Mary Stuart

MARY   Excellent man! All is not lost, indeed,   While such a friend remains in my misfortunes!MORTIMER   Then he began, with moving eloquence,   To paint the sufferings of your martyrdom;   He showed me then your lofty pedigree,   And your descent from Tudor's royal house.   He proved to me that you alone have right   To reign in England, not this upstart queen,   The base-born fruit of an adult'rous bed,   Whom Henry's self rejected as a bastard.

[He from my eyes removed delusion's mist,

   And taught me to lament you as a victim,   To honor you as my true queen, whom I,   Deceived, like thousands of my noble fellows,   Had ever hated as my country's foe.]   I would not trust his evidence alone;   I questioned learned doctors; I consulted   The most authentic books of heraldry;   And every man of knowledge whom I asked   Confirmed to me your claim's validity.   And now I know that your undoubted right   To England's throne has been your only wrong,   This realm is justly yours by heritage,   In which you innocently pine as prisoner.MARY   Oh, this unhappy right! – 'tis this alone   Which is the source of all my sufferings.MORTIMER   Just at this time the tidings reached my ears   Of your removal from old Talbot's charge,   And your committal to my uncle's care.   It seemed to me that this disposal marked   The wond'rous, outstretched hand of favoring heaven;   It seemed to be a loud decree of fate,   That it had chosen me to rescue you.   My friends concur with me; the cardinal   Bestows on me his counsel and his blessing,   And tutors me in the hard task of feigning.   The plan in haste digested, I commenced   My journey homewards, and ten days ago   On England's shores I landed. Oh, my queen.

[He pauses.

