University of Virginia Library

Scene II.

—Whitehall.
The Queen and Lady Carlisle.
Queen.
It cannot be.

Lady Carlisle.
It is so.

Queen.
Why, the House
Have hardly met.

Lady Carlisle.
They met for that.

Queen.
No, no!
Meet to impeach Lord Strafford? 'T is a jest.

Lady Carlisle.
A bitter one.

Queen.
Consider! 'T is the House
We summoned so reluctantly, which nothing
But the disastrous issue of the war
Persuaded us to summon. They'll wreak all
Their spite on us, no doubt; but the old way
Is to begin by talk of grievances:
They have their grievances to busy them.

Lady Carlisle.
Pym has begun his speech.

Queen.
Where's Vane?—That is,
Pym will impeach Lord Strafford if he leaves
His Presidency; he's at York, we know,
Since the Scots beat him: why should he leave York?

Lady Carlisle.
Because the King sent for him.

Queen.
Ah—but if
The King did send for him, he let him know
We had been forced to call a Parliament—
A step which Strafford, now I come to think,
Was vehement against.

Lady Carlisle.
The policy
Escaped him, of first striking Parliaments
To earth, then setting them upon their feet
And giving them a sword: but this is idle.
Did the King send for Strafford? He will come.

Queen.
And what am I to do?

Lady Carlisle.
What do? Fail, madam!
Be ruined for his sake! what matters how,
So it but stand on record that you made
An effort, only one?

Queen.
The King away
At Theobald's!

Lady Carlisle.
Send for him at once: he must
Dissolve the House.

Queen.
Wait till Vane finds the truth
Of the report: then . . .

Lady Carlisle.
—It will matter little
What the King does. Strafford that lends his arm
And breaks his heart for you!

Sir H. Vane enters.
Vane.
The Commons, madam,
Are sitting with closed doors. A huge debate,
No lack of noise; but nothing, I should guess,
Concerning Strafford: Pym has certainly
Not spoken yet.

Queen
[to Lady Carlisle].
You hear?

Lady Carlisle.
I do not hear
That the King's sent for!

Vane.
Savile will be able
To tell you more.

Holland enters.
Queen.
The last news, Holland?

Holland.
Pym
Is raging like a fire. The whole House means
To follow him together to Whitehall
And force the King to give up Strafford.

Queen.
Strafford?

Holland.
If they content themselves with Strafford! Laud
Is talked of, Cottington and Windebank too.
Pym has not left out one of them—I would
You heard Pym raging!

Queen.
Vane, go find the King!
Tell the King, Vane, the People follow Pym
To brave us at Whitehall!

Savile enters.
Savile.
Not to Whitehall—
'T is to the Lords they go: they seek redress
On Strafford from his peers—the legal way,
They call it.

Queen.
(Wait, Vane!)

Savile.
But the adage gives
Long life to threatened men. Strafford can save
Himself so readily: at York, remember,
In his own county: what has he to fear?
The Commons only mean to frighten him
From leaving York. Surely, he will not come.

Queen.
Lucy, he will not come!

Lady Carlisle.
Once more, the King
Has sent for Strafford. He will come.

Vane.
Oh doubtless!
And bring destruction with him: that's his way.
What but his coming spoilt all Conway's plan?
The King must take his counsel, choose his friends,
Be wholly ruled by him! What's the result?
The North that was to rise, Ireland to help,—
What came of it? In my poor mind, a fright
Is no prodigious punishment.

Lady Carlisle.
A fright?
Pym will fail worse than Strafford if he thinks
To frighten him. [To the Queen.]
You will not save him then?

Savile.
When something like a charge is made, the King
Will best know how to save him: and't is clear,
While Strafford suffers nothing by the matter,
The King may reap advantage: this in question,
No dinning you with ship-money complaints!

Queen
[to Lady Carlisle].
If we dissolve them, who will pay the army?
Protect us from the insolent Scots?

Lady Carlisle.
In truth,
I know not, madam. Strafford's fate concerns
Me little: you desired to learn what course
Would save him: I obey you.

Vane.
Notice, too,
There can't be fairer ground for taking full
Revenge—(Strafford's revengeful)—than he'll have
Against his old friend Pym.

Queen.
Why, he shall claim
Vengeance on Pym!

Vane.
And Strafford, who is he
To 'scape unscathed amid the accidents
That harass all beside? I, for my part,
Should look for something of discomfiture
Had the King trusted me so thoroughly
And been so paid for it.

Holland.
He'll keep at York:
All will blow over: he'll return no worse,
Humbled a little, thankful for a place
Under as good a man. Oh, we'll dispense
With seeing Strafford for a month or two!

Strafford enters.
Queen.
You here!

Strafford.
The King sends for me, madam,

Queen.
Sir,
The King . . .

Strafford.
An urgent matter that imports the King!
[To Lady Carlisle.]
Why, Lucy, what's in agitation now,
That all this muttering and shrugging, see,
Begins at me? They do not speak!

Lady Carlisle.
'T is welcome!
For we are proud of you—happy and proud
To have you with us, Strafford! You were staunch
At Durham: you did well there! Had you not
Been stayed, you might have . . . . we said, even now,
Our hope's in you!

Vane
[to Lady Carlisle].
The Queen would speak with you.

Strafford.
Will one of you, his servants here, vouchsafe
To signify my presence to the King?

Savile.
An urgent matter?

Strafford.
None that touches you,
Lord Savile! Say, it were some treacherous
Sly pitiful intriguing with the Scots—
You would go free, at least! (They half divine
My purpose!) Madam, shall I see the King?
The service I would render, much concerns
His welfare.

