Demetrius

MEISCHEK   My gracious liege, here, kneeling at your feet,   Behold Marina, youngest of my daughters;   The prince of Moscow offers her his heart.   Thou art the stay and pillar of our house,   And only from thy royal hand 'tis meet   That she receive her spouse and sovereign.

[MARINA kneels to the KING.

KING   Well, if you wish it, cousin, gladly I   Will do the father's office to the Czar.

[To DEMETRIUS, giving him MARINA'S hand.

   Thus do I bring you, in this lovely pledge,   High fortune's blooming goddess; and may these   Old eyes be spared to see this gracious pair   Sit in imperial state on Moscow's throne.MARINA   My liege, I humbly thank your grace, and shall   Esteem me still your slave where'er I be.KING   Rise up, Czaritza! This is not a place   For you, the plighted bridesmaid of the Czar;   For you, the daughter of my foremost Waywode.   You are the youngest of your sisters; yet   Your spirit wings a high and glorious course,   And nobly grasps the top of sovereignty.DEMETRIUS   Be thou, great monarch, witness of my oath,   As, prince to prince, I pledge it here to you!   This noble lady's hand I do accept   As fortune's dearest pledge, and swear that, soon   As on my father's throne I take my seat,   I'll lead her home in triumph as my bride,   With all the state that fits a mighty queen.   And, for a dowry, to my bride I give   The principalities Pleskow and Great Neugart,   With all towns, hamlets, and in-dwellers there,   With all the rights and powers of sovereignty,   In absolute possession evermore;   And this, my gift, will I as Czar confirm   In my free city, Moscow. Furthermore,   As compensation to her noble sire   For present charges, I engage to pay   A million ducats, Polish currency.   So help me God, and all his saints, as I   Have truly sworn this oath, and shall fulfil it.KING   You will do so; you never will forget   For what you are the noble Waywode's debtor;   Who, for your wishes, perils his sure wealth,   And, for your hopes, a child his heart adores,   A friend so rare is to be rarely prized!   Then when your hopes are crowned forget not ever   The steps by which you mounted to the throne,   Nor with your garments let your heart be changed!   Think, that in Poland first you knew yourself,   That this land gave you birth a second time.DEMETRIUS   I have been nurtured in adversity;   And learned to reverence the beauteous bond   Which links mankind with sympathies of love.KING   But now you enter on a realm where all —   Use, custom, morals – are untried and strange,   In Poland here reigns freedom absolute;   The king himself, although in pomp supreme,   Must ofttime be the serf of his noblesse;   But there the father's sacred power prevails,   And in the subject finds a passive slave.DEMETRIUS   That glorious freedom which surrounds me here   I will transplant into my native land,   And turn these bond-serfs into glad-souled men;   Not o'er the souls of slaves will I bear rule.KING   Do naught in haste; but by the time be led!   Prince, ere we part, three lessons take from me,   And truly follow them when thou art king.   It is a king that gives them, old and tried,   And they may prove of profit to thy youth.DEMETRIUS   Oh, share thy wisdom with me! Thou hast won   The reverence of a free and mighty people;   What must I do to earn so fair a prize?KING         You come from a strange land,   Borne on the weapons of a foreign foe;   This first felt wrong thou hast to wash away.   Then bear thee like a genuine son of Moscow,   With reverence due to all her usages.   Keep promise with the Poles, and value them,   For thou hast need of friends on thy new throne:   The arm that placed thee there can hurl thee down.   Esteem them honorably, yet ape them not;   Strange customs thrive not in a foreign soil.   And, whatsoe'er thou dost, revere thy mother —   You'll find a mother —DEMETRIUS               Oh, my liege!KING                       High claim   Hath she upon thy filial reverence.   Do her all honor. 'Twixt thy subjects and   Thyself she stands, a sacred, precious link.   No human law o'errides the imperial power;   Nothing but nature may command its awe;   Nor can thy people own a surer pledge,   That thou art gentle, than thy filial love.   I say no more. Much yet is to be done,   Ere thou mak'st booty of the golden fleece.   Expect no easy victory!   Czar Boris rules with strong and skilful hand;   You take the field against no common man.   He that by merit hath achieved the throne,   Is not puffed from his seat by popular breath;   His deeds do serve to him for ancestors.   To your good fortune I commend you now;   Already twice, as by a miracle,   Hath it redeemed you from the grasp of death;   'Twill put the finish on its work, and crown you.

[Exeunt omnes but MARINA and ODOWALSKY.

