University of Virginia Library

ACT V.

SCENE I.

Queen alone.
Queen.
To recollect and judge our actions past,
May yield instruction—I approve my caution,
And bless the fortune that conceal'd my weakness
For the proud Regent, even from my brother.
My seeming innocence preserves respect,
And gives him life and vigour to pursue
My daring scheme to crush the man I hate.
Shou'd it succeed, secure from all reproach,
Life may be worth my care.
Enter Zenomira.
I had forgot—
This woman knows too much—her lover too—
They may be dangerous—that too shou'd be thought on,
And shall be so hereafter—What's your business?

Zen.
Madam, the Regent asks to be admitted.

Q.
Why shou'd I be alarm'd?—No, 'tis not fear
That gives this sudden sickness to my heart:—
This tremor, these convulsive starts proceed
From strong aversion only—I contemn him.
[Apart.
Yes, let him enter.
[Exit Zenomira.
I'll enjoy his anguish:
Safe in my sex and dignity, I'll tell him,
That 'tis my pride and glory to have made him
The very wretch he is.

Enter Elmerick and Zenomira.
Zen.
Madam, the Regent—

Elm.
I've orders, Madam, from your Lord and mine
Fit only for your ear.

Q.
What gloomy grandeur he assumes!
What insolent tranquillity he bears!
You may withdraw.

[Exit Zenomira.
Elm.
I hear, Conrade is fled.

Q.
You've bad intelligence, the state must suffer
While you're no better serv'd: He scorns to fly,
And will confront you soon.

Elm.
'Till then, let guilt
And fear attend, and keep the villain waking.

Q.
You come to rail: Begin, I stand collected,
Nay, will assist you. You refus'd my love,
And in my turn, I have undone Ismena.

Elm.
You do confess it then?

Q.
I glory in it.
To wound you where I knew you most secure,
To taint your Heaven, to curse you in Ismena,
Was my contrivance: Conrade's desperate passion,
Subservient to my vengeance, wrought her ruin.

Elm.
This I had charg'd you with; but, self-convicted,
My pains are spar'd, and here your process ends.
[A pause.
Thou awful power, whose bright tremendous sword
Rules Heaven and Earth, while Hell resists in vain,
Inexorably firm, eternal Justice;
Fearless I offer up this high delinquent
To you and to Ismena: Deign t'accept
No common sacrifice, and may it prove
A solemn lesson and a dreadful warning,
T'instruct and to alarm a guilty world.

Q.
Dost thou presume, the subject of our throne,
To menace me with justice?

Elm.
You're no Sov'reign,
Your King's authority resides in me.

Q.
Not to assassinate his Queen. Help. Treason.

[Calls.
Elm.
Cease your vain clamour, and prepare to die;
I've taken measures not to be prevented.

Q.
Traitor, think who I am, respect my rank.

Elm.
That you shou'd have respected.
The blackest aggravation of your guilt
Is from your rank, and other benefits
Receiv'd from Heaven: Not to have done much good
With your advantages, forfeits them all,
And leaves you debtor to a vast account;
But there abuse—

Q.
And who shall judge of that?

Elm.
All may, and must, who feel and suffer by it;
But I've a double right to judge and punish.
The ignominy of a bar and scaffold,
Which our strict laws, and your high crimes demand;
For the King's honour, here I take upon me
At my own peril to remit, and make
Myself your only judge, and this your scaffold.
If you've not sin'd beyond the hopes of pardon,
But wou'd in pray'r and penitential tears
Employ a few short moments, they are yours—
The utmost of my mercy.

Q.
So determin'd!
The King's arrival yet wou'd change our fates.
[Aside.
Cruel man!
Blame your own scorn for what I've rashly done,
And let us now exchange mutual forgiveness.

[Weeps.
Elm.
I have not gone thus far without consulting
Reason and Justice, with the extent and end
Of that great Power and Trust impos'd upon me:
No, had the wrong you've basely done my wife,
Been done the meanest peasant's wife in Hungary,
Nor rank, nor vain intreaties shou'd protect you.

Q.
Conrade is gone t'accuse you to the King—
You know how well the strong appearance won
My brother's credit to th'imputed crime;
My death wou'd be so full a confirmation
Of all I charg'd you with, that certain ruin,
And everlasting infamy, must follow.

