Mary Stuart

ACT II

SCENE I

London, a Hall in the Palace of Westminster. The EARL OF KENT and SIR WILLIAM DAVISON meeting.

DAVISON   Is that my Lord of Kent? So soon returned?   Is then the tourney, the carousal over?KENT   How now? Were you not present at the tilt?DAVISON   My office kept me here.KENT                Believe me, sir,   You've lost the fairest show which ever state   Devised, or graceful dignity performed:   For beauty's virgin fortress was presented   As by desire invested; the Earl-Marshal,   The Lord-High Admiral, and ten other knights   Belonging to the queen defended it,   And France's cavaliers led the attack.   A herald marched before the gallant troop,   And summoned, in a madrigal, the fortress;   And from the walls the chancellor replied;   And then the artillery was played, and nosegays   Breathing delicious fragrance were discharged   From neat field-pieces; but in vain, the storm   Was valiantly resisted, and desire   Was forced, unwillingly, to raise the siege.DAVISON   A sign of evil-boding, good my lord,   For the French Suitors.KENT                Why, you know that this   Was but in sport; when the attack's in earnest   The fortress will, no doubt, capitulate.DAVISON   Ha! think you so? I never can believe it.KENT   The hardest article of all is now   Adjusted and acceded to by France;   The Duke of Anjou is content to hold   His holy worship in a private chapel;   And openly he promises to honor   And to protect the realm's established faith.   Had ye but heard the people's joyful shouts   Where'er the tidings spread, for it has been   The country's constant fear the queen might die   Without immediate issue of her body;   And England bear again the Romish chains   If Mary Stuart should ascend the throne.DAVISON   This fear appears superfluous; she goes   Into the bridal chamber; Mary Stuart   Enters the gates of death.KENT                 The queen approaches.

SCENE II

Enter ELIZABETH, led in by LEICESTER, COUNT AUBESPINE, BELLIEVRE, LORDS SHREWSBURY and BURLEIGH, with other French and English gentlemen.

ELIZABETH (to AUBESPINE)   Count, I am sorry for these noblemen   Whose gallant zeal hath brought them over sea   To visit these our shores, that they, with us,   Must miss the splendor of St. Germain's court.   Such pompous festivals of godlike state   I cannot furnish as the royal court   Of France. A sober and contented people,   Which crowd around me with a thousand blessings   Whene'er in public I present myself:   This is the spectacle which I can show,   And not without some pride, to foreign eyes.   The splendor of the noble dames who bloom   In Catherine's beauteous garden would, I know,   Eclipse myself, and my more modest merits.AUBESPINE   The court of England has one lady only   To show the wondering foreigner; but all   That charms our hearts in the accomplished sex   Is seen united in her single person.BELLIEVRE   Great majesty of England, suffer us   To take our leave, and to our royal master,   The Duke of Anjou, bring the happy news.   The hot impatience of his heart would not   Permit him to remain at Paris; he   At Amiens awaits the joyful tidings;   And thence to Calais reach his posts to bring   With winged swiftness to his tranced ear   The sweet consent which, still we humbly hope,   Your royal lips will graciously pronounce.ELIZABETH   Press me no further now, Count Bellievre.   It is not now a time, I must repeat,   To kindle here the joyful marriage torch.   The heavens lower black and heavy o'er this land;   And weeds of mourning would become me better   Than the magnificence of bridal robes.   A fatal blow is aimed against my heart;   A blow which threatens to oppress my house.BELLIEVRE   We only ask your majesty to promise   Your royal hand when brighter days shall come.ELIZABETH   Monarchs are but the slaves of their condition;   They dare not hear the dictates of their hearts;   My wish was ever to remain unmarried,   And I had placed my greatest pride in this,   That men hereafter on my tomb might read,   "Here rests the virgin queen." But my good subjects   Are not content that this should be: they think,   E'en now they often think upon the time   When I shall be no more. 'Tis not enough   That blessings now are showered upon this land;   They ask a sacrifice for future welfare,   And I must offer up my liberty,   My virgin liberty, my greatest good,   To satisfy my people. Thus they'd force   A lord and master on me. 'Tis by this   I see that I am nothing but a woman   In their regard; and yet methought that I   Had governed like a man, and like a king.   Well wot I that it is not serving God   To quit the laws of nature; and that those   Who here have ruled before me merit praise,   That they have oped the cloister gates, and given   Thousands of victims of ill-taught devotion   Back to the duties of humanity.   But yet a queen who hath not spent her days   In fruitless, idle contemplation; who,   Without murmur, indefatigably   Performs the hardest of all duties; she   Should be exempted from that natural law   Which doth ordain one half of human kind   Shall ever be subservient to the other.AUBESPINE   Great queen, you have upon your throne done honor   To every virtue; nothing now remains   But to the sex, whose greatest boast you are   To be the leading star, and give the great   Example of its most consistent duties.   'Tis true, the man exists not who deserves   That you to him should sacrifice your freedom;   Yet if a hero's soul, descent, and rank,   And manly beauty can make mortal man   Deserving of this honor —ELIZABETH                 Without doubt,   My lord ambassador, a marriage union   With France's royal son would do me honor;   Yes, I acknowledge it without disguise,   If it must be, if I cannot prevent it,   If I must yield unto my people's prayers,   And much I fear they will o'erpower me,   I do not know in Europe any prince   To whom with less reluctance I would yield   My greatest treasure, my dear liberty.   Let this confession satisfy your master.BELLIEVRE   It gives the fairest hope, and yet it gives   Nothing but hope; my master wishes more.ELIZABETH   What wishes he?

