Week 10: 'Alas, What Shall I Do For Love?' (Part 1)
‘Tell me in what day there were not spies.’ he says. ‘There was a child in More’s house, Dick Purser, More took him in out of guilt after he was orphaned — I cannot say more killed the father outright, but he had him in the pillory and in the Tower, and it broke his health. Dick told the other boys he did not believe God was in the Communion host, so More had him whipped before the whole household. now I have brought him here. What else could I do? I will take in any others he ill-treats.’
Week 17: The Map of Christendom (Part 2) / To Wolf Hall
Purser asks to come to More’s trial and execution. Cromwell comforts him.
'It's done and forgotten now. Don't cry.' He comes from behind his desk. Dick Purser drops his shorn head against his shoulder and bawls, in shame, in relief, in triumph that soon he will have outlived his tormentor.
Week 30: Wreckage (I)
When the Damascene cat escapes up a tree, Dick Purser is in the garden, trying to get it down. Richard Cromwell puts his money on the keeper of the guard dogs. His uncle bets on the cat.
Week 42: The Image of the King (Part 2/2) / Broken on the Body
Dick Purser is with the Cromwell clan at court, in charge of a greyhound for Lady Mary, when they have a confrontation with the Earl of Surrey.
Week 44: Corpus Christi (Part 1/2)
June, 1538. Dick Purser shows Cromwell the beavers from Danzig. ‘Three alive. Let us hope not all of them after one kind. None of us are minded to pick them up and see if they have pintles.’