ODOWALSKY   Say, lady, how have I fulfilled my charge?   Truly and well, and wilt thou laud my zeal?MARINA   'Tis, Odowalsky, well we are alone;   Matters of weight have we to canvass which   'Tis meet the prince know nothing of. May he   Pursue the voice divine that goads him on!   If in himself he have belief, the world   Will catch the flame, and give him credence too.   He must be kept in that vague, shadowing mist,   Which is a fruitful mother of great deeds,   While we see clear, and act in certainty.   He lends the name – the inspiration; we   Must bear the brain, the shaping thought, for him;   And when, by art and craft, we have insured   The needful levies, let him still dream on,   And think they dropped, to aid him, from the clouds.ODOWALSKY   Give thy commands: I live but for thy service.   Think'st thou this Moscovite or his affairs   Concern my thoughts? 'Tis thou, thou and thy glory   For which I will adventure life and all.   For me no fortune blossoms; friendless, landless,   I dare not let my hopes aspire to thee.   Thy grace I may not win, but I'll deserve it.   To make thee great be my one only aim;   Then, though another should possess thee, still   Thou wilt be mine – being what I have made thee.MARINA   Therefore my whole heart do I pledge to thee;   To thee I trust the acting of my thoughts.   The king doth mean us false. I read him through.   'Twas a concerted farce with Sapieha,   A juggle, all! 'Twould please him well, belike,   To see my father's power, which he dreads deeply,   Enfeebled in this enterprise – the league   Of the noblesse, which shook his heart with fear,   Drawn off in this campaign on foreign bounds,   While he himself sits neutral in the fray.   He thinks to share our fortune, if we win;   And if we lose, he hopes with greater ease   To fix on us the bondage of his yoke.   We stand alone. This die is cast. If he   Cares for himself, we shall be selfish too.   You lead the troops to Kioff. There let them swear   Allegiance to the prince, and unto me; —   Mark you, to me! 'Tis needful for our ends.   I want your eye, and not your arm alone.ODOWALSKY   Command me – speak —MARINA             You lead the Czarowitsch.   Keep your eye on him; stir not from his side,   Render me 'count of every step he makes.ODOWALSKY   Rely on me, he'll never cast us off.MARINA   No man is grateful. Once his throne is sure,   He'll not be slow to cast our bonds aside.   The Russian hates the Pole – must hate him ever;   No bond of amity can link their hearts.

Enter OPALINSKY, BIELSKY, and several Polish noblemen.

OPALINSKY   Fair patron, get us gold, and we march with you,   This lengthened Diet has consumed our all.   Let us have gold, we'll make thee Russia's queen.MARINA   The Bishop of Kaminieck and Culm   Lends money on the pawn of land and serfs.   Sell, barter, pledge the hamlets of your boors,   Turn all to silver, horses, means of war!   War is the best of chapmen. He transmutes   Iron into gold. Whate'er you now may lose   You'll find in Moscow twenty-fold again.BIELSKY   Two hundred more wait in the tavern yonder;   If you will show yourself, and drain a cup   With them, they're yours, all yours – I know them well.MARINA   Expect me! You shall introduce me to them.OPALINSKY   'Tis plain that you were born to be a queen.MARINA   I was, and therefore I must be a queen.BIELSKY   Ay, mount the snow-white steed, thine armor on,   And so, a second Vanda, lead thy troops,   Inspired by thee, to certain victory.MARINA   My spirit leads you. War is not for women.   The rendezvous is in Kioff. Thither my father   Will lead a levy of three thousand horse.   My sister's husband gives two thousand more,   And the Don sends a Cossack host in aid.   Do you all swear you will be true to me?ALL   All, all – we swear! (draw their swords.)   Vivat Marina, Russiae Regina!

[MARINA tears her veil in pieces, and divides it among them.

Exeunt omnes but MARINA.

Enter MEISCHEK.

