The True History of England, A Three Act Play (British History)

[Mick Harper]

Act Two, Scene One

William Cecil:
It’s time to roll it out. Thoughts?

Francis Walsingham:
You could use my people.

William Cecil:
I rather think this is best done in the blazing light of day.

William Camden:
That was certainly our thinking. Though perhaps better the dawning light of day.

Robert Dudley:
A Renaissance even.

William Camden:
Something of that sort. Our only direct experience is the way they did it in Henry’s day. Claiming they’d found such and such a record but of course they didn’t actually have to produce the documents.

William Cecil:
What, not even at the Consistory Court?

William Camden:
The Papal Legate never asked for them. Just witness testimony as to what they said. I suppose he was on a pretty sticky wicket himself.

William Cecil:
Well, it’s the court of public opinion this time.

William Camden:
With respect, it’s the court of scholarly opinion. The public will think what they’re told.

William Cecil:
Your cynicism does you no credit. How does that work?

William Camden:
They operate overwhelmingly by precedent. What’s already in the records or at any rate what other scholars say is, was, in the records.

William Cecil:
And it’s our job to provide the precedent?

Robert Dudley:
Pop some records into foreign archives, eh? Good luck with that.

Francis Walsingham:
You could use my people.

[Mick Harper]

Act Two, Scene Two

William Camden:
It has been rather pointedly pointed out to me that getting the message out is also down to us.

Robert Cotton:
I suppose there really isn't much point in just having all this stuff lying around in libraries.

John Day:
On the other hand it’s difficult to control the message once they do leave the library.

William Camden:
Really? I thought academics were rather a supine lot. Once they've got their teeth into it. Give them a bone and they will gnaw on it for ever.

John Day:
True, but they won’t necessarily be our academics, will they?

William Camden:
So how do we make sure they are?

Robert Cotton:
Discipline. Hierarchies. Guilds. Corporations. Core beliefs. Peer pressure. Central curriculum.

William Camden:
We know the how, we just need to know ... er ... the how.

John Day:
Utilise existing networks?

William Camden:
They already exist, isn’t that the problem? The universities are already laws unto themselves.

Robert Cotton:
That could be to our advantage. It would only take a single generation to change direction equally radically.

William Camden:
Only by controlling the student input and I hardly think that’s a practical proposition here never mind in other countries.

John Day:
Unless you controlled the yeast instead.