THE MASSACRE AT PARIS. 0 SCENE I. Enter CHARLES,1 the French king; CATHERINE, the QueenMother; the KING OF NAVARRE; MARGARET, Queen of Navarre; the PRINCE OF CONDÉ; the LORD HIGH ADMIRAL; the OLD QUEEN OF NAVARRE; with others. Char. Prince of Navarre, my honourable brother, Knit in these hands, thus joined in nuptial rites, May still be fuelled in our progeny. Nav. The many favours which your grace hath shown, From time to time, but specially in this, Shall bind me ever to your highness' will, In what Queen-Mother or your grace commands. 10 1 In the old copy there is no division into scenes. Scene: an apartment in the Louvre. Cath. Thanks, son Navarre. You see we love you well, That link you in marriage with our daughter here; Might be a means to cross you in your love, Char. Well, madam, let that rest.- The rest with hearing of a holy mass. Sister, I think yourself will bear us company. Mar. I will, my good lord. 20 Char. The rest that will not go, my lords, may stay. Come, mother, Let us go to honour this solemnity. Cath. Which I'll dissolve with blood and cruelty. [Aside. [Exeunt all except the KING OF NAVARRE, Nav. Prince Condé, and my good Lord Admiral, 30 Con. My lord, you need not marvel at the Guise, Nav. But he that sits and rules above the clouds 40 Doth hear and see the prayers of the just, 50 [Exeunt. SCENE II. Enter GUISE.2 Guise. If ever Hymen lour'd at marriage rites, And had his altars decked with dusky lights; 1 Untimely. • Scene: an apartment in a house near the Louvre. VOL. II. Q If ever day were turned to ugly night, This day, this hour, this fatal night, Shall fully show the fury of them all. Apothecary! Enter Apothecary. Apoth. My lord? Guise. Now shall I prove, and guerdon to the full, The love thou bear'st unto the house of Guise. 10 Apoth. See where they be, my good lord; and he that smells But to them, dies. Guise. Then thou remainest resolute? Apoth. I am, my lord, in what your grace commands, Till death. Guise. Thanks, my good friend: I will requite thy love. Go, then, present them to the Queen Navarre; For she is that huge blemish in our eye, That makes these upstart heresies in France: Be gone, my friend, present them to her straight. Soldier! 20 [Exit Apothecary. Enter a Soldier. Sold. My lord? Guise. Now come thou forth and play thy tragic part: Stand in some window,1 opening near the street, Sold. I will, my lord. 30 [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 learn'd That peril is the cheapest way to happiness, What glory is there in a common good, That hangs for every peasant to achieve? 40 1 "About noone, when he [the Admiral] was in returning home from the Counsell, with a greate companie of noblemen and gentlemen, beholde a harquebuzier out of a window of a house neere adjoyning shot the Admiral with two bullets of lead through both the arms.... The name of him that shot was very diligently kept secret. Some saye it was Manrevet, which in the third Civill War traitorously slew his Captaine, Monsieur de Mony, a most valiant and noble gentleman, and straightway fled into the enemie's campe. Some say it was Bondot, one of the archers of the king's guard." -The Three Partes of Commentaries containing the whole and perfect discourse of the Civill Wars of France, &c. 1574 (Book x.). |