Page images
PDF
EPUB

Shall blend her name with mine. For thee, Rienzi, Rest on my bosom; let thy beating heart
Tremble! a tyrant's rule is brief.
Lie upon mine; so shall the mutual pang
Be stilled. Oh! that thy father's soul could bear
This grief for thee, my sweet one! Oh, forgive-
Cla. Forgive thee what? "Tis so the headsman
speaks

[Exeunt Alberti, Angelo, &c.
Rie. (rises and advances.) They are gone,
And my heart's lightened; how the traitor stood
Looking me down with his proud eye, disdaining
Fair mercy-making of the hideous block
An altar of unnatural ghastly death

A god. He hath his will; and I—my heart
Is tranquil.

Cla. (without.) Father! Father!
Rie.

To his poor victim, ere he strikes. Do fathers
Make widows of their children? send them down
To the cold grave heart-broken? Tell me not
Of fathers-I have none! All else that breathes
Hath known that natural love. The wolf is kind

Guard the door! [Looking out. To her vile cubs; the little wren hath care

Be sure ye give not way.

Cla. (without.)

Rie.

Her looks! her tears!

Cla.

Father!

To see

Against me!

Enter Claudia, hastily.
Who dares to stop me? Father!
(Rushes into the arms of Rienzi.
Rie. I bade ye guard the entrance.
Cla.
Ye must have men and gates of steel to bar
Claudia from her dear father. Where is he?
They said that he was with you-he-thou know'st
Whom I would say. I heard ye loud. I thought
I heard ye; but, perchance, the dizzying throb

Of my poor temples-Where is he? I see

No corse-an' he were dead-Oh, no, no, no!

Thou couldst not, wouldst not! Say he lives.
Rie.

He lives.

[blocks in formation]

As yet Why loiterest thou?
Cam.

[blocks in formation]

Now bless thee

Fly, Camillo, fly!

The ring.

(Rienzi gives the ring to Camillo-Exit Camillo.
Cla.
Give me the ring.
Whose speed may match with mine? Let me be first
To speak those gracious words of pardon.
Rie.

That were no place for thee.

Cla.

No!

I should see nought

But him! whilst old Camillo-Oh, I hear
His weary footfall still! I should have been
In Angelo's arms ere now. (Bell sounds.) Hark,
hark, the bell!

Rie.
It is the bell that thou so oft hast heard
Summoning the band of liberty-the bell
That pealed its loud triumphant note, and raised
Its mighty voice with such a mastery

Of glorious power, as if the spirit of sound

That, ere they had learnt speech, would smile, and That dwells in the viewless wind, and walks the

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Stephen Colonna.

Lady C.

It is her husband, Claudia;

Enter Camillo.

Rie. Ay, I know thou wast too late. Bring aid.

See, see!

Her lips are colouring fast-she is not dead.
Bring aid.

Cam. My lord, Savelli, with a power

Gathering in every street, comes on; the guards
Flee, and the people hear the bell, nor flock
To aid or rescue.

Lady C.

Now, revenge, revenge!
Savelli! Murderer, when next we meet,

Murderer, 't is my son,
(Claudia sinks at her father's feet. Thou shalt give blood for blood.

My husband died in honoured fight; for him
I weep not.
Rie.

Angelo is pardoned, Claudia.

Lady C. He is dead. I saw the axe, fearfully
bright,

Wave o'er his neck with an edgy shine that cut
My burning eye-balls; saw the butcher stroke,
And the hot blood gush like a fountain high,
From out the veins; and then I heard a voice
Cry pardon! heard a shout that chorused pardon!
Pardon! to that disjoined corse! Oh, deep
And horrible mockery! So the fiends shall chaunt
Round thy tormented soul, and pardon, pardon,
Ring through the depths of hell.

[blocks in formation]

She is not dead.
Lady C.

Claudia! she moves!

Dead! Why, the dead are blessed,
And she is blasted. Dead! the dead lie down
In peace, and she shall pine a living ghost
About thee, with pale looks and patient love,
And bitter gusts of anguish, that shall cross
The gentle spirit, when poor Angelo-
A widow's and a childless mother's curse
Rest on thy head, Rienzi! Live, till Rome

Hurl thee from thy proud seat; live but to prove
The ecstasy of scorn, the fierce contempt
That wait the tyrant fallen; then die, borne down
By mighty justice! die as a wild beast
Before the hunters! die, and leave a name
Portentous, bloody, brief-a meteor name,
Obscurely bad, or madly bright! My curse
Rest on thy head, Rienzi.

Rie.

[Erit.

