Mary Tudor: "When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes"

Mary Tudor by Victor Hugo

Victor Marie Hugo was born on 26th February 1802 and is revered as the greatest of all French writers.   A poet, novelist, dramatist and painter he was a passionate supporter of Republicanism and made a notable contribution to the politics of his Country.

His life was paralleled by the immense political and social movements of the 19th Century.   When he was two Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor but before he was eighteen the Bourbon Monarchy was restored. 

It was only with his Mother’s death in 1821 that he felt confident enough to marry Adele Foucher, a relationship he had kept secret from his mother.  Their first child was born inside a year but died in infancy.  Leopoldine was born the following year, followed by three further siblings.  

Hugo published his first novel the year following year, Han d'Islande, (1823).  Three years later his second, Bug-Jargal (1826).

Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five further volumes of poetry solidifying his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.  His reputation was growing not only in France but across Europe.

In 1841 he was elected to the Académie Française, cementing his position in the world of French arts and letters.  Hugo also now began to turn his attention to an involvement in French politics.

Elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 he spoke eloquently and at length against the death penalty and social injustice as well as passionately in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland.

When Napoleon III seized power in 1851, and established an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France and began a long exile, based mainly in Guernsey.

In exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets;  Napoléon le Petit and Histoire d'un crime. Although the pamphlets were banned in France, they nonetheless made a strong impact there. His exile also seemed to have a creative impetus.  He composed or published some of his greatest work including Les Misérables, and three widely honoured collections of poetry (Les Châtiments, 1853; Les Contemplations, 1856; and La Légende des siècles, 1859).

In 1870 the Third Republic was established and Hugo finally returned home, where he was elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.  That same year War erupted between France and Prussia and the French were badly beaten.

With the end of the War Hugo began his campaign for a great valuation and protection for the rights of artists and copyright. He was a founding member of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.

Victor Hugo's death on 22nd May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense nation-wide mourning. Revered not only as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who had helped to shape the Third Republic and democracy in France.

Index of Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

TIME: LONDON, 1553

MARY TUDOR

FIRST DAY―A MAN OF THE PEOPLE

SCENE:—Border of the Thames.

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

SCENE VII

SCENE VIII

SCENE IX

SECOND DAY―THE QUEEN

SCENE:—A Room in the royal apartment.

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

SCENE VII

SCENE VIII

SCENE IX

THIRD DAY―PART I―WHICH OF THE TWO?

SCENE:—Hall in the Interior of the Tower of London.

SCENE I

SCENE II

SCENE III

SCENE IV

SCENE V

SCENE VI

SCENE VIII

SCENE IX

SCENE X

THIRD DAY―PART II

SCENE:—A Hall or Room into Which lead Two Staircases.

SCENE I

SCENE II

VICTOR HUGO – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

VICTOR HUGO – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ

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

TIME: 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, ANTOHNY 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 Peñalver, 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