Henceforward let the thoughts of our past lives
Be turned to deadly and remorseless hate!
Here I give up the empty name of friend,
Renounce all gentleness, all commerce with thee;
To death defy thee as my mortal foe;
And, when we meet again, may swift destruction

Say thou art married, say thou hast possessed Rid me of thee, or rid me of myself!

ACT III.

Gar. Learn it from me then: But ere I speak,
I warn you to be master of yourself.
Though, as you know, they have confined me
long,

Gramercy to their goodness, prisoner here;
Yet as I am allowed to walk at large
Within the Tower, and hold free speech with any,
I have not dreamt away my thoughtless hours,
Without good heed to these our righteous rulers.
To prove this true, this morn a trusty spy
Has brought me word, that yester evening late,
In spite of all the grief for Edward's death,
Your friends were married.

Pem. Married! who?-Damnation !

Pem. And wouldst thou have my fierce impa-
tience stay?

Bid me lie bound upon a rack, and wait
For distant joys, whole ages yet behind?
Can love attend on politicians schemes,
Expect the slow events of cautious counsels,
Cold unresolving heads, and creeping time?

Gar. To-day, or I am ill informed, Northum-
berland,

With easy Suffolk, Guilford, and the rest,
Meet here in council, on some deep design,
Some traiterous contrivance, to protect
Their upstart faith from near approaching ruin.
But there are punishments-halters and axes

Gar. Lord Guilford Dudley, and the lady For traitors, and consuming flames for heretics :
Jane.

Pem. Curse on my stars!

Gar. Nay, in the name of grace, Restrain this sinful passion! all's not lost In this one single woman.

Pem. I have lost

More than the female world can give me back.
I had beheld even her whole sex, unmoved,
Looked o'er them like a bed of gaudy flowers,
That lift their painted heads, and live a day,
Then shed their trifling glories unregarded:
My heart disdained their beauties, till she came,
With every grace that Nature's hand could give,
And with a mind so great, it spoke its essence
Immortal and divine.

Gar. She was a wonder;
Detraction must allow that.

Pem. The virtues came,

Sorted in gentle fellowship, to crown her,
As if they meant to mend each other's work.
Candour with goodness, fortitude with sweetness,
Strict piety, and love of truth, with learning,
More than the schools of Athens ever knew,
Or her own Plato taught. A wonder, Winches-
ter!

Thou know'st not what she was, nor can I speak
her,

More than to say, she was that only blessing
My soul was set upon-and I have lost her.

Gar. Your state is not so bad as you would
make it;

Nor need you thus abandon every hope.

Pem. Ha! wilt thou save me, snatch me from despair,

And bid me live again?

Gar. She may be yours. Suppose her husband die.

Pem. O vain, vain hope!

Gar. Marry, I do not hold that hope so vain.
These gospellers have had their golden days,
And lorded it at will; with proud despite
Have trodden down our holy Roman faith,

The happy bridegroom may be yet cut short,
Even in his highest hope-But go not you,
Howe'er the fawning sire, old Dudley, court you;
No, by the holy rood, I charge you, mix not
With their pernicious counsels.—Mischief waits
them,

Sure, certain, unavoidable destruction.

Pem. Ha! join with them! the cursed Dudley's race!

Who, while they held me in their arms, betrayed

council come

Ha! by the mass, the bride and bridegroom too! Retire with me, my lord; we must not meet them.

Pem. 'Tis they themselves, the cursed happy
pair!

Haste, Winchester, haste! let us fly for ever,
And drive her from my very thoughts, if possible.
Oh! love, what have I lost! Oh! reverend lord!

Ransacked our shrines, and driven her saints to Pity this fond, this foolish weakness in me!

exile.

But if my divination fail me not,

Their haughty hearts shall be abased ere long,
And feel the vengeance of our Mary's reign.

Methinks, I go like our first wretched father,
When from his blissful garden he was driven:
Like me he went despairing, and like me,
Thus at the gate stopt short for one last view!

