No More Learning

Cast it o'er again.

STEWARD. I were whole devil if I wrong'd you, Madam.
[_Exit_ STEWARD.

ATTENDANT. The Count de Feria, from the King of Spain.

ELIZABETH. Ay! --let him enter. Nay, you need not go:
[_To her_ LADIES.
Remain within the chamber, but apart.
We'll have no private conference. Welcome to
England!

_Enter_ FERIA.

FERIA. Fair island star!

ELIZABETH. I shine! What else, Sir Count?

FERIA. As far as France, and into Philip's heart.
My King would know if you be fairly served,
And lodged, and treated.

ELIZABETH. You see the lodging, sir,
I am well-served, and am in everything
Most loyal and most grateful to the Queen.

FERIA. You should be grateful to my master, too.
He spoke of this; and unto him you owe
That Mary hath acknowledged you her heir.

ELIZABETH. No, not to her nor him; but to the people,
Who know my right, and love me, as I love
The people! whom God aid!

FERIA. You will be Queen,
And, were I Philip--

ELIZABETH. Wherefore pause you--what?

FERIA. Nay, but I speak from mine own self, not
him;
Your royal sister cannot last; your hand
Will be much coveted! What a delicate one!
Our Spanish ladies have none such--and there,
Were you in Spain, this fine fair gossamer gold--
Like sun-gilt breathings on a frosty dawn--
That hovers round your shoulder--

ELIZABETH. Is it so fine?
Troth, some have said so.

FERIA. --would be deemed a miracle.

ELIZABETH. Your Philip hath gold hair and golden beard;
There must be ladies many with hair like mine.

FERIA, Some few of Gothic blood have golden hair,
But none like yours.

ELIZABETH. I am happy you approve it.

FERIA. But as to Philip and your Grace--consider,
If such a one as you should match with Spain,
What hinders but that Spain and England join'd,
Should make the mightiest empire earth has known.
Spain would be England on her seas, and England
Mistress of the Indies.

ELIZABETH. It may chance, that England
Will be the Mistress of the Indies yet,
Without the help of Spain.

FERIA. Impossible;
Except you put Spain down.
Wide of the mark ev'n for a madman's dream.

ELIZABETH. Perhaps; but we have seamen.
Count de Feria,
I take it that the King hath spoken to you;
But is Don Carlos such a goodly match?

FERIA. Don Carlos, Madam, is but twelve years old.

ELIZABETH. Ay, tell the King that I will muse upon it;
He is my good friend, and I would keep him so;
But--he would have me Catholic of Rome,
And that I scarce can be; and, sir, till now
My sister's marriage, and my father's marriages,
Make me full fain to live and die a maid.
But I am much beholden to your King.
Have you aught else to tell me?

FERIA. Nothing, Madam,
Save that methought I gather'd from the Queen
That she would see your Grace before she--died.

ELIZABETH. God's death! and wherefore spake you not before?
We dally with our lazy moments here,
And hers are number'd. Horses there, without!
I am much beholden to the King, your master.
Why did you keep me prating? Horses, there!

[_Exit_ ELIZABETH, _etc_.

FERIA. So from a clear sky falls the thunderbolt!
Don Carlos? Madam, if you marry Philip,
Then I and he will snaffle your 'God's death,'
And break your paces in, and make you tame;
God's death, forsooth--you do not know King Philip.

[_Exit_.



SCENE IV. --LONDON. BEFORE THE PALACE.

_A light burning within_. VOICES _of the night passing_.


FIRST. Is not yon light in the Queen's chamber?

SECOND. Ay,
They say she's dying.

FIRST. So is Cardinal Pole.
May the great angels join their wings, and make
Down for their heads to heaven!

SECOND. Amen. Come on.
[_Exeunt_.

TWO OTHERS.

FIRST. There's the Queen's light. I hear she cannot live.

SECOND. God curse her and her Legate! Gardiner burns
Already; but to pay them full in kind,
The hottest hold in all the devil's den
Were but a sort of winter; sir, in Guernsey,
I watch'd a woman burn; and in her agony
The mother came upon her--a child was born--
And, sir, they hurl'd it back into the fire,
That, being but baptized in fire, the babe
Might be in fire for ever. Ah, good neighbour,
There should be something fierier than fire
To yield them their deserts.

FIRST. Amen to all
Your wish, and further.

A THIRD VOICE. Deserts! Amen to what? Whose deserts? Yours? You have a
gold ring on your finger, and soft raiment about your body; and is not
the woman up yonder sleeping after all she has done, in peace and
quietness, on a soft bed, in a closed room, with light, fire, physic,
tendance; and I have seen the true men of Christ lying famine-dead by
scores, and under no ceiling but the cloud that wept on them, not for
them.

