As Caesar to his soldiers, so say I:
Those that hate me will I learn to loathe.
100 Give me a look that, when I bend the brows,
Pale death may walk in furrows of my face,
A hand that with a grasp may gripe the world,
An ear to hear what my detractors say,
A royal seat, a sceptre, and a crown;
That those which do behold, they may become
As men that stand and gaze against the sun.
The plot is laid, and things shall come to pass
Where resolution strives for victory.
Exit.
[Scene 3]
Enter the KING OF NAVARRE and QUEEN [MARGARET],
and his MOTHER QUEEN [the OLD QUEEN], the PRINCE
OF CONDÉ, the ADMIRAL, and the APOTHECARY with the
gloves, and he gives them to the OLD QUEEN.
APOTHECARY Madam, I beseech your grace to accept this simple gift.
OLD QUEEN Thanks, my good friend. Hold, take thou this reward.
APOTHECARY I humbly thank your majesty.
Exit APOTHECARY.
OLD QUEEN
Methinks the gloves have a very strong perfume,
The scent whereof doth make my head to ache.
NAVARRE
Doth not your grace know the man that gave them you?
OLD QUEEN
Not well, but do remember such a man.
ADMIRAL
10 Your grace was ill-advised to take them, then,
Considering of these dangerous times.
OLD QUEEN
Help, son Navarre, I am poisoned!
MARGARET
The heavens forbid your highness such mishap!
NAVARRE
The late suspicion of the duke of Guise
Might well have moved your highness to beware
How you did meddle with such dangerous gifts.
MARGARET
Too late it is, my lord, if that be true,
To blame her highness, but I hope it be
Only some natural passion makes her sick.
OLD QUEEN
20 O, no, sweet Margaret, the fatal poison
Works within my head; my brain-pan breaks,
My heart doth faint, I die!
She dies.
NAVARRE
My mother poisoned here before my face!
O gracious God, what times are these?
O grant, sweet God, my days may end with hers,
That I with her may die and live again!
MARGARET
Let not this heavy chance, my dearest lord,
For whose effects my soul is massacred,
Infect thy gracious breast with fresh supply
30 To aggravate our sudden misery.
ADMIRAL
Come, my lords, let us bear her body hence,
And see it honoured with just solemnity.
As they are going, the SOLDIER dischargeth his musket at the LORD ADMIRAL.
CONDÉ
What, are you hurt, my Lord High Admiral?
ADMIRAL
Ay, my good lord, shot through the arm.
NAVARRE We are betrayed! Come, my lords, and let us go tell the king of this.
ADMIRAL
These are the cursed Guisians that do seek our death.
O, fatal was this marriage to us all.
They bear away the [OLD] QUEEN and go out.
[Scene 4]
Enter the KING [CHARLES], [CATHERINE the] QUEEN-
MOTHER, the DUKE OF GUISE, DUKE ANJOU, DUKE
DUMAINE [, COSSIN and ATTENDANTS].
CATHERINE
My noble son, and princely duke of Guise,
Now have we got the fatal straggling deer
Within the compass of a deadly toil,
And as we late decreed we may perform.
CHARLES
Madam, it will be noted through the world
An action bloody and tyrannical –
Chiefly since under safety of our word
They justly challenge their protection.
Besides, my heart relents that noble men,
10 Only corrupted in religion,
Ladies of honour, knights, and gentlemen,
Should for their conscience taste such ruthless ends.
ANJOU
Though gentle minds should pity others’ pains,
Yet will the wisest note their proper griefs,
And rather seek to scourge their enemies
Than be themselves base subjects to the whip.
GUISE
Methinks, my lord, Anjou hath well advised
Your highness to consider of the thing,
And rather choose to seek your country’s good
20 Than pity or relieve these upstart heretics.
CATHERINE
I hope these reasons may serve my princely son
To have some care for fear of enemies.
CHARLES
Well, madam, I refer it to your majesty,
And to my nephew here, the duke of Guise:
What you determine, I will ratify.
CATHERINE
Thanks to my princely son. Then tell me, Guise,
What order will you set down for the massacre?
GUISE
Thus, madam:
They that shall be actors in this massacre
30 Shall wear white crosses on their burgonets,
And tie white linen scarfs about their arms;
He that wants these and is suspect of heresy,
Shall die, be he king or emperor. Then I’ll have
A peal of ordinance shot from the tower,
At which they all shall issue out and set the streets;
And then, the watchword being given, a bell shall ring,
Which when they hear, they shall begin to kill,
And never cease until that bell shall cease;
Then breathe a while.
Enter the ADMIRAL’S MAN.
CHARLES
40 How now, fellow, what news?
MAN
An it please your grace, the Lord High Admiral,
Riding the streets, was traitorously shot,
And most humble entreats your majesty
To visit him sick in his bed.
CHARLES
Messenger, tell him I will see him straight.
Exit [ADMIRAL’S MAN].
What shall we do now with the Admiral?
