Anna Dickinson SPEECHES & WRITINGS FILE PLAYS "A Crown of Thorns" Act IVAct 4 of Anne Boleyn or A Crown of Thorns. A Tragedy in four acts By Anna E. DickinsonLee Ball Drum Jn Cannon, Noise outside L. I. E. as curtain goes up. Lights 1/2 down. Magistrate v Kingston Nady. Act 4. Anne Boleyn Scene in 1. Scene 1. Room in Tower (Vestibule) Magistrate of London and his man, Kingston, discovered. Voice of people without (murmurs L. I. E.) Magistrate (listening as door L. I. E) All along the way/ I did hear the common folk murmuring / and grudging. / The whole town / is of their sort. Kingston Thinkest thou so? Magistrate Aye / She is much beloved. / In these last nine months / she had given to the poor, / of her own private store / fifteen thousand pounds. / These / and their children / will remember it. / Never / was bloodier deed / done in the land! Kingston Does any one believe her guilty? Magistrate Not one. Kingston Thou wast at the trial? (Magistrate assents) Since my duty did not compel me to be there / I could not look on. What did'st think of the testimony? Magistrate Testimony / there was none / They have2 raked in the Queen's anteroom for evidence. / Bribed the porters. / Told her ladies / that nothing could save her / and confession would serve, them. - They have gained / nothing! Kingston You saw / and heard her Majesty? Magistrate Aye. Kingston And how carried she, herself? Magistrate Lifted in voice, and mien / full of herself Like one, inspired! / She plead her own cause / so earnestly, so eloquently, so truthfully / that one and all / did look for her acquittal / at the hands of the peers. Kingston Such / was not the king's will. / That / which pleaseth the king / is law. / Why, man! / thou talkest as though the forms of state / were more than the servants of his will and pleasure! Magistrate Never before / was his Majesty so merry / even now / the wedding beer is brewing, / the wedding feast is baking / the wedding garments are done / while she / is yet, warm. Kingston And will be eaten and worn before she grows cold / He weds the Lady Jane# Murmurs without L. I. E. #Murmurs L. I. E. 3 Seymour / tomorrow /!#(murmurs without) Hark! (looks out) No wonder even those clods are stirred. / Never was such a sight witnessed in England before / as it will see this day! / An innocent / and beautiful head / that has worn a crown / falling under the axe of the executioner / that another may be decked with her splendors. / See, (Magistrate xes L.) the king's huntsmen and hounds / gathering yonder for the sport of the day / where this deed is done. (enter Cromwell L. I. E.) Cromwell Kingston / a word with you (Magistrate bows and exits L. I. E.) The time of execution must be postponed / leaving the hour / uncertain / or there will be a riot / # (listens to murmurs outside) Besides / I have need of time. - Did you execute my orders / concerning the block? (very pointedly.) Kingston (with sorrowful emphasis) It has been in her room / all night, my lord. Cromwell Good. / Proud and strong as she is / such companionship / will make her ready for another. (turning R.)Ready change. Have candles on prayer desk very small. Change without bell. Slow. See calcium all right before change. 4 Kingston What mean you, / my lord? Cromwell Listen / Sir Hon Kingston / Since I have need of they aid. / Nothing / hath been proven against the Queen. / She will confess nothing / Yield nothing / not even utter a cry for mercy / that can be tortured into a cry of guilt. / If she dies so, / the shadow of her scaffold / will darken his majesty's honor, / and fall across the whole land. / Something / must be wrung from her! Kingston (recoiling with horror) Torture? Cromwell No. No. / (laughs) Save / that keenest agony - of the soul - that leaves no marks on the flesh. / In a few moments / Northumberland will be here. Kingston (amazed) Northumberland? Cromwell He is to be admitted at once / to the Queens apartments / to be left alone with her / unwatched! You will post a guard of twenty men at the gateway of the secret passage / that leads from her room to the Thames, with orders to arrest the man and woman who / (laughs) within half an hour / will strive to pass through it.