[She takes a ring from her finger, and thoughtfully examines it.

            In this a queen has not   One privilege above all other women.   This common token marks one common duty,   One common servitude; the ring denotes   Marriage, and 'tis of rings a chain is formed.   Convey this present to his highness; 'tis   As yet no chain, it binds me not as yet,   But out of it may grow a link to bind me.BELLIEVRE (kneeling)   This present, in his name, upon my knees,   I do receive, great queen, and press the kiss   Of homage on the hand of her who is   Henceforth my princess.ELIZABETH (to the EARL OF LEICESTER, whom she, during the last speeches, had continually regarded)                By your leave, my lord.

[She takes the blue ribbon from his neck [1], and invests Bellievre

      with it.   Invest his highness with this ornament,   As I invest you with it, and receive you   Into the duties of my gallant order.   And, "Honi soit qui mal y pense." Thus perish   All jealousy between our several realms,   And let the bond of confidence unite   Henceforth, the crowns of Britain and of France.BELLIEVRE   Most sovereign queen, this is a day of joy;   Oh that it could be so for all, and no   Afflicted heart within this island mourn.   See! mercy beams upon thy radiant brow;   Let the reflection of its cheering light   Fall on a wretched princess, who concerns   Britain and France alike.ELIZABETH                 No further, count!   Let us not mix two inconsistent things;   If France be truly anxious for my hand,   It must partake my interests, and renounce   Alliance with my foes.AUBESPINE               In thine own eyes   Would she not seem to act unworthily,   If in this joyous treaty she forgot   This hapless queen, the widow of her king;   In whose behalf her honor and her faith   Are bound to plead for grace.ELIZABETH                   Thus urged, I know   To rate this intercession at its worth;   France has discharged her duties as a friend,   I will fulfil my own as England's queen.

[She bows to the French ambassadors, who, with the other gentlemen, retire respectfully.

[Till the time of Charles the First, the Knights of the Garter wore the blue ribbon with the George about their necks, as they still do the collars, on great days. – TRANSLATOR.]

SCENE III

Enter BURLEIGH, LEICESTER, and TALBOT.

The QUEEN takes her seat.