CATHERINE
Your majesty were best go visit him,
And make a show as if all were well.
CHARLES
Content, I will go visit the Admiral.
GUISE [aside]
50 And I will go take order for his death.
Exit.
Enter the ADMIRAL in his bed.
CHARLES
How fares it with my Lord High Admiral?
Hath he been hurt with villains in the street?
I vow and swear, as I am King of France,
To find and to repay the man with death,
With death delayed and torments never used,
That durst presume, for hope of any gain,
To hurt the noble man their sovereign loves.
ADMIRAL
Ah, my good lord, these are the Guisians
That seek to massacre our guiltless lives.
CHARLES
60 Assure yourself, my good Lord Admiral,
I deeply sorrow for your treacherous wrong,
And that I am not more secure myself
Than I am careful you should be preserved.
Cossin, take twenty of our strongest guard,
And under your direction see they keep
All treacherous violence from our noble friend,
Repaying all attempts with present death
Upon the cursèd breakers of our peace.
And so be patient, good Lord Admiral,
70 And every hour I will visit you.
ADMIRAL
I humbly thank your
royal majesty.
Exeunt.
[Scene 5]
Enter GUISE, ANJOU, DUMAINE, GONZAGO, RETES,
MOUNTSORRELL, and SOLDIERS to the massacre.
GUISE
Anjou, Dumaine, Gonzago, Retes, swear
By the argent crosses in your burgonets
To kill all that you suspect of heresy.
DUMAINE
I swear by this to be unmerciful.
ANJOU
I am disguised and none knows who I am,
And therefore mean to murder all I meet.
GONZAGO
And so will I.
RETES And I.
GUISE
Away, then, break into the Admiral’s house.
RETES
Ay, let the Admiral be first dispatched.
GUISE
10 The Admiral,
Chief standard-bearer to the Lutherans,
Shall in the entrance of this massacre
Be murdered in his bed.
Gonzago, conduct them thither, and then
Beset his house, that not a man may live.
ANJOU
That charge is mine. Switzers, keep you the streets;
And at each corner shall the king’s guard stand.
GONZAGO Come, sirs, follow me.
Exit GONZAGO and others with him.
ANJOU
Cossin, the captain of the Admiral’s guard,
20 Placed by my brother, will betray his lord.
Now, Guise, shall Catholics flourish once again,
The head being off, the members cannot stand.
RETES
But look, my lord, there’s some in the Admiral’s house.
Enter [GONZAGO and others] into the ADMIRAL’S house, and he in his bed.
ANJOU
In lucky time; come, let us keep this lane
And slay his servants that shall issue out.
GONZAGO Where is the Admiral?
ADMIRAL O, let me pray before I die!
GONZAGO Then pray unto our Lady; kiss this cross.
Stab him.
ADMIRAL O God, forgive my sins!
[Dies.]
30 GUISE Gonzago, what, is he dead?
GONZAGO Ay, my lord.
GUISE Then throw him down.
[The body of the ADMIRAL is thrown down.]
ANJOU Now, cousin, view him well; it may be it is some other and he escaped.
GUISE
Cousin, ’tis he, I know him by his look.
See where my soldier shot him through the arm;
He missed him near, but we have struck him now.
Ah, base Shatillian and degenerate,
Chief standard-bearer to the Lutherans,
40 Thus in despite of thy religion
The duke of Guise stamps on thy lifeless bulk!
ANJOU
Away with him! Cut off his head and hands,
And send them for a present to the Pope;
And when this just revenge is finished,
Unto Mount Faucon will we drag his corse,
And he that living hated so the cross,
Shall, being dead, be hanged thereon in chains.
GUISE
Anjou, Gonzago, Retes, if that you three
Will be as resolute as I and Dumaine,
50 There shall not be a Huguenot breathe in France.
ANJOU
I swear by this cross, we’ll not be partial,
But slay as many as we can come near.
GUISE
Mountsorrell, go shoot the ordnance off,
That they which have already set the street
May know their watchword, then toll the bell,
And so let’s forward to the massacre.
MOUNTSORRELL I will, my lord.
Exit MOUNTSORRELL.
GUISE And now, my lords, let us closely to our business.
ANJOU Anjou will follow thee.
60 DUMAINE And so will Dumaine.
The ordinance being shot off, the bell tolls.
GUISE Come, then, let’s away.
Exeunt.
[Scene 6]
The GUISE enters again, with all the rest, with their swords drawn, chasing the PROTESTANTS.
GUISE Tue, tue, tue!
Let none escape. Murder the Huguenots.
ANJOU Kill them, kill them!
Exeunt.
[Scene 7]
Enter LOREINE, running; the GUISE and the rest pursuing him.
GUISE
Loreine, Loreine, follow Loreine! Sirrah,
Are you a preacher of these heresies?
LOREINE
I am a preacher of the word of God,
And thou a traitor to thy soul and Him.
GUISE
5 ’Dearly beloved brother’ – thus ’tis written.
He stabs him [and LOREINE dies].