Rie.
She lives! Aid, aid!
Her pulses beat again. Go, call her maids;
Speed thee, Camillo!

[Exit Camillo.

[blocks in formation]

Rie. Camillo, when I'm gone, be faithful to her—
Be very faithful. Save her, shield her, better
Than I, that was her father. She'll not trouble thee
Long, good Camillo; the sure poison, grief,
Rankles in those young veins. Yet cherish her-
She loved thee.
Cam.

My dear master-thou, thyself-
Rie. My business is to die. Watch o'er my child;
And, soon as I am dead, conduct her safely
To the small nunnery of the Ursulines,
Her pious steps so often sought. Away!

[Exit Camillo. pray for me,

She will not curse me dead-she
In that poor broken heart. Oh, blessings on thee,
My child-mine own sweet child!

[blocks in formation]

And for such I left
The assured condition of my lowliness-
The laughing days, the peaceful nights, the joys
Of a small quiet home; for such I risked
Thy peace, my daughter. Abject, crouching slaves!
False, fickle, treacherous, perjured slaves!, how come
they?

How led, how armed, how number'd?
Alb.

They sweep on,
A thickening cloud, as locusts, when they light
On the green banks of Nile. The furious mother
Leads them, and claims revenge, in her fierce prayers
And frantic imprecations.

[blocks in formation]

That speediest answers to the daring call

Help, there! help, Camillo! Of his mad worshippers. So be it.

[blocks in formation]

All earthly passion, pride, and pomp, and power,
And high ambition, and hot lust of rule,
Like sacrificial fruits, upon the altar

Of Liberty, divinest Liberty

Then-but the dream that filled my soul was vast
As is his whose mad ambition thinned the ranks
Of the Seraphim, and peopled hell. These slaves!
Base crawling reptiles-may the curse of chains
Cling to them ever. Seek the court, Alberti—
Dismiss the guard-unbar the gates. I'll seek
The people.

Alb.
Rie.

Singly?

Rie. Oh, that grim Death would give him back
To Claudia! But the cold, cold grave-why come ye?

Second Cit.

thy blood

For liberty.

For vengeance, perjured tyrant-for

Rie. For liberty! Go seek

Earth's loftiest heights, and ocean's deepest caves,

Go where the sea-snake and the eagle dwell,
'Midst mighty elements-where nature is,
And man is not, and ye may see afar,
Impalpable as a rainbow on the clouds,
The glorious vision! Liberty! I dream'd
Of such a goddess once; dream'd that you slaves
Were Romans, such as ruled the world, and I
Their Tribune. Vain and idle dream! Take back

Singly, sir. [Exeunt Alberti and Rienzi. The symbol and the power. What seek ye more?

[blocks in formation]

PREFACE.

Or the Tragedy, considered as a literary production, I shall say little: that is before the reader, and must speak for itself. No one can be more conscious than I am of its numerous defects, and still more numerous deficiencies; but great as those faults may be, they are not the result of negligence or carelessness. It would be the worst of all pedantries, female pedantry, were I to enumerate the very many contemporary writers, the Histories, Memoirs, Narratives, and State Papers, the Roundhead Sermons and Cavalier Ballads from which I have endeavoured to

gather not merely an accurate outline of this great event, but those minute and apparently trifling touches which might serve to realize the scene, and supply, by a vivid impression of the people and the time, the usual sources of dramatic attraction, the interest of story and suspense, from which I was cut off by the nature of my subject.

Many of these allusions, those for instance to the papers concealed in the stuffing of the saddle, — to the sowing of the melon-seeds,-to Charles's constant perusal of Shakspeare whilst in prison, so prettily recorded by Milton, and to the falling of the head of the king's staff in the trial scene,—are mentioned by

the best writers, and will be immediately recognized by all who are any ways conversant with the histories of the time.

The anecdote of Lord Broghill (afterwards Earl of Orrery), which really happened at a subsequent period, is less generally known. He was in London on a mission from Charles the Second during the early part of the Protectorate, when Cromwell discovered, confronted, converted, and employed him much in the manner that I have related.

The materials of the scene of signing the warrant, (in which I believe that I have given, from the marking of Marten's cheek to the guiding of Ingoldsby's hand, a very faithful version of what actually occurred,) are chiefly taken from the Defences in the Trials of the Regicides. It is certain that the Judges, after the condemnation, were panic-struck at their

the manner in which I believe him to have luiled and quieted his own conscience: but if I had under taken to portray these remarkable men at any other part of their career, it is certain that my drawing of Charles would have been much less amiable, and that of Cromwell much more so..

DRAMATIS PERSONE.