BURLEIGH   Illustrious sovereign, thou crown'st to-day   The fervent wishes of thy people; now   We can rejoice in the propitious days   Which thou bestowest upon us; and we look   No more with fear and trembling towards the time   Which, charged with storms, futurity presented.   Now, but one only care disturbs this land;   It is a sacrifice which every voice   Demands; Oh! grant but this and England's peace   Will be established now and evermore.ELIZABETH   What wish they still, my lord? Speak.BURLEIGH                       They demand   The Stuart's head. If to thy people thou   Wouldst now secure the precious boon of freedom,   And the fair light of truth so dearly won,   Then she must die; if we are not to live   In endless terror for thy precious life   The enemy must fall; for well thou know'st   That all thy Britons are not true alike;   Romish idolatry has still its friends   In secret, in this island, who foment   The hatred of our enemies. Their hearts   All turn toward this Stuart; they are leagued   With the two plotting brothers of Lorrain,   The foes inveterate of thy house and name.   'Gainst thee this raging faction hath declared   A war of desolation, which they wage   With the deceitful instruments of hell.   At Rheims, the cardinal archbishop's see,   There is the arsenal from which they dart   These lightnings; there the school of regicide;   Thence, in a thousand shapes disguised, are sent   Their secret missionaries to this isle;   Their bold and daring zealots; for from thence   Have we not seen the third assassin come?   And inexhausted is the direful breed   Of secret enemies in this abyss.   While in her castle sits at Fotheringay,   The Ate1 of this everlasting war,   Who, with the torch of love, spreads flames around;   For her who sheds delusive hopes on all,   Youth dedicates itself to certain death;   To set her free is the pretence – the aim   Is to establish her upon the throne.   For this accursed House of Guise denies   Thy sacred right; and in their mouths thou art   A robber of the throne, whom chance has crowned.   By them this thoughtless woman was deluded,   Proudly to style herself the Queen of England;   No peace can be with her, and with her house;