Then with the cheerless partner of his woe,
He turned him to the world that lay below:
There, for his Eden's happy plains, beheld
A barren, wild, uncomfortable field;
He saw 'twas vain his ruin to deplore,
He tried to give the sad remembrance o'er;
The sad remembrance still returned again,
And his lost paradise renewed his pain.
[Exeunt Pembroke and Gardiner.
SCENE II.

Enter Lord GUILFORD and Lady JANE. Guil. What shall I say to thee! What power divine

Will teach my tongue to tell thee what I feel?
To pour the transports of my bosom forth,
And make thee partner of the joy dwells there?
For thou art comfortless, full of affliction,
Heavy of heart as the forsaken widow,
And desolate as orphaus. Oh! my fair one!
Thy Edward shines amongst the brightest stars,
And yet thy sorrows seek him in the grave.
L.J. Gray. Alas, my dearest lord! a thousand
griefs

Beset my anxious heart: and yet, as if
The burthen were too little, I have added
The weight of all thy cares; and, like the miser,
Increase of wealth has made me but more wretch-
ed.

The morning light seems not to rise as usual,
It dawns not to me, like my virgin days,
But brings new thoughts and other fears upon

me;

I tremble, and my anxious heart is pained,
Lest aught but good should happen to my Guil-
ford.

Guil. Nothing but good can happen to thy
Guilford,

While thou art by his side, his better angel,
His blessing and his guard.

L. J. Gray. Why came we hither?
Why was I drawn to this unlucky place,
This Tower, so often stained with royal blood?
Here the fourth Edward's helpless sons were mur-
dered,

Whose royal veins are rich in Henry's blood,
With one consent the noblest heads are bowed:
From thee they ask a sanction to their counsels,
And from thy healing hand expect a cure,
For England's loss in Edward."

L. J. Gray. How! from me!
Alas! my lord-But surethou meanst to mock me?
Guil. No; by the love my faithful heart is full of!
But see, thy mother, gracious Suffolk, comes
To intercept my story: she shall tell thee;
For in her look I read the labouring thought,
What vast event thy fate is now disclosing.

Enter the Duchess of SUFFOLK.

Duch. Suff. No more complain; indulge thy

tears no more;

Thy pious grief has given the grave its due:
Let thy heart kindle with the highest hopes;
Expand thy bosom; let thy soul, enlarged,
Make room to entertain the coming glory!
For majesty and purple greatness court thee;
Homage, and low subjection, wait; a crown,
That makes the princes of the earth like gods;
A crown, my daughter, England's crown attends,
To bind thy brows with its imperial wreath.

L. J. Gray. Amazement chills my veins !—
What says my mother?

Duch. Suff. 'Tis Heaven's decree; for our ex-
piring Edward,

When now, just struggling to his native skies,
Even on the verge of heaven, in sight of angels,
That hovered round, to waft him to the stars,
Even then declared my Jane for his successor.
L. J. Gray. Could Edward do this? could the
dying saint

!

Bequeath his crown to me? Oh, fatal bounty
To me! But 'tis impossible! We dream.
A thousand and a thousand bars oppose me,
Rise in my way, and intercept my passage.
Even you, iny gracious mother, what must you be,
Ere I can be a queen?

Duch. Suff. That, and that only,
Thy mother; fonder of that tender name,
Than all the proud additions power can give.
Yes, I will give up all my share of greatness,
And live in low obscurity for ever,

And pious Henry fell by ruthless Gloster:
Is this the place allotted for rejoicing?
The bower adorned to keep our nuptial feast in?
Methinks Suspicion and Distrust dwell here,
Staring, with meagre forms, through grated win-To kneel, and call thee queen.

To see thee raised, thou darling of my heart,
And fixed upon a throne. But see; thy father,
Northumberland, with all the council, come
To pay their vowed allegiance at thy feet,

dows:

Death lurks within, and unrelenting Punishment:
Without, grim Danger, Fear, and fiercest Power,
Sit on the rude old towers, and Gothic battle-
ments;

While Horror overlooks the dreadful wall,
And frowns on all around.

