town on the Aire, in the West Riding of Yorkshire. The famous castle is now in ruins. In it Richard II. died; and in it Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan were executed, by order of Richard III. 3 The Archbishop of York, Edward Lee. He was pardoned, as he was believed to have yielded to compulsion. 4 Lords spiritual, the archbishops and bishops of the Church of England, who have seats in the House of Lords. The other lords are called "Lords temporal." 2.-QUEEN MARY AND PHILIP OF SPAIN. 1557 A.D. [Philip of Spain had married Queen Mary in order to secure the aid of England against France; but the marriage was very unpopular in England. The English disliked the Spanish alliance, and they disliked Philip personally. Philip also hated the English people; and when his wife bore him no children he grew tired of her and treated her coldly. Mary's life was thoroughly unhappy. She knew that she was distrusted by her people; and she felt keenly the cold neglect she suffered from her husband, whom nevertheless she fondly loved.] SCENE.-London, a hall in the Palace. Queen, Sir Nicholas Heath (Archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor). Heath. Madam, Mary. Philip. I do assure you, that it must be looked to: Calais is but ill garrisoned; in Guisnes1 Are scarce two hundred men, and the French fleet It shall be looked to; [Exit Heath. Enter PHILIP. Why, nature's licensed 'vagabond, the swallow, Philip. And, Madam, so shall I. Mary. Oh, will you-will you? I am faint with fear that you will come no more, Philip. Ay, ay; but many voices call me hence. Mary. Voices-I hear unhappy rumours-nay, I say not, I believe. What voices call you Philip. The voices of Castile and Aragon, Granada, Naples, Sicily, and Milan, The voices of Franche-Comté, and the Netherlands,- Tunis, and Oran,2 and the Philippines, And all the fair spice-islands of the East. Mary (admiringly). You are the mightiest monarch upon earth, Need you the more; and wherefore could you not Philip. No, Madam, no!—a candle in the sun Mary. Yet will I be your swallow and return— But now I cannot bide. Not to help me? My Philip; and these judgments on the land- Mary. Philip. So far, good. I say Mary. Not to see me? Philip. Ay, Madam, to see you. Mary. Unalterably and 'pesteringly fond! [Aside. But, soon or late you must have war with France; A fool and featherhead! Philip. Ay, but they use his name. In brief, this Henry The Dauphin, he would weld France, England, Scotland, Mary. And yet the Pope is now 'colleagued with France; Philip. Content you, Madam; The Pope would cast the Spaniard out of Naples: Duke Alva will but touch him on the horns, They say your wars are not the wars of England. So hunger-nipt and wretched; and you know The crown is poor. We have given the church-lands back: The robles would not; nay, they clapt their hands Among the merchants; and Sir Thomas Gresham 5 Philip. Madam, my thanks. And you will stay your going? The plots of France, although you love her not, She stands between you and the Queen of Scots. The King of France the King of England too. Philip. It must be done: To wail in, Madam? what! a public hall! ALFRED TENNYSON: Queen Mary, a Drama. a-gues, fevers. col-leagued', allied. com-plex-ion, colour of skin. licensed, privileged. mi-tre, papal crown. her-e-tics, enemies of the faith; here pro-claim', declare; announce. applied to Protestants. 1 Guisnes (Geen), a town 57 miles south of Calais. 2 O'ran, a town of Algeria, on the Mediterranean; taken by the Spaniards in 1505. vag-a-bond, wanderer. 4 Your English heritage, Calais, which had been in the possession of England since 1347. 5 Sir Thomas Gresh'am, a wealthy merchant of London who founded the 3 King Henry, Henry II. of France, Royal Exchange there in Elizabeth's reigned from 1547 till 1559. reign. 3.-MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS. 1587 A.D. [Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, was sent to France in 1548, when she was in her sixth year, to prevent Henry VIII. carrying out his scheme of marrying her to his son Edward. Ten years later, she married the Dauphin. On the death of her husband in 1561 she returned to Scotland; but during her absence the Reformation had made great progress there, and she found herself entirely out of sympathy with her people. At last they rose in arms against her. After her defeat at Langside in 1568 she fled to England, and cast herself on the clemency of Elizabeth. In England she was the hope of the Roman Catholics, who desired to see her fill the throne. In 1586 a plot was discovered, which aimed at the death of Elizabeth, and the succession of Mary. For her share in this plot, Mary was executed in Fotheringay Castle, 1587.] 1. To all the charms of beauty and the utmost elegance of external form, she added those accomplishments which render their impression irresistible; polite, affable, 'insinuating, sprightly, and capable of speaking and writing with equal ease and dignity; sudden, however, and violent in all her attachments, because her heart was warm and unsuspicious; impatient of contradiction, because she had been accustomed from her infancy to be treated as a queen; no stranger, on some occasions, to dissimulation, which, in that 'perfidious court where she received her education, was reckoned among the necessary arts of government; not insensible of flattery, or unconscious of that pleasure with which almost every woman beholds the influence of her own beauty. 2. Formed with the qualities which we love, not with the talents that we admire, she was an agreeable woman rather than an illustrious queen. The vivacity of her spirit, not sufficiently tempered with sound judgment, and the warmth of her heart, which was not at all times under the restraint of discretion, betrayed her both into errors and into crimes. To say that she was always unfortunate will not account for that long and almost uninterrupted succession of calamities which befell her; we must likewise add that she was often imprudent. |