Elm.
And do you thus atone for your offences?
Is this the use you make of my indulgence,
To boast new crimes?

Q.
To warn you of your danger.
I tell you once again, you dare not kill me.

Elm.
I dare not let you live, for that's injustice,—
The only thing I fear: And had you fear'd it,
You had been safe and happy. Enter now
Ye ministers of justice: Do your office.

Enter the Executioners. While they prepare to strangle her, she speaks.
Q.
Is there no help then? Must I fall his victim?—
Almighty power, who gav'st me my existence,
And with it strong affections and aversions,
Why hast thou dealt so very hardly with me?
If you have mercy—

[They pull her into the Recess in the back Scene, and strangle her.
Elm.
O let her life atone for all its errors!—
Thus I supply the interrupted pray'r
That death breaks off, and may it find acceptance!
The fiercest anger in the human mind
Shou'd reach but to the grave—Belus.

Enter Belus.
Bel.
My Lord,
What is your pleasure?

Elm.
We must seek the King.

Bel.
My Lady's father, and th'assembled Peers—

Elm.
'Tis true, I had forgot. Behold within there.

[Pointing to the Recess in the back Scene.
Bel.
Alas! my Lord!—

[Seeing the Queen.
Elm.
At what are you surpriz'd?

Bel.
The Queen is dead!

Elm.
She is, and by my sentence.
Have I done ought unjust?

Bel.
I dare not say it,
Yet stand astonish'd at the rigorous deed.

Elm.
So do not I that wickedness abounds,
When justice is a wonder. Seek the Peers,
And bring 'em to behold what thou hast seen.

Bel.
You wou'd not have this known?

Elm.
Not have it known!
The business of my life is to proclaim it.
[Exit Belus.
O thou impartial, universal power,
Wise Nature's eldest law, wrote by herself
Upon the heart of man, eternal Justice;
Inspired by thee, with one determin'd blow,
I have redrest my poor Ismena's wrongs,
(As far as wrongs like hers can be redress'd)
And wip'd dishonour from my house and name:
And now if I am call'd to be thy martyr,
My race will end with glory.

Enter Bathori and Lords.
Bath.
I have declared
To these right noble Lords, as you commanded,
The Queen and Conrade's most inhuman guilt.

Elm.
Then judge, my Lords, whether this dreadful act
Merits reproach or praise.

[Pointing to the Queen.
1st Ld.
Speak he that can.

2d Ld.
Astonishingly bold—

3d Ld.
But righteous vengeance:
Unprecedented Justice!

Ba.
Yes, this transcends example. Gracious Heaven!
May I but live to see her brother thus!—

1st Ld.
Sir, your interest
May make you partial: Not that we condemn
Or justify the Regent: To the King
We must refer his sentence.

Elm.
'Tis but just.
And so may Heaven deal with my soul hereafter,
When I shall stand at that all-seeing bar;
As I will render up a strict account,
Urge to the King himself his Queen's misdoing,
And seek my judge with his wife's blood upon me.

1st L.
Heard you that trumpet?

[Flourish of trumpets.
2d Ld.
See, the King appears.

Enter King, Conrade, and Attendants.
K.
Where is this Patriot who defies all law,
And uses our authority for treason?
I ask for Elmerick.

Elm.
Your loyal subject,
The Palatine and Regent of your kingdom,
Who bears that name, is here.

K.
Doth not the presence of thy King confound thee?

Elm.
I burnt with strong impatience 'till I saw him.

K.
Where is Matilda? Go and call the Queen:
Let her appear, and strike the Traitor dumb.
—What means this gloomy silence? Are you motionless?
Why am I not obey'd?

Elm.
I pray, give back—
Behold, unhappy King, to what my Justice
Has brought thy guilty Queen.

K.
Heavenly powers!
Matilda! Am I come, though on the wings
Of love, too late to save thee?

[Runs to the body in the recess
Conr.
O my sister!
Are these our promis'd joys? Is this our triumph?

Elm.
Suspend the Husband, and exert the King.

K.
Inhuman wretch! I will exert the King,
And give new majesty and double terror
To that important name, for thy destruction.