# Ready change # have calcium on Stage 1/2 dark at change Calcium from R.C. to shine on Anne where she kneels. Percy ready R.I.E. 5 (Kingston makes gesture of dissent) 'Tis the King's will./ What, man!/ Art eager to lay thy head afore the block? Kingston What if she refuse his importunity? Cromwell She will not refuse/ Life is sweet / & death/ is bitter. Kingston But if this should fail? (aside) Pray heaven it may! Cromwell # There is the pre-contract/ with Northumberland/ He denied it/ under oath/ & on the Holy Sacraments/ but that/ was when he thought denial would serve her./ If she cannot be proven false to her marriage vows/ She may be proven / not to be a wife/ atall/ If she will confess to a prior contract/ it will annul her marriage with the King. Kingston # But,/ my lord,/ why should she yield/ in this matter? Cromwell Is it not likely that she will be asked to yield./ If she is,/ you will see both that she does yield/ & why./ what is the hour? Kingston Four of the morning.# Without Whistle and slow. # Calcium off at scaffold & executioners Bar + Chains 6 Cromwell Come, then (xes R ) there is work for us. (exits R.I.E. followed by Kingston) Change W Without Whistle. Scene 2. Lower room. Full set of stage. Windows at back Showing tops of houses & steeples Prayer desk L. Chain of State R. Crown on table, ornaments etc. L. Farther down stage L. the block. Table and chairs R. Moonlight through window R falling on Anne where she kneels at prayer desk. discovered. (Afterwards moonlight fades & morning light comes in L.) Anne (rising) [Oh] -Will the night never / [*level & quick*] end? My God / thou knowest / I have done penance for the sins of [*x*] [*quick*] my whole life / were it a long & wicked one! / I have died a million deaths / in the presence of that— / no, no, - I will not look at it! / I will not see it ! / It is not there. (walks) This is my royal apartment / in the Tower! This / my Chair of State! / This / my Crown! / I am [*x*] [* X nerve*] Queen of England! / What have I / to do [*1*] with shame / & death! / with blocks & [*2*] scaffolds / [*x*] executioners! / (stumbles# At cue count six (6) then let bar fall on stage Footlights 3/4 up. 7 against the block) . Sh! ______/_________ [*nerve*] A great sea / of upturned faces ____/_____ And I/have tried to put her head on the block recoils) No. No. Die? I / to die /?/ It cannot / be! It is impossible!/ Why / I am well,/ I am strong! / I am full of splendid [*quick*] vigor? / The life thrills to my hair / & finger ends! / The blood throbs in [*n*] my veins / & thunders / here / (striking her heart) People / die of disease (x9) / of [*quick*] blight, of decay ___/__/__ aye, / & of a dagger's thrust / & a sword's stroke.[*2*] / Hate / kills _____ Remorse / kills, not / or / my blood would strangle-them / in their marriage wine. _____/_____. Their Marriage wine! / Oh. / my child my child! / My little one! / Elizabeth! My baby! My baby! What / is to become of you! [*#*] (she flings herself on knees. Noise without of bolts & chains. She rises and goes to the window) [*x full breath*] The morning begins to break. / The last sunrise, these eyes shall ever behold. This day / I die! This Morning / here, My soul! My soul! / this evening / where? (enter Percy at front door R I E.) or door L.I.E. shown in very guilty by Kingston, who softly & instantly closes the door & exits) Oh / merciful Lord / open to me when I knock / Receive / when I would enter in.8 (Percy rushes to her & lifts her in his arms) Percy No. No. You are not yet, going to Him. At last - / You are mine! You are mine! Anne (recoils) Yours? Merciful heavens! / He is mad. Percy No / If sorrow, & loss, & heart-break / left me reason / joy / will not drive me mad /. Do not shudder away from me / I am come to love you./ My embrace is better than the executioner's. / Come. Come Anne What are you saying? Percy See, / there / is death! (points to block) There (points to secret door) is life. A secret passage,- / a key- / the river,-/ a great ship,- / the