The Complete Plays (70 page)

          
Exit
.

GUISE

Now, Guise, begin those
deep-engendered thoughts

To burst abroad those never-dying flames

Which cannot be extinguished but by blood.

Oft have I
levelled
, and at last have learned

That
peril
is the chiefest way to happiness,

And resolution honour's fairest aim.

40     What glory is there in a common good

That
hangs
for every peasant to achieve?

That like I best that flies beyond my reach.

Set me to scale the high
pyramides
,

And thereon set the diadem of France;

I'll either rend it with my nails to naught,

Or mount the top with my aspiring wings,

Although my downfall be the deepest hell.

For this I wake, when others think I sleep,

For this I wait, that scorns
attendance
else,

For this, my quenchless thirst whereon I build,

50     Hath often pleaded kindred to the king.

For this, this head, this heart, this hand and sword,

Contrives, imagines, and fully executes

Matters of import aimed at by many,

Yet understood by none.

For this, hath heaven engendered me of earth,

For this, this earth sustains my body's weight,

And with this weight I'll counterpoise a crown,

Or with seditions weary all the world.

For this, from Spain the stately Catholics

60     Sends Indian gold to coin me French
écues
;

For this, have I a largess from the Pope,

A pension and a
dispensation
too;

And by
that privilege to work upon,

My policy hath framed religion.

Religion:
O
Diabole
!

Fie, I am ashamed, how ever that I seem,

To think a word of such a simple sound,

Of so great matter should be made the ground.

The gentle king, whose pleasure uncontrolled

70     Weak'neth his body and will waste his realm,

If I repair not what he ruinates –

Him, as a child, I daily win with words,

So that
for proof he barely bears the name;

I execute, and he sustains the blame.

The mother queen works wonders for my sake,

And in my love entombs the hope of France,

Rifling the bowels of her treasury

To supply my wants and necessity.

80     Paris hath full five hundred colleges –

As
monasteries, priories, abbeys, and halls –

Wherein are thirty thousand able men,

Besides a thousand sturdy student Catholics;

And more –
of my knowledge
, in one cloister keeps

Five hundred fat Franciscan friars and priests.

All this, and more, if more may be
comprised
,

To bring the will of our desires to end.

Then, Guise, since thou hast all the cards within thy hands

To shuffle or cut, take this as surest thing:

90     That, right or wrong, thou deal thyself a king.

Ay, but Navarre, Navarre, 'tis but a nook of France,

Sufficient yet for such a petty king,

That, with a rabblement of his heretics,

Blinds Europe's eyes and troubleth our estate.

Him will we –

Pointing to his sword
.

But first let's follow those in France

That hinder our possession to the crown.

As Caesar
to his soldiers, so say I:

Those that hate me will I learn to loathe.

100     Give me a look that, when I bend the brows,

Pale death may walk in furrows of my face,

A hand that with a grasp may gripe the world,

An ear to hear what my detractors say,

A royal seat, a sceptre, and a crown;

That those which do behold, they may become

As men that stand and gaze
against
the sun.

The plot is laid, and things shall come to pass

Where resolution strives for victory.

        
Exit.

Enter the
KING OF NAVARRE
and
QUEEN
[
MARGARET
],

and his
MOTHER QUEEN
[
the
OLD QUEEN
],
the
PRINCE

OF CONDÉ
,
the
ADMIRAL
,
and the
APOTHECARY
with the

gloves, and he gives them to the
OLD QUEEN
.

APOTHECARY
Madam, I beseech your grace to accept this simple gift.

OLD QUEEN
Thanks, my good friend. Hold, take thou this reward.

APOTHECARY
I humbly thank your majesty.

Exit
APOTHECARY
.

OLD QUEEN

Methinks the gloves have a very strong perfume,

The scent whereof doth make my head to ache.

NAVARRE

Doth not your grace know the man that gave them you?

OLD QUEEN

Not well, but do remember such a man.

ADMIRAL

10     Your grace was ill-advised to take them, then,

Considering of these dangerous times.

OLD QUEEN

Help, son Navarre, I am poisoned!

MARGARET

The heavens forbid your highness such mishap!

NAVARRE

The
late suspicion of
the duke of Guise

Might well have moved your highness to beware

How you did meddle with such dangerous gifts.

MARGARET

Too late it is, my lord, if that be true,

To blame her highness, but I hope it be

Only some natural
passion
makes her sick.

OLD QUEEN

20     O, no, sweet Margaret, the fatal poison

Works within my head; my brain-pan breaks,

My heart doth faint, I die!

She dies
.

NAVARRE

My mother poisoned here before my face!

O gracious God, what times are these?

O grant, sweet God, my days may end with hers,

That I with her may die and live again!

MARGARET

Let not this heavy chance, my dearest lord,

For whose effects my soul is massacred,

Infect thy gracious breast with
fresh supply

30     To aggravate our sudden misery.

ADMIRAL

Come, my lords, let us bear her body hence,

And see it honoured with just solemnity.

As they are going, the
SOLDIER
dischargeth his musket at the
LORD ADMIRAL
.

CONDÉ

What, are you hurt, my Lord High Admiral?

ADMIRAL

Ay, my good lord, shot through the arm.

NAVARRE
We are betrayed! Come, my lords, and let us go tell the king of this.

ADMIRAL

These are the cursed Guisians that do seek our death.

O, fatal was this marriage to us all.

They bear away the
[
OLD
]
QUEEN
and go out
.

Enter the
KING
[
CHARLES
], [
CATHERINE
the
]
QUEEN-

MOTHER
,
the
DUKE OF GUISE
,
DUKE ANJOU
,
DUKE

DUMAINE
[,
COSSIN
and
ATTENDANTS
].

CATHERINE

My noble son, and princely duke of Guise,

Now have we got the
fatal
straggling deer

Within the compass of a deadly toil,

And as we late decreed we may perform.

CHARLES

Madam, it will be noted through the world

An action bloody and tyrannical –

Chiefly since
under safety
of our word

They justly challenge their protection.

Besides, my heart relents that noble men,

10     Only corrupted in religion,

Ladies of honour, knights, and gentlemen,

Should for their conscience taste such ruthless ends.

ANJOU

Though gentle minds should pity others' pains,

Yet will the wisest note their proper griefs,

And rather seek to scourge their enemies

Than be themselves base subjects to the whip.

GUISE

Methinks, my lord, Anjou hath well advised

Your highness to consider of the thing,

And rather choose to seek your country's good

20     Than pity or relieve these upstart heretics.

CATHERINE

I hope these reasons may serve my princely son

To have some care for fear of enemies.

CHARLES

Well, madam, I refer it to your majesty,

And to my
nephew
here, the duke of Guise:

What you determine, I will ratify.

CATHERINE

Thanks to my princely son. Then tell me, Guise,

What order will you set down for the massacre?

GUISE

Thus, madam:

They that shall be actors in this massacre

30     Shall wear white crosses on their burgonets,

And tie white linen scarfs about their arms;

He that wants these and is suspect of heresy,

Shall die, be he king or emperor. Then I'll have

A peal of
ordinance
shot from the tower,

At which they all shall issue out and
set
the streets;

And then, the
watchword
being given, a bell shall ring,

Which when they hear, they shall begin to kill,

And never cease until that bell shall cease;

Then breathe a while.

Enter
the
ADMIRAL'S MAN
.

CHARLES

40     How now, fellow, what news?

MAN

An it please your grace, the Lord High Admiral,

Riding the streets, was traitorously shot,

And most humble entreats your majesty

To visit him sick in his bed.

CHARLES

Messenger, tell him I will see him straight.

Exit
[
ADMIRAL'S MAN
].

What shall we do now with the Admiral?

CATHERINE

Your majesty were best go visit him,

And make a show as if all were well.

CHARLES

Content, I will go visit the Admiral.

GUISE
[
aside
]

50     And I will go take order for his death.

Exit
.

Enter the
ADMIRAL
in his bed
.

CHARLES

How fares it with my Lord High Admiral?

Hath he been hurt with villains in the street?

I vow and swear, as I am King of France,

To find and to repay the man with death,

With death delayed and torments never used,

That durst presume, for hope of any gain,

To hurt the noble man their sovereign loves.

ADMIRAL

Ah, my good lord, these are the Guisians

That seek to massacre our guiltless lives.

CHARLES

60    Assure yourself, my good Lord Admiral,

I deeply sorrow for your treacherous wrong,

And that I am not more secure myself

Than I am careful you should be preserved.

Cossin
, take twenty of our strongest guard,

And under your direction see they keep

All treacherous violence from our noble friend,

Repaying all attempts with present death

Upon the cursèd breakers of our peace.

And so be patient, good Lord Admiral,

70     And every hour I will visit you.

ADMIRAL

I humbly thank your royal majesty.

Exeunt
.

Enter
GUISE, ANJOU, DUMAINE, GONZAGO, RETES,

MOUNTSORRELL
,
and
SOLDIERS
to the massacre
.

GUISE

Anjou, Dumaine, Gonzago, Retes, swear

By the argent crosses in your burgonets

To kill all that you suspect of heresy.

DUMAINE

I swear by this to be unmerciful.

ANJOU

I am disguised and none knows who I am,

And therefore mean to murder all I meet.

GONZAGO

And so will I.

RETES
           And I.

GUISE

Away, then, break into the Admiral's house.

RETES

Ay, let the Admiral be first dispatched.

GUISE

10     The Admiral,

Chief standard-bearer to the Lutherans,

Shall in the
entrance
of this massacre

Be murdered in his bed.

Gonzago, conduct them thither, and then

Beset his house, that not a man may live.

ANJOU

That charge is mine. Switzers, keep you the streets;

And at each corner shall the king's guard stand.

GONZAGO
Come, sirs, follow me.

Exit
GONZAGO
and others with him
.

ANJOU