   I saw then, not your picture, but yourself —   Oh, what a treasure do these walls enclose!   No prison this, but the abode of gods,   More splendid far than England's royal court.   Happy, thrice happy he, whose envied lot   Permits to breathe the selfsame air with you!   It is a prudent policy in her   To bury you so deep! All England's youth   Would rise at once in general mutiny,   And not a sword lie quiet in its sheath:   Rebellion would uprear its giant head,   Through all this peaceful isle, if Britons once   Beheld their captive queen.MARY                  'Twere well with her,   If every Briton saw her with your eyes!MORTIMER   Were each, like me, a witness of your wrongs,   Your meekness, and the noble fortitude   With which you suffer these indignities —   Would you not then emerge from all these trials   Like a true queen? Your prison's infamy,   Hath it despoiled your beauty of its charms?   You are deprived of all that graces life,   Yet round you life and light eternal beam.   Ne'er on this threshold can I set my foot,   That my poor heart with anguish is not torn,   Nor ravished with delight at gazing on you.   Yet fearfully the fatal time draws near,   And danger hourly growing presses on.   I can delay no longer – can no more   Conceal the dreadful news.MARY                 My sentence then!   It is pronounced? Speak freely – I can bear it.MORTIMER   It is pronounced! The two-and-forty judges   Have given the verdict, "guilty"; and the Houses   Of Lords and Commons, with the citizens   Of London, eagerly and urgently   Demand the execution of the sentence: —   The queen alone still craftily delays,   That she may be constrained to yield, but not   From feelings of humanity or mercy.MARY (collected)   Sir, I am not surprised, nor terrified.   I have been long prepared for such a message.   Too well I know my judges. After all   Their cruel treatment I can well conceive   They dare not now restore my liberty.   I know their aim: they mean to keep me here   In everlasting bondage, and to bury,   In the sepulchral darkness of my prison,   My vengeance with me, and my rightful claims.MORTIMER   Oh, no, my gracious queen; – they stop not there:   Oppression will not be content to do   Its work by halves: – as long as e'en you live,   Distrust and fear will haunt the English queen.   No dungeon can inter you deep enough;   Your death alone can make her throne secure.MARY   Will she then dare, regardless of the shame,   Lay my crowned head upon the fatal block?MORTIMER   She will most surely dare it, doubt it not.MARY   And can she thus roll in the very dust   Her own, and every monarch's majesty?MORTIMER   She thinks on nothing now but present danger,   Nor looks to that which is so far removed.MARY   And fears she not the dread revenge of France?MORTIMER   With France she makes an everlasting peace;   And gives to Anjou's duke her throne and hand.MARY   Will not the King of Spain rise up in arms?MORTIMER   She fears not a collected world in arms?   If with her people she remains at peace.MARY   Were this a spectacle for British eyes?MORTIMER   This land, my queen, has, in these latter days,   Seen many a royal woman from the throne   Descend and mount the scaffold: – her own mother   And Catherine Howard trod this fatal path;   And was not Lady Grey a crowned head?MARY (after a pause)   No, Mortimer, vain fears have blinded you;   'Tis but the honest care of your true heart,   Which conjures up these empty apprehensions.   It is not, sir, the scaffold that I fear:   There are so many still and secret means   By which her majesty of England may   Set all my claims to rest. Oh, trust me, ere   An executioner is found for me,   Assassins will be hired to do their work.   'Tis that which makes me tremble, Mortimer:   I never lift the goblet to my lips   Without an inward shuddering, lest the draught   May have been mingled by my sister's love.MORTIMER   No: – neither open or disguised murder   Shall e'er prevail against you: – fear no more;   All is prepared; – twelve nobles of the land   Are my confederates, and have pledged to-day,   Upon the sacrament, their faith to free you,   With dauntless arm, from this captivity.   Count Aubespine, the French ambassador,   Knows of our plot, and offers his assistance:   'Tis in his palace that we hold our meetings.NARY   You make me tremble, sir, but not for joy!   An evil boding penetrates my heart.   Know you, then, what you risk? Are you not scared   By Babington and Tichburn's bloody heads,   Set up as warnings upon London's bridge?   Nor by the ruin of those many victims   Who have, in such attempts, found certain death,   And only made my chains the heavier?   Fly hence, deluded, most unhappy youth!   Fly, if there yet be time for you, before   That crafty spy, Lord Burleigh, track your schemes,   And mix his traitors in your secret plots.   Fly hence: – as yet, success hath never smiled   On Mary Stuart's champions.MORTIMER                  I am not scared   By Babington and Tichburn's bloody heads   Set up as warnings upon London's bridge;   Nor by the ruin of those many victims   Who have, in such attempts, found certain death:   They also found therein immortal honor,   And death, in rescuing you, is dearest bliss.MARY   It is in vain: nor force nor guile can save me: —   My enemies are watchful, and the power   Is in their hands. It is not Paulet only   And his dependent host; all England guards   My prison gates: Elizabeth's free will   Alone can open them.MORTIMER              Expect not that.MARY   One man alone on earth can open them.MORTIMER   Oh, let me know his name!MARY                 Lord Leicester.MORTIMER                         He!

[Starts back in wonder.

   The Earl of Leicester! Your most bloody foe,   The favorite of Elizabeth! through him —MARY   If I am to be saved at all, 'twill be   Through him, and him alone. Go to him, sir;   Freely confide in him: and, as a proof   You come from me, present this paper to him.

[She takes a paper from her bosom; MORTIMER draws back,

      and hesitates to take it.   It doth contain my portrait: – take it, sir;   I've borne it long about me; but your uncle's   Close watchfulness has cut me off from all   Communication with him; – you were sent   By my good angel.

[He takes it.

MORTIMER             Oh, my queen! Explain   This mystery.MARY           Lord Leicester will resolve it.   Confide in him, and he'll confide in you.   Who comes?KENNEDY (entering hastily)         'Tis Paulet; and he brings with him   A nobleman from court.MORTIMER               It is Lord Burleigh.   Collect yourself, my queen, and strive to hear   The news he brings with equanimity.

[He retires through a side door, and KENNEDY follows him.

SCENE VII

Enter LORD BURLEIGH, and PAULET.