sea, - / a great, new, continent, beyond the Sea. / Life together / happiness,/ heaven for us, through long years to come. Anne Life! Love! Life with you- / oh-- Percy (urging her) Come. Anne x x x [*x short*] No. No / It cannot be. 9 Percy What,/ you even now care . for what the would may say? / What can its talk matter to you? / Has your life without love / contented you so well / that you would rather die today / than live, with love, alone? (holding her hands& touching her marriage finger) You are free! -/ Even your marriage ring has been torn from you./ Heart ties / you never had with him. / Legal ones / he, himself, hath severed. / You are free. What? / You still hesitate? / Nay then / (taking her violently in his arms) You shall be saved / I swear it! Anne (recoiling to block, hand over it) No. / I swear it. / And the dying / break, no, oaths. [Percy Anne, my Queen, my love, / Why / should you make such an one. Anne I am a wife./ Free? / The judgment that has freed him by dishonoring me / is a lie. I refuse by any word or deed of mine / to sanction it.-/ I / am a mother. / Stripped of every other dignity & right / that remains. -/ "I know / you will tell me the whole realm has decided]10 against me that my name is blackened & my fame smirched past whitening. Still, I am innocent. Other times will know me innocent. My child will live in other times. This act of mine would do all that the malice of mine enemies has failed to do. I would stand condemned of all that I have been wrongfully accused because by this [coward flight & fear of death & love of life & happiness] I would seem guilty. Seem? Nay since I am bound by the truth not freed by a lie would be guilty. No more! Percy One word. Let me speak for your child. Anne You? For my child? Parcy You would have her Queen? See, (taking parchment from his doublet) here is a pledge of his Majesty's that if you will give him good show of just cause against you he will see that your child is confirmed in the succession to the throne. If not she shall suffer the fate of Mary & be forever debarred the Crown. For her sake. Then#Kingston ready. Headsmen ready L.Q.E. Cromwell " R.Q.E. 11 Anne Nay, then doubly for her sake will I not yield. I would rather have my child live and die a beggar than wear the Crown of England, stained not by her mother's accused but proven shame Percy Ah, merciful Lord! Then you will die! Now! Today! On the scaffold! You will die and doom me to a fate worse than death. But no, I will not survive you. # (She starts violently & as he crosses stage flings herself against his breast & is dragged on her knees). If I cannot save I will avenge you! I will cut my way to the King! I will! I will! (She is crying no, no! No, no!) No? (lifting her to her feet & drawing his dagger) Then at your feet (flinging himself on knee) I will plunge my dagger here to my own heart. Anne x x x What my hero! My soldier. You who never yet shrank from the face of foe or of danger, do you shrink now from that of duty? - It requires more courage to live than to die.# Chains outside L.I.E Cromwell & Madge ready R.I.E. # Fall of bar on stage. 12 & 13 Percy What in all the world is there for me to live for / or to do? Anne. You will live / to defend the innocent accused, - / to fight the battles of the weak /, - to do your duty well, & bravely, as a great soldier & honorable man, & die, when duty is done — God willing I will wait for you ___there. ___ Kingston! or — When duty is done. / Promise it / for your own sake. / For mine. Percy I promise. _ I swear it. Kingston opens door at L.I.E. at same moment Cromwell pushes back slide R.I.E. & enters with impatient curiosity. Sees Kingston. They exchange glances. Cromwell suddenly withdraws with rage & chagrin as Kingston comes down L. & Anne speaks to him. Kingston, conduct my lord of Northumberland. {Kingston goes up. __ Percy at door turns. Percy I cannot! (business of block. (over) as Percy exits K. beckons on to ex assistant who at his motion retire up L.H.