 | Queen Mary |  |
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?
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!
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
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.
Citizens.
Long live Queen Mary! down with all
traitors! God save her Grace; and death to
Northumberland!
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
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
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.
| Queen Mary | |