lord.
I remember.
I remember you well.
Did you not fight near me when we saved Honest John and his dragoon? Very near, My Lord.
Do you remember Free Born John? How he fought until he was one heartbeat away from paradise.
I robbed him of a martyr's death and he never forgave me.
I remember John Lilburne every night in my prayers, My Lord.
As do I, Toop.
Did you ever think this day would come? No My Lord, I did not.
DOOR CLOSING Cromwell comes! Clear a way for the lord protector! LOUD NEIGHING May God forgive me.
My Lord, I cannot let you proceed any further.
BANGING BANGING APPLAUSE God save the Lord Protector! Long live his Highness! God save the Lord Protector! God save the Lord Protector! BELLS TOLLING 'On the day Sexby died, 'the new life he left me was already quick within me.
' BABY CRIES 'After Beth entered her new world.
'Oliver departed the old one he'd turned upside down.
' Oh, Lord Give them consistency of judgment.
Our father One heart.
And mutual love.
'The second King Charles came over the water, 'and the fountains of London ran with wine.
' Elizabeth.
Look up there in those branches.
Do you see anything? Do you see anything? I see leaves and sky.
(GIGGLES) 'All my men were dead.
' 'Their hopes and dreams gone with them,' 'yet we are the world we live in, 'the world we love in.
'These were the life and times of Angelica Fanshawe.
'In the final account, there is love and those sharp blades 'joy and hope.
' GIGGLING
Previous Episode