PAULET (to MARY)   You wished to-day assurance of your fate;   My Lord of Burleigh brings it to you now;   Hear it with resignation, as beseems you.MARY   I hope with dignity, as it becomes   My innocence, and my exalted station.BURLEIGH   I come deputed from the court of justice.MARY   Lord Burleigh lends that court his willing tongue,   Which was already guided by his spirit.PAULET   You speak as if no stranger to the sentence.MARY   Lord Burleigh brings it; therefore do I know it.PAULET

[It would become you better, Lady Stuart,

   To listen less to hatred.MARY                 I but name   My enemy: I said not that I hate him.]   But to the matter, sir.BURLEIGH                You have acknowledged   The jurisdiction of the two-and-forty.MARY   My lord, excuse me, if I am obliged   So soon to interrupt you. I acknowledged,   Say you, the competence of the commission?   I never have acknowledged it, my lord;   How could I so? I could not give away   My own prerogative, the intrusted rights   Of my own people, the inheritance   Of my own son, and every monarch's honor

[The very laws of England say I could not.]

   It is enacted by the English laws   That every one who stands arraigned of crime   Shall plead before a jury of his equals:   Who is my equal in this high commission?   Kings only are my peers.BURLEIGH                But yet you heard   The points of accusation, answered them   Before the court —MARY             'Tis true, I was deceived   By Hatton's crafty counsel: – he advised me,   For my own honor, and in confidence   In my good cause, and my most strong defence,   To listen to the points of accusation,   And prove their falsehoods. This, my lord, I did   From personal respect for the lords' names,   Not their usurped charge, which I disclaim.BURLEIGH   Acknowledge you the court, or not, that is   Only a point of mere formality,   Which cannot here arrest the course of justice.   You breathe the air of England; you enjoy   The law's protection, and its benefits;   You therefore are its subject.MARY                   Sir, I breathe   The air within an English prison walls:   Is that to live in England; to enjoy   Protection from its laws? I scarcely know   And never have I pledged my faith to keep them.   I am no member of this realm; I am   An independent, and a foreign queen.BURLEIGH   And do you think that the mere name of queen   Can serve you as a charter to foment   In other countries, with impunity,   This bloody discord? Where would be the state's   Security, if the stern sword of justice   Could not as freely smite the guilty brow   Of the imperial stranger as the beggar's?MARY   I do not wish to be exempt from judgment,   It is the judges only I disclaim.BURLEIGH   The judges? How now, madam? Are they then   Base wretches, snatched at hazard from the crowd?   Vile wranglers that make sale of truth and justice;   Oppression's willing hirelings, and its tools?   Are they not all the foremost of this land,   Too independent to be else than honest,   And too exalted not to soar above   The fear of kings, or base servility?   Are they not those who rule a generous people   In liberty and justice; men, whose names   I need but mention to dispel each doubt,   Each mean suspicion which is raised against them?   Stands not the reverend primate at their head,   The pious shepherd of his faithful people,   The learned Talbot, keeper of the seals,   And Howard, who commands our conquering fleets?   Say, then, could England's sovereign do more   Than, out of all the monarchy, elect   The very noblest, and appoint them judges   In this great suit? And were it probable   That party hatred could corrupt one heart;   Can forty chosen men unite to speak   A sentence just as passion gives command?MARY (after a short pause)   I am struck dumb by that tongue's eloquence,   Which ever was so ominous to me.   And how shall I, a weak, untutored woman,   Cope with so subtle, learned an orator?   Yes truly; were these lords as you describe them,   I must be mute; my cause were lost indeed,   Beyond all hope, if they pronounce me guilty.   But, sir, these names, which you are pleased to praise,   These very men, whose weight you think will crush me,   I see performing in the history   Of these dominions very different parts:   I see this high nobility of England,   This grave majestic senate of the realm,   Like to an eastern monarch's vilest slaves,   Flatter my uncle Henry's sultan fancies:   I see this noble, reverend House of Lords,   Venal alike with the corrupted Commons,   Make statutes and annul them, ratify   A marriage and dissolve it, as the voice   Of power commands: to-day it disinherits,   And brands the royal daughters of the realm   With the vile name of bastards, and to-morrow   Crowns them as queens, and leads them to the throne.   I see them in four reigns, with pliant conscience,   Four times abjure their faith; renounce the pope   With Henry, yet retain the old belief;   Reform themselves with Edward; hear the mass   Again with Mary; with Elizabeth,   Who governs now, reform themselves again.BURLEIGH   You say you are not versed in England's laws,   You seem well read, methinks, in her disasters.MARY   And these men are my judges?