MARINA   Wherefore so sad, when fortune smiles on us,   When every step thrives to our utmost wish,   And all around are arming in our cause?MEISCHEK   'Tis even because of this, my child! All, all   Is staked upon the cast. Thy father's means   Are in these warlike preparations swamped.   I have much cause to ponder seriously;   Fortune is false, uncertain the result.   Mad, venturous girl, what hast thou brought me to?   What a weak father have I been, that I   Did not withstand thy importunities!   I am the richest Waywode of the empire,   The next in honor to the king. Had we   But been content to be so, and enjoyed   Our stately fortunes with a tranquil soul!   Thy hopes soared higher – not for thee sufficed   The moderate station which thy sisters won.   Thou wouldst attain the loftiest mark that can   By mortals be achieved, and wear a crown.   I, thy fond, foolish father, longed to heap   On thee, my darling one, all glorious gains,   So by thy prayers I let myself be fooled,   And peril my sure fortunes on a chance.MARINA   How? My dear father, dost thou rue thy goodness?   Who with the meaner prize can live content,   When o'er his head the noblest courts his grasp?MEISCHEK   Thy sisters wear no crowns, yet they are happy.MARINA   What happiness is that to leave the home   Of the Waywode, my father, for the house   Of some count palatine, a grateful bride?   What do I gain of new from such a change?   And can I joy in looking to the morrow   When it brings naught but what was stale to-day?   Oh, tasteless round of petty, worn pursuits!   Oh, wearisome monotony of life!   Are they a guerdon for high hopes, high aims?   Or love or greatness I must have: all else   Are unto me alike indifferent.   Smooth off the trouble from thy brow, dear father!   Let's trust the stream that bears us on its breast,   Think not upon the sacrifice thou makest,   Think on the prize, the goal that's to be won —   When thou shalt see thy daughter robed in state,   In regal state, aloft on Moscow's throne,   And thy son's sons the rulers of the world!MEISCHEK   I think of naught, see naught, but thee, my child,   Girt with the splendors of the imperial crown.   Thou'rt bent to have it; I cannot gainsay thee.MARINA   Yet one request, my dearest, best of fathers,   I pray you grant me!MEISCHEK              Name thy wish, my child.MARINA   Shall I remain shut up at Sambor with   The fires of boundless longing in my breast?   Beyond the Dnieper will my die be cast,   While boundless space divides me from the spot;   Can I endure it? Oh, the impatient spirit   Will lie upon the rack of expectation   And measure out this monstrous length of space   With groans and anxious throbbings of the heart.MEISCHEK   What dost thou wish? What is it thou wouldst have?MARINA   Let me abide the issue in Kioff!   There I can gather tidings at their source.   There on the frontier of both kingdoms —MEISCHEK   Thy spirit's over-bold. Restrain it, child!MARINA   Yes, thou dost yield, – thou'lt take me with thee, then?MEISCHEK   Thou rulest me. Must I not do thy will?MARINA   My own dear father, when I am Moscow's queen   Kioff, you know, must be our boundary.   Kioff must then be mine, and thou shalt rule it.MEISCHEK   Thou dreamest, girl! Already the great Moscow   Is for thy soul too narrow; thou, to grasp   Domains, wilt strip them from thy native land.MARINA   Kioff belonged not to our native land;   There the Varegers ruled in days of yore.   I have the ancient chronicles by heart;   'Twas from the Russian empire wrenched by force.   I will restore it to its former crown.MEISCHEK   Hush, hush! The Waywode must not hear such talk.

[Trumpet without. They're breaking up.

ACT II

SCENE I

A Greek convent in a bleak district near the sea Belozero.

A train of nuns, in black robes and veils, passes over the back of the stage. MARFA, in a white veil, stands apart from the others, leaning on a tombstone. OLGA steps out from the train, remains gazing at her for a time, and then advances to her.

OLGA   And does thy heart not urge thee forth with us   To taste reviving nature's opening sweets?   The glad sun comes, the long, long night retires,   The ice melts in the streams, and soon the sledge   Will to the boat give place and summer swallow.   The world awakes once more, and the new joy   Woos all to leave their narrow cloister cells   For the bright air and freshening breath of spring.   And wilt thou only, sunk in lasting grief,   Refuse to share the general exultation?MARFA   On with the rest, and leave me to myself!   Let those rejoice who still have power to hope.   The time that puts fresh youth in all the world   Brings naught to me; to me the past is all,   My hopes, my joys are with the things that were.OLGA   Dost thou still mourn thy son – still, still lament   The sovereignty which thou has lost? Does time,   Which pours a balm on every wounded heart,   Lose all its potency with thee alone?   Thou wert the empress of this mighty realm,   The mother of a blooming son. He was   Snatched from thee by a dreadful destiny;   Into this dreary convent wert thou thrust,   Here on the verge of habitable earth.   Full sixteen times since that disastrous day   The face of nature hath renewed its youth;   Still have I seen no change come over thine,   That looked a grave amid a blooming world.   Thou'rt like some moonless image, carved in stone   By sculptor's chisel, that doth ever keep   The selfsame fixed unalterable mien.MARFA   Yes, time, fell time, hath signed and set me up   As a memorial of my dreadful fate.   I will not be at peace, will not forget.   That soul must be of poor and shallow stamp   Which takes a cure from time – a recompense   For what can never be compensated!   Nothing shall buy my sorrow from me. No,   As heaven's vault still goes with the wanderer,   Girds and environs him with boundless grasp,   Turn where he will, by sea or land, so goes   My anguish with me, wheresoe'er I turn;   It hems me round, like an unbounded sea;   My ceaseless tears have failed to drain its depths.OLGA   Oh, see! what news can yonder boy have brought,   The sisters round him throng so eagerly?   He comes from distant shores, where homes abound,   And brings us tidings from the land of men.   The sea is clear, the highways free once more.   Art thou not curious to learn his news?   Though to the world we are as good as dead,   Yet of its changes willingly we hear,   And, safe upon the shore, with wonder mark   The roar and ferment of the trampling waves.

