Enter [to them] GUISE [with GONZAGO, RETES, MOUNT-SORRELL and SOLDIERS].
GUISE
Murder the Huguenots, take those pedants hence.
NAVARRE
Thou traitor, Guise, lay off thy bloody hands.
CONDÉ Come, let us go tell the king.
Exeunt [CONDÉ and NAVARRE].
GUISE Come sirs,
I’ll whip you to death with my poniard’s point.
He kills them [the SCHOOLMASTERS].
80 ANJOU Away with them both.
Exit ANJOU [with SOLDIERS carrying the bodies].
GUISE
And now, sirs, for this night let our fury stay.
Yet will we not that the massacre shall end:
Gonzago, post you to Orleans,
Retes to Dieppe, Mountsorrell unto Rouen,
And spare not one that you suspect of heresy.
And now stay that bell, that to the devil’s matins rings.
Now every man put off his burgonet,
And so convey him closely to his bed.
Exeunt.
[Scene 10]
Enter ANJOU, with two LORDS OF POLAND.
ANJOU
My lords of Poland, I must needs confess
The offer of your Prince Electors far
Beyond the reach of my deserts;
For Poland is, as I have been informed,
A martial people, worthy such a king
As hath sufficient counsel in himself
To lighten doubts and frustrate subtle foes;
And such a king whom practice long hath taught
To please himself with manage of the wars,
10 The greatest wars within our Christian bounds –
I mean our wars against the Muscovites,
And on the other side against the Turk,
Rich princes both, and mighty emperors.
Yet by my brother Charles, our king of France,
And by his grace’s council, it is thought
That if I undertake to wear the crown
Of Poland, it may prejudice their hope
Of my inheritance to the crown of France;
For, if th’almighty take my brother hence,
20 By due descent the regal seat is mine.
With Poland, therefore, must I covenant thus:
That if, by death of Charles, the diadem
Of France be cast on me, then with your leaves
I may retire me to my native home.
If your commission serve to warrant this,
I thankfully shall undertake the charge
Of you and yours, and carefully maintain
The wealth and safety of your kingdom’s right.
FIRST LORD
All this and more your highness shall command
30 For Poland’s crown and kingly diadem.
ANJOU Then come, my lords, let’s go.
Exeunt.
[Scene 11]
Enter two [SOLDIERS] with the ADMIRAL’S body.
FIRST SOLDIER Now, sirrah, what shall we do with the Admiral?
SECOND SOLDIER Why, let us burn him for an heretic.
FIRST SOLDIER O no, his body will infect the fire, and the fire the air, and so we shall be poisoned with him.
SECOND SOLDIER What shall we do, then?
FIRST SOLDIER Let’s throw him into the river.
SECOND SOLDIER O, ’twill corrupt the water, and the water the fish, and by the fish ourselves when we eat them.
10 FIRST SOLDIER Then throw him into the ditch.
SECOND SOLDIER No, no, to decide all doubts, be ruled by me:
let’s hang him here upon this tree.
FIRST SOLDIER Agreed.
They hang him [and exeunt].
Enter the DUKE OF GUISE, [CATHERINE the] QUEEN-MOTHER, and the CARDINAL [with ATTENDANTS].
GUISE
Now, madam, how like you our lusty Admiral?
CATHERINE
Believe me, Guise, he becomes the place so well
As I could long ere this have wished him there.
But come, let’s walk aside, th’air’s not very sweet.
GUISE
No, by my faith, madam.
Sirs, take him away and throw him in some ditch.
[The ATTENDANTS] carry away the dead body.
20 And now, madam, as I understand,
There are a hundred Huguenots and more
Which in the woods do hold their synagogue,
And daily meet about this time of day,
And thither will I to put them to the sword.
CATHERINE
Do so, sweet Guise, let us delay no time,
For if these stragglers gather head again,
And disperse themselves throughout the realm of France,
It will be hard for us to work their deaths.
Be gone, delay no time, sweet Guise.
GUISE Madam,
30 I go as whirlwinds rage before a storm.
Exit.
CATHERINE
My lord of Lorraine, have you marked of late
How Charles, our son, begins for to lament
For the late night’s work which my lord of Guise
Did make in Paris amongst the Huguenots?
CARDINAL
Madam, I have heard him solemnly vow
With the rebellious King of Navarre
For to revenge their deaths upon us all.
CATHERINE
Ay, but my lord, let me alone for that,
For Catherine must have her will in France.
40 As I do live, so surely shall he die,
And Henry then shall wear the diadem;
And if he grudge or cross his mother’s will,
I’ll disinherit him and all the rest;
For I’ll rule France, but they shall wear the crown,
And, if they storm, I then may pull them down.
Come, my lord, let us go.
Exeunt.
[Scene 12]
Enter five or six PROTESTANTS with books, and kneel together. Enter also the GUISEand [others].
