Mary Stuart | Page 3

naught but inhumanity?Can here reject my prayer. These many years?Have I, in prison, missed the church's comfort,?The blessings of the sacraments--and she?Who robs me of my freedom and my crown,?Who seeks my very life, can never wish?To shut the gates of heaven upon my soul.
PAULET.?Whene'er you wish, the dean shall wait upon you.
MARY (interrupting him sharply).?Talk to me not of deans. I ask the aid?Of one of my own church--a Catholic priest.
PAULET.?[That is against the published laws of England.
MARY.?The laws of England are no rule for me.?I am not England's subject; I have ne'er?Consented to its laws, and will not bow?Before their cruel and despotic sway.?If 'tis your will, to the unheard-of rigor?Which I have borne, to add this new oppression,?I must submit to what your power ordains;?Yet will I raise my voice in loud complaints.]?I also wish a public notary,?And secretaries, to prepare my will--?My sorrows and my prison's wretchedness?Prey on my life--my days, I fear, are numbered--?I feel that I am near the gates of death.
PAULET.?These serious contemplations well become you.
MARY.?And know I then that some too ready hand?May not abridge this tedious work of sorrow??I would indite my will and make disposal?Of what belongs tome.
PAULET.
This liberty?May be allowed to you, for England's queen?Will not enrich herself by plundering you.
MARY.?I have been parted from my faithful women,?And from my servants; tell me, where are they??What is their fate? I can indeed dispense?At present with their service, but my heart?Will feel rejoiced to know these faithful ones?Are not exposed to suffering and to want!
PAULET.?Your servants have been cared for; [and again?You shall behold whate'er is taken from you?And all shall be restored in proper season.]
[Going.
MARY.?And will you leave my presence thus again,?And not relieve my fearful, anxious heart?From the fell torments of uncertainty??Thanks to the vigilance of your hateful spies,?I am divided from the world; no voice?Can reach me through these prison-walls; my fate?Lies in the hands of those who wish my ruin.?A month of dread suspense is passed already?Since when the forty high commissioners?Surprised me in this castle, and erected,?With most unseemly haste, their dread tribunal;?They forced me, stunned, amazed, and unprepared,?Without an advocate, from memory,?Before their unexampled court, to answer?Their weighty charges, artfully arranged.?They came like ghosts,--like ghosts they disappeared,?And since that day all mouths are closed to me.?In vain I seek to construe from your looks?Which hath prevailed--my cause's innocence?And my friends' zeal--or my foes' cursed counsel.?Oh, break this silence! let me know the worst;?What have I still to fear, and what to hope.
PAULET.?Close your accounts with heaven.
MARY.
From heaven I hope?For mercy, sir; and from my earthly judges?I hope, and still expect, the strictest justice.
PAULET.?Justice, depend upon it, will be done you.
MARY.?Is the suit ended, sir?
PAULET.
I cannot tell.
MARY.?Am I condemned?
PAULET.
I cannot answer, lady.
MARY.?[Sir, a good work fears not the light of day.
PAULET.?The day will shine upon it, doubt it not.]
MARY.?Despatch is here the fashion. Is it meant?The murderer shall surprise me, like the judges?
PAULET.?Still entertain that thought and he will find you?Better prepared to meet your fate than they did.
MARY (after a pause).?Sir, nothing can surprise me which a court?Inspired by Burleigh's hate and Hatton's zeal,?Howe'er unjust, may venture to pronounce:?But I have yet to learn how far the queen?Will dare in execution of the sentence.
PAULET.?The sovereigns of England have no fear?But for their conscience and their parliament.?What justice hath decreed her fearless hand?Will execute before the assembled world.
SCENE III.
The same. MORTIMER enters, and without paying attention to the QUEEN, addresses PAULET.
MORTIMER.?Uncle, you're sought for.
[He retires in the same manner. The QUEEN remarks it, and turns towards PAULET, who is about to follow him.
MARY.
Sir, one favor more?If you have aught to say to me--from you?I can bear much--I reverence your gray hairs;?But cannot bear that young man's insolence;?Spare me in future his unmannered rudeness.
PAULET.?I prize him most for that which makes you hate him?He is not, truly, one of those poor fools?Who melt before a woman's treacherous tears.?He has seen much--has been to Rheims and Paris,?And brings us back his true old English heart.?Lady, your cunning arts are lost on him.
[Exit.
SCENE IV.
MARY, KENNEDY.
KENNEDY.?And dare the ruffian venture to your face?Such language! Oh, 'tis hard--'tis past endurance.
MARY (lost in reflection).?In the fair moments of our former splendor?We lent to flatterers a too willing ear;--?It is but just, good Hannah, we should now?Be forced to hear the bitter voice of censure.
KENNEDY.?So downcast, so depressed, my dearest lady!?You, who before so gay, so full of hope,?Were used to comfort me in my distress;?More gracious were the task to check your mirth?Than chide your heavy sadness.
MARY.
Well I know him--?It is the bleeding Darnley's royal shade,?Rising in anger from his darksome grave?And never will he make his peace with me?Until the measures of my woes be full.
KENNEDY.?What thoughts are these--
MARY.
Thou may'st forget it, Hannah;?But I've a faithful memory--'tis this day?Another wretched