FIRST. Friend, tho' so late, it is not safe to preach.
You had best go home. What are you?

THIRD. What am I? One who cries continually with sweat and tears to
the Lord God that it would please Him out of His infinite love to
break down all kingship and queenship, all priesthood and prelacy; to
cancel and abolish all bonds of human allegiance, all the magistracy,
all the nobles, and all the wealthy; and to send us again, according
to His promise, the one King, the Christ, and all things in common, as
in the day of the first church, when Christ Jesus was King.

FIRST. If ever I heard a madman,--let's away!
Why, you long-winded--Sir, you go beyond me.
I pride myself on being moderate.
Good night! Go home. Besides, you curse so loud,
The watch will hear you. Get you home at once.

[_Exeunt_.



SCENE V. --LONDON. A ROOM IN THE PALACE.

_A Gallery on one side. The moonlight streaming through a range of
windows on the wall opposite_. MARY, LADY CLARENCE, LADY MAGDALEN
DACRES, ALICE. QUEEN _pacing the Gallery. A writing table in front_.
QUEEN _comes to the table and writes and goes again, pacing the
Gallery_.


LADY CLARENCE. Mine eyes are dim: what hath she written? read.

ALICE. 'I am dying, Philip; come to me. '

LADY MAGDALEN. There--up and down, poor lady, up and down.

ALICE. And how her shadow crosses one by one
The moonlight casements pattern'd on the wall,
Following her like her sorrow. She turns again.

[QUEEN _sits and writes, and goes again_.

LADY CLARENCE. What hath she written now?

ALICE. Nothing; but 'come, come, come,' and all awry,
And blotted by her tears. This cannot last.

[QUEEN _returns_.

MARY. I whistle to the bird has broken cage,
And all in vain. [_Sitting down_.
Calais gone--Guisnes gone, too--and Philip gone!

LADY CLARENCE. Dear Madam, Philip is but at the wars;
I cannot doubt but that he comes again;
And he is with you in a measure still.
I never look'd upon so fair a likeness
As your great King in armour there, his hand
Upon his helmet.
[_Pointing to the portrait of Philip on the wall_.

MARY. Doth he not look noble?
I had heard of him in battle over seas,
And I would have my warrior all in arms.
He said it was not courtly to stand helmeted
Before the Queen. He had his gracious moment,
Altho' you'll not believe me. How he smiles
As if he loved me yet!

LADY CLARENCE. And so he does.

MARY. He never loved me--nay, he could not love me.
It was his father's policy against France.
I am eleven years older than he,
Poor boy! [_Weeps_.

ALICE. That was a lusty boy of twenty-seven; [_Aside_.
Poor enough in God's grace!

MARY. --And all in vain!
The Queen of Scots is married to the Dauphin,
And Charles, the lord of this low world, is gone;
And all his wars and wisdoms past away:
And in a moment I shall follow him.

LADY CLARENCE. Nay, dearest Lady, see your good physician.

MARY. Drugs--but he knows they cannot help me--says
That rest is all--tells me I must not think--
That I must rest--I shall rest by and by.
Catch the wild cat, cage him, and when he springs
And maims himself against the bars, say 'rest':
Why, you must kill him if you would have him rest--
Dead or alive you cannot make him happy.

LADY CLARENCE. Your Majesty has lived so pure a life,
And done such mighty things by Holy Church,
I trust that God will make you happy yet.

MARY. What is the strange thing happiness? Sit down here:
Tell me thine happiest hour.

LADY CLARENCE. I will, if that
May make your Grace forget yourself a little.
There runs a shallow brook across our field
For twenty miles, where the black crow flies five,
And doth so bound and babble all the way
As if itself were happy. It was May-time,
And I was walking with the man I loved.
I loved him, but I thought I was not loved.
And both were silent, letting the wild brook
Speak for us--till he stoop'd and gather'd one
From out a bed of thick forget-me-nots,
Look'd hard and sweet at me, and gave it me.
I took it, tho' I did not know I took it,
And put it in my bosom, and all at once
I felt his arms about me, and his lips--

MARY. O God! I have been too slack, too slack;
There are Hot Gospellers even among our guards--
Nobles we dared not touch. We have but burnt
The heretic priest, workmen, and women and children.
Wet, famine, ague, fever, storm, wreck, wrath,--
We have so play'd the coward; but by God's grace,
We'll follow Philip's leading, and set up
The Holy Office here--garner the wheat,
And burn the tares with unquenchable fire!
Burn! --
Fie, what a savour! tell the cooks to close
The doors of all the offices below.
Latimer!
Sir, we are private with our women here--
Ever a rough, blunt, and uncourtly fellow--
Thou light a torch that never will go out!
'Tis out--mine flames. Women, the Holy Father
Has ta'en the legateship from our cousin Pole--
Was that well done? and poor Pole pines of it,
As I do, to the death. I am but a woman,
I have no power. --Ah, weak and meek old man,
Seven-fold dishonour'd even in the sight
Of thine own sectaries--No, no. No pardon!
Why that was false: there is the right hand still
Beckons me hence.
Sir, you were burnt for heresy, not for treason,
Remember that! 'twas I and Bonner did it,
And Pole; we are three to one--Have you found mercy there,
Grant it me here: and see, he smiles and goes,
Gentle as in life.

