 | Mary Stuart |  |
93
ACT III.
BURGHLEY.
95
Scene I.
The presence-chamber in Fotheringay Castle. At the upper end, a chair of state as for Queen Elizabeth; opposite, in the centre of the hall, a chair for Mary Stuart. The Commissioners seated on either side along the wall: to the right, the Earls, with Lord Chancellor Bromley and Lord Treasurer Burghley; to the left, the Barons, with the Knights of the Privy Council, among them Walsingham and Paulet; Popham, Egerton, and Gawdy, as Counsel for the Crown. Enter Mary Stuart, supported by Sir Andrew Melville, and takes her place.Mary Stuart.
Here are full many men of counsel met;
Not one for me.
[The Chancellor rises.
Bromley.
Madam, this court is held
To make strait inquisition as by law
Of what with grief of heart our queen has heard,
A plot upon her life, against the faith
Here in her kingdom stablished: on which cause
Our charge it is to exact your answer here
And put to proof your guilt or innocence.
96
(rising).
Sirs, whom by strange constraint I stand before,
My lords, and not my judges, since no law
Can hold to mortal judgment answerable
A princess free-born of all courts on earth,
I rise not here to make response as one
Responsible toward any for my life
Or of mine acts accountable to man,
Who see none higher save only God in heaven:
I am no natural subject of your land
That I should here plead as a criminal charged,
Nor in such wise appear I now: I came
On your queen's faith to seek in England help
By trothplight pledged me: where by promise-breach
I am even since then her prisoner held in ward:
Yet, understanding by report of you
Some certain things I know not of to be
Against me brought on record, by my will
I stand content to hear and answer these.
Bromley.
Madam, there lives none born on earth so high
Who for this land's laws' breach within this land
Shall not stand answerable before those laws.
Burghley.
Let there be record of the prisoner's plea
And answer given such protest here set down,
And so proceed we to this present charge.
Gawdy.
My lords, to unfold by length of circumstance
The model of this whole conspiracy
97
That ever brought high state in danger: this
No man there lives among us but hath heard,
How certain men of our queen's household folk
Being wrought on by persuasion of their priests
Drew late a bond between them, binding these
With others of their faith accomplices
Directed first of Anthony Babington
By mean of six for execution chosen
To slay the queen their mistress, and thereon
Make all her trustiest men of trust away;
As my lord treasurer Burghley present here,
Lord Hunsdon, and Sir Francis Walsingham,
And one that held in charge awhile agone
This lady now on trial, Sir Francis Knowles.
That she was hereto privy, to her power
Approving and abetting their device,
It shall not stand us in much need to show
Whose proofs are manifoldly manifest
On record written of their hands and hers.
Mary Stuart.
Of all this I know nothing: Babington
I have used for mine intelligencer, sent
With letters charged at need, but never yet
Spake with him, never writ him word of mine
As privy to these close conspiracies
Nor word of his had from him. Never came
One harmful thought upon me toward your queen,
Nor knowledge ever that of other hearts
Was harm designed against her. Proofs, ye say,
98
But only to behold and handle them
If they in sooth of sense be tangible
More than mere air and shadow.
Burghley.
Let the clerk
Produce those letters writ from Babington.
Mary Stuart.
What then? it may be such were writ of him:
Be it proved that they came ever in my hands.
If Babington affirm so much, I say
He, or who else will say it, lies openly.
Gawdy.
Here is the man's confession writ, and here
Ballard's the Jesuit, and the soldier's here,
Savage, that served with Parma.
Mary Stuart.
What of these?
Traitors they were, and traitor-like they lied.
Gawdy.
And here the last her letter of response
Confirming and approving in each point
Their purpose, writ direct to Babington.
Mary Stuart.
My letter? none of mine it is: perchance
It may be in my cipher charactered,
But never came from or my tongue or hand:
I have sought mine own deliverance, and thereto
Solicited of my friends their natural help:
Yet certain whom I list not name there were,
Whose offers made of help to set me free
Receiving, yet I answered not a word.
Howbeit, desiring to divert the storm
99
To your queen's grace I have made most earnest suit:
But for mine own part I would purchase not
This kingdom with the meanest one man's death
In all its commonalty, much less the queen's.