[Their hatred is too bloody, and their crimes

   Too great;] thou must resolve to strike, or suffer —   Her life is death to thee, her death thy life.ELIZABETH   My lord, you bear a melancholy office;   I know the purity which guides your zeal,   The solid wisdom which informs your speech;   And yet I hate this wisdom, when it calls   For blood, I hate it in my inmost soul.   Think of a milder counsel – Good my Lord   Of Shrewsbury, we crave your judgment here.TALBOT[Desire you but to know, most gracious queen,   What is for your advantage, I can add   Nothing to what my lord high-treasurer   Has urged; then, for your welfare, let the sentence   Be now confirmed – this much is proved already:   There is no surer method to avert   The danger from your head and from the state.   Should you in this reject our true advice,   You can dismiss your council. We are placed   Here as your counsellors, but to consult   The welfare of this land, and with our knowledge   And our experience we are bound to serve you!   But in what's good and just, most gracious queen,   You have no need of counsellors, your conscience   Knows it full well, and it is written there.   Nay, it were overstepping our commission   If we attempted to instruct you in it.ELIZABETH   Yet speak, my worthy Lord of Shrewsbury,   'Tis not our understanding fails alone,   Our heart too feels it wants some sage advice.]TALBOT   Well did you praise the upright zeal which fires   Lord Burleigh's loyal breast; my bosom, too,   Although my tongue be not so eloquent,   Beats with no weaker, no less faithful pulse.   Long may you live, my queen, to be the joy   Of your delighted people, to prolong   Peace and its envied blessings in this realm.   Ne'er hath this isle beheld such happy days   Since it was governed by its native kings.   Oh, let it never buy its happiness   With its good name; at least, may Talbot's eyes   Be closed in death e'er this shall come to pass.ELIZABETH   Forbid it, heaven, that our good name be stained!TALBOT   Then must you find some other way than this   To save thy kingdom, for the sentence passed   Of death against the Stuart is unjust.   You cannot upon her pronounce a sentence   Who is not subject to you.ELIZABETH                 Then, it seems,   My council and my parliament have erred;   Each bench of justice in the land is wrong,   Which did with one accord admit this right.TALBOT (after a pause)   The proof of justice lies not in the voice   Of numbers; England's not the world, nor is   Thy parliament the focus, which collects   The vast opinion of the human race.   This present England is no more the future   Than 'tis the past; as inclination changes,   Thus ever ebbs and flows the unstable tide   Of public judgment. Say not, then, that thou   Must act as stern necessity compels,   That thou must yield to the importunate   Petitions of thy people; every hour   Thou canst experience that thy will is free.   Make trial, and declare thou hatest blood,   And that thou wilt protect thy sister's life;   Show those who wish to give thee other counsels,   That here thy royal anger is not feigned,   And thou shalt see how stern necessity   Can vanish, and what once was titled justice   Into injustice be converted: thou   Thyself must pass the sentence, thou alone   Trust not to this unsteady, trembling reed,   But hear the gracious dictates of thy heart.   God hath not planted rigor in the frame   Of woman; and the founders of this realm,   Who to the female hand have not denied   The reins of government, intend by this   To show that mercy, not severity,   Is the best virtue to adorn a crown.ELIZABETH   Lord Shrewsbury is a fervent advocate   For mine and England's enemy; I must   Prefer those counsellors who wish my welfare.TALBOT   Her advocates have an invidious task!   None will, by speaking in her favor, dare   To meet thy anger: stiffer, then, an old   And faithful counsellor (whom naught on earth   Can tempt on the grave's brink) to exercise   The pious duty of humanity.   It never shall be said that, in thy council,   Passion and interest could find a tongue,   While mercy's pleading voice alone was mute,   All circumstances have conspired against her;   Thou ne'er hast seen her face, and nothing speaks   Within thy breast for one that's stranger to thee.   I do not take the part of her misdeeds;   They say 'twas she who planned her husband's murder:   'Tis true that she espoused his murderer.   A grievous crime, no doubt; but then it happened   In darksome days of trouble and dismay,   In the stern agony of civil war,   When she, a woman, helpless and hemmed in   By a rude crowd of rebel vassals, sought   Protection in a powerful chieftain's arms.   God knows what arts were used to overcome her!   For woman is a weak and fragile thing.ELIZABETH   Woman's not weak; there are heroic souls   Among the sex; and, in my presence, sir,   I do forbid to speak of woman's weakness.TALBOT   Misfortune was for thee a rigid school;   Thou wast not stationed on the sunny side   Of life; thou sawest no throne, from far, before thee;   The grave was gaping for thee at thy feet.   At Woodstock, and in London's gloomy tower,   'Twas there the gracious father of this land   Taught thee to know thy duty, by misfortune.   No flatterer sought thee there: there learned thy soul,   Far from the noisy world and its distractions,   To commune with itself, to think apart,   And estimate the real goods of life.   No God protected this poor sufferer:   Transplanted in her early youth to France,   The court of levity and thoughtless joys,   There, in the round of constant dissipation,   She never heard the earnest voice of truth;   She was deluded by the glare of vice,   And driven onward by the stream of ruin.   Hers was the vain possession of a face,   And she outshone all others of her sex   As far in beauty, as in noble birth.ELIZABETH   Collect yourself, my Lord of Shrewsbury;   Bethink you we are met in solemn council.   Those charms must surely be without compare,   Which can engender, in an elder's blood,   Such fire. My Lord of Leicester, you alone   Are silent; does the subject which has made   Him eloquent, deprive you of your speech?LEICESTER   Amazement ties my tongue, my queen, to think   That they should fill thy soul with such alarms,   And that the idle tales, which, in the streets,   Of London, terrify the people's ears,   Should reach the enlightened circle of thy council,   And gravely occupy our statesmen's minds.   Astonishment possesses me, I own,   To think this lackland Queen of Scotland, she   Who could not save her own poor throne, the jest   Of her own vassals, and her country's refuse,

[Who in her fairest days of freedom, was

   But thy despised puppet,] should become   At once thy terror when a prisoner.   What, in Heaven's name, can make her formidable?   That she lays claim to England? that the Guises   Will not acknowledge thee as queen?