GUISE
Down with the Huguenots! Murder them!
FIRST PROTESTANT
O monsieur de Guise, hear me but speak!
GUISE
No, villain, that tongue of thine
That hath blasphemed the holy Church of Rome,
5 Shall drive no plaints into the Guise’s ears
To make the justice of my heart relent.
Tue, tue, tue! Let none escape.
Kill them.
So, drag them away.
Exeunt.
[Scene 13]
Enter the KING OF FRANCE, NAVARRE and EPERNOUN
staying him; enter [CATHERINE the] QUEEN-MOTHER and
the CARDINAL[, PLESHÉ and ATTENDANTS].
CHARLES
O, let me stay and rest me here a while,
A griping pain hath seized upon my heart;
A sudden pang, the messenger of death.
CATHERINE
O say not so, thou kill’st thy mother’s heart.
CHARLES
I must say so; pain forceth me complain.
NAVARRE
Comfort yourself, my lord, and have no doubt
But God will sure restore you to your health.
CHARLES
O no, my loving brother of Navarre!
I have deserved a scourge, I must confess;
Yet is their patience of another sort
10 Than to misdo the welfare of their king:
God grant my nearest friends may prove no worse!
O hold me up, my sight begins to fail,
My sinews shrink, my brains turn upside down,
My heart doth break, I faint and die.
He dies.
CATHERINE
What, art thou dead? Sweet son, speak to thy mother!
O no, his soul is fled from out his breast,
And he nor hears nor sees us what we do.
My lords, what r
esteth there now for to be done,
20 But that we presently dispatch ambassadors
To Poland to call Henry back again
To wear his brother’s crown and dignity?
Epernoun, go see it presently be done,
And bid him come without delay to us.
EPERNOUN Madam, I will.
Exit.
CATHERINE
And now, my lords, after these funerals be done,
We will, with all the speed we can, provide
For Henry’s coronation from Polony.
Come, let us take his body hence.
All go out but NAVARRE and PLESHÉ.
NAVARRE
And now, Navarre, whilst that these broils do last,
30 My opportunity may serve me fit
To steal from France and hie me to my home,
For here’s no safety in the realm for me;
And now that Henry is called from Poland,
It is my due, by just succession;
And therefore, as speedily as I can perform,
I’ll muster up an army secretly,
For fear that Guise, joined with the King of Spain,
Might seem to cross me in mine enterprise.
40 But God that always doth defend the right
Will show His mercy and preserve us still.
PLESHÉ
The virtues of our true religion
Cannot but march with many graces more,
Whose army shall discomfort all your foes,
And, at the length, in Pampelonia crown,
(In spite of Spain and all the popish power
That holds it from your highness wrongfully)
Your majesty her rightful lord and sovereign.
NAVARRE
Truth, Pleshé; and God so prosper me in all
50 As I intend to labour for the truth
And true profession of His holy word!
Come, Pleshé, let’s away whilst time doth serve.
Exeunt.
[Scene 14]
Sound trumpets within, and then all cry ‘vive le roi’ two or
three times. Enter HENRY [ANJOU] crowned; [CATHERINE
the] QUEEN[-MOTHER], CARDINAL, DUKE OF GUISE,
EPERNOUN, the King’s Minions [JOYEUX and
MUGEROUN], with others, and the CUTPURSE.
ALL Vive le roi, vive le roi!
(Sound trumpets.)
CATHERINE
Welcome from Poland, Henry, once again,
Welcome to France, thy father’s royal seat.
Here hast thou a country void of fears,
A warlike people to maintain thy right,
A watchful senate for ordaining laws,
A loving mother to preserve thy state,
And all things that a king may wish besides;
All this and more hath Henry with his crown.
CARDINAL
10 And long may Henry enjoy all this, and more!
ALL Vive le roi, vive le roi!
(Sound trumpets.)
HENRY
Thanks to you all. The guider of all crowns
Grant that our deeds may well deserve your loves!
And so they shall, if fortune speed my will,
And yield your thoughts to height of my deserts.
What says our minions? Think they Henry’s heart
Will not both harbour love and majesty?
Put off that fear, they are already joined.
No person, place, or time, or circumstance,
20 Shall slack my love’s affection from his bent.
As now you are, so shall you still persist,
Removeless from the favours of your king.
MUGEROUN
We know that noble minds change not their thoughts
For wearing of a crown, in that your grace
Hath worn the Poland diadem before
You were invested in the crown of France.
HENRY
I tell thee, Mugeroun, we will be friends,
And fellows too, whatever storms arise.
MUGEROUN
Then may it please your majesty to give me leave
30 To punish those that do profane this holy feast.
He cuts off the CUTPURSE’S ear, for cutting of the gold buttons off his cloak.
HENRY How mean’st thou that?
CUTPURSE O lord, mine ear!
MUGEROUN
Come, sir, give me my buttons, and here’s your ear.
