Trial by Laughter

WILLIAM HONE – thirty-seven. Shy, mild-mannered and genial bookseller and satirist who has the inner steel to take on the Crown and government.

GEORGE CRUIKSHANK – twenty-five (fifty in last scene). The scabrous cartoonist and Hone’s partner in crime. Penniless, drunk and dissolute, he renounces booze by the end of the play.

SARAH HONE – thirty-five. Hone’s long-suffering but fiercely loyal wife, who is mother to their eight children while running Hone’s shop and business when he’s in jail.

LORD ELLENBOROUGH – sixty-seven. Hone’s nemesis. The bullying Cumbrian Lord Chief Justice who will stop at nothing to win the case.

SIR SAMUEL SHEPHERD – fifty-seven. Crown Prosecutor. Incapable of keeping the trials serious.

LORD SIDMOUTH – sixty. Home Secretary. Keen to pass the buck for the government’s failure to stop Hone.

JUSTICE ABBOTT – sixty. Judge in the first trial. Powerless to stop the courtroom descending into farce. Makes the cardinal error of acting constitutionally.

GEORGE, PRINCE REGENT – fifty-four. None too bright and renowned for his debauchery, mistresses and excess, the Prince Regent sided with the Tories to stamp on press freedom.

LADY HERTFORD – fifty-seven. Prince George’s mistress, who is a figure of fun in the press and mercilessly (and no doubt unfairly) attacked for her appearance.

LADY CONYNGHAM – thirty-seven. Lady Hertford’s love rival in Court. Smarter than Lady Hertford, and considerably more waspish.

DUKE OF YORK – fifty-three. The Prince Regent’s brother, who is equally as debauched, and the source of ridicule through the “Grand Old Duke of York” song – which he will never live down.

WILLIAM HAZLITT – thirty-eight. A caustic wit and essayist, Hazlitt despised almost all humanity – but admired Hone.

MR SOUTHALL – thirties. An admirer of Mr Hazlitt.

MARY – thirties. A visitor to Hone while he is in jail, Mary may tempt him, but is not all who she seems.

CLERK IN COURT – twenties. Can’t contain his fits of the giggles.

OFFICER – twenties. Initially aggressive, he gets to like and sympathise with Hone.

SHERIFF – twenties. Officious, but unable to control the court.

ELIZA FENNING – twenty. One of Hone’s many causes. Hanged for allegedly putting arsenic in dumplings, and victim of a miscarriage of justice – proved by Hone.

MOURNER – thirty. A young writer who admired Hone, but only met him as he was dying.

YOUTH BY BOOKSHOP – seventeen.

CUB REPORTER – twenties.

WEATHERILL – twenty-five. A student who is arrested at Hone’s trial.

FOREMAN OF JURY – forties. (may just be a voice off).

FLUNKY – twenties. Cocky and grovelling in equal measure.

TAVERN REVELLER – singer of bawdy songs.

YOUTH

FEMALE ADMIRER/VIEWER

MAN IN CROWD

BALLADEER/TAVERN REVELLER