Tableau représentant Marie Stuart, reine de France et d’Écosse. Château de Blois. Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blois_-_tableau_Marie_Stuart.jpg
Act One
A room in Fotheringhay Castle
Scene One
Hanna Kennedy, nurse of the Queen of Scotland, in sharp dispute with Paulet, who is about to open a cabinet. Drugeon Drury, his assistant, with a crowbar.
KENNEDY. Stand back, sir! What fresh impudence! Away from
This chest!
PAULET. Who was it threw down all those jewels?
Who? They were tossed down from the upper story
And meant to bribe the gardener. Women’s wiles!
For all my watching, for all my sharp searching,
Still secret valuables, still hidden treasure!
(Attacking the cabinet)
Where that was there is more!
KENNEDY. Back, shameless man!
The Lady’s secrets lie here.
PAULET. Just what I want! (Pulling out papers)
KENNEDY. Of no importance, idle jottings to shorten
The long, sad hours of her imprisonment.10
PAULET. Idleness is handmaid to the devil.
KENNEDY. These papers are all in French.
PAULET. So much the worse!
That language England’s enemy speaks.
KENNEDY. Drafts of letters
Intended for the Queen of England.
PAULET. I will
Deliver them. — Look here! What’s sparkling so?
(He has opened a secret compartment and lifts jewels from a hidden drawer.)
A royal coronet, all studded with stones,
Entwined and threaded by the lilies of France!1
(He gives it to his companion.)
Take care of it, Drury. Add it to the rest!
(Drury goes off.)
KENNEDY. Disgraceful force that we have to submit to!
PAULET. While she still has possessions, she can do harm.20
In her hands everything becomes a weapon.
KENNEDY. Have mercy, sir. Don’t take the last fine touch from
Our lives! Poor Lady! How she’s cheered by the sight of
Old splendor. You have taken all else away.
PAULET. It’s in good hands. And it will be returned
Safely and surely when the proper time comes.
KENNEDY. Who’d think from these bare walls to find a queen
Living here? Where’s the baldachin above
Her chair? Must she not set her foot, accustomed
To softness, on raw common flooring? With30
The coarsest pewter—plainest noblewomen
Would scorn it—they make bold to serve her table.
PAULET. That’s how she saw her husband served at Stirling,
While she drank out of gold cups with her lover.2
KENNEDY. The simplest looking-glass is even denied her.3
PAULET. As long as she can still see her vain image
She will not give up hoping—hoping and scheming.
KENNEDY. There are no books here to engage her mind.
PAULET. They gave her a Bible to improve her heart.
KENNEDY. Even her lute they took away from her.40
PAULET. Because she used to play her love songs on it.
KENNEDY. Is that a fate for one who’s gently bred,
Who was crowned queen while still in the cradle, and
Then brought up at the court of a Medici
Amid all excess, every possible pleasure?4
Be it enough to rob her of her power.
Must one begrudge her little trinkets as well?
A great misfortune teaches the noble heart
To find itself, but it is painful to be
Entirely robbed of life’s every 50small beauty.
PAULET. They only turn the heart to idle things,
When it should turn inward instead and repent.
A life of vice and excess is atoned
Alone by want, abasement, and repentance.
KENNEDY. If her tender years of youth went astray, may
She settle her accounts with God and her heart.
In England there is no judge over her.5
PAULET. She shall be judged where she committed her crimes.
KENNEDY. She is too tightly bound here to commit crimes.
PAULET. From these bonds she knew to extend an arm60
Into the world and fling the torch of civil
War into the Realm and against our Queen,
God save her, and to arm mutinous mobs.
From inside these walls did she not incite
The villain Parry and then Babington, too,6
To regicide, that damnable deed? Did iron bars
Keep her from catching Norfolk in her web?7
The best head on this Island fell to the axe,
Sacrificed to her. Did this wretched example
Deter the madmen who now fling themselves in70
Contest into the abyss on her account?
For her the scaffolds fill with ever new victims,
And that will not end till she, guiltiest of all,
Is sacrificed herself on a bloody scaffold.
Accursed the day when the hospitable shores
Surrounding this land received such a Helen!8
KENNEDY. Hospitable English shores received my Lady?
Unhappy creature, who since she set foot in
This land, a supplicant entreating help and
Protection from her reigning cousin, sees80
Herself, against her rank and common law,
Held captive, wasting her young years in confinement.
Who, having known the bitterness of prison,
Is summoned into court like a cut-throat and meanly
Accused on peril of her life—a queen!
PAULET. She came into this kingdom having murdered,9
Chased by her subjects and removed from her throne,
Which she had desecrated by her deeds.
