Queen Anne Read online

  SARAH is taken aback and hurt by this.

  Tell the servants that we close the house.

  SARAH. That’s some new contempt. I never heard that note before. You were not so dismissive of my influence when I was building your career.

  Pause.

  MARLBOROUGH. Close the house. And tell the servants not to speak to anyone. I don’t want it reported that we go.

  SARAH. No. I will not leave. I will not run or sneak away…

  MARLBOROUGH. I can’t go back into the Tower! I cannot let it end that way.

  SARAH. But you won’t have to. Why aren’t you hearing me? The charges which they bring are wrong. Let them put you in a court…

  MARLBOROUGH. Not all of them. Not all of them.

  SARAH stares at him.

  Don’t look like that. You knew. You are too beady with accounts to claim that it was otherwise. Some of the money… I used to pay for gathering intelligence. Legitimately.

  My secretaries will vouch for that. Many people can. But some of it…

  SARAH. Where has it gone?

  MARLBOROUGH. Oh, you know where. Into that monstrosity in Oxfordshire. It’s bricked into the walls. We could have built a home. But no, we must have Vanbrugh, and colonnades, and marble brought from Italy…

  SARAH. You wanted those things more than I. You saw the plans. So this is my fault after all?

  MARLBOROUGH. I blame myself. For thinking myself better than I am. For playing Duke.

  SARAH. That’s what she wanted…

  MARLBOROUGH. We don’t have time for this. Start packing up. Write to the girls…

  SARAH. Just give me chance to speak to her. I promise you…

  MARLBOROUGH starts to leave.

  Where are you going?

  MARLBOROUGH. The bank. To take our money out before they do.

  He stops for a moment.

  I’ll be back soon. Let no one in whilst I am gone.

  Exit MARLBOROUGH.

  Scene Ten

  The reception room, the Queen’s apartments, St James’s. SARAH is sitting on a stool, waiting. She has waited for some time. Enter LADY SOMERSET, passing through to the Queen’s chamber. She takes no account of SARAH.

  SARAH. Lady Somerset?

  LADY SOMERSET. Yes?

  SARAH. How much longer will I have to wait?

  LADY SOMERSET. I cannot say, your grace. I told her that you’re here.

  SARAH. I start to feel like some Scots lady with a petition.

  LADY SOMERSET. I hope she won’t be long.

  Exit LADY SOMERSET into the bedchamber. SARAH waits. She hears laughter from another part of the Palace. Then all is quiet again. After a few moments, ANNE enters. She is beautifully and regally dressed. SARAH sees her and stands. She makes ANNE a deep curtsy. ANNE says nothing.

  SARAH. Your Majesty.

  It cheers my heart to see you look so well. I’ve been so concerned for you.

  ANNE. I cannot stay. They wait for me in Cabinet.

  SARAH. Yes.

  Pause.

  Your Majesty… my dearest Mrs Morley. Where to start? When you dismissed me… I was distressed, and I was angry – I admit it. You, more than anyone, know how heated I can be…

  ANNE. Whatever you have to say to me, you may put it in writing.

  SARAH. I… I’ve said and done some foolish things. I see that now. And I am sorry. I am truly sorry. But it’s only because I care for you, so very much. Nothing matters to me more than…

  ANNE. Whatever you have to say to me, you may put it in writing.

  SARAH. Don’t do this! Not to me. Talk to me. Shout at me if you desire.

  Silence.

  The charges which they think to bring against the Duke are cruel. And wrong. And he is brought so low by them. Consider everything he’s done. And all for you. Why, on the continent they say he is the greatest General in Christendom, yet here…

  ANNE turns and moves to walk away.

  Don’t turn away from me. I beg of you. I beg of you. I cannot live and think us so estranged. How did we come to this?

  ANNE. Whatever you have to say to me, you may put it in writing.

  ANNE walks toward the bedchamber. SARAH rushes forward and puts herself between ANNE and the door.

  SARAH. No. No. No. I cannot let you go from me.

  ANNE. I will leave.

  SARAH. Give me one word. Let me feel that there is hope. I will work. I will try. You are embedded in my soul.

  ANNE (suddenly). You had my heart.

  Pause.