[NUNS come down the stage with a FISHER BOY.

XENIA – HELENA   Speak, speak, and tell us all the news you bring.ALEXIA   Relate what's passing in the world beyond.FISHER BOY   Good, pious ladies, give me time to speak!XENIA   Is't war – or peace?ALEXIA              Who's now upon the throne?FISHER BOY   A ship is to Archangel just come in   From the north pole, where everything is ice.OLGA   How came a vessel into that wild sea?FISHER BOY   It is an English merchantman, and it   Has found a new way out to get to us.ALEXIA   What will not man adventure for his gain?XENIA   And so the world is nowhere to be barred!FISHER BOY   But that's the very smallest of the news.   'Tis something very different moves the world.ALEXIA   Oh, speak and tell us!OLGA               Say, what has occurred?FISHER BOY   We live to hear strange marvels nowadays:   The dead rise up, and come to life again.OLGA   Explain yourself.FISHER BOY             Prince Dmitri, Ivan's son,   Whom we have mourned for dead these sixteen years,   Is now alive, and has appeared in Poland.OLGA   The prince alive?   MARFA (starting).             My son!OLGA                 Compose thyself!   Calm down thy heart till we have learned the whole.ALEXIA   How can this possibly be so, when he   Was killed, and perished in the flames at Uglitsch?FISHER BOY   He managed somehow to escape the fire,   And found protection in a monastery.   There he grew up in secrecy, until   His time was come to publish who he was.OLGA (to MARFA)   You tremble, princess! You grow pale!MARFA                       I know   That it must be delusion, yet so little   Is my heart steeled 'gainst fear and hope e'en now,   That in my breast it flutters like a bird.OLGA   Why should it be delusion? Mark his words!   How could this rumor spread without good cause?FISHER BOY   Without good cause? The Lithuanians   And Poles are all in arms upon his side.   The Czar himself quakes in his capital.

[MARFA is compelled by her emotion to lean upon OLGA and ALEXIA.

XENIA   Speak on, speak, tell us everything you know.ALEXIA   And tell us, too, of whom you stole the news.FISHER BOY   I stole the news? A letter has gone forth   To every town and province from the Czar.   This letter the Posadmik of our town   Read to us all, in open market-place.   It bore, that busy schemers were abroad,   And that we should not lend their tales belief.   But this made us believe them; for, had they   Been false, the Czar would have despised the lie.MARFA   Is this the calm I thought I had achieved?   And clings my heart so close to temporal things,   That a mere word can shake my inward soul?   For sixteen years have I bewailed my son,   And yet at once believe that still he lives.OLGA   Sixteen long years thou'st mourned for him as dead,   And yet his ashes thou hast never seen!   Naught countervails the truth of the report.   Nay, does not Providence watch o'er the fate   Of kings and monarchies? Then welcome hope!   More things befall than thou canst comprehend.   Who can set limits to the Almighty's power?MARFA   Shall I turn back to look again on life,   To which long since I spoke a sad farewell?   It was not with the dead my hopes abode.   Oh, say no more of this. Let not my heart   Hang on this phantom hope! Let me not lose   My darling son a second time. Alas!   My peace of mind is gone, – my dream of peace   I cannot trust these tidings, – yet, alas,   I can no longer dash them from my soul!   Woe's me, I never lost my son till now.   Oh, now I can no longer tell if I   Shall seek him 'mongst the living or the dead,   Tossed on the rock of never-ending doubt.   OLGA [A bell sounds, – the sister PORTERESS enters.   Why has the bell been sounded, sister, say?PORTERESS   The lord archbishop waits without; he brings   A message from the Czar, and craves an audience.OLGA   Does the archbishop stand within our gates?   What strange occurrence can have brought him here?XENIA   Come all, and give him greeting as befits.

