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ROSAMOND, by                    
First Line: So fare thee well, rose of the world. From france
Last Line: "so fare thee well, rose of the world."


CHARACTERS

ELINOR, THE QUEEN
ROSAMOND

SCENE

The Bower at Woodstock.

ROSAMOND, reading

"So fare thee well, Rose of the World. From France
One shall ride swift with greetings. Day by day
My thoughts shall fly to thee. Rebellious sons
Of their curst mother take me from thee now.
The cares of state, the turmoil of the wars
Keep my wits busy—yet no day shall pass
Without an embassy of love to thee.
Watch for them day by day, and when they fail
Know me no longer thy Plantagenet."—
This from Southampton. Ay, and days have passed,
And nights have I lain waking for the words
I would not sleep for reading. Yet none came.
So I begun to dread lest far away
In France, amid all the pomp of royalty,
Henry Plantagenet had little thought
For these dull glades of Woodstock. Then, but now,
Has come the summons calling forth the guard;
And these dear lines I have so often conned
I con again, to take farewell of them.
For fresher greetings hurry to me now,
And what has latest touched King Henry's hand
Is dearest to my heart.—I hear one come
Hurrying hither with the words of love
That now henceforth shall greet me day by day.
Come hither quickly!

Enter the Queen.

THE QUEEN, to attendants without
Stay without there! I
Would enter here alone.

ROSAMOND
Would enter here?
Pray, lady, by what leave? Meseems it were
Fitter that I should chide thy sauciness
Than question any further.

THE QUEEN
Rosamond
Men call thee.

ROSAMOND
'T was a name not dear to me
Until I knew it dear to him whose lips
Have kissed my soul away—

THE QUEEN
Say no word more.
Those thou hast said already were enough
To prove my visit timely.

ROSAMOND
With your leave.
I know not who you are. But this I know:
The name that greets me from the royal lips
Of Henry is a name no other tongue
May speak to me unchallenged. All but he
Call me the Lady Clifford.

THE QUEEN
To thy face.
What I have heard thee called sounds little like
A term of honour.

ROSAMOND
How you entered here
I know not. He who guards me waits without,
Bound by allegiance so to do my will
In Woodstock here as though King Henry's voice
Spoke through my lips. Here I am royal too.
The whims of kings are laws. A word from me,
And your shrill voice is silenced.

THE QUEEN
Silly girl,
Dost thou not know me?

ROSAMOND
No, nor would. Go safe.
I give you leave to leave me, for that now
Your voice and look speak ill of none but me,
And I am merciful today, when fresh
From France come greetings from my royal love.

THE QUEEN
Greetings today!

ROSAMOND
You are not safe to wait.
I am a woman full of fantasy.
Perchance my whim shall change. Your reverend airs
Would not avail you should I speak the word
Of doom instead of mercy.

THE QUEEN
Know me, then,
Elinor of Guienne.

ROSAMOND
How came you here?

THE QUEEN
My guards without have mastered thine. This bower
Is mine, who rule in England while my lord
The King is busy with his wars in France.

ROSAMOND
Sir Richard, ho!

THE QUEEN
Sir Richard hears, perchance;
They say the dead have ears, but all too low
Their voices are to answer.

ROSAMOND
Dead!

THE QUEEN
Ay, dead!
He strove to bar my passage with such news
Of Henry's dotings as you prate. He fought
Those I bade clear my way. So he is gone
To see if at the gate of Paradise
His royal master's name may more avail
Than here on earth.

ROSAMOND
And I am here alone,
And at thy mercy?

THE QUEEN
Mercy, Rosamond?
Look not for that from me. Here I am come
To do a deed of justice.

ROSAMOND
If the King
Were by, to judge between us—

THE QUEEN
These grave wars
In France distract the King. While he is gone
To chide his warring children, I remain
To do the petty works he leaves behind—
Smile on the fawning courtiers, vex the Jews
Till they bring forth their hoards, proclaim the laws,
And judge what forfeit those shall pay whose deeds
Work mischief here in England.

ROSAMOND
Tell me, then,
What forfeit she must pay who long ago,
When Henry's children gathered at her knee,
Whispered them tales of how, in times gone by,
Princes waxed strong had harried hapless kings
Into their graves.

THE QUEEN
'T is thou that in the ear
Of yielding Henry whisperest these tales
To stir up strife betwixt him and the wife
God gave him.

ROSAMOND
Now, by all the blessed saints
That pray in Heaven for our sins on earth,
You name a sin I am not guilty of.

THE QUEEN
Let the saints judge of that.

ROSAMOND
Nay, let them judge
As sternly as God will what I have done—
And I am very sinful, nor will plead
Aught save that from the day when first he smiled
On me, a virgin, in my father's house,
I have not thought a thought, nor spoke a word,
Nor done a deed I have not done and spoke
And thought to make him happy.—Let the saints
Doom me for that. 'T is justice. But believe
I never slandered thee.

THE QUEEN
Why, even now,
Here, to my face, thou spakest out the words
Thou wouldst disclaim.

ROSAMOND
Ay, to thy face I spake
What men have told for truth. But unto him,
Henry, my king, my love—

THE QUEEN
My husband, girl!