Queen.
But his Majesty, my lord,
May not be here, may . . .

Strafford.
Its importance, then,
Must plead excuse for this withdrawal, madam,
And for the grief it gives Lord Savile here.

Queen
[who has been conversing with Vane and Holland].
[To Lady Carlisle.]

Strafford.
Time fleeting, too!
[To Lady Carlisle.]
No means of getting them away? And She—
What does she whisper? Does she know my purpose?
What does she think of it? Get them away!

Queen
[to Lady Carlisle].
He comes to baffle Pym —he thinks the danger.
Far off: tell him no word of it! a time
For help will come; we'll not be wanting then.
Keep him in play, Lucy—you, self-possessed
And calm! [To Strafford.]
To spare you lordship some delay
I will myself acquaint the King. [To Lady Carlisle.]
Beware!

[The Queen, Vane, Holland, and Savile go out.
Strafford,
She knows it?

Lady Carlisle.
Tell me, Strafford!

Strafford.
Afterward!
This moment's the great moment of all time.
She knows my purpose?

Lady Carlisle
Thoroughly: just now
She bade me hide it from you.

Strafford.
Quick, dear child,
The whole o' the scheme?

Lady Carlisle.
(Ah, he would learn if they
Connive at Pym's procedure! Could they but
Have once apprised the King! But there's no time
For falsehood, now.) Strafford, the whole is known.

Strafford.
Known and approved?

Lady Carlisle.
Hardly discountenanced.

Strafford.
And the King—say, the King consents as well?

Lady Carlisle.
The King's not yet informed, but will not dare
To interpose.

Strafford.
What need to wait him, then?
He'll sanction it! I stayed, child, tell him, long!
It vexed me to the soul—this waiting here.
You know him, there's no counting on the King.
Tell him I waited long!

Lady Carlisle
(What can he mean?
Rejoice at the King's hollowness?)

Strafford.
I knew
They would be glad of it,—all over once,
I knew they would be glad: but he'd contrive,
The Queen and he, to mar, by helping it,
An angel's making.

Lady Carlisle.
(Is he mad?) Dear Strafford,
You were not wont to look so happy.

Strafford.
Sweet,
I tried obedience thoroughly. I took
The King's wild plan: of course, ere I could reach
My army, Conway ruined it. I drew
The wrecks together, raised all heaven and earth,
And would have fought the Scots: the King at once
Made truce with them. Then, Lucy, then, dear child,
God put it in my mind to love, serve, die
For Charles, but never to obey him more!
While he endured their insolence at Ripon
I fell on them at Durham. But you'll tell
The King I waited? All the anteroom
Is filled with my adherents.

Lady Carlisle.
Strafford—Strafford,
What daring act is this you hint?

Strafford.
No, no!
'T is here, not daring if you knew? all here!
[Drawing papers from his breast.
Full proof, see, ample proof—does the Queen know
I have such damning proof? Bedford and Essex,
Brooke, Warwick, Savile (did you notice Savile?
The simper that I spoilt?), Saye, Mandeville—
Sold to the Scots, body and soul, by Pym!

Lady Carlisle.
Great heaven!

Strafford.
From Savile and his lords, to Pym
And his losels, crushed!—Pym shall not ward the blow
Nor Savile creep aside from it! The Crew
And the Cabal—I crush them!

Lady Carlisle.
And you go—
Strafford,—and now you go?—

Strafford.
—About no work
In the background, I promise you! I go
Straight to the House of Lords to claim these knaves.
Mainwaring!

Lady Carlisle.
Stay—stay, Strafford!

Strafford.
She'll return,
The Queen—some little project of her own!
No time to lose: the King takes fright perhaps.

Lady Carlisle.
Pym's strong, remember!

Strafford.
Very strong, as fits
The Faction's head—with no offence to Hampden,
Vane, Rudyard and my loving Hollis: one
And all they lodge within the Tower to-night
In just equality. Brian! Mainwaring!
[Many of his Adherents enter.
The Peers debate just now (a lucky chance)
On the Scots' war; my visit's opportune.
When all is over, Bryan, you proceed
To Ireland: these dispatches, mark me, Bryan,
Are for the Deputy, and these for Ormond:
We want the army here—my army, raised
At such a cost, that should have done such good,
And was inactive all the time! no matter,
We'll find a use for it. Willis . . . or, no—you!
You, friend, make haste to York: bear this, at once . . .
Or,—better stay for form's sake, see yourself
The news you carry. You remain with me
To execute the Parliament's command,
Mainwaring! Help to seize these lesser knaves,
Take care there's no escaping at backdoors:
I'll not have one escape, mind me—not one!
I seem revengeful, Lucy? Did you know
What these men dare!

Lady Carlisle.
It is so much they dare!

Strafford.

Lady Carlisle.
That reddening brow!
You seem . . .

Strafford.
Well—do I not? I would be well—
I could not but be well on such a day!
And, this day ended, 't is of slight import
How long the ravaged frame subjects the soul
In Strafford.

Lady Carlisle.
Noble Strafford!

Strafford.
No farewell!
I'll see you anon, to-morrow—the first thing.
—If She should come to stay me!

Lady Carlisle.
Go—'t is nothing—
Only my heart that swells: it has been thus
Ere now: go, Strafford!

Strafford.
To-night, then, let it be.
I must see Him: you, the next after Him.
I'll tell you how Pym looked. Follow me, friends!
You, gentlemen, shall see a sight this hour
To talk of all your lives. Close after me!
“My friend of friends!”

[Strafford and the rest go out.
Lady Carlisle.