Sworn against England’s fortunes now she came,
Intending to bring back the bloody times of
90The Spanish Mary,10 making England Catholic,
Betraying England to the hopeful French.
For why disdain to sign the Edinburgh Treaty,11
Renouncing all claim to the English throne
And opening a swift way out of her prison?
She’d remain captive, be maltreated, sooner
Than give up empty grandeur in a title.
Why did she do that? She preferred to trust plots,
The evil arts of schemes, conspiracies.
Spinning disaster, she dreams conquest. She’d
100Conquer this Island from the depths of her cell.
KENNEDY. You surely mock us, sir. To hardship you add
Derision. She should cherish dreams of this kind,
Walled up alive here, whom no sound of comfort
Reaches, no voice of friendship from her home?
Who sees no human face but that of her jailer,
Who now has a new guard, your ill-mannered kinsman,12
And sees herself caged round in new iron bars?
PAULET. No iron bar protects from her perfidy.
Do I know if these bars have not been filed through?110
If this floor and these walls that seem so solid
Have not been hollowed out inside, admitting
Treason while I’m asleep? A damnable office
I’ve gotten, guarding these wiles that hatch ruin.
Fear tosses me up out of sleep in the night,
I go about like a tormented specter,
Testing bolts on doors, good faith in the guards, and
Tremble each morning lest my fears have come true.
But to my great relief it’s soon to end,
For I would rather stand guard over the damned120
Before the gates of Hell than over this
Queen full of intrigue, queen full of wiles!
KENNEDY. She’s coming there herself!
PAULET. The Christ in her hand
Vainglory and worldly pleasures in her heart.
Scene Two
Mary, veiled and carrying a Crucifix. As above.
KENNEDY (hurrying to meet her).
My Queen! Just look! They’re trampling us underfoot!
Of harshness and tyranny there is no end!
Every new day heaps sorrows, heaps new shame
On your crowned head.
MARY. Come now! Compose yourself!
And tell me what new thing has happened.
KENNEDY. Look here!
Your desk is broken open. All your writings,130
Your last remaining treasure, salvaged at great pain,
The rest of bridal jewelry taken from France
Is now in his hands. Nothing royal is yours.
You have been robbed. There is now nothing left you.
MARY. Take comfort, Hanna. Tinsel such as this
Makes no queen. They can treat us basely but
They cannot abase us. Here in England I’ve learned,
Accustomed myself to much and this, too,
I can endure. (To Paulet) You, sir, have seized what I
Was minded to surrender to you today.140
Among these writings you will find a letter
Intended for my royal sister of England.
Give me your word that you’ll deliver it
To her in honor and not into Burghley’s13
Faithless hands.
PAULET. I’ll decide what is to be done.
MARY. You are to know the content, sir. In this letter
I sue for a great favor: I request
An interview with her, whom I’ve never seen.
One summoned me before a court composed
Of men whom I do not know as my equals,150
Men who are known to me only as strangers.
Elizabeth is my kinswoman, my rank,
My kind. To her alone, my sister, a queen,
A woman, am I able to speak freely.
PAULET. Often, my Lady, you’ve entrusted your honor
And fate to men less worthy your respect.
MARY. I ask another favor. To refuse me
Were inhumane. Imprisoned, I’m denied
The comforts of my Church, the blessing of Sacrament.
One who’s robbed me of crown and freedom, indeed160
Threatened my life, would not bar me from Heaven.
PAULET. If you desire, the local deacon would—
MARY (interrupting him sharply).
I’ll have no deacon. I demand a priest of
My Church. And scribes and notaries. I require to
Record my last will. Sorrow, wretched confinement
Shorten my life. My days are numbered, I fear,
And I consider myself bound for death.
PAULET. You do well. Such reflection much becomes you.
MARY. Can I be sure that no swift hand will speed the
Slow workings of my pain and grief? I wish170
To make my will, dispose of what is mine.
PAULET. That you are free to do. The Queen of England
Would not enrich herself by robbing you.
MARY. I have been separated from the ladies
Attending me and from my servants. Where are they?
What fate have they met? I can spare their service;
I would be assured they do not suffer or want.
PAULET. Your servants have been well provided for. (He turns to go.)
MARY. You are about to go? You’d leave me again
And not relieve my heart’s uncertainty?180
Thanks to your spies, I am removed from the world,
No news can reach me through these prison walls,
My fate lies in the hands of my enemies.
A long and painful month has passed since forty
Commissioners ambushed me here in this castle,
Erected barriers, with unseemly haste put
Me, unprepared and without counsel, before
A court no one had ever heard of, made me,
Surprised and stunned, respond then and there to
Sly legal points accusing me of grave crimes.190
Like specters they appeared and vanished again.