CHARLES THE FIRST, King of England.
DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, his Son, a boy of seven years
old.

LORD FAIRFAX, General of the Parliamentary Army.
LORD SALISBURY,
Commissioners sent by the Par-
LORD SAY,
liament to treat with the King.

own act; and that but for an extraordinary exertion SIR HARRY VANE, S

of his singular power over the minds of all with whom he came in contact, Cromwell would never have succeeded in obtaining the signatures of the Commissioners of the High Court of Justice to an instrument essential to the completion of this great national crime, and to the purposes of his own ambition.

LORD PRESIDENT
BRADSHAW,
OLIVER CROMWELL,
IRETON,
HARRISON,
DOWNES,
MARTEN,
TICHBURNE,

Judges appointed by the Commons to try the King.

COOK, Solicitor to the Commons.
PRIDE, an Officer in the Parliamentary Army.
HACKER, Colonel of the Guard.
SIR THOMAS HERBERT, a Gentleman attending on the
King.

HAMMOND, Governor of the Isle of Wight.
SENTINEL.

I am not aware of having in any material point departed from the truth of History, except in shortening the trial, in bringing the Queen to England, and in assigning to Henrietta the interruption of the sentence, which was actually occasioned by Lady Fairfax; deviations, which were vitally necessary to the effect of the drama. I have some doubts also whether Cromwell did really get rid of Fairfax by dismissing him and Harrison to "seek the Lord together." Hume tells the story confidently; but Hume, al- | though the most delightful, is by no means the most accurate of historians; and the manner in which we are, by the casual mention of contemporary writers, as well as by the evidence on the different trials, enabled to account for almost every instant of Cromwell's time during that eventful morning, goes far in Scene.-LONDON, except during the latter part of the

my mind to disprove the circumstance. But the incident is highly dramatic, and so strictly in keeping with the characters of all parties, that I have no scruple in assuming it as a fact. The thing might have happened, if it did not; and that is excuse enough for the dramatist, although not for the historian.

One word more, and I have done. In attempting to delineate the characters of Charles and Cromwell, especially Cromwell, on the success or failure of which the Play must stand or fall, I have to entreat

SERVANT, belonging to Cromwell.

Bishop, Commissioners, Judges, Officers, Soldiers, &c.
HENRIETTA MARIA, Queen of England.
PRINCESS ELIZABETH, a Girl of Twelve.
LADY FAIRFAX.

First Act, when it is laid in the ISLE OF WIGHT.

CHARLES THE FIRST.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

An Apartment in Whitehall.

the reader to bear in mind-or I shall seem unjust Enter Ireton, Harrison, and Pride, to Downes and

to the memory of a great man- that the point of time which this Tragedy embraces was precisely that in which the King appeared to the most advantage, "for nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it," and the future Protector to the least. Never throughout his splendid history were the chequered motives and impulses of Cromwell so decidedly evil; never was he so fierce, so cruel, so crafty, so deceitful, so borne along by a low personal ambition, a mere lust of rule, as at that moment. I have endeavoured in the concluding soliloquy to depict

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Disbanding

Mar.

Well?

And ye believe?

Meaning of Harry Marten! Tush! Where tarries The pious Cromwell?

Ire.

Disposing the tired soldiery.

Mar.

[blocks in formation]

Not yet; but he hath promised. Crom.

The King hath promised!

Crom.

Dow. Would'st have us doubters?
Crom.
In good sooth, not I!
Believe who can! yet ere ye set him free,

Look to the stuffing of his saddle, search
The waste leaves of his prayer-book, lest ye find
Some vow to Henrietta, some shrewd protest,
Some antedated scroll to throw the shadow
Of a plain lie before his words. Search! search!
It is a prudent King, that casts about him
To rid him of his enemies. Search, I say.
Dow. Why, Cromwell, thou art bitter.
Crom.

Heaven forefend!

I liked Charles Stuart well. I am of the fools
Whom habit counts amidst her slaves; that love,
For old acquaintance sake, each long-known pest
And close familiar evil. I liked him well;
The better that his proud disgracious speech

Mar. In good time comes the General. Valiant Seemed to my plain and downright simpleness

[blocks in formation]

They shall be quelled. Power, howsoever called,
Is still the subtlest snare the Tempter weaves
For man's frail sinful soul. Save me from power!
Grant me to follow still, a lowly soldier

In the great cause! The Commons shall be quelled.
What other news?

Dow.
The best is that the King
And the Commissioners draw near a godly
And salutary peace. The King hath bent
His will in a wise humbleness; and now-

Crom. I joy to hear thee say so. What the Lord Hath turned his heart, and he hath yielded up

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »