Mary Stuart: A Tragedy

SCENE VII.

      MORTIMER, PAULET.

   PAULET.
   What said the queen to you?

   MORTIMER.
                  'Twas nothing, sir;
   Nothing of consequence——

   PAULET (looking at him earnestly).
                Hear, Mortimer!
   It is a false and slippery ground on which
   You tread. The grace of princes is alluring,
   Youth loves ambition—let not yours betray you.

   MORTIMER.
   Was it not yourself that brought me to the court?

   PAULET.
   Oh, would to God I had not done as much!
   The honor of our house was never reaped
   In courts—stand fast, my nephew—purchase not
   Too dear, nor stain your conscience with a crime.

   MORTIMER.
   What are these fears? What are you dreaming of?

   PAULET.
   How high soever the queen may pledge herself
   To raise you, trust not her alluring words.
   [The spirit of the world's a lying spirit,
   And vice is a deceitful, treacherous friend.]
   She will deny you, if you listen to her;
   And, to preserve her own good name, will punish
   The bloody deed, which she herself enjoined.

   MORTIMER.
   The bloody deed!——

   PAULET.
             Away, dissimulation!—
   I know the deed the queen proposed to you.
   She hopes that your ambitious youth will prove
   More docile than my rigid age. But say,
   Have you then pledged your promise, have you?

   MORTIMER.
   Uncle!

   PAULET.
       If you have done so, I abandon you,
   And lay my curse upon you——

   LEICESTER (entering).
                  Worthy sir!
   I with your nephew wish a word. The queen
   Is graciously inclined to him; she wills
   That to his custody the Scottish queen
   Be with full powers intrusted. She relies
   On his fidelity.

   PAULET.
            Relies!—'tis well——

   LEICESTER.
   What say you, sir?

   PAULET.
             Her majesty relies
   On him; and I, my noble lord, rely
   Upon myself, and my two open eyes.

                    [Exit.