From that day all men have kept silent before me,
In vain I try to read your gaze and your glances:
Whether my innocence, the efforts of friends, or
My enemies’ foul influence has prevailed.
Break your long silence, let me know at last:
What must I fear—tell me—what dare I hope?14
PAULET (after a silence).
Settle all your accounts with Heaven, Madam.
MARY. I hope for Heaven’s mercy, sir, and from
My earthly judges I hope for strict justice.200
PAULET. Justice will be yours. Have no doubt of that.
MARY. My trial has been decided?
PAULET. I do not know.
MARY. I’ve been condemned?
PAULET. My Lady, I know nothing.
MARY. One goes to work with speed here. Is the assassin
To ambush me just as my judges did?
PAULET. Assume as much. He’ll find you better prepared.
MARY. Nothing a Westminster court presumes to find, led
By Burghley’s hate and Hatton’s zeal,15 shall shock me.
I know too well what England’s Queen dare do.
PAULET. England’s great rulers need fear but their conscience 210
And Parliament. What justice fearlessly has
Spoken, their might will execute in plain view.
Scene Three
As above. Mortimer, Paulet’s nephew, enters, ignoring the Queen.
MORTIMER (to Paulet). You’re wanted, Uncle.
(He goes off in the same fashion. The Queen turns to Paulet, who is about to follow.)
MARY. Yet another request, sir.
If you have something you would say to me—
From you I suffer much; I honor your years.
The insolence of such a youngster I’ll not
Endure. Spare me his uncouth manners henceforth.
PAULET. What you would not endure endears him to me.
He’s plainly not among the feeble fools
Whom women’s lying tears can soften soon.220
He’s traveled. He returns from Paris and Reims,
Bringing back home his loyal old-English heart.
On him your arts are lost entirely, my Lady.16 (He goes off.)
Scene Four
Mary. Kennedy.
KENNEDY. May that great boor say such things to your face?
Oh, it is hard!
MARY (lost in thought).
Back in our days of glory we heard flatterers
Too willingly. It’s meet to hear reproach now.
KENNEDY. So downcast, so discouraged, dearest Lady?
You, once so merry that you would console me?
I sooner had to scold your flightiness than230
To chide your darker moods.
MARY. Oh, I know him!17
The bloody shade of Darnley rises raging
Out of the grave, to give me no earthly peace
Until my wretchedness has reached full measure.
KENNEDY. What sort of thinking—
MARY. You forget, dear Hanna,
But I remember faithfully. Just see!
The day comes round again, the fateful deed.
In memory of him I fast and atone.18
KENNEDY. Lay this ghost, send this specter back to the grave.
You have atoned by years of pain and remorse.240
The Church and Heaven have long forgiven you.
MARY. Guilt long forgiven, bleeding afresh, rises
Again, young ever, out of its shallow grave.
My husband’s ghost demanding revenge—no Host
Raised in priest’s hand, no sound of the bell can send
It back down into its last resting place.
KENNEDY. No! It was not you! Others murdered him.
MARY. I knew about it, let the deed go forward,
I lured him, flattering his pride, into the trap.
KENNEDY. Your tender years soften your guilt. You were250
So young still.
MARY. So young and yet burdened my
Tender years with a guilt so heavy, so grave.
KENNEDY. A bloody insult angered you and the
Presumption of a man your love had lifted
From deep obscurity, like the hand of God,
Whom you led from your bridal bed to the throne,
Whom you enriched by giving him both your
Own person and your born right to the Crown.
Could he forget his more than brilliant lot
Was the creation of your love and great heart?260
Full well he forgot, offended delicacy
By low suspicion and crude practices.
Thus he made himself loathsome in your eyes.
The magic that had dazzled you went dark;
Enraged, you rose and fled his shameful embraces,
And laid him open to the general contempt.
And he? Did he try to win back your favor?
Or ask forgiveness? Throw himself at your feet,
Promise to mend his ways? Defiance he offered.
This man who was your creature wanted to play270
Your king. And had the singer Rizzio, your favorite,
Run through before your eyes.19 And you, the Queen,
Avenged with blood a deed so bloodily done.
MARY. And bloodily will it seek revenge on me, too.
Comforting me so, you make me guilty of it.
KENNEDY. You were not yourself when you let it happen.
Madness of love, blind love, had seized you and put you
Under the yoke of that seducer, that Bothwell.
A man’s overweening willfulness let him
Rule over you, brew hellish potions that280
Heated your senses—
MARY. He had no other arts
Than his strength of a man and my weakness.20
KENNEDY. No, I say. One who numbed all your senses had
To call for help from all the demons in Hell.