GUISE [to an ATTENDANT] Sirrah, take him away.
HENRY [to MUGEROUN]
Hands off, good fellow; I will be his bail
For this offence. [To CUTPURSE] Go, sirrah, work no more
Till this our coronation-day be past.
And now, our solemn rites of coronation done,
What now remains but for a while to feast
40 And spend some days in barriers, tourney, tilt,
And like disports, such as do fit the court?
Let’s go, my lords, our dinner stays for us.
Go out all but [CATHERINE] the QUEEN[-MOTHER] and the CARDINAL.
CATHERINE
My Lord Cardinal of Lorraine, tell me,
How likes your grace my son’s pleasantness?
His mind, you see, runs on his minions,
And all his heaven is to delight himself;
And whilst he sleeps securely thus in ease,
Thy brother Guise and we may now provide
To plant ourselves with such authority
50 As not a man may live without our leaves.
Then shall the Catholic faith of Rome
Flourish in France, and none deny the same.
CARDINAL
Madam, as in secrecy I was told,
My brother Guise hath gathered a power of men,
Which are, he saith, to kill the Puritans;
But ’tis the house of Bourbon that he means.
Now, madam, must you insinuate with the king,
And tell him that ’tis for his country’s good,
And common profit of religion.
CATHERINE
60 Tush, man, let me alone with him,
To work the way to bring this thing to pass;
And if he do deny what I do say,
I’ll dispatch him with his brother presently,
And then shall monsieur wear the diadem,
Tush, all shall die unless I have my will,
For, while she lives, Catherine will be queen.
Come, my lord, let us go seek the Guise
And then determine of this enterprise.
Exeunt.
[Scene 15]
Enter the DUCHESS OF GUISE and her MAID.
DUCHESS
Go fetch me pen and ink.
MAID I will, madam.
Exit MAID.
DUCHESS
That I may write unto my dearest lord.
Sweet Mugeroun, ’tis he that hath my heart,
And Guise usurps it ’cause I am his wife.
Fain would I find some means to speak with him,
But cannot, and therefore am enforced to write
That he may come and meet me in some place
Where we may one enjoy the other’s sight.
Enter the MAID, with [pen,] ink, and paper.
So, set it down and leave me to myself.
[Exit MAID.]
She writes.
O would to God this quill that here doth write
10 Had late been plucked from out fair Cupid’s wing,
That it might print these lines within his heart!
Enter the GUISE.
GUISE
What, all alone, my love, and writing too?
I prithee, say to whom thou writes?
DUCHESS
To such a one, my lord, as when she reads my lines
Will laugh, I fear me, at their good array.
GUISE
I pray thee, let me see.
DUCHESS
O no, my lord, a woman
only must
Partake the secrets of my heart.
GUISE
20 But, madam, I must see.
Are these your secrets that no man must know?
DUCHESS
O pardon me, my lord!
GUISE
Thou trothless and unjust, what lines are these?
Am I grown old, or is thy lust grown young,
Or hath my love been so obscured in thee,
That others needs to comment on my text?
Is all my love forgot which held thee dear,
Ay, dearer than the apple of mine eye?
Is Guise’s glory but a cloudy mist,
30 In sight and judgement of thy lustful eye?
Mort dieu! Were’t not the fruit within thy womb,
Of whose increase I set some longing hope,
This wrathful hand should strike thee to the heart!
Hence, strumpet, hide thy head for shame,
And fly my presence, if thou look to live.
Exit [DUCHESS].
O wicked sex, perjurèd and unjust,
Now do I see that from the very first
Her eyes and looks sowed seeds of perjury.
But, villain, he to whom these lines should go
40 Shall buy her love even with his dearest blood.
Exit.
[Scene 16]
Enter the KING OF NAVARRE, PLESHÉ and BARTUS, and their train, with drums and trumpets.
NAVARRE
My lords, sith in a quarrel just and right
We undertake to manage these our wars
Against the proud disturbers of the faith,
I mean the Guise, the Pope, and King of Spain,
Who set themselves to tread us under foot,
And rent our true religion from this land;
But for you know our quarrel is no more
But to defend their strange inventions,
Which they will put us to with sword and fire;
10 We must with resolute minds resolve to fight,
In honour of our God and country’s good.
Spain is the council-chamber of the Pope,
Spain is the place where he makes peace and war:
And Guise for Spain hath now incensed the king
To send his power to meet us in the field.
BARTUS
Then in this bloody brunt they may behold
The sole endeavour of your princely care,
To plant the true succession of the faith
In spite of Spain and all his heresies.
NAVARRE
20 The power of vengeance now encamps itself
Upon the haughty mountains of my breast,
Plays with her gory colours of revenge,
Whom I respect as leaves of boasting green
That change their colour when the winter comes,
When I shall vaunt as victor in revenge.
The Complete Plays Page 50