Victor Hugo

“ Gilbert.⁠What would I have? Jane has lost her rank; restore it to her! Jane has lost her honour; restore it to her! Proclaim her the daughter of Lord Talbot and the wife of Lord Clanbrassil, and then take my life.
The Queen.⁠Your life! but what think you that I want of your life now? I wanted it only to revenge myself upon that man, upon Fabiano! Have you no comprehension? Nor, indeed, do I understand you. You prated of revenge! Is this the way you seek revenge? What stupid creatures these men of the people are! ”

“ Joshua.⁠I know that Fabiani is surely to be beheaded to-day and you to-morrow, and I confess that since I have known it, Gilbert, I have been as one mad. The scaffold has put Jane out of my mind. Your death—
Gilbert.⁠My death! What mean you by that word? My death is to have Jane not love me. From the day that she ceased to love me, I have been dead. Oh, yes, Joshua, veritably dead. What survives of me since then is not worth the trouble they will take with me to-morrow. Look you, you can form no idea of what it is to be a man who loves! ”

“ You are lost, in very truth lost, as you see! You will ascend the scaffold like Suffolk and Northumberland. 'Twill be as welcome a spectacle as another to give to my good city of London. You know well how it hates you, does my good city! By Heaven! 'tis an excellent thing, when one craves vengeance, to be Mary, Queen of England, daughter of Henry the Eighth, and mistress of the four seas. And when you are on the scaffold, Fabiani, you may make, at your pleasure, a long discourse to the people, like Northumberland, or a long prayer to God, like Suffolk, to give the pardon time to arrive. ”

“ But 'tis time for you to go.
Fabiani.⁠It is my will that the woman keep the Queen waiting at the door.
The Queen.⁠Your will! your will!—Look at me, my lord. You have a youthful and charming face, Fabiano!
Fabiani.⁠It is you who are charming, Madame! You would need nothing more than your beauty to be omnipotent. There is upon your head something that says that you are the Queen, but it is writ on your brow even more plainly than on your crown. ”

“ She violently draws aside the white hangings, revealing a balcony, and beyond the balcony, as far as the eye can see, the whole city of London magnificently illuminated against the background of darkness. What can be seen of the Tower of London is illuminated, also. Jane gazes in amazement at this dazzling spectacle, the reflection of which lights up the stage. Oh! city of abomination! rebellions city! accurst city! inhuman city which drenches its festal robes in blood and holds the torch for the headsman. You are afraid of it, Jane, are you not? ”

“ Think you that you will kill the woman who is false to you? No, you will not kill her, you will lie at her feet, after as before, but you will be sad. You deem me weak? What should I have gained, pray, by killing Jane? Oh! my heart is full of intolerable thoughts! If she loved me still what would all that she has done matter to me? But she loves Fabiani! but she loves Fabiani! it is for Fabiani's sake that she comes! There is one thing certain—that is that I would be glad to die! Have pity on me, Joshua!
Joshua.⁠Fabiani will be put to death to-day.
Gilbert.⁠And I to-morrow. ”

“ The Queen.⁠You flatter me!
Fabiani.⁠I love you.
The Queen.⁠You do love me, do you not? You love none but me? Tell it me again, so, with those eyes. Alas! we poor women, we never know just what is taking place in a man's heart. We must perforce believe your eyes, and the loveliest, Fabiano, are sometimes the most false. But in your eyes there is such a store of loyalty and sincerity and good faith, that they cannot lie,—is it not so? ”

“ Must I needs tell you all? must a woman lay bare her heart before you, because she is a queen, unhappy creature, and you represent here the Prince of Spain, my future husband? God's mercy! Sir, you men know not this, that in a woman the heart has its modesty no less than the body. Well, yes,—since you insist upon knowing, since you pretend not to understand,—it is true that each day I postpone Fabiani's execution until the morrow, because each morning strength fails me at the thought that the bell of the Tower will soon strike the signal for that man's death ”

“ Fabiani.⁠Madame—
The Queen.⁠That is what she is! And hark ye, while I tell you what you are. You are a soulless, heartless, witless creature! you are a caitiff and a villain! you are—Oh! gentlemen, you need not stand aside. It matters not to me that you should hear what I say to this man! Methinks I have not lowered my voice.—Fabiano, you are a villain, a traitor to me, a dastard to her, a false-tongued varlet, the vilest, the most base of men! Nathless 'tis true that I have made you Earl of Clanbrassil, Baron Dinasmonddy—and what more? ”

“ Jane.⁠Ah! well, your Majesty, whoever it may be to whom you entrust the duty, and whatever the punishment be, I will submit without complaint, I will even thank you, if you will grant a prayer that I am about to make to you. There is a man who took me, an orphan, in my infancy, who adopted me, brought me up, supported me, loved me, and loves me still; a man of whom I am most unworthy, toward whom I have been very wicked, and whose image is none the less in the depths of my heart, as dear, august and sacred as God's image ”

“ And, Gilbert, if you marry,—for it will please God that you shall find at last a pure and spotless woman, who is worthy of you,—if you marry, and if your wife is kind and is willing, I will be your wife's handmaid. If you do not marry, I will stay with you, I will be very meek and resigned, as you will see; and if people think evil upon seeing me with you, why, they may think what they choose. ”