[As LORD BURLEIGH seems to wish to speak.

                  My lord treasurer,   Towards you I will be just, be you but just   To me. 'Tis said that you consult with zeal   The good of England, and of England's queen;   Are honest, watchful, indefatigable;   I will believe it. Not your private ends,   Your sovereign and your country's weal alone,   Inspire your counsels and direct your deeds.   Therefore, my noble lord, you should the more   Distrust your heart; should see that you mistake not   The welfare of the government for justice.   I do not doubt, besides yourself, there are   Among my judges many upright men:   But they are Protestants, are eager all   For England's quiet, and they sit in judgment   On me, the Queen of Scotland, and the papist.   It is an ancient saying, that the Scots   And England to each other are unjust;   And hence the rightful custom that a Scot   Against an Englishman, or Englishman   Against a Scot, cannot be heard in judgment.   Necessity prescribed this cautious law;   Deep policy oft lies in ancient customs:   My lord, we must respect them. Nature cast   Into the ocean these two fiery nations   Upon this plank, and she divided it   Unequally, and bade them fight for it.   The narrow bed of Tweed alone divides   These daring spirits; often hath the blood   Of the contending parties dyed its waves.   Threatening, and sword in hand, these thousand years,   From both its banks they watch their rival's motions,   Most vigilant and true confederates,   With every enemy of the neighbor state.   No foe oppresses England, but the Scot   Becomes his firm ally; no civil war   Inflames the towns of Scotland, but the English   Add fuel to the fire: this raging hate   Will never be extinguished till, at last,   One parliament in concord shall unite them,   One common sceptre rule throughout the isle.BURLEIGH   And from a Stuart, then, should England hope   This happiness?MARY            Oh! why should I deny it?   Yes, I confess, I cherished the fond hope;   I thought myself the happy instrument   To join in freedom, 'neath the olive's shade,   Two generous realms in lasting happiness!   I little thought I should become the victim   Of their old hate, their long-lived jealousy;   And the sad flames of that unhappy strife,   I hoped at last to smother, and forever:   And, as my ancestor, great Richmond, joined   The rival roses after bloody contest,   To join in peace the Scotch and English crowns.BURLEIGH   An evil way you took to this good end,   To set the realm on fire, and through the flames   Of civil war to strive to mount the throne.MARY   I wished not that: – I wished it not, by Heaven!   When did I strive at that? Where are your proofs?BURLEIGH   I came not hither to dispute; your cause   Is no more subject to a war of words.   The great majority of forty voices   Hath found that you have contravened the law   Last year enacted, and have now incurred   Its penalty.      [Producing the verdict.MARY          Upon this statute, then,   My lord, is built the verdict of my judges?BURLEIGH (reading)   Last year it was enacted, "If a plot   Henceforth should rise in England, in the name   Or for the benefit of any claimant   To England's crown, that justice should be done   On such pretender, and the guilty party   Be prosecuted unto death." Now, since   It has been proved —MARY              Lord Burleigh, I can well   Imagine that a law expressly aimed   At me, and framed to compass my destruction   May to my prejudice be used. Oh! Woe   To the unhappy victim, when the tongue   That frames the law shall execute the sentence.   Can you deny it, sir, that this same statute   Was made for my destruction, and naught else?BURLEIGH   It should have acted as a warning to you:   By your imprudence it became a snare.   You saw the precipice which yawned before you;   Yet, truly warned, you plunged into the deep.   With Babington, the traitor, and his bands   Of murderous companions, were you leagued.   You knew of all, and from your prison led   Their treasonous plottings with a deep-laid plan.MARY   When did I that, my lord? Let them produce   The documents.BURLEIGH           You have already seen them   They were before the court, presented to you.MARY   Mere copies written by another hand;   Show me the proof that they were dictated   By me, that they proceeded from my lips,   And in those very terms in which you read them.BURLEIGH   Before his execution, Babington   Confessed they were the same which he received.MARY   Why was he in his lifetime not produced   Before my face? Why was he then despatched   So quickly that he could not be confronted   With her whom he accused?BURLEIGH                 Besides, my lady,   Your secretaries, Curl and Nau, declare   On oath, they are the very selfsame letters   Which from your lips they faithfully transcribed.MARY   And on my menials' testimony, then,   I am condemned; upon the word of those   Who have betrayed me, me, their rightful queen!   Who in that very moment, when they came   As witnesses against me, broke their faith!BURLEIGH   You said yourself, you held your countryman   To be an upright, conscientious man.MARY   I thought him such; but 'tis the hour of danger   Alone, which tries the virtue of a man.