ALICE. Madam, who goes? King Philip?

MARY. No, Philip comes and goes, but never goes.
Women, when I am dead,
Open my heart, and there you will find written
Two names, Philip and Calais; open his,--
So that he have one,--
You will find Philip only, policy, policy,--
Ay, worse than that--not one hour true to me!
Foul maggots crawling in a fester'd vice!
Adulterous to the very heart of Hell.
Hast thou a knife?

ALICE. Ay, Madam, but o' God's mercy--

MARY. Fool, think'st thou I would peril mine own soul
By slaughter of the body? I could not, girl,
Not this way--callous with a constant stripe,
Unwoundable. The knife!

ALICE. Take heed, take heed!
The blade is keen as death.

MARY. This Philip shall not
Stare in upon me in my haggardness;
Old, miserable, diseased,
Incapable of children. Come thou down.
[_Cuts out the picture and throws it down_.
Lie there. (_Wails_) O God, I have kill'd my Philip!

ALICE. No,
Madam, you have but cut the canvas out;
We can replace it.

MARY. All is well then; rest--
I will to rest; he said, I must have rest.
[_Cries of_ 'ELIZABETH' _in the street_.
A cry! What's that? Elizabeth? revolt?
A new Northumberland, another Wyatt?
I'll fight it on the threshold of the grave.

LADY CLARENCE. Madam, your royal sister comes to see you.

MARY. I will not see her.
Who knows if Boleyn's daughter be my sister?
I will see none except the priest. Your arm.
[_To_ LADY CLARENCE.
O Saint of Aragon, with that sweet worn smile
Among thy patient wrinkles--Help me hence.
[_Exeunt_.

_The_ PRIEST _passes. Enter_ ELIZABETH _and_ SIR WILLIAM CECIL.

ELIZABETH. Good counsel yours--
No one in waiting? still,
As if the chamberlain were Death himself!
The room she sleeps in--is not this the way?
No, that way there are voices. Am I too late?
Cecil . . . God guide me lest I lose the way.
[_Exit_ ELIZABETH.

CECIL. Many points weather'd, many perilous ones,
At last a harbour opens; but therein
Sunk rocks--they need fine steering--much it is
To be nor mad, nor bigot--have a mind--
Nor let Priests' talk, or dream of worlds to be,
Miscolour things about her--sudden touches
For him, or him--sunk rocks; no passionate faith--
But--if let be--balance and compromise;
Brave, wary, sane to the heart of her--a Tudor
School'd by the shadow of death--a Boleyn, too,
Glancing across the Tudor--not so well.

_Enter_ ALICE.

How is the good Queen now?

ALICE. Away from Philip.
Back in her childhood--prattling to her mother
Of her betrothal to the Emperor Charles,
And childlike--jealous of him again--and once
She thank'd her father sweetly for his book
Against that godless German. Ah, those days
Were happy. It was never merry world
In England, since the Bible came among us.

CECIL. And who says that?

ALICE. It is a saying among the Catholics.

CECIL. It never will be merry world in England,
Till all men have their Bible, rich and poor.

ALICE. The Queen is dying, or you dare not say it.

_Enter_ ELIZABETH.

ELIZABETH. The Queen is dead.

CECIL. Then here she stands! my homage.

ELIZABETH. She knew me, and acknowledged me her heir,
Pray'd me to pay her debts, and keep the Faith:
Then claspt the cross, and pass'd away in peace.
I left her lying still and beautiful,
More beautiful than in life. Why would you vex yourself,
Poor sister? Sir, I swear I have no heart
To be your Queen. To reign is restless fence,
Tierce, quart, and trickery. Peace is with the dead.
Her life was winter, for her spring was nipt:
And she loved much: pray God she be forgiven.

CECIL. Peace with the dead, who never were at peace!
Yet she loved one so much--I needs must say--
That never English monarch dying left
England so little.

ELIZABETH. But with Cecil's aid
And others, if our person be secured
From traitor stabs--we will make England great.

_Enter_ PAGET, _and other_ LORDS OF THE COUNCIL,
SIR RALPH BAGENHALL, _etc_.

LORDS. God save Elizabeth, the Queen of England!

BAGENHALL. God save the Crown! the Papacy is no more.