You had no ear for warnings from a friend,
No eye for bearing that becomes a queen.
Modesty had forsaken you; your cheeks, once
Given to blushing, flamed now with desire.
You flung away the veil of reticence,
A man’s bold vice crushed your timidity.290
Barefaced, you put your disgrace on display:
You had him, Darnley’s assassin, carry before you
The royal sword of Scotland through the streets
Of Edinburgh, cursed and scorned by the crowd; you
Surrounded Parliament with armed guards; in the
Temple of Justice you contrived his acquittal.
You did not stop there—God!
MARY. Go on and finish!
I married him, gave him my hand at the altar.
KENNEDY. May silence fall on such a deed! An outrage!
Worthy of one who’s lost. But you are not lost.300
I brought you up, I know you, know your soft heart,
Open to shame. Your sole vice is foolishness.
I tell you: There are evil spirits that
Come over us, do something dreadful, then
Flee back to Hell and leave us marked and aghast.
But since this wanton deed, which blackens your life,
You have committed no crime, I am witness.
Courage therefore! Make peace now with yourself!
Whatever your regrets, in England you’re guiltless.
Neither Elizabeth nor Parliament310
Can judge you. Force alone holds you. Before
This insolent court you may take your place
With all the courage of your innocence.
MARY. Who’s coming there?
(Mortimer appears in the doorway.)
KENNEDY. It is the nephew. Go in.
Scene Five
As above. Mortimer, entering cautiously.
MORTIMER (to the Nurse).
Go out. Keep watch before the door. I wish to
Speak with the Queen.
MARY (firmly). You stay here with me, Hanna.
MORTIMER. You need not fear, my Lady. Know who I am.
(He hands her a card.)
MARY (reads the card and steps back in surprise). Ha!
MORTIMER (to the Nurse). Go then, Dame Kennedy. See that my uncle
Does not surprise us.
MARY (to the Nurse, who hesitates). Go! Go! Do as he says.
(The Nurse goes out, baffled.)
Scene Six
Mortimer. Mary.
MARY. The Cardinal of Lorraine, my uncle!32021 He writes:
“Trust him who brings this, Mortimer, a knight.
You’ve no more loyal friend in all England.”
(Looking at Mortimer in astonishment)
It’s possible? No fraud? A friend so near, when
I thought myself abandoned by all the world—
I find him in my keeper’s nephew, in whom
I thought I saw my worst foe—
MORTIMER (throwing himself at her feet). Lady, forgive this
Despicable disguise that cost me much
But lets me come near you to offer you
Rescue and help.
MARY. Stand up. Oh, what a surprise!
How sudden this great leap to hope from despair!330
Speak, sir. Am I to believe this happiness?
MORTIMER (standing up). We’ve little time. My uncle is coming soon.
A hateful man comes with him. Before their terrible
Errand surprises you, learn Heaven’s rescue.
MARY. These are the workings of Almighty God!
MORTIMER. Permit me to begin with myself.
MARY. Speak, sir!
MORTIMER. Brought up and taught in strictest duty, my Queen, and
Black hate of popery, I was twenty when a
Resistless desire drove me to the Continent.
I left the puritans’ airless closets of preaching340
Behind in my homeland, crossed over France,
Seeking my precious Italy with my heart.
It was the festival time, all the ways
Were thronged with pilgrims, as if all humanity
Were wandering, making pilgrimage toward Heaven.
Their throng swept me along till I reached Rome.
What joy seized me, my Queen, as I arrived.
The victory arches and towering columns came
Toward me, the shining Colosseum embraced me,
A spirit of creation and high art350
Enclosed me in a serene wonderland!
I’d never known the power of the arts.
The church that raised me hates the charms of the senses,
Suffers no image, only bodiless words. And
What joy to enter those churches! Music cascaded
From Heaven, figures sprang in fullness from walls
And ceilings: the Annunciation, the birth of
Our Lord, the blessed Virgin, the Three in One come
Among us, and the glorious Transfiguration.
The Pope in splendor celebrated High Mass360
And blessed the people. What then is kings’ gold?
He only is divine, His house a Kingdom
Of Heaven, for these forms are not of this world.
MARY. Oh, spare me! Do not spread life’s carpet before me.
I am a prisoner deep in wretchedness.
MORTIMER. I too was one. The prison doors sprang open,
My spirit felt itself free, hailed life’s new day.
I cursed stale books, I swore to wreathe my temples
And dedicate myself to joyful things.
