Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Delphi Poets Series
Page 135
WHY SHOULD WE WEEP FOR THOSE WHO DIE?
WILL
WILL WATERPROOF’S LYRICAL MONOLOGUE MADE AT THE COCK.
WITH THE FOLLOWING POEM.
YES — THERE BE SOME GAY SOULS WHO NEVER WEEP.
YOU ASK ME, WHY, THO’ ILL AT EASE
The Plays
Trinity College, Cambridge, where Tennyson commenced his university studies in 1827. Here he joined a secret society called the Cambridge Apostles and also met Arthur Henry Hallam, who became his closest friend.
Arthur Henry Hallam (1811-1833) was an English poet, best known as the subject of Tennyson’s major work, In Memoriam A.H.H..
QUEEN MARY: A DRAMA
CONTENTS
Dramatis Personæ
Act I
Scene I
Scene II
Scene III
Scene IV
Scene V
Act II
Scene I
Scene II
Scene III
Scene IV
Act III
Scene I
Scene II
Scene III
Scene V
Scene VI
Act IV
Scene I
Scene II
Scene III
Act V
Scene I
Scene II
Scene III
Scene IV
Scene V
Dramatis Personæ
QUEEN MARY.
PHILIP, King of Naples and Sicily, afterwards King of Spain.
THE PRINCESS ELIZABETH.
REGINALD POLE, Cardinal and Papal Legate.
SIMON RENARD, Spanish Ambassador.
LE SIEUR DE NOAILLES, French Ambassador.
THOMAS CRANMER, Archbishop of Canterbury.
SIR NICHOLAS HEATH, Archbishop of York; Lord Chancellor after Gardiner.
EDWARD COURTENAY, Earl of Devon.
LORD WILLIAM HOWARD, afterwards Lord Howard, and Lord High Admiral.
LORD WILLIAMS OF THAME.
LORD PAGET.
LORD PETRE.
STEPHEN GARDINER, Bishop of Winchester and Lord Chancellor.
EDMUND BONNER, Bishop of London.
THOMAS THIRLBY, Bishop of Ely.
SIR THOMAS WYATT Insurrectionary Leader.
SIR THOMAS STAFFORD Insurrectionary Leader.
SIR RALPH BAGENHALL.
SIR ROBERT SOUTHWELL.
SIR HENRY BEDINGFIELD.
SIR WILLIAM CECIL.
SIR THOMAS WHITE, Lord Mayor of London.
THE DUKE OF ALVA attending on Philip.
THE COUNT DE FERIA attending on Philip.
PETER MARTYR.
FATHER COLE.
FATHER BOURNE.
VILLA GARCIA.
SOTO.
CAPTAIN BRETT Adherent of Wyatt
ANTHONY KNYVETT Adherent of Wyatt.
PETERS, Gentleman of Lord Howard.
ROGER, Servant to Noailles.
WILLIAM, Servant to Wyatt.
STEWARD OF HOUSEHOLD to the Princess Elizabeth.
OLD NOKES and NOKES.
MARCHIONESS OF EXETER, Mother of Courtenay.
LADY CLARENCE Lady in Waiting to the Queen.
LADY MAGDALEN DACRES Lady in Waiting to the Queen.
ALICE
MAID OF HONOUR to the Princess Elizabeth.
JOAN Country Wife.
TIB Country Wife.
LORDS and other Attendants, Members of the Privy Council, Members of Parliament, Two Gentlemen, Aldermen, Citizens, Peasants, Ushers, Messengers, Guards, Pages, Gospellers, Marshalmen, etc.
Act I
Scene I
Aldgate Richly Decorated
Crowd. Marshalmen.
MARSHALMAN.
Stand back, keep a clear lane! When will her Majesty pass, sayst thou? why now, even now; wherefore draw back your heads and your horns before I break them, and make what noise you will with your tongues, so it be not treason. Long live Queen Mary, the lawful and legitimate daughter of Harry the Eighth! Shout, knaves!