Elm.
Sir, I resign my life without reluctance;
Take, if you please, my head. But know, your fame
Is in the balance, and your conduct now
Must fix your character to all posterity;
Must place you in the list of lawless tyrants,
Or Kings, whose virtue dignify'd the office,
And honour'd human nature. If you think
The abject fear of death, not a regard
To your yet spotless virtue and renown,
Inspires my tongue, you've my compassion, Sir.
Monarchs are men—I've said—and use your pleasure.

K.
I thought I knew thee well: hence my amazement
Is equal to my grief and indignation.
Had'st thou the tongue of Angels, cou'd'st thou hope
To clear thyself of my Matilda's death?

Elm.
Nor was it e'er my purpose to attempt it;
But I've a right to justify myself
If innocent, and to be heard with patience.

K.
But if thro' passionate and blind prevention
You do refuse to hear, I had rather die
Than bear the unavailing name of Palatine,
First guardian of the rights of freeborn Hungary,
And live a witness to an innovation
So fatal to my country
Thou hast touch'd
My inmost soul. I'd rather thou shou'dst 'scape,
Than fix a precedent which may be urged
Hereafter, to suppress the voice of truth;
Lose the benignant character of King,
And change my glories for a tyrant's shame.—
You shall be heard: A seat—O my Matilda,
Forgive this short delay. Let the rash man,
Endeavouring to defend, convict himself,
And fall the more abhorr'd.

Elm.
You may remember, Sir,
When you appointed me your substitute,
You did pronounce, in presence of your states,
The worst abuse of law and all just power,
Is when the great offend and pass unpunish'd.
This you injoin'd me strongly not to suffer,
Nor bear the sword in vain. You've been obey'd—
The Queen transgress'd—and I have done my duty.

K.
Your duty, Sir! Dare you affirm the Queen—

Elm.
Deserv'd the death I gave her. Hear me out.
If, with deep fore-thought and deliberate malice,
To plot and to effect a matron's ruin,
To give her up to a lewd spoiler's rage,
By laws divine and human, be pronounc'd
A crime deserving death, the guilty Queen
Drew on herself the justice I inflicted.
Her wicked agent Conrade, her vile brother,
Who stain'd the purity of my Ismena,
Is left to prove your justice.

[King rises.
K.
Can it be!
Thy lovely, chaste Ismena!

Elm.
She, my wife.
Lovely she was, and chaste; and not less worthy
That just regard the meanest may pretend to,
I trust, for being mine.

Conr.
Evasive traitor!
Say for what cause, with impious prophanation,
You dar'd attempt your master's sacred bed;
And I may deign to answer to your charge.

K.
Is this the court of Buda? This vile stage
Of lewdness, death, and black recrimination?
Of what a sudden growth is rank corruption!
That, during my short absence, hath infected
My house and throne, those I most loved and trusted.
—But bring the clearest proof of this foul charge
Against my Queen and brother, or expect
The self same mercy thou hast shewn to her:
Whom, if thy accusation be unjust,
Thou'st basely murder'd twice.

Elm.
I have the strongest proofs,
My wife's accusing tears, who cou'd not forge
To her own ruin and to my dishonour
A tale so full of shame. But more, the Queen,
The Queen herself, triumphant in her malice,
Confest it to my face, and gloried in it.

K.
And will Ismena vouch it?—I think highly
Of your Wife's truth;—so did I of Matilda's—
I'll not condemn her on a single witness:
Ismena is but one, thy word is nothing.

Elm.
I have yet farther Proofs. Peruse this scroll,
(Giving the King a Paper.)
This full avowal of the hellish deed,
Witness'd by these who both were actors in it,
(Pointing to Belus and Zenomira.)
Without designing ill, which I produce
With strong reluctance, as it speaks a weakness
Of the lost Queen, which I wou'd fain conceal.

K.
Why shou'd I tremble thus? Let truth appear,
And shame light where it will.
(Reads)
Madness and death!
Confess a guilty passion for the Regent!—
Can these things be!—That dignity of spirit,
That high demeanour stoop to such dishonour!—
How shall I credit—what I can't reject?
How root out fixt ideas from a heart
Matilda fill'd, and bend it to conviction?—
O Elmerick! I see the pois'nous source
Of our united woes.

Elm.
Her will refus'd,
She offer'd at her Life—

Conr.
This claims attention.

(Aside.)
Elm.
Which while I strove to save, her brother enter'd;
And, by her art deceiv'd, attempted mine:
The rest that paper speaks.