Noble Scots, lively Frenchmen brought me to370
Your worthy uncle, Cardinal Guise. What a man!
The model of a king’s priest, true Prince of the Church.
MARY. You saw him? Guide of my young years! Oh, say!
He thinks of me? Is still a rock of the Church?
MORTIMER. Graciously he became my teacher, showed me
That reason misleads, eyes must see, and that the
Faithful require a visible Head of the Church.
My childish notions vanished under his teaching
And his persuasion. I abandoned my error,
I believed, came back into the fold of the Church.380
MARY. Thus you are one of thousands whom he moved by
His speaking, like the Preacher on the Mount,22
And whom he led to their eternal salvation.
MORTIMER. When he was called back to France, he sent me to Reims,
Where Jesuits trained priests and sent them to England.23
I met the exiles Morgan and Lesley, learned
Bishop of Ross, there,24 in whose parlor I
Then saw a woman’s portrait of such charm,
So gripping I could not contain my feelings.
The Bishop said: “Full well might you be touched.390
The loveliest of women is the most pitiful.
She suffers for our faith—in your very country.”
MARY. An honest man! His constant friendship in
Misfortune shows me I have not yet lost all.
MORTIMER. He told me of your martyrdom, of your enemies’
Bloodlust, of your descent from Henry Tudor,
Your claim more strong than that false queen’s, a bastard
Whom Henry himself denied. I consulted,
Took counsel in law and heraldry. All things
Confirmed: Your just right to England is your injustice.400
The Realm belongs to you, is your possession,
Where, guiltless, you are held a prisoner.
MARY. Wretched right! The one source of all my sorrow!
MORTIMER. I learned you’d been removed from Talbot’s castle,
Delivered to my uncle. I saw Heaven’s
Rescue in this, fate’s call to lend you my arm
And free you. All agree. The Cardinal gives me
His blessing, teaches me the arts of disguise.
I turn toward home and land here ten days ago. (He pauses.)
I saw you, Lady, you yourself, no portrait.410
A treasure locked here in this castle—
No prison, this, instead a hall of the gods,
More brilliant than the royal court of England.
Happy the man who breathes this air with you!
Quite right that she should keep you hidden from view!
England’s youth would all rise up, insurrection
Sweep through the land, should Britons see their Queen.
MARY. Happy is she, should they see her with your eyes!
MORTIMER. Were they, like me, witness to your pain, your patience,
Composure before unworthy things. A queen still,420
You go forth from all trials, your beauty still brilliant.
Deprived of all things that make our lives sweet,
You yet live bathed always in light and life.
Just to behold you is torment and delight!
But let me not delay yet longer. One must
Decide, for danger presses. I’ll not conceal—
MARY. Judgment has fallen? I am able to hear it.
MORTIMER. Has fallen. Forty-two lords have found you guilty.
Both the Lords and the Commons, London, too,
Demand a speedy execution, only430
The Queen delays, a ruse so others will force her—
Not out of pity or intention to spare you.
MARY (composed). Sir Mortimer, you bring me no surprise,
No shock. I’ve long expected this outcome.
I know my judges. Given wrongs I have suffered,
One cannot set me free. I know what they aim for.
They’ll keep me in perpetual prison, bury
My claim to justice and my rightful revenge,
Along with me, in prison’s eternal night.
MORTIMER. They’ll not stop there, my Lady. Tyranny does its440
Work thoroughly. As long as you live, the fear
Of England’s Queen lives on. No prison can bury
You deep enough. Your death alone saves her throne.
MARY. She’d dare lay my crowned head down on the block?
MORTIMER. She will dare. Do not doubt it.
MARY. She would so blot
Her majesty and that of all Europe’s kings?
Does she not fear revenge exacted by France?
MORTIMER. She’ll soon conclude an endless peace with France.
She’s offered the Duke of Anjou hand and throne.25
MARY. The King of Spain will not declare war?450
MORTIMER. She
Does not fear a whole world at war as long
As she can count on peace at home—with her people.
MARY. She’d offer such a spectacle to Britons?
MORTIMER. Britons, my Lady, have seen lately more
Than one fair woman leave the throne for the scaffold.
Elizabeth’s own mother went that way
And Catherine Howard and young Lady Jane Grey.26
MARY (after a pause). Noble concern for me deceives you, Mortimer.
I fear no scaffold. Other means, more quiet,
Can assure England’s Queen peace from my claims.460
A murderer is hired before a headsman’s found.
That’s what I fear. I never set a wine glass
To my lips but I think it spiced with her love.
MORTIMER. Secret nor open murder shall succeed here.
For twelve young noblemen of the land in my
Alliance swore this morning on the Host
To lead you from this castle by force of arms.
Count Aubespine, French ambassador, knows of our vow
And offers help. We gather in his palace.
MARY. I tremble, sir, and not for pleasure. Do470
You know what you are doing? Babington’s
And Tichbourne’s bloody heads hoist up on pikes
On London Bridge—do they not warn you?27 Not
The countless others daring death like them?
Who only made my chains the heavier? Flee,
Misguided boy. Flee while there is still time. If
The sharp-eyed Burghley does not know of you,
Has not already set a traitor among you.
Flee from this realm! No happy man has ever
Saved Mary Stuart.480
MORTIMER. Neither Babington’s
Nor Tichbourne’s bloody head hoist up on pikes
On London Bridge, nor countless others daring
Death can deter me. Did they not all find
Eternal fame? My joy is dying to save you.
MARY. In vain! No force nor ruse can save me. No help.
The foe is ever watchful, power is his.
Not Paulet, not his watchmen—no!—all England
Hovers, keeps watch and guards my prison’s gates.
Elizabeth alone, of her free will,
Can open them for me.490
MORTIMER. Never hope that!
MARY. One man there is yet able to do so.
MORTIMER. Name him!
Name him!
MARY. Earl Leicester.
MORTIMER (stepping back, astonished). Leicester! Earl Leicester! Your
Bloodiest pursuer, favorite of Elizabeth—
MARY. If I am to be rescued, then by him.
Go to him. Tell him all. As proof that I sent you,
Give him this letter with my likeness enclosed.
(She takes a paper from her bosom; Mortimer hesitates.)
Do take it. I’ve long carried it—your uncle
Blocked every path. My angel sent you to me—
MORTIMER. My Queen, this riddle—
MARY. Earl Leicester will solve it.
If you trust him, he will trust you. — Who’s coming?500
KENNEDY (entering hurriedly). Sir Paulet with a lord from Court.
MORTIMER. Lord Burghley.
Prepare yourself, Queen! Steel your heart for what he brings.
(He goes out by a side door; Kennedy follows.)
Scene Seven
Mary. Baron Burghley, Lord High Treasurer of England. Knight Paulet.
PAULET. Today you wished for certainty of your fate.
That my Lord Burghley brings you. Bear it with patience.
MARY. With dignity of innocence, I hope.
BURGHLEY. I come as emissary of the court.
MARY. Lord Burghley lent the court his mind. Dutifully
He now comes to me to lend it his mouth.
BURGHLEY. You speak as if you knew the verdict already.
MARY. Lord Burghley brings it. Therefore it is known.510
To business, sir.
BURGHLEY. You have submitted yourself to
The court of two and forty lords, my Lady—
MARY. Forgive me that I break in here at the start.
“Submitted myself,” I hear you say? No wise
Could I submit, could I so much concede of
My rank, my people’s worth, and my son’s,28 and
The worth of all the princes of this world.
English law orders and prescribes that one
Accused be tried by jury of his peers.
What man of that tribunal was my peer?520
My peers are kings, kings only.
BURGHLEY. You heard the articles
Of accusation read you, spoke to the
Point in court—
MARY. I let myself be misled
By Hatton’s bad faith. Believing my grounds good and
For honor’s sake I heard the accusation
And showed its bad grounds. This I did in respect of
The person of the lords and not of their office,
Which I reject.
BURGHLEY. That you accept or reject them
Is a formality, my Lady, no more,
And cannot hamper the proceedings of court.530
You breathe the air of England, enjoy protection
Of England’s laws, are subject to its justice.
MARY. I breathe the air of an English prison. Is that
Protection of the laws? I hardly know
English law, never have consented to keep it.
I am no citizen of this realm but
Queen of another.
BURGHLEY. Holding license to sow
Dissension here among us? What then if
The sword of justice could not reach a royal
Stranger any more than a poor man’s bare head?540
MARY. I have no wish to escape a reckoning;
I take exception only to my judges.
BURGHLEY. Your judges? Are they outcasts? Barkers? Shop boys?
Are they not men of the first order, truthful
And independent, above bribery and fear?
The men who rule a noble people, free
And just, whose names alone suffice to banish
Doubt and suspicion? At their head the Primate
Of Canterbury, the wise Talbot, who keeps the
Great Seal,55029 and Howard, our Lord High Admiral?
Say! Could the ruler over England do better
Than choose the noblest and appoint them judges
Of a dispute of royalty? Could base
Motives unite forty such men in one verdict?
MARY (after a silence).
I hear, astonished, the pure force of that mouth,
Ever for me a harbinger of doom.
How shall I, untaught woman, take up the challenge
A speaker of such eloquence throws down?
Fine! Were these lords as you describe them, I’d
Fall silent, my cause lost, should they find me guilty.560
I see these men, whose names are meant to crush me,
Play roles quite different in the history of England.
I see high noblemen play seraglio slave to
The sultan’s moods of Henry Tudor, my uncle.
I see both the Lords and the biddable Commons
Make laws, revoke them, bind and loose wedlock to
King’s orders, disown princes’ daughters today, brand
Them bastards, and then crown them queen, come the morrow.
I see these worthy peers change their confession
570Four times precisely, under four reigns.30
BURGHLEY. You call yourself a stranger to England’s laws,
England’s misfortunes are no stranger to you.
MARY. I would be just toward you, my Lord High Treasurer,
Be you no less so toward me. They say you
Are well-intentioned toward the State, toward your Queen,
Are incorruptible, watchful and tireless.
I believe it. You are ruled alone by interests
Of country and sovereign. For that reason, beware! Let
Interests of state not seem like justice to you.
I doubt not there are noble men beside you580
Among my judges; they are Protestants;
Defending England’s welfare, they pass judgment
Upon me, Queen of Scotland and a Catholic.
Briton nor Scot is ever just toward the other.
That is proverbial. Neither may bear witness
Against the other. Ancient custom is honored!
Nature herself threw them together on
A slender plank in the sea, said, “Fight it out!”
The narrow Tweed presents too thin a boundary.
No foes press England whom Scots do not join,590
On civil war in Scotland England heaps tinder.
Hatred will not die until one Parliament
Joins them, a single scepter rules this Island.
BURGHLEY. A Stuart is to bring this joy to the Realm?
MARY. Should I deny it? I admit: I dreamt of
Uniting both folk in the shade of the olive.
I never dreamt that I’d be sacrificed to
Their ancient hatred. Like my ancestor Richmond,
I wished to entwine the two kingdoms like roses.31
BURGHLEY. You chose a crooked path to reach this end,600
Gaining the throne through flames of civil war.
MARY. Never did I want that, by all that is holy!
When did I want that? Tell me! Where are the proofs?
BURGHLEY. I did not come here to dispute. It is proven.
Forty against two have concluded you broke
The Act of last year and are subject to justice.32
That law provides: “If tumult arise in the Kingdom
To the advantage and in name of one who
Asserts rights to the Crown, that person shall be
Arraigned and if found guilty, put to death.”610
It being proven—
MARY. My Lord Burghley! I
Do not doubt that a measure framed expressly
For me, to ruin me, lets itself be applied.
Pity the victim when one same hand made law,
Then passes judgment. Do you deny, my Lord, that
This law was thought up to undo me?
BURGHLEY. Rather,
To warn you. It’s you have made it into a trap.
You saw the abyss before you and plunged in. You
Were one with Babington, the traitor, and
His henchmen, knew of everything, directed620
The plot from prison.
MARY. When did I do that?
Produce the proofs.
BURGHLEY. All these were shown you in court.
MARY. Copies I saw! And in an unknown hand!
Let proof be brought that I dictated those notes
And in the form in which they were read aloud.
BURGHLEY. That Babington, before he died, attested
Them in the form he had received.
MARY. And why
Was he not brought before me? He was bustled
Out of the world beforehand. Why the great haste?
BURGHLEY. Your two scribes, Curle and Nau, assert on oath630
They wrote exactly as you told them to do.33
MARY. One damns me on the witness of my servants?
Men who, betraying me, betray their duty?
BURGHLEY. You, too, declared the Scot Curle honest and true.
MARY. As such I knew him. Only danger tests virtue.
He thought to save himself, with scant harm to me.
BURGHLEY. He swore it freely.
MARY. Not to my face! What, sir?
Those witnesses live yet! Let them be brought
Before me, let both testify to my face!
I know from Talbot, once my keeper, of a640
New measure passed providing that accuser
Meet accused face to face. Is it not so,
Sir Paulet? I know you an honest man.
In England there is such a law?
PAULET. There is such, Lady. That is law among us.
I must speak truth.
MARY. How now, my Lord? If one
Is strict where English law’s against me, may one
Evade a law turned in my favor? An answer!
Wherefore was Babington not brought before me
According to law? Why not both my scribes,650
Who are yet living?
BURGHLEY. Not alone your collusion
With Babington—
MARY. Alone that. That alone puts me to the law,
That charge alone am I obliged to defeat.
BURGHLEY. It’s proven you had contact with the Spanish
Ambassador—
MARY (heated). But you evade me, my Lord!