[They advance towards the gate as the ARCHBISHOP enters;

they all kneel before him, and he makes the sign of the Greek cross over them.

ARCHBISHOP   The kiss of peace I bring you in the name   Of Father, Son, and of the Holy Ghost,   Proceeding from the Father!OLGA                  Sir, we kiss   In humblest reverence thy paternal hand!            Command thy daughters!ARCHBISHOP   My mission is addressed to Sister Marfa.OLGA   See, here she stands, and waits to know thy will.

[All the NUNS withdraw.

ARCHBISHOP   It is the mighty prince who sends me here;   Upon his distant throne he thinks of thee;   For as the sun, with his great eye of flame,   Sheds light and plenty all abroad the world,   So sweeps the sovereign's eye on every side;   Even to the farthest limits of his realm   His care is wakeful and his glance is keen.MARFA   How far his arm can strike I know too well.ARCHBISHOP   He knows the lofty spirit fills thy soul,   And therefore feels indignantly the wrong   A bold-faced villain dares to offer thee.   Learn, then, in Poland, an audacious churl,   A renegade, who broke his monkish vows,   Laid down his habit, and renounced his God,   Doth use the name and title of thy son,   Whom death snatched from thee in his infancy.   The shameless varlet boasts him of thy blood,   And doth affect to be Czar Ivan's son;   A Waywode breaks the peace; from Poland leads   This spurious monarch, whom himself created,   Across our frontiers, with an armed power:   So he beguiles the Russians' faithful hearts,   And lures them on to treason and revolt.                   The Czar,   With pure, paternal feeling, sends me to thee.   Thou hold'st the manes of thy son in honor;   Nor wilt permit a bold adventurer   To steal his name and title from the tomb,   And with audacious hand usurp his rights.   Thou wilt proclaim aloud to all the world   That thou dost own him for no son of thine.   Thou wilt not nurse a bastard's alien blood   Upon thy heart, that beats so nobly; never!   Thou wilt – and this the Czar expects from thee —   Give the vile counterfeit the lie, with all   The righteous indignation it deserves.MARFA (who has during the last speech subdued the most violent emotion)   What do I hear, archbishop? Can it be?   Oh, tell me, by what signs and marks of proof   This bold-faced trickster doth uphold himself   As Ivan's son, whom we bewailed as dead?ARCHBISHOP   By some faint, shadowy likeness to the Czar,   By documents which chance threw in his way,   And by a precious trinket, which he shows,   He cheats the credulous and wondering mob.MARFA   What is the trinket? Oh, pray, tell me what?ARCHBISHOP   A golden cross, gemmed with nine emeralds,   Which Ivan Westislowsky, so he says,   Hung round his neck at the baptismal font.MARFA   What do you say? He shows this trinket, this?

[With forced composure.

