Mary Stuart Read online

  Mary Stuart

  Friedrich Schiller

  Frederich Schiller. Mary Stuart

  This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger, [email protected]

  MARY STUART.

  A TRAGEDY.

  By Frederich Schiller

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE.

  ELIZABETH, Queen of England.

  MARY STUART, Queen of Scots, a Prisoner in England.

  ROBERT DUDLEY, Earl of Leicester.

  GEORGE TALBOT, Earl of Shrewsbury.

  WILLIAM CECIL, Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer.

  EARL OF KENT.

  SIR WILLIAM DAVISON, Secretary of State.

  SIR AMIAS PAULET, Keeper of MARY.

  SIR EDWARD MORTIMER, his Nephew.

  COUNT L'AUBESPINE, the French Ambassador.

  O'KELLY, Mortimer's Friend.

  COUNT BELLIEVRE, Envoy Extraordinary from France.

  SIR DRUE DRURY, another Keeper of MARY.

  SIR ANDREW MELVIL, her House Steward.

  BURGOYNE, her Physician.

  HANNAH KENNEDY, her Nurse.

  MARGARET CURL, her Attendant.

  Sheriff of the County.

  Officer of the Guard.

  French and English Lords.

  Soldiers.

  Servants of State belonging to ELIZABETH.

  Servants and Female Attendants of the Queen of Scots.

  ACT I.

  SCENE I.

  A common apartment in the Castle of Fotheringay.

  HANNAH KENNEDY, contending violently with PAULET, who is about

  to break open a closet; DRURY with an iron crown.

  KENNEDY.

  How now, sir? what fresh outrage have we here?

  Back from that cabinet!

  PAULET.

  Whence came the jewel?

  I know 'twas from an upper chamber thrown;

  And you would bribe the gardener with your trinkets.

  A curse on woman's wiles! In spite of all

  My strict precaution and my active search,

  Still treasures here, still costly gems concealed!

  And doubtless there are more where this lay hid.

  [Advancing towards the cabinet.

  KENNEDY.

  Intruder, back! here lie my lady's secrets.

  PAULET.

  Exactly what I seek.

  [Drawing forth papers.

  KENNEDY.

  Mere trifling papers;

  The amusements only of an idle pen,

  To cheat the dreary tedium of a dungeon.

  PAULET.

  In idle hours the evil mind is busy.

  KENNEDY.

  Those writings are in French.

  PAULET.

  So much the worse!

  That tongue betokens England's enemy.

  KENNEDY.

  Sketches of letters to the Queen of England.

  PAULET.

  I'll be their bearer. Ha! what glitters here?

  [He touches a secret spring, and draws out jewels from

  a private drawer.

  A royal diadem enriched with stones,

  And studded with the fleur-de-lis of France.

  [He hands it to his assistant.

  Here, take it, Drury; lay it with the rest.

  [Exit DRURY.

  [And ye have found the means to hide from us

  Such costly things, and screen them, until now,

  From our inquiring eyes?]

  KENNEDY.

  Oh, insolent

  And tyrant power, to which we must submit.

  PAULET.

  She can work ill as long as she hath treasures;

  For all things turn to weapons in her hands.

  KENNEDY (supplicating).

  Oh, sir! be merciful; deprive us not

  Of the last jewel that adorns our life!

  'Tis my poor lady's only joy to view

  This symbol of her former majesty;

  Your hands long since have robbed us of the rest.

  PAULET.

  'Tis in safe custody; in proper time

  'Twill be restored to you with scrupulous care.

  KENNEDY.

  Who that beholds these naked walls could say

  That majesty dwelt here? Where is the throne?

  Where the imperial canopy of state?

  Must she not set her tender foot, still used

  To softest treading, on the rugged ground?

  With common pewter, which the lowliest dame

  Would scorn, they furnish forth her homely table.

  PAULET.

  Thus did she treat her spouse at Stirling once;

  And pledged, the while, her paramour in gold.

  KENNEDY.

  Even the mirror's trifling aid withheld.

  PAULET.

  The contemplation of her own vain image

  Incites to hope, and prompts to daring deeds.

  KENNEDY.

  Books are denied her to divert her mind.

  PAULET.

  The Bible still is left to mend her heart.

  KENNEDY.

  Even of her very lute she is deprived!

  PAULET.

  Because she tuned it to her wanton airs.

  KENNEDY.

  Is this a fate for her, the gentle born,

  Who in her very cradle was a queen?

  Who, reared in Catherine's luxurious court,

  Enjoyed the fulness of each earthly pleasure?

  Was't not enough to rob her of her power,

  Must ye then envy her its paltry tinsel?

  A noble heart in time resigns itself

  To great calamities with fortitude;

  But yet it cuts one to 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 wit
hin 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 great favor of her,-

  That she herself will give me audience,-she

  Whom I have never seen. I have been summoned

  Before a court of men, whom I can ne'er

  Acknowledge as my peers-of men to whom

  My heart denies its confidence. The queen

  Is of my family, my rank, my sex;

  To her alone-a sister, queen, and woman-

  Can I unfold my heart.

  PAULET.

  Too oft, my lady,

  Have you intrusted both your fate and honor

  To men less worthy your esteem than these.

  MARY.

  I, in the letter, beg another favor,

  And surely 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 r
estored 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