Guil. In safety here,

The lords of the council have this morn decreed
To meet, and, with united care, support
The feeble tottering state. To thee, my princess,
VOL. I.

L. J. Gray. Support me, Guilford;
Give me thy aid; stay thou my fainting soul,
And help me to repress this growing danger.
Enter SUFFOLK, NORTHUMBERLAND, Lords and
others of the Privy Council.

North Hail, sacred princess! sprung from an-
cient kings,

Our England's dearest hope, undoubted offspring
Of York and Lancaster's united line;

By whose bright zeal, by whose victorious faith,

Guarded and fenced around, our pure religion,
That lamp of truth, which shines upon our altars,
Shall lift its golden head, and flourish long;
Beneath whose awful rule, and righteous sceptre,
The plenteous years shall roll in long succession;
Law shall prevail, and ancient right take place;
Fair liberty shall lift her cheerful head,
Fearless of tyranny and proud oppression;
No sad complaining in our streets shall cry,
But justice shall be exercised in mercy.
Hail, royal Jane! behold we bend our knees,
[They kneel.
The pledge of homage, and thy land's obedience;
With humblest duty thus we kneel, and own thee
Our liege, our sovereign lady, and our queen.
L. J. Gray. Oh, rise!

My father, rise!

And you, my father, too!

[To Suff. [To North. [They rise. What means this mock, this masquing shew of greatness?

Rise all, nor cover me with this confusion.

Why do you hang these pageant glories on me,
And dress me up in honours not my own?

Methinks I see you seated on the throne;
Beneath your feet, the kingdom's great degrees
In bright confusion shine, mitres and coronets,
The various ermine, and the glowing purple ;
Assembled senates wait, with awful dread,
To affirm your high commands, and make them
fate.

L.J. Gray. You turn to view the painted side
of royalty,
And cover all the cares that lurk beneath.
Is it, to be a queen, to sit aloft,
In solemu, dull, uncomfortable state,
The flattered idol of a servile court?
Is it to draw a pompous train along,
A pageant, for the wondering crowd to gaze at?
Is it, in wantonness of power to reign,
And make the world subservient to my pleasure?

North. The daughters of our late great mas-Is it not rather, to be greatly wretched,

ter Henry,

And fix a power unquestioned in your hand,
Edward, by will, bequeathed his crown to you:
And the concurring lords, in council met,
Have ratified the gift.

L. J. Gray. Are crowns and empire,
The government and safety of mankind,
Trifles of such light moment, to be left
Like some rich toy, a ring, or fancied gem,

The pledge of parting friends? Can kings do thus,
And give away a people for a legacy?

North. Forgive me, princely lady, if my
der

To watch, to toil, to take a sacred charge,
To bend each day before high Heaven, and own,
This people hast thou trusted to my hand,
And at my hand, I know, thou shalt require

them?

Alas, Northumberland! My father! Is it not
To live a life of care, and, when I die,
Have more to answer for before my judge,
Than any of my subjects?

Duch. Suff. Every state,

Allotted to the race of man below,

Is, in proportion, doomed to taste some sorrow, Nor is the golden wreath on a king's brow won-Exempt from care; and yet, who would not bear it?

Seizes cach sense, each faculty of mind,
To see the utmost wish the great can form,
A crown, thus coldly met: A crown, which,
slighted,

And left in scorn by you, shall soon be sought,
And find a joyful wearer; one, perhaps,
Of blood unkindred to your royal house,
And fix its glories in another line.

L. J. Gray. Where art thou now, thou partner
of my cares?
[Turning to Guilford.
Come to my aid, and help to bear this burthen:
Oh! save me from this sorrow, this misfortune,
Which, in the shape of gorgeous greatness, comes
To crown, and make a wretch of me for ever!
Guil. Thou weep'st my queen, and hang'st thy
drooping head,

Like nodding poppies, heavy with the rain,
That bow their weary necks and bend to earth.
Sce, by thy side, thy faithful Guilford stands,
Prepared to keep distress and danger from thee,
To wear thy sacred cause upon his sword,
And war against the world in thy defence.