  SARAH. I know. I know. Oh, and I was wrong to treat it carelessly. My dearest, darling Mrs Morley. Anne…

  SARAH reaches out and touches ANNE.

  ANNE. Take your hand off me.

  SARAH does so. ANNE looks into her eyes for some moments.

  Good day.

  Exit ANNE.

  SARAH is still for a minute. Then she sinks to her knees and weeps profoundly.

  Enter ABIGAIL, carrying a chamber pot towards the bedchamber. She notices SARAH, but continues on her way. SARAH gets quickly to her feet, and brushes the tears from her face.

  SARAH. Still carrying the pot, I see.

  ABIGAIL takes no notice of her.

  I suppose you think you’ve won.

  ABIGAIL stops and looks at her.

  But she’ll be gone before too long – one way or another. And you’ll be back where you began. And be of no account at all.

  ABIGAIL. My husband has been knighted. I am Lady Masham now. Before he was, she sat me down and spoke with me. Asked me if I still could be content to sleep beside her bed at night, upon a pallet on the floor. If I would still hold back her hair when she is retching, wash her feet, and tend her sores. I said I would.

  SARAH. Bravo. You sold yourself too cheaply. Lords are ten-a-penny.

  ABIGAIL. She’s kind. She’s wise. She prays, and would do right by everyone.

  SARAH. She really has you fooled.

  ABIGAIL. We need our Queen. To save us from the likes of you.

  SARAH stares at her.

  SARAH. How history will laugh at your submission. The day will come when people scoff and scratch their heads and say, were there such sheep in England? And I will start my memoirs soon. Upon a terrace, by a lake, I think, I’ll sit and write, subservient to no one. And oh, what truths I will bequeath.

  ABIGAIL walks towards the chamber.

  Then all will know how hard I tried. And how my gifts were cast aside.

  Exit ABIGAIL.

  And where my portrait hangs, admired, they’ll stare and say, she was supreme. The bravest soul. The keenest mind. The greatest woman of her time.

  End.

  MUSIC

  HELEN EDMUNDSON

  Helen Edmundson’s first play, Flying, was presented at the National Theatre Studio in 1990. In 1992, she adapted Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina for Shared Experience, for whom she also adapted The Mill on the Floss in 1994. Both won awards – the TMA and the Time Out Awards respectively – and both productions were twice revived and extensively toured. Shared Experience also staged her original adaptation of War and Peace at the National Theatre in 1996, and toured her adaptations of Mary Webb’s Gone to Earth in 2004, Euripides’ Orestes in 2006, the new two-part version of War and Peace in 2008, and the original play Mary Shelley in 2012. Her original play The Clearing was first staged at the Bush Theatre in 1993, winning the John Whiting and Time Out Awards, Mother Teresa is Dead was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 2002 and The Heresy of Love was premiered by the Royal Shakespeare Company in the Swan Theatre in 2012, and revived at Shakespeare’s Globe in 2015. Her adaptation of Jamila Gavin’s Coram Boy premiered at the National Theatre to critical acclaim in 2005, receiving a Time Out Award. It was subsequently revived in 2006, and produced on Broadway in 2007. She adapted Calderón’s Life is a Dream for the Donmar Warehouse in 2009, and Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons for the Bristol Old Vic in 2010, which subsequently transferred to the West End before embarking on a na
tional tour in 2012. Her adaptation of Thérèse Raquin premiered at the Theatre Royal Bath in 2014, and was subsequently produced on Broadway by Roundabout Theatre Company in 2015. Helen was awarded a Windham Campbell Literature Prize by Yale University in 2015.

  A Nick Hern Book

  Queen Anne first published in Great Britain as a paperback original in 2015 by Nick Hern Books Limited, The Glasshouse, 49a Goldhawk Road, London, in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company

  This ebook edition first published in 2015

  Queen Anne copyright © 2015 Helen Edmundson

  Music copyright © 2015 Helen Edmundson and Ben Ringham

  Cover illustration: Queen Anne (1665–1714) (oil on canvas), Wissing, William (1656–87) & Vaardt, Jan van der (1647–1721) / Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland / Bridgeman Images

  Designed and typeset by Nick Hern Books, London

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 84842 523 1 (print edition)

  ISBN 978 1 78001 687 0 (ebook edition)

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