WILLIS   I have never read Shakespeare.
Pitt looks at him somewhat askance.
I am a clergyman.

EXT. KEW. MAIN ENTRANCE. DAY.

Willis is waiting on the steps of the house with Pitt and Thurlow. Seeing them, the King is nervous and dismayed, his step falters and, though Papandiek takes his arm, his confidence has plainly gone and he reverts to his old state.

KING   They have killed the Queen. Did you know that?

PITT   No, sir.

KING   Ah, yes, sir. Are you cold?

THURLOW   It is chilly, sir.

KING   Not for me. I make the weather by means of mental powers.
They go inside.

INT. KEW. ENTRANCE HALL. DAY.

KING   Well, actually, actually it is not too bad about the Queen, because actually I was never actually married to her. I was married to the tall one, Elizabeth. Sie öffnet ihre Beine zu jeder Zeit wenn ich es will. Vier, funf Mal am Tag, wie mich die Laune trift.

WILLIS   What are you saying, sir?

KING   Oh, do they not speak German in Lincolnshire? Then allow me to translate, sir. Her Ladyship is game for it any time. I just have to say the words and her skirt’s up, legs in the air … I just tip her the wink and I’m in there. Or she’s down here.

WILLIS   Gag!
The King is gagged and Willis’s attendants drag him away cursing.

PITT   You assured me you could cure him.

WILLIS   I can, sir, given time.

PITT   We do not have time.

INT. CARLTON HOUSE. PRINCE OF WALES’S BEDROOM. NIGHT.

Maria Fitzherbert is kneeling at the altar. The Prince of Wales is watching her.

PRINCE OF WALES   What are you praying for now?

MARIA   The King.

PRINCE OF WALES   You should pray for us, because if he did die, or stay mad –

MARIA   George!

PRINCE OF WALES   – what is to stop us saying we are man and wife? Huh?

INT. A CHURCH VESTRY. DAY.

Thurlow is interviewing a shabby and bibulous clergyman.

THURLOW   Didn’t you know who the bridegroom was?

CLERGYMAN   (looking through a parish register) It’s a year or two ago.

THURLOW   And did the bride not mention she was a Catholic?

CLERGYMAN   (shakes his head) Why should she? Ah, here it is.

THURLOW   (looking at the entry) The Prince cannot marry without the King’s permission. And he cannot marry a Catholic. You performed an illegal marriage.

CLERGYMAN   And he only gave me ten pounds!

THURLOW   Here is ten pounds more. Keep your mouth shut.
Thurlow rips the page out of the register.

CLERGYMAN   Here, that’s against the law.

THURLOW   I am the law.

INT. WINDSOR. QUEEN’S APARTMENTS. NIGHT.

The Queen is sitting at her dressing table, preparing for bed, Lady Pembroke standing by her side.

QUEEN   Oh, long, long days, Elizabeth.
Lady Pembroke smiles, sadly.

LADY PEMBROKE   And longer for His Majesty.

INT. KEW. ENTRANCE HALL. DAY.

The three doctors bustle in from the cold outside.