PAGET (_aside_).
Are we so sure of that?

ACCLAMATION. God save the Queen!


END OF QUEEN MARY.






HAROLD: A DRAMA.



TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE RIGHT HON. LORD LYTTON, VICEROY AND
GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA.

My Dear Lord Lytton,--After old-world records--such as the Bayeux
tapestry and the Roman de Rou,--Edward Freeman's History of the Norman
Conquest, and your father's Historical Romance treating of the same
times, have been mainly helpful to me in writing this Drama. Your
father dedicated his 'Harold' to my father's brother; allow me to
dedicate my 'Harold' to yourself.

A. TENNYSON.



SHOW-DAY AT BATTLE ABBEY, 1876.

A garden here--May breath and bloom of spring--
The cuckoo yonder from an English elm
Crying 'with my false egg I overwhelm
The native nest:' and fancy hears the ring
Of harness, and that deathful arrow sing,
And Saxon battleaxe clang on Norman helm.
Here rose the dragon-banner of our realm:
Here fought, here fell, our Norman-slander'd king.
O Garden blossoming out of English blood!
O strange hate-healer Time! We stroll and stare
Where might made right eight hundred years ago;
Might, right? ay good, so all things make for good--
But he and he, if soul be soul, are where
Each stands full face with all he did below.



_DRAMATIS PERSONAE_

KING EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
STIGAND, _created Archbishop of Canterbury by the Antipope Benedict_.
ALDRED, _Archbishop of York_.
THE NORMAN BISHOP OF LONDON.
HAROLD, _Earl of Wessex, afterwards King of England, Son of Godwin_
TOSTIG, _Earl of Northumbria, Son of Godwin_
GURTH, _Earl of East Anglia, Son of Godwin_
LEOFWIN, _Earl of Kent and Essex, Son of Godwin_
WULFNOTH
COUNT WILLIAM OF NORMANDY.
WILLIAM RUFUS.
WILLIAM MALET, _a Norman Noble_. [1]
EDWIN, _Earl of Mercia, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_
MORCAR, _Earl of Northumbria after Tostig, Son of Alfgar of Mercia_
GAMEL, _a Northumbrian Thane_.
GUY, _Count of Ponthieu_.
ROLF, _a Ponthieu Fisherman_.
HUGH MARGOT, _a Norman Monk_.
OSGOD _and_ ATHELRIC, _Canons from Waltham_.
THE QUEEN, _Edward the Confessor's Wife, Daughter of Godwin_.
ALDWYTH, _Daughter of Alfgar and Widow of Griffyth, King of Wales_.
EDITH, _Ward of King Edward_.
Courtiers, Earls and Thanes, Men-at-Arms, Canons of Waltham,
Fishermen, etc.


[Footnote 1: . . . quidam partim Normannus et Anglus
Compater Heraldi. (_Guy of Amiens_, 587. )]



HAROLD




ACT I.


SCENE I. --LONDON. THE KING'S PALACE.

(_A comet seen through the open window_. )

ALDWYTH, GAMEL, COURTIERS _talking together_.


FIRST COURTIER. Lo! there once more--this is the seventh night!
Yon grimly-glaring, treble-brandish'd scourge Of England!

SECOND COURTIER. Horrible!

FIRST COURTIER. Look you, there's a star
That dances in it as mad with agony!

THIRD COURTIER. Ay, like a spirit in Hell who skips and flies
To right and left, and cannot scape the flame.

SECOND COURTIER. Steam'd upward from the undescendable
Abysm.

FIRST COURTIER. Or floated downward from the throne
Of God Almighty.

ALDWYTH. Gamel, son of Orm,
What thinkest thou this means?

GAMEL. War, my dear lady!

ALDWYTH. Doth this affright thee?

GAMEL. Mightily, my dear lady!

ALDWYTH. Stand by me then, and look upon my face,
Not on the comet.

_Enter_ MORCAR.

Brother! why so pale?

MORCAR. It glares in heaven, it flares upon the Thames,
The people are as thick as bees below,
They hum like bees,--they cannot speak--for awe;
Look to the skies, then to the river, strike
Their hearts, and hold their babies up to it.
I think that they would Molochize them too,
To have the heavens clear.

ALDWYTH. They fright not me.

_Enter_ LEOFWIN, _after him_ GURTH.

Ask thou Lord Leofwin what he thinks of this!

MORCAR. Lord Leofwin, dost thou believe, that these
Three rods of blood-red fire up yonder mean
The doom of England and the wrath of Heaven?

BISHOP OF LONDON (_passing_).
Did ye not cast with bestial violence
Our holy Norman bishops down from all
Their thrones in England? I alone remain.
Why should not Heaven be wroth?

LEOFWIN.