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THE DRAMAS

OF

VICTOR HUGO

MARY TUDOR

MARION DE LORME

ESMERALDA

Profusely Illustrated with Elegant
Wood Engravings

_VOLUME TWENTY-ONE_

NEW YORK

Peter Fenelon Collier, Publisher




CONTENTS


_VOLUME TWENTY-ONE_

  Mary Tudor

  Marion de Lorme

  Esmeralda


ILLUSTRATIONS

The Rendezvous      Frontispiece

Marion de Lorme



[Illustration: THE RENDEZVOUS.]



MARY TUDOR




DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  Mary, The Queen.
  Jane.
  Gilbert.
  Fabiano Fabiani.
  Simon Renard.
  Joshua Farnaby.
  A Jew.
  Lord Clinton.
  Lord Chandos.
  Lord Montague.
  Master Eneas Dulverton.
  Lord Gardiner.
  A Jailer.
  _Lords, Pages, Guards, the Executioner._

LONDON, 1553.




MARY TUDOR

_FIRST DAY_

A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

Scene.--_Border of the Thames. A deserted strand. An old parapet in
ruins, conceals the borders of the water. To the right, a house of
mean appearance. At the corner of this house, a statuette of the
Virgin, at whose feet burns a wick in an iron lattice. In the
background, beyond the Thames, London. Two high buildings are
seen--the Tower of London and Westminster. The sun is setting_



SCENE I


_Several men are grouped here and there on the Strand, among whom are
Simon Renard, John Bridges, Baron Chandos, Robert Clinton, Anthony
Brown, Viscount of Montague_


LORD CHANDOS.

You are right, my lord, this damned Italian must have bewitched the
Queen. She can't exist without him; she lives only for him, finds
pleasure only in him, listens only to him. If a day passes without
seeing him, her eyes droop as they did when she loved Cardinal Polus,
you remember?

SIMON RENARD.

She is very much in love, it is true, and, consequently, very
jealous.

LORD CHANDOS.

The Italian has bewitched her.

LORD MONTAGUE.

For a fact, they say that people of his nationality have philters for
that purpose.

LORD CLINTON.

The Spanish are clever at poisons which kill people, the Italians are
clever at poisons which make people fall in love.

LORD CHANDOS.

Then Fabiani is Spanish and Italian, at the same time. The Queen is
in love and is ill. He has made her drink both.

LORD MONTAGUE.

As to that, is he really Spanish or Italian?

LORD CHANDOS.

It appears certain that he was born in Italy, in the Capitanate, and
that he was brought up in Spain. He claims to be connected with a
great Spanish family. Lord Clinton has the story at his finger-tips.

LORD CLINTON.

An adventurer--neither Spanish nor Italian, and still less English,
thank God! These men without a country have no pity on a country,
when they become powerful.

LORD MONTAGUE.

Didn't you say the Queen was ill, Chandos? That does not hinder her
from leading a very gay life with her favorite!

LORD CLINTON.

A gay life! A gay life! The people weep while the Queen laughs and
the favorite is gorged. This man eats silver and drinks gold! The
Queen has given him the estates of Lord Talbot, the great Lord
Talbot! The Queen has made him Earl of Clanbrassil and Baron of
Dinasmonddy, this Fabiano Fabiani who says he belongs to the Spanish
family of Penalver, and who lies when he says it. He is an English
peer like you, Montague, like you, Chandos, like Stanley, like
Norfolk, like myself, like the King! He has the garter, the same as
the Infante of Portugal, as the King of Denmark, as Thomas Percy,
seventh Earl of Northumberland. And what a tyrant is this tyrant who
rules us from his bed! Never did such a curse rest upon England! And
yet I have seen much--I, who am old! There are seventy new gallows at
Tyburn; the stakes are always embers and never ashes; the
executioner's ax is sharp every morning and blunted every night.
Every day some great nobleman is slaughtered; the day before
yesterday it was Blantyre, yesterday Northcurry, to-day South-Reppo,
to-morrow Tyrconnel. Next week it will be you, Chandos, and next
month it will be I. My lords, my lords, it is shameful and outrageous
that all these honest English heads should fall to please a miserable
adventurer who does not even belong to our country! It is a frightful
and unbearable thing, to think that a Neapolitan favorite can drag as
many blocks as he likes from under this Queen's bed. These two lead a
gay life, you say? By Heaven, it is infamous! Ah, they lead a gay
life, these lovers, while the headsman, at their door, makes widows
and orphans! Oh, their Italian guitar is too well accompanied by the
clank of chains! Madame Queen! you send to the chapel of Avignon for
your singers; every day in your palace, you have comedies, plays, and
a stage crowded with musicians! Upon my life, madame, less joy at
your house and less mourning at ours, if you please; fewer dancers
there, and fewer executioners here; fewer farces at Westminster, and
fewer scaffolds at Tyburn!

LORD MONTAGUE.

Have a care, my Lord Clinton! We are loyal subjects