BURGHLEY. —and that you schemed to bring down our land’s religion,
You stirred up all the kings in Europe against us.
MARY. And if I did? I did not. But if I did?
My Lord! I am held here against all law660
Of nations. A supplicant, I entered here,
Requiring sacred hospitality,
Asking protection of a queen of my kin.
They seized me, shackled me— Just tell me this!
Is my conscience bound to this state? Have I duties
Toward England? It is my most sacred right
To struggle against such bonds, meet force with force,
To raise all states in Europe to my defense.
All that is accepted, right and honest in war—
That I may do. Not murder. Pride and conscience670
Forbid that. Murder dishonors me—dishonors,
Not damns me, does not subject me to justice.
Of justice there can be no question between
England and me. Force is our sole resort.
BURGHLEY (with meaning).
Do not presume the awful rights of raw power,
My Lady. For they little favor a prisoner.
MARY. Quite right. I am the weak one, she the strong.
So be it. Let her use her power, let
Her kill me, bring such victim to her safety.
But let her then confess that she has used680
Force and not justice. Let no claim noise abroad,
Fooling the world, that it’s a lawful sword
She wields to rid herself of her hated foe!
Murder me—that she can, but not judge me.
She cleanse her face of the paints of virtue’s charade
And show herself to the world just as she is made.
(She goes off.)
Scene Eight
Burghley. Paulet.
BURGHLEY. She spites us, will spite us until she reaches
The scaffold steps. She will not let us break her.
Was she surprised to hear the verdict? Did you
See her face change? She has no need of our pity.690
She knows the doubts of England’s Queen and our
Fears give her courage.
PAULET. This defiance will vanish
When it has lost its grounds. We’ve not proceeded
Faultlessly here, sir, if I may say so.
Tichbourne and Babington ought to have been brought
Before her, and her scribes.
BURGHLEY (quickly). Oh, no! One dared not!
Her influence and the force of woman’s tears
Are too great. Curle, obliged to speak against
Her to her face, would retract his confession—
PAULET. And England’s foes will fill the world with rumors700
And make a shameless crime of her solemn trial.
BURGHLEY. Exactly what our Queen fears. Had this trouble-
Maker but died before she set foot in England!
PAULET. Amen to that!
BURGHLEY. Or sickness in prison snatched
Her away!
PAULET. That had spared us much.
BURGHLEY. Or pure chance
Removed her. — They’d still call us murderers though.
PAULET. True. Men will always think whatever they please.
BURGHLEY. No one could prove it. It would raise less noise—
PAULET. Let it! One fears not loud but just reproach.
BURGHLEY. Why even holy justice does not escape blame.710
The sword of justice, ornament in a man’s hand,
Abhorrent wielded by a woman, becomes
Abomination used against a woman.
The world believes woman never just toward woman.
We judges spoke our conscience in vain. Mercy is a
King’s right. She dare not let the law run its course.
PAULET. The Lady then—
BURGHLEY (quickly). Should live? No! Not at all!
She cannot live. Just that is what our Queen fears.
I read her struggle in her eyes. She’ll not speak;
Her eyes ask: Is there none among my servants720
To spare me the choice: or fear and trembling on
My throne or royal kin put to the knife?
PAULET. Such is necessity. It’s not to be changed.
BURGHLEY. It would be changed were her servants attentive.
PAULET. Attentive!
BURGHLEY. Acting on a silent charge.
PAULET. A silent charge!
BURGHLEY. Not keeping a poisonous snake
Like treasure.
PAULET (with meaning). Good name is a treasure like none.
One guards the Queen’s unspotted name like gold.
BURGHLEY. Back at the time one took the Lady from Shrewsbury,
Confided her to Paulet’s keeping, the thought was—730
PAULET. The thought, I hope, was to entrust the hardest
Task to the cleanest hands. By God! I’d have never
Taken this odious office, did I not think it
Required the best man in all England. Let me
Not think it owed to other than my good name.
BURGHLEY. One spreads abroad she is failing, lets her become
More and more sick, then vanish in all stillness—
Thus she will die in the memory of men—
And your name is ever spotless.
PAULET. Not my conscience.
BURGHLEY. If you’ll not lend your own hand, just not block—740
PAULET (interrupts). Under my roof no murderer shall come near her.
My house gods keep her, her head’s sacred to me.
That of the Queen of England is no more so.
You are the judges! So judge! Break the staff!
And when the time comes, let your workmen with axe and
Saw enter and erect the scaffold. Sheriff
And headsman shall find my castle’s gates open.
She’s given me to keep safe. Safe I shall keep her.
No evil shall she do, and no evil reach her.
(They go off.)