   And how does he allege he came by it?ARCHBISHOP   A faithful servant and Diak, he says,   Preserved him from the assassins and the flames,   And bore him to Smolenskow privily.MARFA   But where was he brought up? Where, gives he forth,   Was he concealed and fostered until now?ARCHBISHOP   In Tschudow's monastery he was reared,   Unknowing who he was; from thence he fled   To Lithuania and Poland, where   He served the Prince of Sendomir, until   An accident revealed his origin.MARFA   With such a tale as this can he find friends   To peril life and fortune in his cause?ARCHBISHOP   Oh, madam, false, false-hearted is the Pole,   And enviously he eyes our country's wealth.   He welcomes every pretext that may serve   To light the flames of war within our bounds!MARFA   And were there credulous spirits, even in Moscow,   Could by this juggle be so lightly stirred?ARCHBISHOP   Oh, fickle, princess, is the people's heart!   They dote on alteration, and expect   To reap advantage from a change of rulers.   The bold assurance of the falsehood charms;   The marvellous finds favor and belief.   Therefore the Czar is anxious thou shouldst quell   This mad delusion, as thou only canst.   A word from thee annihilates the traitor   That falsely claims the title of thy son.   It joys me thus to see thee moved. I see   The audacious juggle rouses all thy pride,   And, with a noble anger paints thy cheek.MARFA   And where, where, tell me, does he tarry now,   Who dares usurp the title of my son?ARCHBISHOP   E'en now he's moving on to Tscherinsko;   His camp at Kioff has broke up, 'tis rumored;   And with a force of mounted Polish troops   And Don Cossacks, he comes to push his claims.MARFA   Oh, God Almighty, thanks, thanks, thanks, that thou   Hast sent me rescue and revenge at last!ARCHBISHOP   How, Marfa, how am I to construe this?MARFA   Ob, heavenly powers, conduct him safely here!   Hover, oh all ye angels, round his banners!ARCHBISHOP   Can it be so? The traitor, canst thou trust —MARFA   He is my son. Yes! by these signs alone   I recognize him. By thy Czar's alarm   I recognize him. Yes! He lives! He comes!   Down, tyrant, from thy throne, and shake with fear!   There still doth live a shoot from Rurik's stem;   The genuine Czar – the rightful heir draws nigh,   He comes to claim a reckoning for his own.ARCHBISHOP   Dost thou bethink thee what thou say'st? 'Tis madness!MARFA   At length – at length has dawned the day of vengeance,   Of restoration. Innocence is dragged   To light by heaven from the grave's midnight gloom.   The haughty Godunow, my deadly foe,   Must crouch and sue for mercy at my feet;   Oh, now my burning wishes are fulfilled!ARCHBISHOP   Can hate and rancorous malice blind you so?MARFA   Can terror blind your monarch so, that he   Should hope deliverance from me – from me —   Whom he hath done immeasurable wrong?   I shall, forsooth, deny the son whom heaven   Restores me by a miracle from the grave,   And to please him, the butcher of my house,   Who piled upon me woes unspeakable?   Yes, thrust from me the succor God has sent   In the sad evening of my heavy anguish?   No, thou escap'st me not. No, thou shalt hear me,   I have thee fast, I will not let thee free.   Oh, I can ease my bosom's load at last!   At last launch forth against mine enemy   The long-pent anger of my inmost soul!              Who was it, who,   That shut me up within this living tomb,   In all the strength and freshness of my youth,   With all its feelings glowing in my breast?   Who from my bosom rent my darling son,   And chartered ruffian hands to take his life?   Oh, words can never tell what I have suffered,   When, with a yearning that would not be still,   I watched throughout the long, long starry nights,   And noted with my tears the hours elapse!   The day of succor comes, and of revenge;   I see the mighty glorying in his might.ARCHBISHOP   You think the Czar will dread you – you mistake.MARFA   He's in my power – one little word from me,   One only, sets the seal upon his fate!   It was for this thy master sent thee here!   The eyes of Russia and of Poland now   Are closely bent upon me. If I own   The Czarowitsch as Ivan's son and mine,   Then all will do him homage; his the throne.   If I disown him, then he is undone;   For who will credit that his rightful mother,   A mother wronged, so foully wronged as I,   Could from her heart repulse its darling child,   To league with the despoilers of her house?   I need but speak one word and all the world   Deserts him as a traitor. Is't not so?   This word you wish from me. That mighty service,   Confess, I can perform for Godunow!ARCHBISHOP   Thou wouldst perform it for thy country, and   Avert the dread calamities of war,   Shouldst thou do homage to the truth. Thyself,   Ay, thou hast ne'er a doubt thy son is dead;   And couldst thou testify against thy conscience?MARFA   These sixteen years I've mourned his death; but yet   I ne'er have seen his ashes. I believed   His death, there trusting to the general voice   And my sad heart – I now believe he lives,   Trusting the general voice and my strong hope.   'Twere impious, with audacious doubts, to seek   To set a bound to the Almighty's will;   And even were he not my heart's dear son,   Yet should he be the son of my revenge.   In my child's room I take him to my breast,   Whom heaven has sent me to avenge my wrongs.ARCHBISHOP   Unhappy one, dost thou defy the strong?   From his far-reaching arm thou art not safe   Even in the convent's distant solitude.MARFA   Kill me he may, and stifle in the grave,   Or dungeon's gloom, my woman's voice, that it   Shall not reverberate throughout the world.   This he may do; but force me to speak aught   Against my will, that can he not; though backed   By all thy craft – no, he has missed his aim!ARCHBISHOP   Is this thy final purpose. Ponder well!   Hast thou no gentler message for the Czar?MARFA   Tell him to hope for heaven, if so he dare,   And for his people's love, if so he can.ARCHBISHOP   Enough! thou art bent on thy destruction.   Thou lean'st upon a reed, will break beneath thee;   One common ruin will o'erwhelm ye both.

[Exit.