___ Door closes with # loud noise. Kingston advances towards Anne.He is rushing to her & she to him, when they find themselves divided by the block. He recoils with a cry. She with sorrowful gesture & hand raised to heaven, on which he with despair [rushes] of manner exits through the door. As he does so, ushered with profound respect by Kingston, & Anne goes down stage, Kingston beckons on two executioners assistants who retire up stage L. H. at his motion. Door closes. Kingston advances towards Anne. # Noise R.I.E. 14 Anne Is all ready / good Kingston? Has the time / come? Kingston # Nay, Madame. The hour / hath been postponed. Anne Knowest why? Kingston Such, Madame, / are my orders. / My Lord of Essex, may be able to tell you why. Anne I am very sorry therefore, for I hoped to be dead, by this time /-& past my pain. Kingston It will be no pain, Madame,/ it is so quick. Anne Ah, that is well!/ I have never moved slowly / in my life. It is suitable that I hasten / when I come to die. # (Noise of doors without. Enter Cromwell & Madge R.I.E. Madge rushes to Anne, throwing herself in front of her, & round to L. kneeling and weeping. Madge Oh, my Queen! My dear Mistress! / You must not die! / You shall not die! Anne (c) What,/ Madge, would'st thou hold15 a tired traveller from rest? / Truly,/ child. / I am weary of a troublesome pilgrimage, & glad to see my journey's end. Madge But, oh,/ not such are ending! / Save thyself, dear Mistress. , There must be some way /-- oh, why can I not die for thee! Anne Peace! Peace! My child / why wilt thou weep & break my heart? / And yet / I am thankful to thee, for thy tears (sees Cromwell) Nay,/ Madge, nay / thou will not quite unnerve me / & in this presence too! As Cromwell speaks Madge goes up L.C. to the Prie Dieu & kneels. Cromwell Without doubt Madame / you have thought all this process has been to fright you /, & at the last his Majesty would relent. / Our gracious Master is mercifully inclined to you, / asking nothing / save / that you will confess / & throw yourself upon his clemency. Anne My lord of Essex the King / Your master / & mine / [desires that I shall die.] wishes me dead. / I am content /, yea seeing what life holds for me / glad to die / but not for the crimes / alleged./#Band ready Ready hunting music 16 I have always been a faithful / & loyal wife to his majesty. / I have not (perhaps) at all times / showed him that absolute humility & reverence / the great honor he hath done me required. / I confess / I have had suspicions of him / that I had not strength & discretion enough / to conceal, / but God knows, / & He is my witness / that I never failed towards my husband in any other way /, & I shall say no other / at the hour of death. / As to my brother / & those others, who are unjustly condemned / to loss of life / & loss of honor / I would gladly suffer / were it possible / many deaths of the body to deliver them / but not one of the soul. / I have nothing to confess / & nothing to conceal / & living or dying / I will not lie # Cromwell You will not throw yourself upon the King's mercy? You have no message, for him? Anne Yes, / have I . (Cromwell makes eager motion of inquiry) Carry his majesty my thanks / for all the kindness he hath done me / in life/, & for the manifold favors /he hath /bestowed upon me. / From a Ready Bell 17 private gentlewoman / he raised me to a marchioness / from a marchioness / to a Queen / and now / that he can no farther advance me in this world / he is about / to make me a saint in heaven. Cromwell (pointing to block) A little more humility, madame / would become one whose head / is so soon, to roll from that / in the dust of the scaffold. Anne (with violent recoil) My lord!