[He ever was an honest man, but weak

   In understanding; and his subtle comrade,   Whose faith, observe, I never answered for,   Might easily seduce him to write down   More than he should;] the rack may have compelled him   To say and to confess more than he knew.   He hoped to save himself by this false witness,   And thought it could not injure me – a queen.BURLEIGH   The oath he swore was free and unconstrained.MARY   But not before my face! How now, my lord?   The witnesses you name are still alive;   Let them appear against me face to face,   And there repeat what they have testified.   Why am I then denied that privilege,   That right which e'en the murderer enjoys?   I know from Talbot's mouth, my former keeper,   That in this reign a statute has been passed   Which orders that the plaintiff be confronted   With the defendant; is it so, good Paulet?   I e'er have known you as an honest man;   Now prove it to me; tell me, on your conscience,   If such a law exist or not in England?PAULET   Madam, there does: that is the law in England.   I must declare the truth.MARY                 Well, then, my lord,   If I am treated by the law of England   So hardly, when that law oppresses me,   Say, why avoid this selfsame country's law,   When 'tis for my advantage? Answer me;   Why was not Babington confronted with me?   Why not my servants, who are both alive?BURLEIGH   Be not so hasty, lady; 'tis not only   Your plot with Babington —MARY                 'Tis that alone   Which arms the law against me; that alone   From which I'm called upon to clear myself.   Stick to the point, my lord; evade it not.BURLEIGH   It has been proved that you have corresponded   With the ambassador of Spain, Mendoza —MARY   Stick to the point, my lord.BURLEIGH                  That you have formed   Conspiracies to overturn the fixed   Religion of the realm; that you have called   Into this kingdom foreign powers, and roused   All kings in Europe to a war with England.MARY   And were it so, my lord – though I deny it —   But e'en suppose it were so: I am kept   Imprisoned here against all laws of nations.   I came not into England sword in hand;   I came a suppliant; and at the hands   Of my imperial kinswoman I claimed   The sacred rights of hospitality,   When power seized upon me, and prepared   To rivet fetters where I hoped protection.   Say, is my conscience bound, then, to this realm?   What are the duties that I owe to England?   I should but exercise a sacred right,   Derived from sad necessity, if I   Warred with these bonds, encountered might with might,   Roused and incited every state in Europe   For my protection to unite in arms.   Whatever in a rightful war is just   And loyal, 'tis my right to exercise:   Murder alone, the secret, bloody deed,   My conscience and my pride alike forbid.   Murder would stain me, would dishonor me:   Dishonor me, my lord, but not condemn me,   Nor subject me to England's courts of law:   For 'tis not justice, but mere violence,   Which is the question 'tween myself and England.BURLEIGH (significantly)   Talk not, my lady, of the dreadful right   Of power: 'tis seldom on the prisoner's side.MARY   I am the weak, she is the mighty one:   'Tis well, my lord; let her, then, use her power;   Let her destroy me; let me bleed, that she   May live secure; but let her, then, confess   That she hath exercised her power alone,   And not contaminate the name of justice.   Let her not borrow from the laws the sword   To rid her of her hated enemy;   Let her not clothe in this religious garb   The bloody daring of licentious might;   Let not these juggling tricks deceive the world.

[Returning the sentence.

   Though she may murder me, she cannot judge me:   Let her no longer strive to join the fruits   Of vice with virtue's fair and angel show;   But let her dare to seem the thing she is.

[Exit.

SCENE VIII

BURLEIGH, PAULET.