ROSAMOND
So be it.—I have never spoken word
To stir his wrath against a living thing.
Vexed with the cares of state, with wars, with plots,
With all the turmoil that I know not of,
He comes to me, to lay aside awhile
The tedious pomp of royalty. And days
Have passed, and months, and years,—the which I count
For so much Heaven granted me on earth,—
And through them all betwixt the King and me
Pass words of peace, and love, and joyousness.
Believe me, we have dearer business
Than thee and thy misdoing.

THE QUEEN
Rosamond,
Thy time grows short.

ROSAMOND
Well, take me where thou wilt.
Woodstock is thine now. Send me forth, and search it
For that great treasure which till now it housed,
King Henry's heart.

THE QUEEN
Thou hast not far to go.
In Godstowe Church I bade the monks prepare
A chamber for thee. 'T is a narrow one;
I would it were so narrow that therein
Thou couldst not keep thy treasure. But, alas,
My power is all too little to bereave
Thee of the love that thy fair locks have stolen
From me in all my royalty.

ROSAMOND
From thee,
Lady, I have stolen nothing. Surely, then,
Thou wouldst not have me die!

THE QUEEN
Ah, Rosamond,
Think'st thou I love him not?

ROSAMOND
Thou? Love the King?

THE QUEEN
Ay, love him with a consecrated love
Made holy by the blessing of the Church.
Oh, I am old. Thy locks are ruddy gold,
And mine grow grizzled. Thy fair face is smooth,
And my grim visage wrinkled with the cares
Of years that were no more long ere thine eyes
Laughed back the sunshine. But my heart awoke
Almost as late as thine. When first the King
Came in his bridal pomp to take this hand
That made him master of those lands in France
My fathers ruled, I looked upon the face
Thou knowest as well as I. Then first I knew
What life might be on earth. Ay, curl thy lip.
Louis of France had known me; then proclaimed
How some black-bearded Saracen, long since
Gone to his lying prophet, made me sin
Against his honour and the cross of Christ;
So cast me forth. These tales are old. But hear
One older still: how younger yet than thou
When first King Henry saw thee, I was made
Bride to that stale, unloving prince of France,
Who craved Guienne, and took me as the price
They made him pay for purchase.—Royalty
Men deem most worthy state of mortal men.
I have reigned Queen of France; I reign today
Lady of England. Wouldst thou change with me?
Take all my honours? give me in return
Only the love of Henry?

ROSAMOND
Rather die,
As die I must if what thou speak'st be true.

THE QUEEN
And dost thou think that aught but truth could wring
From me, from Elinor the Queen, these tales
That speak the story of my wretched life—
A wife unloving, then a wife unloved?

ROSAMOND
Lady, my sins are deeper than I knew.
Heaven, I knew, forbade me so to love
As what was earthly in me made me love.
I turned from Heaven. Henry's love on earth
Was Heaven enough for me.

THE QUEEN
So, too, for me
Who bore him children, served his every nod,
Watching and praying through the lingering years
That, wheresover his light fancy strayed,
His eye at length might fall on me, and know
The wife that loved him.—Girl, one look of love
That never came had saved thee even now.

ROSAMOND
Lady, forgive me. I am very frail,
And young, and sinful. Now at last I know
That thou hast right to be as stern as God
In judging me. Yet I have dared to hope
That God, for Christ's sweet sake, and for the saints'
That pray for us in Heaven, might perchance
Forgive the sin I sinned against His law,
Knowing the love that bound me. Elinor,
Thou knowest that love. Be merciful. Forgive.
I am afraid to die.

THE QUEEN
If thou wert I
Wouldst thou forgive?

ROSAMOND
Alas, I know not. I
Have in my veins none of that godlike blood
That feeds the life of princes.

THE QUEEN
Rosamond,
I have forgotten what my fathers were,
And what I am today, save that I am
A woman and a wife much sinned against.
Here, take this phial.

ROSAMOND
Lady! Elinor!
Have mercy! To thy right I bow myself.
I will go forth from hence, will hide my head,
Where'er thou wilt, where none may find me out,
And there live out my life in penitence
For the great wrongs I did thee. Nevermore
Shall Henry see my face—

THE QUEEN
And thinkest thou
This earth is wide enough to hold a spot
That love cannot search out? Oh, Rosamond,
Through all the unseen centuries to come
Men will remember that thy locks were fair
And twined about the heart of him whose love
I yearned to win in vain. In Godstowe Church
Men will shed tears above thee sleeping there,
Loved, unforgotten. All that blessedness
Is thine forever. And my lot must be
What it has been on earth. Where'er I sleep
The sneers of men shall pierce the marble through
And quiver in my bony ears the news
That here in death, as erst in life, one lies
Royal, unloved, forsaken.

ROSAMOND
Pity me—

THE QUEEN
Nay, rather pity me. Here, take this glass.
In to thy chamber. There make peace with God.
Then drink the potion. In an hour's time
My men shall come to find thee—if in death,
To bear thee reverently to Godstowe Church,
There to have burial. But lest thy faint heart
Should fail to speed thee on thy road to God
They shall bear daggers with them.

ROSAMOND
Fare thee well.
Thy men shall find me even as thou wilt.
May God have mercy on me. I have loved
Even as thou. And were I thou, perchance
Like thee I should do justice. If the King
Ask thee in time to come how when thou camest
To Woodstock here thou found'st poor Rosamond,
Tell him that in her hand she bore this scroll
His hand had written; conning it again,
Though well she knew the lines, for that they bore
Tidings of what was hers—and never thine—
His love!

THE QUEEN
"So fare thee well, Rose of the World."






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