/ (recovering manner) I will do my best when the time comes,/ to be ready./ When thy hour strikes,/ (as strike it will) untimely. Kingston (aside & motioning executioners assistants as Anne turns up stage) Now! / on the instant! / (the two men advance, take up block at motion & exit L.I.E.) Cromwell (Sneeringly) Hast received the gift of second sight / with dying eyes? Anne (turning) Nay! I but use the experience / of living ones./ Men, / my lord,/ destroy the tool / with which they have done hateful things,/ the#Strain of hunting music. # Bell #Bell. #Bell. 18 tool itself/ having grown hateful/ Thy time/ will come. (Anne goes up to Prie Dieu, where Madge clings about her waist Anne comforting her. Cromwell Will nothing break her! # (Strain of hunting music) Kingston (with bitter emphasis) His majesty/ goes a hunting! (this hunting music is crossed by a dirge. Cromwell stands a moment listening) Cromwell At last! / I began to fear some rescue or failure # (Bell) ____ and yet / 'tis a hideous sound. (enter magistrate) well? Magistrate My lord,/ they are bringing Lord George Boleyn, / Lord Henry Noneys,/ Sir Wm. Brereton/ & Sir Francis Weston/ to the place of execution # (Anne turns at Magistrate's voice, then rushes to window, flings it open, & in dumb show reveals her agony over what is passing below. # Bell. Dirge.# Bell 19 Cromwell They will not confess? Magistrate They will die/ protesting the Queen's innocence. Cromwell Has life/ been offered them? Magistrate Thrice,/ my lord./ Twice in their prison/ & again / in the presence of the people,/ who cried to them/ to stand firm/ to which Noneys speaking for all/, answered/— Fear not, good people/ we are true knights/ & loyal gentlemen/, who would rather die/ than wrong an innocent woman—/ tho' she were but a single maiden/— how much more/ when she is our dear friend/ & gracious Queen. # Bell. Magistrate retires up stage. Anne turns from window in agony. Anne x x Oh, my brother! My cousin! My x nerve [*quick*] friends! Great hearts / ye will x then die for me! Cromwell Not unless you will it, madame Anne x x q (C) I?/# Bell After first "Sign! Sign!" Count six (6) then 1st cannon. After second "Sign! Sign!" Count six slow Second cannon. 20 Cromwell (at table R.H.) Sign/, Sign this paper.— / One that does but declare a prior contract / with Northumberland, (she advances) that will sit the King free / to wed with Jane Seymour / (she starts & draws back) and you save your brother, / your cousin, your friends. # (Bell) Madge (On her knees) L. H.) Oh Madame! Madame! Anne (distraught) Oh , Madge, Madge! Cromwell Sign, Sign! (Anne goes to table but at sound of first cannon hesitates.__ Madge rushes to Prie Dieu & falls on her knees. Sir Wm. Kingston makes gesture of horror at window. As Anne hesitates Cromwell anxiously urges her .) Sign! Sign! She signs. # Second cannon sounds. Sir Wm. Kingston at window. Kingston The executioner is just showing the# Bell # 3rd Cannon. 21 heads/ of Lord George Boleyn/ & Lord Henry Norreys/ to the people on the green. # (Bell) Madge rises trying to come to the Queen, screams and faints. Kingston shaking his head xes L.H. Anne tries to recover parchment which Cromwell Steps from the table. Cromwell (R.H) Lastly/ Madame/ all ruses are permissible / in war./ A prior contract by the Canon law/ renders / any after contract / invalid./ This signature of yours / dissolves your marriage with the king -/ not from today / but / from is commencement / & makes your child a bastard / (she recoils). This paper/ disinherits your daughter./ I will give it into your hands to destroy / (she puts out hands eagerly) If you will make the confession the King demands. Anne (c) [*x*] [*x level*] Never! Cromwell (pointing to window). What have you to gain by silence? You have reached the end. # (Third cannon sounds)# Slow 4th cannon #Bell #Bell 22 Anne There is a final, appeal. Cromwell To the King? Anne (flinging herself on knees). To the King/ of Kings./ from Court & peers / & king & people / Yea/ from this present time/ & the great unknown time to come/ I appeal / to Him. # (Fourth cannon sounds Kingston comes down to Anne, Cromwell (aside) The fourth cannon sounds./ The fourth head/ has fallen/ One more/ --the last--- (to Anne & pointing to where the block has been carried out) Madame/ the block awaits you/ there. # (Bell) Anne (struggles to feet with Kingston's aid, then nervous noble manner And there, (points upward) Mercy and truth awaits me./ Doubt not/ that at the same great judgment bar/ for thee/ Also/ awaits justice. # (Cromwell cowers) (Ring) Slow curtain. End of Play.Anne Boleyn