BURLEIGH   She scorns us, she defies us! will defy us,   Even at the scaffold's foot. This haughty heart   Is not to be subdued. Say, did the sentence   Surprise her? Did you see her shed one tear,   Or even change her color? She disdains   To make appeal to our compassion. Well   She knows the wavering mind of England's queen.   Our apprehensions make her bold.PAULET                    My lord,   Take the pretext away which buoys it up,   And you shall see this proud defiance fail   That very moment. I must say, my lord,   Irregularities have been allowed   In these proceedings; Babington and Ballard   Should have been brought, with her two secretaries,   Before her, face to face.BURLEIGH                 No, Paulet, no.   That was not to be risked; her influence   Upon the human heart is too supreme;   Too strong the female empire of her tears.   Her secretary, Curl, if brought before her,   And called upon to speak the weighty word   On which her life depends, would straight shrink back   And fearfully revoke his own confession.PAULET   Then England's enemies will fill the world   With evil rumors; and the formal pomp   Of these proceedings to the minds of all   Will only signalize an act of outrage.BURLEIGH   That is the greatest torment of our queen,   [That she can never 'scape the blame. Oh God!]   Had but this lovely mischief died before   She set her faithless foot on English ground.PAULET   Amen, say I!BURLEIGH          Had sickness but consumed her!PAULET   England had been secured from such misfortune.BURLEIGH   And yet, if she had died in nature's course,   The world would still have called us murderers.PAULET   'Tis true, the world will think, despite of us,   Whate'er it list.BURLEIGH             Yet could it not be proved?   And it would make less noise.PAULET                   Why, let it make   What noise it may. It is not clamorous blame,   'Tis righteous censure only which can wound.BURLEIGH   We know that holy justice cannot 'scape   The voice of censure; and the public cry   Is ever on the side of the unhappy:   Envy pursues the laurelled conqueror;   The sword of justice, which adorns the man,   Is hateful in a woman's hand; the world   Will give no credit to a woman's justice   If woman be the victim. Vain that we,   The judges, spoke what conscience dictated;   She has the royal privilege of mercy;   She must exert it: 'twere not to be borne,   Should she let justice take its full career.PAULET   And therefore —BURLEIGH            Therefore should she live? Oh, no,   She must not live; it must not be. 'Tis this,   Even this, my friend, which so disturbs the queen,   And scares all slumber from her couch; I read   Her soul's distracting contest in her eyes:   She fears to speak her wishes, yet her looks,   Her silent looks, significantly ask,   "Is there not one amongst my many servants   To save me from this sad alternative?   Either to tremble in eternal fear   Upon my throne, or else to sacrifice   A queen of my own kindred on the block?"PAULET   'Tis even so; nor can it be avoided —BURLEIGH   Well might it be avoided, thinks the queen,   If she had only more attentive servants.PAULET   How more attentive?BURLEIGH              Such as could interpret   A silent mandate.PAULET             What? A silent mandate!BURLEIGH   Who, when a poisonous adder is delivered   Into their hands, would keep the treacherous charge   As if it were a sacred, precious jewel?PAULET   A precious jewel is the queen's good name   And spotless reputation: good my lord,   One cannot guard it with sufficient care.BURLEIGH   When out of Shrewsbury's hands the Queen of Scots   Was trusted to Sir Amias Paulet's care,   The meaning was —PAULET             I hope to God, my lord,   The meaning was to give the weightiest charge   Into the purest hands; my lord, my lord!   By heaven I had disdained this bailiff's office   Had I not thought the service claimed the care   Of the best man that England's realm can boast.   Let me not think I am indebted for it   To anything but my unblemished name.BURLEIGH   Spread the report she wastes; grows sicker still   And sicker; and expires at last in peace;   Thus will she perish in the world's remembrance,   And your good name is pure.PAULET                  But not my conscience.BURLEIGH   Though you refuse us, sir, your own assistance,   You will not sure prevent another's hand.PAULET   No murderer's foot shall e'er approach her threshold   Whilst she's protected by my household gods.   Her life's a sacred trust; to me the head   Of Queen Elizabeth is not more sacred.   Ye are the judges; judge, and break the staff;   And when 'tis time then let the carpenter   With axe and saw appear to build the scaffold.   My castle's portals shall be open to him,   The sheriff and the executioners:   Till then she is intrusted to my care;   And be assured I will fulfil my trust,   She shall nor do nor suffer what's unjust.[Exeunt