Delphi Complete Poetical Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne (Illustrated) (Delphi Poets Series)
Page 257
So well discharged, saluting you by name
Most faithful and most careful, you shall do
Most like a wise man loyally to write
But such good words as these, whereto myself
Subscribe in heart: though being not named herein
(Albeit to both seem these late letters meant)
Nor this directed to me, I forbear
To make particular answer. And indeed,
Were danger less apparent in her life
To the heart’s life of all this living land,
I would this woman might not die at all
By secret stroke nor open sentence.
PAULET.
I
Will praise God’s mercy most for this of all,
When I shall see the murderous cause removed
Of its most mortal peril: nor desire
A guerdon ampler from the queen we serve,
Besides her commendations of my faith
For spotless actions and for safe regards,
Than to see judgment on her enemy done;
Which were for me that recompense indeed
Whereof she writes as one not given to all,
But for such merit reserved to crown its claim
Above all common service: nor save this
Could any treasure’s promise in the world
So ease those travails and rejoice this heart
That hers too much takes thought of, as to read
Her charge to carry for her sake in it
This most just thought, that she can balance not
The value that her grace doth prize me at
In any weight of judgment: yet it were
A word to me more comfortable at heart
Than these, though these most gracious, that should speak
Death to her death’s contriver.
DRURY.
Nay, myself
Were fain to see this coil wound up, and her
Removed that makes it: yet such things will pluck
Hard at men’s hearts that think on them, and move
Compassion that such long strange years should find
So strange an end: nor shall men ever say
But she was born right royal; full of sins,
It may be, and by circumstance or choice
Dyed and defaced with bloody stains and black,
Unmerciful, unfaithful, but of heart
So fiery high, so swift of spirit and clear,
In extreme danger and pain so lifted up,
So of all violent things inviolable,
So large of courage, so superb of soul,
So sheathed with iron mind invincible
And arms unbreached of fireproof constancy –
By shame not shaken, fear or force or death,
Change, or all confluence of calamities –
And so at her worst need beloved, and still,
Naked of help and honour when she seemed,
As other women would be, and of hope
Stripped, still so of herself adorable
By minds not always all ignobly mad
Nor all made poisonous with false grain of faith,
She shall be a world’s wonder to all time,
A deadly glory watched of marvelling men
Not without praise, not without noble tears,
And if without what she would never have
Who had it never, pity – yet from none
Quite without reverence and some kind of love
For that which was so royal. Yea, and now
That at her prayer we here attend on her,
If, as I think, she have in mind to send
Aught written to the queen, what we may do
To further her desire shall on my part
Gladly be done, so be it the grace she craves
Be nought akin to danger.
PAULET.
It shall be
The first of all then craved by her of man,
Or by man’s service done her, that was found
So harmless ever.
Enter Mary Stuart and Mary Beaton.
MARY STUART.
Sirs, in time past by
I was desirous many times, ye know,
To have written to your queen: but since I have had
Advertisement of my conviction, seeing
I may not look for life, my soul is set
On preparation for another world:
Yet none the less, not for desire of life,
But for my conscience’s discharge and rest,
And for my last farewell, I have at heart
By you to send her a memorial writ
Of somewhat that concerns myself, when I
Shall presently be gone out of this world.
And to remove from her, if such be there,
Suspicion of all danger in receipt
Of this poor paper that should come from me,
Myself will take the assay of it, and so
With mine own hands to yours deliver it.
PAULET.
Will you not also, madam, be content
To seal and close it in my presence up?
MARY STUART.
Sir, willingly: but I beseech your word
Pledged for its safe delivery to the queen.
PAULET.
I plight my faith it shall be sent to her.
MARY STUART.
This further promise I desire, you will
Procure me from above certificate
It hath been there delivered.
DRURY.
This is more
Than we may stand so pledged for: in our power
It is to send, but far beyond our power,
As being above our place, to promise you
Certificate or warrant.
MARY STUART.
Yet I trust
Consideration may be had of me
After my death, as one derived in blood
From your queen’s grandsire, with all mortal rites
According with that faith I have professed
All my life-days as I was born therein.
This is the sum of all mine askings: whence
Well might I take it in ill part of you
To wish me seal my letter in your sight,
Bewraying your hard opinion of me.
PAULET.
This
Your own words well might put into my mind,
That so beside my expectation made
Proffer to take my first assay for me
Of the outer part of it: for you must think
I was not ignorant that by sleight of craft
There might be as great danger so conveyed
Within the letter as without, and thus
I could not for ill thoughts of you be blamed,
Concurring with you in this jealousy:
For had yourself not moved it of yourself
Sir Drew nor I had ever thought on it.
MARY STUART.
The occasion why I moved it was but this,
That having made my custom in time past
To send sometimes some tokens to your queen,
At one such time that I sent certain clothes
One standing by advised her cause my gifts
To be tried thoroughly ere she touched them; which
I have since observed, and taken order thus
With Nau, when last he tarried at the court,
To do the like to a fur-fringed counterpane
Which at that time I sent: and as for this,
Look what great danger lies between these leaves
That I dare take and handle in my hands,
And press against my face each part of them
Held open thus, and either deadly side,
Wherein your fear smells death sown privily.
PAULET.
Madam, when so you charged your secretary
Her majesty was far from doubt, I think,
Or dream o
f such foul dealing: and I would
Suspicion since had found no just cause given,
And then things had not been as now they are.
MARY STUART.
But things are as they are, and here I stand
Convicted, and not knowing how many hours
I have to live yet.
PAULET.
Madam, you shall live
As many hours as God shall please: but this
May be said truly, that you here have been
Convicted in most honourable sort
And favourable.
MARY STUART.
What favour have I found?
PAULET.
Your cause hath been examined scrupulously
By many our eldest nobles of this realm,
Whereas by law you should but have been tried
By twelve men as a common person.
MARY STUART.
Nay,
Your noblemen must by their peers be tried.
PAULET.
All strangers of what quality soe’er
In matter of crime are only to be tried
In other princes’ territories by law
That in that realm bears rule.
MARY STUART.
You have your laws:
But other princes all will think of it
As they see cause; and mine own son is now
No more a child, but come to man’s estate,
And he will think of these things bitterly.
DRURY.
Ingratitude, whate’er he think of them,
Is odious in all persons, but of all
In mightiest personages most specially
Most hateful: and it will not be denied
But that the queen’s grace greatly hath deserved
Both of yourself and of your son.
MARY STUART.
What boon
Shall I acknowledge? Being in bonds, I am set
Free from the world, and therefore am I not
Afraid to speak; I have had the favour here
To have been kept prisoner now these many years
Against my will and justice.
PAULET.
Madam, this
Was a great favour, and without this grace
You had not lived to see these days.
MARY STUART.
How so?
PAULET.
Seeing your own subjects did pursue you, and had
The best in your own country.
MARY STUART.
That is true,
Because your Mildmay’s ill persuasions first
Made me discharge my forces, and then caused
Mine enemies to burn my friends’ main holds,
Castles and houses.
PAULET.
Howsoe’er, it was
By great men of that country that the queen
Had earnest suit made to her to have yourself
Delivered to them, which her grace denied,
And to their great misliking.
DRURY.
Seventeen years
She hath kept your life to save it: and whereas
She calls your highness sister, she hath dealt
In truth and deed most graciously with you
And sisterlike, in seeking to preserve
Your life at once and honour.
MARY STUART.
Ay! wherein?
DRURY.
In that commission of your causes held
At York, which was at instance of your friends
Dissolved to save your honour.
MARY STUART.
No: the cause
Why that commission was dissolved indeed
Was that my friends could not be heard to inform
Against my loud accusers.
PAULET.
But your friend
The bishop’s self of Ross, your very friend,
Hath written that this meeting was dismissed
All only in your favour: and his book
Is extant: and this favour is but one
Of many graces which her majesty
Hath for mere love extended to you.
MARY STUART.
This
Is one great favour, even to have kept me here
So many years against my will.
PAULET.
It was
For your own safety, seeing your countrymen
Sought your destruction, and to that swift end
Required to have you yielded up to them,
As was before said.
MARY STUART.
Nay, then, I will speak.
I am not afraid. It was determined here
That I should not depart: and when I was
Demanded by my subjects, this I know,
That my lord treasurer with his own close hand
Writ in a packet which by trustier hands
Was intercepted, and to me conveyed,
To the earl of Murray, that the devil was tied
Fast in a chain, and they could keep her not,
But here she should be safely kept.
DRURY.
That earl
Was even as honourable a gentleman
As I knew ever in that country bred.
MARY STUART.
One of the worst men of the world he was:
A foul adulterer, one of general lust,
A spoiler and a murderer.
DRURY.
Six weeks long,
As I remember, here I saw him; where
He bore him very gravely, and maintained
The reputation even on all men’s tongues
In all things of a noble gentleman:
Nor have I heard him evil spoken of
Till this time ever.
MARY STUART.
Yea, my rebels here
Are honest men, and by the queen have been
Maintained.
PAULET.
You greatly do forget yourself
To charge her highness with so foul a fault,
Which you can never find ability
To prove on her.
MARY STUART.
What did she with the French,
I pray you, at Newhaven?
PAULET.
It appears
You have conceived so hardly of the queen
My mistress, that you still inveterately
Interpret all her actions to the worst,
Not knowing the truth of all the cause: but yet
I dare assure you that her majesty
Had most just cause and righteous, in respect
As well of Calais as for other ends,
To do the thing she did, and more to have done,
Had it so pleased her to put forth her power:
And this is in you great unthankfulness
After so many favours and so great,
Whereof you will acknowledge in no wise
The least of any: though her majesty
Hath of her own grace merely saved your life,
To the utter discontentment of the best
Your subjects once in open parliament
Who craved against you justice on the charge
Of civil law-breach and rebellion.
MARY STUART.
I
Know no such matter, but full well I know
Sir Francis Walsingham hath openly,
Since his abiding last in Scotland, said
That I should rue his entertainment there.
PAULET.
Madam, you have not rued it, but have been
More honourably entertained than ever yet
Was any other crown’s competitor
In any realm save only this: whereof
Some have been kept close prisoners, other some
Maimed and unnaturally disfigured, some
Murdered.
MARY STUART.
But I was no competitor:
All I required was in successive
right
To be reputed but as next the crown.
PAULET.
Nay, madam, you went further, when you gave
The English arms and style, as though our queen
Had been but an usurper on your right.
MARY STUART.
My husband and my kinsmen did therein
What they thought good: I had nought to do with it.
PAULET.
Why would you not then loyally renounce
Your claim herein pretended, but with such
Condition, that you might be authorized
Next heir apparent to the crown?
MARY STUART.
I have made
At sundry times thereon good proffers, which
Could never be accepted.
PAULET.
Heretofore
It hath been proved unto you presently
That in the very instant even of all
Your treaties and most friendlike offers were
Some dangerous crafts discovered.
MARY STUART.
You must think
I have some friends on earth, and if they have done
Anything privily, what is that to me?
PAULET.
Madam, it was somewhat to you, and I would
For your own sake you had forborne it, that
After advertisement and conscience given
Of Morgan’s devilish practice, to have killed
A sacred queen, you yet would entertain
The murderer as your servant.
MARY STUART.
I might do it
With as good right as ever did your queen
So entertain my rebels.
DRURY.
Be advised:
This speech is very hard, and all the case
Here differs greatly.
MARY STUART.
Yea, let this then be;
Ye cannot yet of my conviction say
But I by partial judgment was condemned,
And the commissioners knew my son could have
No right, were I convicted, and your queen
Could have no children of her womb; whereby
They might set up what man for king they would.
PAULET.
This is in you too great forgetfulness