[Did then Thy people's loyal fealty await

   These Guises' approbation?] Can these Guises,   With their objections, ever shake the right   Which birth hath given thee; which, with one consent,   The votes of parliament have ratified?   And is not she, by Henry's will, passed o'er   In silence? Is it probable that England,   As yet so blessed in the new light's enjoyment,   Should throw itself into this papist's arms?   From thee, the sovereign it adores, desert   To Darnley's murderess? What will they then,   These restless men, who even in thy lifetime   Torment thee with a successor; who cannot   Dispose of thee in marriage soon enough   To rescue church and state from fancied peril?   Stand'st thou not blooming there in youthful prime   While each step leads her towards the expecting tomb?   By Heavens, I hope thou wilt full many a year   Walk o'er the Stuart's grave, and ne'er become   Thyself the instrument of her sad end.BURLEIGH   Lord Leicester hath not always held this tone.LEICESTER   'Tis true, I in the court of justice gave   My verdict for her death; here, in the council,   I may consistently speak otherwise   Here, right is not the question, but advantage.   Is this a time to fear her power, when France,   Her only succor, has abandoned her?   When thou preparest with thy hand to bless   The royal son of France, when the fair hope   Of a new, glorious stem of sovereigns   Begins again to blossom in this land?   Why hasten then her death? She's dead already.   Contempt and scorn are death to her; take heed   Lest ill-timed pity call her into life.   'Tis therefore my advice to leave the sentence,   By which her life is forfeit, in full force.   Let her live on; but let her live beneath   The headsman's axe, and, from the very hour   One arm is lifted for her, let it fall.ELIZABETH (rises)   My lords, I now have heard your several thoughts,   And give my ardent thanks for this your zeal.   With God's assistance, who the hearts of kings   Illumines, I will weigh your arguments,   And choose what best my judgment shall approve.

[To BURLEIGH.

[Lord Burleigh's honest fears, I know it well,   Are but the offspring of his faithful care;   But yet, Lord Leicester has most truly said,   There is no need of haste; our enemy   Hath lost already her most dangerous sting —   The mighty arm of France: the fear that she   Might quickly be the victim of their zealWill curb the blind impatience of her friends.]

SCENE IV

Enter SIR AMIAS PAULET and MORTIMER.

ELIZABETH   There's Sir Amias Paulet; noble sir,   What tidings bring you?PAULET                Gracious sovereign,   My nephew, who but lately is returned   From foreign travel, kneels before thy feet,   And offers thee his first and earliest homage,   Grant him thy royal grace, and let him grow   And flourish in the sunshine of thy favor.MORTIMER (kneeling on one knee)   Long live my royal mistress! Happiness   And glory from a crown to grace her brows!ELIZABETH   Arise, sir knight; and welcome here in England;   You've made, I hear, the tour, have been in France   And Rome, and tarried, too, some time at Rheims:   Tell me what plots our enemies are hatching?MORTIMER   May God confound them all! And may the darts   Which they shall aim against my sovereign,   Recoiling, strike their own perfidious breasts!ELIZABETH   Did you see Morgan, and the wily Bishop   Of Ross?MORTIMER        I saw, my queen, all Scottish exiles   Who forge at Rheims their plots against this realm.   I stole into their confidence in hopes   To learn some hint of their conspiracies.PAULET   Private despatches they intrusted to him,   In cyphers, for the Queen of Scots, which he,   With loyal hand, hath given up to us.ELIZABETH   Say, what are then their latest plans of treason?MORTIMER   It struck them all as 'twere a thunderbolt,   That France should leave them, and with England close   This firm alliance; now they turn their hopes   Towards Spain —ELIZABETH            This, Walsingham hath written us.MORTIMER   Besides, a bull, which from the Vatican   Pope Sixtus lately levelled at thy throne,   Arrived at Rheims, as I was leaving it;   With the next ship we may expect it here.LEICESTER   England no more is frightened by such arms.BURLEIGH   They're always dangerous in bigots' hands.ELIZABETH (looking steadfastly at MORTIMER)   Your enemies have said that you frequented   The schools at Rheims, and have abjured your faith.MORTIMER   So I pretended, that I must confess;   Such was my anxious wish to serve my queen.ELIZABETH (to PAULET, who presents papers to her)   What have you there?PAULET              'Tis from the Queen of Scots.   'Tis a petition, and to thee addressed.BURLEIGH (hastily catching at it)   Give me the paper.PAULET (giving it to the QUEEN)             By your leave, my lord   High-treasurer; the lady ordered me   To bring it to her majesty's own hands.   She says I am her enemy; I am   The enemy of her offences only,   And that which is consistent with my duty   I will, and readily, oblige her in.