ANJOU
Stay, my lord, let me begin the psalm.
GUISE
Come, drag him away, and throw him in a ditch.
Exeunt.
[Scene 8]
Enter MOUNTSORRELL and knocks at SEROUNE’S door.
SEROUNE’S WIFE [within] Who is that which knocks there?
MOUNTSORRELL Mountsorrell, from the duke of Guise.
SEROUNE’S WIFE [within] Husband, come down, here’s one would speak with you from the duke of Guise.
Enter SEROUNE.
SEROUNE To speak with me, from such a man as he?
MOUNTSORRELL Ay, ay, for this, Seroune, and thou shalt ha’t.
Showing his dagger.
SEROUNE O, let me pray before I take my death.
MOUNTSORRELL Dispatch then, quickly.
SEROUNE O Christ, my saviour!
10 MOUNTSORRELLChrist, villain? Why dar’st thou to presume
to call on Christ, without the intercession of some saint?
Sanctus Jacobus, he was my saint; pray to him.
SEROUNE O, let me pray unto my God.
MOUNTSORRELL Then take this with you.
Stab him. Exit.
[Scene 9]
Enter RAMUS in his study.
RAMUS
What fearful cries comes from the river Seine
That frights poor Ramus sitting at his book?
I fear the Guisians have passed the bridge,
And mean once more to menace me.
Enter TALEUS.
TALEUS
Fly, Ramus, fly, if thou wilt save thy life.
RAMUS
Tell me, Taleus, wherefore should I fly?
TALEUS
The Guisians are
Hard at thy door, and mean to murder us.
Hark, hark, they come. I’ll leap out at the window.
10 RAMUS Sweet Taleus, stay.
Enter GONZAGO and RETES.
GONZAGO Who goes there?
RETES ’Tis Taleus, Ramus’ bedfellow.
GONZAGO What art thou?
TALEUS I am as Ramus is – a Christian.
RETES O, let him go, he is a Catholic.
Exit TALEUS.
GONZAGO
Come Ramus, more gold, or thou shalt have the stab.
RAMUS
Alas, I am a scholar, how should I have gold?
All that I have is but my stipend from the king,
Which is no sooner received but it is spent.
Enter the GUISE and ANJOU [with DUMAINE, MOUNT-SORRELL and SOLDIERS].
20 ANJOU Who have you there?
RETES ’Tis Ramus, the king’s Professor of Logic.
GUISE Stab him.
RAMUS
O, good my lord, wherein hath Ramus been so offencious?
GUISE
Marry, sir, in having a smack in all,
And yet didst never sound anything to the depth.
Was it not thou that scoff’ dst the Organon,
And said it was a heap of vanities?
He that will be a flat dichotomist,
And seen in nothing but epitomes,
30 Is in you
r judgement thought a learnèd man;
And he, forsooth, must go and preach in Germany,
Excepting against doctors’ axioms,
And ipse dixi with this quiddity,
Argumentum testimonii est inartificiale.
To contradict which, I say: Ramus shall die.
How answer you that? Your nego argumentum
Cannot serve, sirrah. Kill him.
RAMUS
O, good my lord, let me but speak a word.
ANJOU Well, say on.
RAMUS
40 Not for my life do I desire this pause,
But in my latter hour to purge myself,
In that I know the things that I have wrote,
Which, as I hear, one Scheckius takes it ill,
Because my places, being but three, contains all his.
I knew the Organon to be confused,
And I reduced it into better form;
And this for Aristotle will I say,
That he that despiseth him can ne’er
Be good in logic or philosophy;
50 And that’s because the blockish Sorbonnists
Attribute as much unto their works
As to the service of the eternal God.
GUISE
Why suffer you that peasant to declaim?
Stab him, I say, and send him to his friends in hell.
ANJOU
Ne’er was there collier’s son so full of pride.
Kills him.
GUISE
My lord of Anjou, there are a hundred Protestants
Which we have chased into the river Seine
That swim about and so preserve their lives;
How may we do? I fear me they will live.
DUMAINE
60 Go place some men upon the bridge
With bows and darts to shoot at them they see,
And sink them in the river as they swim.
GUISE
’Tis well advised, Dumaine; go see it straight be done.
[Exit DUMAINE.]
And, in the meantime, my lord, could we devise
To get those pedants from the King Navarre
That are tutors to him and the prince of Condé –
ANJOU
For that, let me alone; cousin, stay you here,
And when you see me in, then follow hard.
He [ANJOU] knocketh, and enter the KING OF NAVARRE
and [the] PRINCE OF CONDÉ, with their [two] SCHOOL-
MASTERS.
How now, my lords, how fare you?
NAVARRE My lord, they say
70 That all the Protestants are massacred.
ANJOU
Ay, so they are, but yet what remedy?
I have done what I could to stay this broil.
NAVARRE
But yet, my lord, the report doth run
That you were one that made this massacre.
ANJOU
Who, I? You are deceived, I rose but now.
The Complete Plays Page 49