Conr.
Too fatal truth!
'Twas gallant in him then not to accuse her.
I see my fate, and am prepar'd to meet it.

(Aside.)
K.
You do acknowledge, and confirm for truth
All that is here contain'd?

(To Bel. and Zen.)
Both.
So Heaven deal with us.

K.
'Tis all too plain: Her lawless love, fierce malice,
Conrade's foul rage, and poor Ismena's ruin—
To find her guilty, is to find her hateful:
And I wou'd hate—what once I dearly lov'd.
No blood—but tears, and those too weakly shed,
Must stream o'er thy dishonourable hearse,
Unhappy, false Matilda!—But no more.—
I will dismiss this weak unworthy softness.
Let Elmerick go weep.—Ismena's wrongs
May call forth tears that manhood may be proud of.
To weep Ismena is to feel for virtue.
How is it with her sorrows? From this hour
My tenderest care shall be to give them comfort.

Elm.
I fear her sorrows ne'er will taste of comfort.
But see, the messenger I sent returns.

Enter Messenger.
Mess.
I come, my Lord—

Elm.
Be brief: how fares my wife?

Mess.
As Angels fare,
With whom she now inhabits. When you sent me,
I found her in the arms of her attendants—
Fainting she seem'd—But when I told my message
She rais'd her head, and lifting up her eyes,
'Till then just clos'd, propitious Heaven! she cried,
Defend this noblest pattern of your justice,
Nor let his matchless love go unrewarded.
Then with an heavenly smile addrest me thus.
Assure my Lord I die without reluctance.
My soul, that melts with gratitude, presages
Unequal'd blessings shall attend him here,
While I enjoy—and then her speech forsook her,
And she, without one painful sigh, expir'd.

K.
Too sure a testimony hast thou given
Of thy foul wrongs, Ismena—Elmerick!—
Quite speechless and o'erwhelm'd!—her father too!—
Turn not away—I do not offer comfort—
I mean but to mourn with you.

Elm.
So to die!—
Her delicately chaste and heavenly soul
Forsook its earthly temple when prophan'd
Without the steel or poison's lawless aid—
And lives the man who wrong'd me in Ismena?
Hear then, O righteous King, my high appeal
To thee, and to the law of warlike Hungary.
Give me to meet this impious Prince in battle;
There, in the crouded lists, dread scene of justice,
There only can I sue for retribution,
Wrong'd as I am, without a soldier's shame.
And thou, Ismena, from thy sainted seat,
Where high thou sit'st crown'd with the starry wreaths
That angels weave for purity like thine,
Look down propitious on me, and accept
This high, this second sacrifice of vengeance.

Conr.
Then I have murder'd thee, ador'd Ismena.
These mourn thy fate with tears, but what's the sorrow
That streaming eyes can utter and relieve!
Though thou disdain'st my grief, yet learn this truth
(turning to Elmerick)
From him thou most abhor'st:—The innocent
Are not the fittest objects of compassion:
O there's no pain, no misery like guilt—
Nor do I fall thy sacrifice: For know,
Had I been plac'd above the power of vengeance;
Ismena's fate, th'effect of my rash love,
Had been lamented thus, and thus reveng'd—

(Stabs himself.)
K.
This is t'atone one error by another.

Conr.
Nothing but error: I was born to err:
The willing slave of every youthful passion.
'Tis now too late to learn—my day is past—
'Tis night—Ismena—oh—

(Dies.)
Elm.
Unerring power! whose deep and secret counsels
No finite mind can fathom and explore;
It must be just to leave your creatures free,
And wise to suffer what you most abhor:
Supreme and absolute of these your ways
You render no account—We ask for none.
For mercy, truth, and righteous retribution
Attend at length your high and awful throne.
Ismena is aveng'd—Let me be wretched!

K.
Our sorrows must be felt. Yet, O! brave Elmerick,
Let not the Publick suffer! Thou'st done greatly.
Still hold the Sov'reign Power till I return
From Jordan's sacred stream and holy Sion;
My Substitute till then, my Friend for ever.
The face of justice as she shines in Heaven,
In native purity, unclouded splendor,
Alone can charm beyond thy virtuous daring.
That be Thy praise—that I approve it mine.