Wolf Hall - The Mirror and the Light

[virgocatlover]

Series 2 is confirmed to start Sunday 10th November.

Almost 10 years after the first series, I'm excited to see the third and final novel brought to life.

apart from being utterly brilliant, it does show how very different life and beliefs were then. The idea you could get your head chopped off because you believed something otherwise seems wild. mind, these days some folk think you can change sex, so there's that.

I don't know the last time anyone's head was chopped off for it, but England's law against blasphemy was only repealed in 2008. It's still an offence in Northern Ireland.

@CaveMum, thanks for the links! Lots of interesting stuff.

What amazed me is that the sentenced would walk up the step, and lie there, waiting for the axe.
Such bravery. I'd be fighting every step of the way. And certainly not making a speech.

Don’t forget that the French didn’t stop using the guillotine until the 1970s!

Public executions were a huge draw, the biggest crowd for a public hanging in London was thought to be as many as 50,000!

I think if the alternatives were hanging, drawing and quartering or being burnt at the stake, getting your head chopped off wasn't the worst option.

I suppose most of the condemned would be very aware that non-cooperation could see their family and friends meeting the same fate; a bit like Erwin Rommel 'commiting suicide' so his family wasn't sent to a concentration camp.

I think if the alternatives were hanging, drawing and quartering or being burnt at the stake, getting your head chopped off wasn't the worst option.

Used for nobles, I believe. Lower born men would get the former. Burning was for heresy and women. I just went down a wiki rabbit hole I rather wish I hadn't.

I know! I only recently found out what 'drawing' meant, and the fact that they were still alive and aware of what was happening after the hanging.

There must be huge psychological divide between societies with capital punishment and those without

I suppose if you live with it you become desensitised to an extent, but I can't imagine that the horror and terror of climbing the scaffold to have your head cut off by an axeman who can't even be guaranteed to do the job cleanly would be any less then than it would be now...and that was considered the more humane form of execution, which of course it was. I'm glad I wasn't around then.

Actually drawing is being dragged to your execution on a hurdle behind a horse. Evisceration whilst still alive is actually not drawing - despite being by far the worst of the punishment it isn't actually mentioned at all in the phrase "hanged drawn and quartered". There was one rather ridiculous case once executions stopped taking place at Tyburn but took place outside the actual prison where the condemned were drawn around the prison yard before being got up and walked to the gallows. One of the prisoners got a bit bored with it and asked them to just get on with his execution...

In the novel Cromwell as a child witnesses the horror of a female heretic being burned at the stake. There was also the cook who was boiled alive after being accused of poisoning the Bishop of Rochester. A benign executioner could place a bag of gunpowder around the neck of someone about to be burned alive but this wasn't guaranteed to work. Cromwell wasn't afforded the mercy of being beheaded by sword rather than axe but, as a commoner, it could have been worse.

Not many people had the sword - Anne Boleyn was one of the only ones. All the noble men executed for adultery with her had the axe, and so did Catherine Howard.

Thanks, Londonmummy66, it's not always very clear.

The Rest is History did a great series recently on the French Revolution. They spent a whole episode on executions and the invention of the guillotine.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-rest-is-history/id1537788786?i=1000672957234

Sorry but that doesn't make sense. If "drawing" meant being dragged to the place of execution it would be "drawn, hung and quartered" - the order in which the events occurred.

In all the many books I've read it means drawing out the entrails of the living victim and their entrails being burned before their eyes.

That fits with the order of the words - Hung, Drawn and Quartered.

Plus there are lithographs depicting the scenes and you can see the entrails being removed while the condemned is laid on a table and the brazier is next to him

I've been doing a bit more reading, and it looks like 'drawn' is used both ways: being dragged before the execution, or watching as your entrails are pulled out.

Lydia Leonard played Anne Boleyn on stage, in the RSC version of Wolf Hall. She was good, too.

I'm amazed that anyone can call it reedy! Are we listening to the same actor?! His voice is beautiful

Thin, reedy voice?! I am genuinely perplexed.

I have a thing about voices and his voice is one of the most beautiful ( as mentioned earlier). Far from being irritated by his voice, I loved every syllable he spoke. What a brilliant actor

Mark Rylance is a renowned actor and audiobook narrator, celebrated for his captivating voice work and powerful performances across stage, screen, and audio. With his distinct, expressive voice and mastery of storytelling, Mark brings depth and nuance to every audiobook he narrates, making him a favourite among listeners.

The last paragraph is a quote!

I loved the entire series, but the programme really brought home to me how brutal those times were. Obviously I was aware of the horrific manner of many punitive deaths during those times, but flipping heck, that series really brought it home to me.

I certainly wouldn't call his voice 'thin and reedy'. I think it the timbre sounds rather old for his age, which is ~10 years older than Cromwell at this point. (DH and I are about Rylance's age).

He has a gorgeous voice. It's the only thing that makes Bing bearable to watch.