Queen Mary; and, Harold. Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson

      QUEEN MARY: A DRAMA.

       Table of Contents

      DRAMATIS PERSONAE 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 | SIR THOMAS STAFFORD | Insurrectionary Leaders. SIR RALPH BAGENHALL. SIR ROBERT SOUTHWELL. SIR HENRY BEDINGFIELD. SIR WILLIAM CECIL. SIR THOMAS WHITE, Lord Mayor of London. THE DUKE OF ALVA | THE COUNT DE FERIA | attending on Philip. PETER MARTYR. FATHER COLE. FATHER BOURNE. VILLA GARCIA. SOTO. CAPTAIN BRETT | ANTHONY KNYVETT | Adherents 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 MAGDALEN DACRES | Ladies in Waiting to the Queen. ALICE | to the Princess Elizabeth. MAID OF HONOUR | JOAN | TIB | two Country Wives. Lords and other Attendants, Members of the Privy Council, Members of Parliament, Two Gentlemen, Aldermen, Citizens, Peasants, Ushers, Messengers, Guards, Pages, Gospellers, Marshalmen, etc.

      QUEEN MARY.

      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. 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,