Mary Stuart | Page 2

the soul to part
At once with all life's little outward
trappings!
PAULET.
These are the things that turn the human heart
To vanity,
which should collect itself
In penitence; for a lewd, vicious life,

Want and abasement are the only penance.
KENNEDY.
If youthful blood has led her into error,
With her own
heart and God she must account:
There is no judge in England over
her.
PAULET.
She shall have judgment where she hath transgressed.
KENNEDY.
Her narrow bonds restrain her from transgression.
PAULET.
And yet she found the means to stretch her arm
Into the

world, from out these narrow bonds,
And, with the torch of civil war,
inflame
This realm against our queen (whom God preserve).
And
arm assassin bands. Did she not rouse
From out these walls the
malefactor Parry,
And Babington, to the detested crime
Of regicide?
And did this iron grate
Prevent her from decoying to her toils
The
virtuous heart of Norfolk? Saw we not
The first, best head in all this
island fall
A sacrifice for her upon the block?
[The noble house of
Howard fell with him.]
And did this sad example terrify
These mad
adventurers, whose rival zeal
Plunges for her into this deep abyss?

The bloody scaffold bends beneath the weight
Of her new daily
victims; and we ne'er
Shall see an end till she herself, of all
The
guiltiest, be offered up upon it.
Oh! curses on the day when England
took
This Helen to its hospitable arms.
KENNEDY.
Did England then receive her hospitably?
Oh, hapless
queen! who, since that fatal day
When first she set her foot within
this realm,
And, as a suppliant--a fugitive--
Came to implore
protection from her sister,
Has been condemned, despite the law of
nations,
And royal privilege, to weep away
The fairest years of
youth in prison walls.
And now, when she hath suffered everything

Which in imprisonment is hard and bitter,
Is like a felon summoned
to the bar,
Foully accused, and though herself a queen,
Constrained
to plead for honor and for life.
PAULET.
She came amongst us as a murderess,
Chased by her
very subjects from a throne
Which she had oft by vilest deeds
disgraced.
Sworn against England's welfare came she hither,
To call
the times of bloody Mary back,

Betray our church to Romish tyranny,

And sell our dear-bought liberties to France.
Say, why disdained
she to subscribe the treaty
Of Edinborough--to resign her claim
To
England's crown--and with one single word,
Traced by her pen, throw
wide her prison gates?
No:--she had rather live in vile confinement,

And see herself ill-treated, than renounce
The empty honors of her

barren title.
Why acts she thus? Because she trusts to wiles,
And
treacherous arts of base conspiracy;
And, hourly plotting schemes of
mischief, hopes
To conquer, from her prison, all this isle.
KENNEDY.
You mock us, sir, and edge your cruelty
With words
of bitter scorn:--that she should form
Such projects; she, who's here
immured alive,
To whom no sound of comfort, not a voice
Of
friendship comes from her beloved home;
Who hath so long no
human face beheld,
Save her stern gaoler's unrelenting brows;
Till
now, of late, in your uncourteous cousin
She sees a second keeper,
and beholds
Fresh bolts and bars against her multiplied.
PAULET.
No iron-grate is proof against her wiles.
How do I know
these bars are not filed through?
How that this floor, these walls, that
seem so strong
Without, may not be hollow from within,
And let in
felon treachery when I sleep?
Accursed office, that's intrusted to me,

To guard this cunning mother of all ill!
Fear scares me from my
sleep; and in the night
I, like a troubled spirit, roam and try
The
strength of every bolt, and put to proof
Each guard's fidelity:--I see,
with fear,
The dawning of each morn, which may confirm
My
apprehensions:--yet, thank God, there's hope
That all my fears will
soon be at an end;
For rather would I at the gates of hell
Stand
sentinel, and guard the devilish host
Of damned souls, than this
deceitful queen.
KENNEDY.
Here comes the queen.
PAULET.
Christ's image in her hand.
Pride, and all worldly lusts within her
heart.
SCENE II.
The same. Enter MARY, veiled, a crucifix in her hand.

KENNEDY (hastening toward her).
O gracious queen! they tread us
under foot;
No end of tyranny and base oppression;
Each coming
day heaps fresh indignities,
New sufferings on thy royal head.
MARY.
Be calm--
Say, what has happened?
KENNEDY.
See! thy cabinet
Is forced--thy papers--and thy only treasure,
Which
with such pains we had secured, the last
Poor remnant of thy bridal
ornaments
From France, is in his hands--naught now remains
Of
royal state--thou art indeed bereft!
MARY.
Compose yourself, my Hannah! and believe me,
'Tis not
these baubles that can make a queen--
Basely indeed they may
behave to us,
But they cannot debase us. I have learned
To use
myself to many a change in England;
I can support this too. Sir, you
have taken
By force what I this very day designed
To have
delivered to you. There's a letter
Amongst these papers for my royal
sister
Of England. Pledge me, sir, your word of honor,
To give it to
her majesty's own hands,
And not to the deceitful care of Burleigh.
PAULET.
I shall consider what is best to do.
MARY.
Sir, you shall know its import. In this letter
I beg a favor, a