Many there be have dangerously designed
Things that I knew not: yea, but very late
There came a letter to my hand which craved
My pardon if by enterprise of some
Were undertaken aught unknown of me:
A cipher lightly may one counterfeit,
As he that vaunted him of late in France
To be my son's base brother: and I fear
Lest this, for aught mine ignorance of it knows,
May be that secretary's fair handiwork
Who sits to judge me, and hath practised late,
I hear, against my son's life and mine own.
But I protest I have not so much as thought
Nor dreamed upon destruction of the queen:
I had rather spend most gladly mine own life
Than for my sake the Catholics should be thus
Afflicted only in very hate of me
And drawn to death so cruel as these tears
Gush newly forth to think of.
Burghley.
Here no man
Who hath showed himself true subject to the state
Was ever for religion done to death:
But some for treason, that against the queen
Upheld the pope's bull and authority.
100
Yet have I heard it otherwise affirmed
And read in books set forth in print as much.
Burghley.
They that so write say too the queen hath here
Made forfeit of her royal dignity.
Walsingham.
Here I call God to record on my part
That personally or as a private man
I have done nought misbeseeming honesty,
Nor as I bear a public person's place
Done aught thereof unworthy. I confess
That, being right careful of the queen's estate
And safety of this realm, I have curiously
Searched out the practices against it: nay,
Herein had Ballard offered me his help,
I durst not have denied him; yea, I would
Have recompensed the pains he had taken. Say
I have practised aught with him, why did he not,
To save his life, reveal it?
Mary Stuart.
Pray you, sir,
Take no displeasure at me: truth it is
Report has found me of your dealings, blown
From lip to ear abroad, wherein myself
I put no credit: and could but desire
Yourself would all as little make account
Of slanders flung on me. Spies, sure, are men
Of doubtful credit, which dissemble things
Far other than they speak. Do not believe
That I gave ever or could give consent
Once to the queen's destruction: I would never,
These tears are bitter witness, never would
101
Destruction of my dearest sister.
Gawdy.
This
Shall soon by witness be disproved: as here
Even by this letter from Charles Paget's hand
Transcribed, which Curle your secretary hath borne
Plain witness you received, touching a league
Betwixt Mendoza and Ballard, who conferred
Of this land's foreordained invasion, thence
To give you freedom.
Mary Stuart.
What of this? ye shoot
Wide of the purpose: this approves not me
Consenting to the queen's destruction.
Gawdy.
That
Stands proven enough by word of Babington
Who dying avowed it, and by letters passed
From him to you, whom he therein acclaims
As his most dread and sovereign lady and queen,
And by the way makes mention passingly
Of a plot laid by transference to convey
This kingdom to the Spaniard.
Mary Stuart.
I confess
There came a priest unto me, saying if I
Would not herein bear part I with my son
Alike should be debarred the inheritance:
His name ye shall not have of me: but this
Ye know, that openly the Spaniard lays
Claim to your kingdom, and to none will give
Place ever save to me.
Burghley.
Still stands the charge
102
Great on all points against you.
Mary Stuart.
Wherefore then
Are not these writers with these writings brought
To outface me front to front? For Gilbert Curle,
He is in the Frenchman's hands a waxen toy,
Whom the other, once mine uncle's secretary,
The cardinal's of Lorraine, at his mere will
Moulds, turns, and tempers: being himself a knave
That may be hired or scared with peril or coin
To swear what thing men bid him. Truth again
Is this that I deny not, seeing myself
Against all right held fast in English ward,
I have sought all help where I might hope to find:
Which thing that I dispute not, let this be
The sign that I disclaim no jot of truth
In all objected to me. For the rest,
All majesty that moves in all the world
And all safe station of all princes born
Fall, as things unrespected, to the ground,
If on the testimony of secretaries
And on their writings merely these depend,
Being to their likeness thence debased: for me,
Nought I delivered to them but what first
Nature to me delivered, that I might
Recover yet at length my liberty.
I am not to be convicted save alone
By mine own word or writing. If these men
Have written toward the queen my sister's hurt
Aught, I wist nought of all such writ at all:
103
Were these here present, they by testimony
Would bring me clear of blame.
Gawdy.
Yet by their mean
They could not in excuse of you deny
That letters of communion to and fro
Have passed between you and the Spaniard, whence
What should have come on England and the queen
These both well know, and with what messages
Were English exiles entertained of you
By mean of these men, of your secretaries,
Confirmed and cherished in conspiracy
For this her kingdom's overthrow: in France
Paget and Morgan, traitors in design
Of one close mind with you, and in your name
Cheered hence for constant service.
Mary Stuart.
That I sought
Comfort and furtherance of all Catholic states
By what mean found soever just and good,
Your mistress from myself had note long since
And open warning: uncompelled I made
Avowal of such my righteous purpose, nor
In aught may disavow it. Of these late plots
No proof is here to attaint mine innocence,
Who dare all proof against me: Babington
I know not of, nor Ballard, nor their works,
But kings my kinsmen, powers that serve the church,
These I confess my comforters, in hope
Held fast of their alliance. Yet again
I challenge in the witness of my words
104
In mine own hand: if these ye bring not forth,
Judge all good men if I be not condemned
In all your hearts already, who perchance
For all this pageant held of lawless law
Have bound yourselves by pledge to speak me dead:
But I would have you look into your souls,
Remembering how the theatre of the world
Is wider, in whose eye ye are judged that judge,
Than this one realm of England.
Burghley.
Toward that realm
Suffice it here that, madam, you stand charged
With deadly purpose: being of proven intent
To have your son conveyed to Spain, and give
The title you pretend upon our crown
Up with his wardship to King Philip.
Mary Stuart.
Nay,
I have no kingdom left to assign, nor crown
Whereof to make conveyance: yet is this
But lawful, that of all things which are mine
I may dispose at pleasure, and to none
Stand on such count accountable.
Burghley.
So be it
So far as may be: but your ciphers sent
By Curle's plain testimony to Babington,
To the lord Lodovic, and to Fernihurst,
Once provost on your part in Edinburgh
By mean of Grange your friend his father-in-law,
Speak not but as with tongue imperial, nor
Of import less than kingdoms.
105
Surely, sir,
Such have I writ, and many; nor therein
Beyond my birth have trespassed, to commend
That lord you speak of, and another, both
My friends in faith, to a cardinal's dignity,
And that, I trust, without offence: except
It be not held as lawful on my part
To commune with the chiefest of my creed
By written word on matters of mine own
As for your queen with churchfolk of her kind.
Burghley.
Well were it, madam, that with some of yours
You had held less close communion: since by proof
Reiterated from those your secretaries
It seems you know right well that Morgan, who
Sent Parry privily to despatch the queen,
And have assigned him annual pension.
Mary Stuart.
This
I know not, whether or no your charge be truth,
But I do know this Morgan hath lost all
For my sake, and in honour sure I am
That rather to relieve him I stand bound
Than to revenge an injury done your queen
By one that lives my friend, and hath deserved
Well at mine hands: yet, being not bound to this,
I did affright the man from such attempts
Of crimes against her, who contrariwise
Hath out of England openly assigned
Pensions to Gray my traitor, and the Scots
106
To hire him to forsake me.
Burghley.
Nay, but seeing
By negligence of them that steered the state
The revenues of Scotland sore impaired
Somewhat in bounty did her grace bestow
Upon your son the king, her kinsman: whom
She would not, being to her so near of blood,
Forget from charity. No such help it was
Nor no such honest service that your friends
Designed you, who by letters hither writ
To Paget and Mendoza sent as here
Large proffers of strange aid from oversea
To right you by her ruin.
Mary Stuart.
Here was nought
Aimed for your queen's destruction: nor is this
Against me to be charged, that foreign friends
Should labour for my liberty. Thus much
At sundry times I have signified aloud
By open message to her, that I would still
Seek mine own freedom. Who shall bar me this?
Who tax me with unreason, that I sent
Unjust conditions on my part to be
To her propounded, which now many times
Have alway found rejection? yea, when even
For hostages I proffered in my stead
To be delivered up with mine own son
The duke of Guise's, both to stand in pledge
That nor your queen nor kingdom should through me
107
I see myself utterly from all hope
Already barred of freedom. But I now
Am dealt with most unworthily, whose fame
And honourable repute are called in doubt
Before such foreign men of law as may
By miserable conclusions of their craft
Draw every thin and shallow circumstance
Out into compass of a consequence:
Whereas the anointed heads and consecrate
Of princes are not subject to such laws
As private men are. Next, whereas ye are given
Authority but to look such matters through
As tend to the hurt of your queen's person, yet
Here is the cause so handled, and so far
Here are my letters wrested, that the faith
Which I profess, the immunity and state
Of foreign princes, and their private right
Of mutual speech by word reciprocate
From royal hand to royal, all in one
Are called in question, and myself by force
Brought down beneath my kingly dignity
And made to appear before a judgment-seat
As one held guilty; to none end but this,
All to none other purpose but that I
Might from all natural favour of the queen
Be quite excluded, and my right cut off
From claim hereditary: whereas I stand
Here of mine own goodwill to clear myself
Of all objected to me, lest I seem
108
Of mine own innocency and honour. This
Would I bring likewise in your minds, how once
This queen herself of yours, Elizabeth,
Was drawn in question of conspiracy
That Wyatt raised against her sister, yet
Ye know she was most innocent. For me,
With very heart's religion I affirm,
Though I desire the Catholics here might stand
Assured of safety, this I would not yet
Buy with the blood and death of any one.
And on mine own part rather would I play
Esther than Judith; for the people's sake
To God make intercession, than deprive
The meanest of the people born of life.
Mine enemies have made broad report aloud
That I was irreligious: yet the time
Has been I would have learnt the faith ye hold,
But none would suffer me, for all I sought,
To find such teaching at your teachers' hands;
As though they cared not what my soul became.
And now at last, when all ye can ye have done
Against me, and have barred me from my right,
Ye may chance fail yet of your cause and hope.
To God and to the princes of my kin
I make again appeal, from you again
Record my protestation, and reject
All judgment of your court: I had rather die
Thus undishonoured, even a thousand deaths,
Than so bring down the height of majesty;
109
By all the laws of England, even in faith
Of things religious, who could never learn
What manner of laws these were: I am destitute
Of counsellors, and who shall be my peers
To judge my cause through and give doom thereon
I am ignorant wholly, being an absolute queen,
And will do nought which may impair that state
In me nor other princes, nor my son;
Since yet my mind is not dejected, nor
Will I sink under my calamity.
My notes are taken from me, and no man
Dares but step forth to be my advocate.
I am clear from all crime done against the queen,
I have stirred not up one man against her: yet,
Albeit of many dangers overpast
I have thoroughly forewarned her, still I found
No credit, but have always been contemned,
Though nearest to her in blood allied. When late
Ye made association, and thereon
An act against their lives on whose behalf,
Though innocent even as ignorance of it, aught
Might be contrived to endangering of the queen
From foreign force abroad, or privy plots
At home of close rebellion, I foresaw
That, whatsoever of peril so might rise
Or more than all this for religion's sake,
My many mortal enemies in her court
Should lay upon me all the charge, and I
Bear the whole blame of all men. Certainly,
110
High cause, that such confederacy was made
With mine own son, and I not knowing: but this
I speak not of, being not so grieved thereat
As that mine own dear sister, that the queen,
Is misinformed of me, and I, now kept
These many years in so strait prison, and grown
Lame of my limbs, have lien neglected, nor
For all most reasonable conditions made
Or proffered to redeem my liberty
Found audience or acceptance: and at last
Here am I set with none to plead for me.
But this I pray, that on this matter of mine
Another meeting there be kept, and I
Be granted on my part an advocate
To hold my cause up; or that seeing ye know
I am a princess, I may be believed
By mine own word, being princely: for should I
Stand to your judgment, who most plainly I see
Are armed against me strong in prejudice,
It were mine extreme folly: more than this,
That ever I came to England in such trust
As of the plighted friendship of your queen
And comfort of her promise. Look, my lords,
Here on this ring: her pledge of love was this
And surety sent me when I lay in bonds
Of mine own rebels once: regard it well:
In trust of this I came amongst you: none
But sees what faith I have found to keep this trust.
Burghley.
Whereas I bear a double person, being
111
From me as from the queen's commissioner here
Receive a few words first. Your protest made
Is now on record, and a transcript of it
Shall be delivered you. To us is given
Under the queen's hand our authority, whence
Is no appeal, this grant being ratified
With the great seal of England; nor are we
With prejudice come hither, but to judge
By the straight rule of justice. On their part,
These the queen's learned counsel here in place
Do level at nothing else but that the truth
May come to light, how far you have made offence
Against the person of the queen. To us
Full power is given to hear and diligently
Examine all the matter, though yourself
Were absent: yet for this did we desire
To have your presence here, lest we might seem
To have derogated from your honour: nor
Designed to object against you anything
But what you knew of, or took part therein,
Against the queen's life bent. For this were these
Your letters brought in question, but to unfold
Your aim against her person, and therewith
All matters to it belonging; which perforce
Are so with other matters interlaced
As none may sever them. Hence was there need
Set all these forth, not parcels here and there,
Whose circumstances do the assurance give
Upon what points you dealt with Babington.
112
The circumstances haply may find proof,
But the fact never. Mine integrity
Nor on the memory nor the credit hangs
Of these my secretaries, albeit I know
They are men of honest hearts: yet if they have
Confessed in fear of torture anything
Or hope of guerdon and impunity,
It may not be admitted, for just cause,
Which I will otherwhere allege. Men's minds
Are with affections diversly distraught
And borne about of passion: nor would these
Have ever avowed such things against me, save
For their own hope and profit. Letters may
Toward other hands be outwardly addressed
Than they were writ for: yea, and many times
Have many things been privily slipped in mine
Which from my tongue came never. Were I not
Reft of my papers, and my secretary
Kept from me, better might I then confute
These things cast up against me.
Burghley.
But there shall
Be nothing brought against you save what last
Stands charged, even since the nineteenth day of June:
Nor would your papers here avail you, seeing
Your secretaries, and Babington himself,
Being of the rack unquestioned, have affirmed
You sent those letters to him; which though yourself
Deny, yet whether more belief should here
On affirmation or negation hang
113
This next I tell you as a counsellor,
Time after time you have put forth many things
Propounded for your freedom; that all these
Have fallen all profitless, 'tis long of you,
And of the Scots; in no wise of the queen.
For first the lords of Scotland, being required,
Flatly refused, to render up the king
In hostage: and when treaty last was held
Upon your freedom, then was Parry sent
By your dependant Morgan privily
To make the queen away by murder.
Mary Stuart.
Ah!
You are my adversary.
Burghley.
Yea, surely I am
To the queen's adversaries an adversary.
But now hereof enough: let us proceed
Henceforth to proofs.
Mary Stuart.
I will not hear them.
Burghley.
Yet
Hear them will we.
Mary Stuart.
And in another place
I too will hear them, and defend myself.
Gawdy.
First let your letters to Charles Paget speak,
Wherein you show him there is none other way
For Spain to bring the Netherlands again
To the old obedience, but by setting up
A prince in England that might help his cause:
Then to Lord Paget, to bring hastilier
His forces up for help to invade this land:
114
His most dread sovereign lady, and signifying
The matter to the prince of Parma's care
To be commended.
Mary Stuart.
I am so sore beset
I know not how by point and circumstance
To meet your manifold impeachments: this
I see through all this charge for evil truth,
That Babington and my two secretaries
Have even to excuse themselves accused me: yet,
As touching that conspiracy, this I say,
Of those six men for execution chosen
I never heard: and all the rest is nought
To this pretended purpose of your charge.
For Cardinal Allen, whatsoe'er he have writ,
I hold him for a reverend prelate, so
To be esteemed, no more: none save the Pope
Will I acknowledge for the church's head
And sovereign thence on thought or spirit of mine:
But in what rank and place I stand esteemed
Of him and foreign princes through the world
I know not: neither can I hinder them
By letters writ of their own hearts and hands
To hail me queen of England. As for those
Whose duty and plain allegiance sworn to me
Stands flawed in all men's sight, my secretaries,
These merit no belief. They which have once
Forsworn themselves, albeit they swear again
With oaths and protestations ne'er so great,
Are not to be believed. Nor may these men
115
In court of conscience, seeing they have sworn to me
Their secrecy and fidelity before,
And are no subjects of this country. Nau
Hath many times writ other than I bade,
And Curle sets down whate'er Nau bids him write
But for my part I am ready in all to bear
The burden of their fault, save what may lay
A blot upon mine honour. Haply too
These things did they confess to save themselves;
Supposing their avowal could hurt not me,
Who, being a queen, they thought, good ignorant men,
More favourably must needs be dealt withal.
For Ballard, I ne'er heard of any such,
But of one Hallard once that proffered me
Such help as I would none of, knowing this man
Had vowed his service too to Walsingham.
Gawdy.
Next, from your letters to Mendoza, writ
By Curle, as freely his confession shows,
In privy cipher, take these few brief notes
For perfect witness of your full design.
You find yourself, the Spaniard hears thereby,
Sore troubled what best course to take anew
For your affairs this side the sea, whereon
Charles Paget hath a charge to impart from you
Some certain overtures to Spain and him
In your behalf, whom you desire with prayer
Show freely what he thinks may be obtained
Thus from the king his master. One point more
Have you reserved thereon depending, which
116
Some secret word concerning, no man else,
If this be possible, being privy to it:
Even this, that seeing your son's great obstinacy
In heresy, and foreseeing too sure thereon
Most imminent danger and harm thence like to ensue
To the Catholic church, he coming to bear rule
Within this kingdom, you are resolved at heart
In case your son be not reduced again
To the Catholic faith before your death, whereof
Plainly you say small hope is yours so long
As he shall bide in Scotland, to give up
To that said king, and grant in absolute right,
Your claim upon succession to this crown,
By your last will made; praying him on this cause
From that time forth wholly to take yourself
Into his keeping, and therewith the state
And charge of all this country: which, you say,
You cannot for discharge of conscience think
That you could put into a prince's hands
More zealous for your faith, and abler found
To build it strong upon this side again,
Even as through all parts else of Christendom.
But this let silence keep in secret, lest
Being known it be your dowry's loss in France,
And open breach in Scotland with your son,
And in this realm of England utterly
Your ruin and destruction. On your part
Next is he bidden thank his lord the king
For liberal grace and sovereign favour shown
117
Most earnestly to increase, and gratify
Poor Morgan with some pension for your sake
Who hath not for your sake only endured so much
But for the common cause. Likewise, and last,
Is one he knows commended to his charge
With some more full supply to be sustained
Than the entertainment that yourself allot
According to the little means you have.
Burghley.
Hereon stands proof apparent of that charge
Which you but now put by, that you design
To give your right supposed upon this realm
Into the Spaniard's hold; and on that cause
Lie now at Rome Allen and Parsons, men
Your servants and our traitors.
Mary Stuart.
No such proof
Lives but by witness of revolted men,
My traitors and your helpers; who to me
Have broken their allegiance bound by oath.
When being a prisoner clothed about with cares
I languished out of hope of liberty,
Nor yet saw hope to effect of those things aught
Which many and many looked for at my hands,
Declining now through age and sickness, this
To some seemed good, even for religion's sake,
That the succession here of the English crown
Should or be stablished in the Spanish king
Or in some English Catholic. And a book
Was sent to me to avow the Spaniard's claim;
118
In whose displeasure thence I fell; but now
Seeing all my hope in England desperate grown,
I am fully minded to reject no aid
Abroad, but resolute to receive it.
Walsingham.
Sirs,
Bethink you, were the kingdom so conveyed,
What should become of you and all of yours,
Estates and honours and posterities,
Being to such hands delivered.
Burghley.
Nay, but these
In no such wise can be conveyed away
By personal will, but by successive right
Still must descend in heritage of law.
Whereto your own words witness, saying if this
Were blown abroad your cause were utterly
Lost in all hearts of English friends. Therein
Your thoughts hit right: for here in all men's minds
That are not mad with envying at the truth
Death were no loathlier than a stranger king.
If you would any more, speak: if not aught,
This cause is ended.
Mary Stuart.
I require again
Before a full and open parliament
Hearing, or speech in person with the queen,
Who shall, I hope, have of a queen regard,
And with the council. So, in trust hereof,
I crave a word with some of you apart,
And of this main assembly take farewell.
END OF THE THIRD ACT.
| Mary Stuart | |