CITIZENS.
Long live Queen Mary!
FIRST CITIZEN.
That’s a hard word, legitimate; what does it mean?
SECOND CITIZEN.
It means a bastard.
THIRD CITIZEN.
Nay, it means true-born.
FIRST CITIZEN.
Why, didn’t the Parliament make her a bastard?
SECOND CITIZEN.
No; it was the Lady Elizabeth.
THIRD CITIZEN.
That was after, man; that was after.
FIRST CITIZEN.
Then which is the bastard?
SECOND CITIZEN.
Troth, they be both bastards by Act of Parliament and Council.
THIRD CITIZEN.
Ay, the Parliament can make every true-born man of us a bastard. Old Nokes, can’t it make thee a bastard? thou shouldst know, for thou art as white as three Christmasses.
OLD NOKES (dreamily).
Who’s a-passing? King Edward or King Richard?
THIRD CITIZEN.
No, old Nokes.
OLD NOKES.
It’s Harry!
THIRD CITIZEN.
It’s Queen Mary.
OLD NOKES.
The blessed Mary’s a-passing!
[Falls on his knees.
NOKES.
Let father alone, my masters! he’s past your questioning.
THIRD CITIZEN.
Answer thou for him, then thou’rt no such cockerel thyself, for thou was born i’ the tail end of old Harry the Seventh.
NOKES.
Eh! that was afore bastard-making began. I was born true man at five in the forenoon i’ the tail of old Harry, and so they can’t make me a bastard.
THIRD CITIZEN.
But if Parliament can make the Queen a bastard, why, it follows all the more that they can make thee one, who art fray’d i’ the knees, and out at elbow, and bald o’ the back, and bursten at the toes, and down at heels.
NOKES.
I was born of a true man and a ring’d wife, and I can’t argue upon it; but I and my old woman ‘ud burn upon it, that would we.
MARSHALMAN.
What are you cackling of bastardy under the Queen’s own nose? I’ll have you flogg’d and burnt too, by the Rood I will.
FIRST CITIZEN.
He swears by the Rood. Whew!
SECOND CITIZEN.
Hark! the trumpets.
[The Procession passes, MARY and ELIZABETH riding side by side, and disappears under the gate.
CITIZENS.
Long live Queen Mary! down with all traitors! God save her Grace; and death to Northumberland!
[Exeunt.
Manent TWO GENTLEMEN.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
By God’s light a noble creature, right royal!
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
She looks comelier than ordinary to-day; but to my mind the Lady Elizabeth is the more noble and royal.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
I mean the Lady Elizabeth. Did you hear (I have a daughter in her service who reported it) that she met the Queen at Wanstead with five hundred horse, and the Queen (tho’ some say they be much divided) took her hand, call’d her sweet sister, and kiss’d not her alone, but all the ladies of her following.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
Ay, that was in her hour of joy; there will be plenty to sunder and unsister them again: this Gardiner for one, who is to be made Lord Chancellor, and will pounce like a wild beast out of his cage to worry Cranmer.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
And furthermore, my daughter said that when there rose a talk of the late rebellion, she spoke even of Northumberland pitifully, and of the good Lady Jane as a poor innocent child who had but obeyed her father; and furthermore, she said that no one in her time should be burnt for heresy.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
Well, sir, I look for happy times.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
&nbs
p; There is but one thing against them. I know not if you know.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
I suppose you touch upon the rumour that Charles, the master of the world, has offer’d her his son Philip, the Pope and the Devil. I trust it is but a rumour.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
She is going now to the Tower to loose the prisoners there, and among them Courtenay, to be made Earl of Devon, of royal blood, of splendid feature, whom the council and all her people wish her to marry. May it be so, for we are many of us Catholics, but few Papists, and the Hot Gospellers will go mad upon it.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
Was she not betroth’d in her babyhood to the Great Emperor himself?
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
Ay, but he’s too old.
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
And again to her cousin Reginald Pole, now Cardinal; but I hear that he too is full of aches and broken before his day.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
O, the Pope could dispense with his Cardinalate, and his achage, and his breakage, if that were all: will you not follow the procession?
SECOND GENTLEMAN.
No; I have seen enough for this day.
FIRST GENTLEMAN.
Well, I shall follow; if I can get near enough I shall judge with my own eyes whether her Grace incline to this splendid scion of Plantagenet.
[Exeunt.
Scene II
A Room in Lambeth Palace.
CRANMER.
To Strasburg, Antwerp, Frankfort, Zurich, Worms,
Geneva, Basle — our Bishops from their sees
Or fled, they say, or flying — Poinet, Barlow,
Bale, Scory, Coverdale; besides the Deans
Of Christchurch, Durham, Exeter, and Wells —
Ailmer and Bullingham, and hundreds more;
So they report: I shall be left alone.
No: Hooper, Ridley, Latimer will not fly.
Enter PETER MARTYR.
PETER MARTYR.
Fly, Cranmer! were there nothing else, your name
Stands first of those who sign’d the Letters Patent
That gave her royal crown to Lady Jane.
CRANMER.
Stand first it may, but it was written last:
Those that are now her Privy Council, sign’d
Before me: nay, the Judges had pronounced
That our young Edward might bequeath the crown
Of England, putting by his father’s will.
Yet I stood out, till Edward sent for me.
The wan boy-king, with his fast-fading eyes
Fixt hard on mine, his frail transparent hand,
Damp with the sweat of death, and griping mine,
Whisper’d me, if I loved him, not to yield
His Church of England to the Papal wolf
And Mary; then I could no more — I sign’d.
Nay, for bare shame of inconsistency,
She cannot pass her traitor council by,
To make me headless.
PETER MARTYR.
That might be forgiven.
I tell you, fly, my Lord. You do not own
The bodily presence in the Eucharist,
Their wafer and perpetual sacrifice:
Your creed will be your death.
CRANMER.
Step after step,
Thro’ many voices crying right and left,
Have I climb’d back into the primal church,
And stand within the porch, and Christ with me:
My flight were such a scandal to the faith,
The downfall of so many simple souls,
I dare not leave my post.
PETER MARTYR.
But you divorced
Queen Catharine and her father; hence, her hate
Will burn till you are burn’d.
CRANMER.
I cannot help it.
The Canonists and Schoolmen were with me.
‘Thou shalt not wed thy brother’s wife.’—’Tis written,
‘They shall be childless.’ True, Mary was born,
But France would not accept her for a bride
As being born from incest; and this wrought
Upon the king; and child by child, you know,
Were momentary sparkles out as quick
Almost as kindled; and he brought his doubts
And fears to me. Peter, I’ll swear for him
He did believe the bond incestuous.
But wherefore am I trenching on the time
That should already have seen your steps a mile
From me and Lambeth? God be with you! Go.
PETER MARTYR.
Ah, but how fierce a letter you wrote against
Their superstition when they slander’d you
For setting up a mass at Canterbury
To please the Queen.
CRANMER.
It was a wheedling monk
Set up the mass.
PETER MARTYR.
I know it, my good Lord.
But you so bubbled over with hot terms
Of Satan, liars, blasphemy, Antichrist,
She never will forgive you. Fly, my Lord, fly!
CRANMER.
I wrote it, and God grant me power to burn!
PETER MARTYR.
They have given me a safe conduct: for all that
I dare not stay. I fear, I fear, I see you,
Dear friend, for the last time; farewell, and fly.
CRANMER.
Fly and farewell, and let me die the death.
[Exit Peter Martyr.
Enter OLD SERVANT.
O, kind and gentle master, the Queen’s Officers
Are here in force to take you to the Tower.
CRANMER.
Ay, gentle friend, admit them. I will go.
I thank my God it is too late to fly.
[Exeunt.