[The QUEEN takes the letter: as she reads it MORTIMER and LEICESTER speak some words in private.

BURLEIGH (to PAULET)   What may the purport of the letter be?   Idle complaints, from which one ought to screen   The queen's too tender heart.PAULET                   What it contains   She did not hide from me; she asks a boon;   She begs to be admitted to the grace   Of speaking with the queen.BURLEIGH                  It cannot be.TALBOT   Why not? Her supplication's not unjust.BURLEIGH   For her, the base encourager of murder;   Her, who hath thirsted for our sovereign's blood,   The privilege to see the royal presence   Is forfeited: a faithful counsellor   Can never give this treacherous advice.TALBOT   And if the queen is gracious, sir, are you   The man to hinder pity's soft emotions?BURLEIGH   She is condemned to death; her head is laid   Beneath the axe, and it would ill become   The queen to see a death-devoted head.   The sentence cannot have its execution   If the queen's majesty approaches her,   For pardon still attends the royal presence,   As sickness flies the health-dispensing hand.ELIZABETH (having read the letter, dries her tears)   Oh, what is man! What is the bliss of earth!   To what extremities is she reduced   Who with such proud and splendid hopes began!   Who, called to sit on the most ancient throne   Of Christendom, misled by vain ambition,   Hoped with a triple crown to deck her brows!   How is her language altered, since the time   When she assumed the arms of England's crown,   And by the flatterers of her court was styled   Sole monarch of the two Britannic isles!   Forgive me, lords, my heart is cleft in twain,   Anguish possesses me, and my soul bleeds   To think that earthly goods are so unstable,   And that the dreadful fate which rules mankind   Should threaten mine own house, and scowl so near me.TALBOT   Oh, queen! the God of mercy hath informed   Your heart; Oh! hearken to this heavenly guidance.   Most grievously, indeed, hath she atoned.   Her grievous crime, and it is time that now,   At last, her heavy penance have an end.   Stretch forth your hand to raise this abject queen,   And, like the luminous vision of an angel,   Descend into her gaol's sepulchral night.BURLEIGH   Be steadfast, mighty queen; let no emotion   Of seeming laudable humanity   Mislead thee; take not from thyself the power   Of acting as necessity commands.   Thou canst not pardon her, thou canst not save her:   Then heap not on thyself the odious blame,   That thou, with cruel and contemptuous triumph,   Didst glut thyself with gazing on thy victim.LEICESTER   Let us, my lords, remain within our bounds;   The queen is wise, and doth not need our counsels   To lead her to the most becoming choice.   This meeting of the queens hath naught in common   With the proceedings of the court of justice.   The law of England, not the monarch's will,   Condemns the Queen of Scotland, and 'twere worthy   Of the great soul of Queen Elizabeth,   To follow the soft dictates of her heart,   Though justice swerves not from its rigid path.ELIZABETH   Retire, my lords. We shall, perhaps, find means   To reconcile the tender claims of pity   With what necessity imposes on us.   And now retire.

[The LORDS retire; she calls SIR EDWARD MORTIMER back.