Scene III
St. Paul’s Cross
FATHER BOURNE in the pulpit. A CROWD. MARCHIONESS OF EXETER, COURTENAY. The SIEUR DE NOAILLES and his man ROGER in front of the stage. Hubbub.
NOAILLES.
Hast thou let fall those papers in the palace?
ROGER.
Ay, sir.
NOAILLES.
‘There will be no peace for Mary till Elizabeth lose her head.’
ROGER.
Ay, sir.
NOAILLES.
And the other, ‘Long live Elizabeth the Queen!’
ROGER.
Ay, sir; she needs must tread upon them.
NOAILLES. Well.
These beastly swine make such a grunting here,
I cannot catch what Father Bourne is saying.
ROGER.
Quiet a moment, my masters; hear what the shaveling has to say for himself.
CROWD.
Hush — hear!
BOURNE..
— and so this unhappy land, long divided in itself, and sever’d from the faith, will return into the one true fold, seeing that our gracious Virgin Queen hath ——
CROWD.
No pope! no pope!
ROGER (to those about him, mimicking BOURNE).
— hath sent for the holy legate of the holy father the Pope, Cardinal Pole, to give us all that holy absolution which ——
FIRST CITIZEN.
Old Bourne to the life!
SECOND CITIZEN.
Holy absolution! holy Inquisition!
THIRD CITIZEN.
Down with the Papist!
[Hubbub.
BOURNE..
— and now that your good bishop, Bonner, who hath lain so long under bonds for the faith —
[Hubbub.
NOAILLES.
Friend Roger, steal thou in among the crowd,
And get the swine to shout Elizabeth.
Yon gray old Gospeller, sour as midwinter,
Begin with him.
ROGER (goes).
By the mass, old friend, we’ll have no pope here while the Lady Elizabeth lives.
Art thou of the true faith, fellow, that swearest by the mass?
ROGER.
Ay, that am I, new converted, but the old leaven sticks to my tongue yet.
FIRST CITIZEN.
He says right; by the mass we’ll have no mass here.
VOICES OF THE CROWD.
Peace! hear him; let his own words damn the Papist. From thine own mouth I judge thee — tear him down!
BOURNE..
— and since our Gracious Queen, let me call her our second Virgin Mary, hath begun to re-edify the true temple —— ,
FIRST CITIZEN.
Virgin Mary! we’ll have no virgins here — we’ll have the Lady Elizabeth!
[Swords are drawn, a knife is hurled and sticks in the pulpit. The mob throng to the pulpit stairs.
MARCHIONESS OF EXETER.
Son Courtenay, wilt thou see the holy father
Murdered before thy face? up, son, and save him!
They love thee, and thou canst not come to harm.
COURTENAY (in the pulpit).
Shame, shame, my masters! are you
English-born, And set yourselves by hundreds against one?
CROWD.
A Courtenay! a Courtenay!
[A train of Spanish servants crosses at the back of the stage.
NOAILLES.
These birds of passage come before their time:
Stave off the crowd upon the Spaniard there.
ROGER.
My masters, yonder’s fatter game for you
Than this old gaping gurgoyle: look you there —
The Prince of Spain coming to wed our Queen!
After him, boys! and pelt him from the city.
[They seize stones and follow the Spaniards. Exeunt on the other side Marchioness of Exeter and Attendants.
NOAILLES (to ROGER).
Stand from me. If Elizabeth lose her head —
That makes for France.
And if her people, anger’d thereupon,
Arise against her and dethrone the Queen —
That makes for France.
And if I breed confusion anyway —
That makes for France.
Good-day, my Lord of Devon;
A bold heart yours to beard that raging mob!
COURTENAY.
My mother said, Go up; and up I went.
I knew they would not do me any wrong,
For I am mighty popular with them, Noailles.
NOAILLES.
You look’d a king.
COURTENAY.
Why not? I am king’s blood.
NOAILLES.
And in the whirl of change may come to be one.
COURTENAY.
Ah!
NOAILLES.
But does your gracious Queen entreat you kinglike?
COURTENAY.