“ The Queen.⁠My God! my God! This Simon Renard is more king than I am queen. What! no one here whom I may trust! no one to whom to give full powers to effect Fabiani's escape!
Jane [stepping from behind the pillar.] ⁠Yes, your Majesty—I!
Joshua [aside.] ⁠Jane!
The Queen.⁠You! who are you? 'Tis you, Jane Talbot? How came you here? But no matter—you are here! you come to save Fabiani! Thanks! I should hate you, Jane, I should be jealous of you—I have a thousand reasons for it. But no, I love you for loving him. In face of the scaffold there 's an end of jealousy,—nothing is left but love. ”

“ He spies the dagger with which Fabiani killed the Jew, and picks it up with fierce haste.
Ah! you come too late! probably you will be able to kill none but myself! But no matter: whether you fell from heaven or hell, I bless you!—Jane has betrayed me! Jane has given herself to that villain! Jane is Lord Talbot's heiress! Jane is lost to me!—O God! within an hour more terrible things have befallen me than my brain can bear! ”

“ And then, think you that I believe your absurd tale of an heiress of the Talbots? The papers! you show me the papers! I choose not to look at them. Ah, yes! a woman betrays you, and you play the generous lover! As you please. I am not generous, myself! I have fierce anger and hatred in my heart. I will avenge myself and you will help me. But the man is mad! he is mad! he is mad! Great God! why have I need of him? It is maddening to have to do with such men in affairs of high import!
Gilbert.⁠I have your word as a Catholic queen. Lord Clanbrassil has seduced Jane, and he shall marry her! ”

“ To Jane.
You are useless here; go. I will recall you.
Jane.⁠O Gilbert, what have you done? O Gilbert, I am a miserable creature, and I dare not lift my eyes to your face! Gilbert, you are more than an angel, for you have an angel's virtues and a man's passions!
[Exit Jane.
Scene 5.—The Queen, Gilbert; afterward, Simon Renard, Lord Chandos, and Guards.
The Queen [to Gilbert.] ⁠Have you a weapon upon you? a knife, a dagger, anything?
Gilbert [taking from his breast Lord Clanbrassil's dagger.] ⁠A dagger? Yes, your Majesty.
The Queen.⁠'Tis well. Hold it in your hand. ”

“ The Queen.⁠Who loves the Queen.
Fabiani.⁠Who loves Mary.
The Queen.⁠Hark ye, Fabiano, I love you, too. You are young. There are many beautiful women who look sweetly upon you, I know. After a time one wearies of a queen as of another woman.—Do not interrupt me.—If ever you become enamoured of another woman, I wish you to tell me. I will forgive you, it may be, if you tell me.—Do not interrupt me.—You do not know to what point I love you. I do not know myself. There are moments, it is true, when I should prefer to have you dead, than happy with another ”

“ He will be vile unto the end; he will cause us to blush to the end before these men,—us poor weak women who loved him! He will not even raise his head!
Fabiani.⁠Yes, Madame, I will raise my head. I am lost, 'tis plain. My death is determined. You will employ all means—the dagger, poison—
The Queen [seizing his hands and leading him hurriedly to the front of the stage.] ⁠Poison! the dagger! What say you, Italian? Treacherous vengeance, shameful venegance, vengeance from behind, vengeance as practised in your country! Nay, Signor Fabiani, neither dagger nor poison. ”

“ He deceives one woman and denies the other. Infamous! Ay, of a surety you are an infamous knave!—How now! While I have been speaking, he is not on his knees! To your knees, Fabiano! My lords, force this man to his knees!
Fabiani.⁠Your Majesty—
The Queen.⁠This caitiff, whom I have overwhelmed with benefactions! this Neapolitan lackey, whom I have made a belted knight and a free English Earl! Ah! I should have expected what has come to pass. 'Twas told to me that it would end thus. But it is always my way, I persist, and then I see that I was wrong. 'Tis my fault. Italian means villain! ”

“ If there exists an heir or an heiress of Lord Talbot—as Lord Talbot died for Queen Mary and her mother, Katharine of Arragon, as Lord Talbot was a Papist and the Queen is a Papist, there is no doubt that Queen Mary would take the estates from you, my lord, favourite though you be, and would restore them, as a matter of duty, of gratitude, and of religion, to such heir or heiress. ”

“ Every day some great nobleman is struck down. Day before yesterday 'twas Blantyre, yesterday Northcurry, to-day South-Reppo, to-morrow Tyrconnel. Next week 'twill be you, Chandos, and next month 'twill be I. My lords, my lords, 'tis a crying, impious shame, that all these honourable English heads should fall thus for the pleasure of a wretched nameless adventurer, who is not even of this country! 'Tis a shocking and intolerable thought that a Neapolitan favourite can draw as many blocks as he will from beneath the bed of this Queen! They lead a merry life together, say you? ”

“ Ah! they lead a merry life, these lovers, while the head-cutter at their door makes widows and orphans! Too often is their Italian guitar accompanied by the clank of fetters! My lady Queen! you import singers from the chapel of Avignon, you have every day, in your palace, theatres and galleries full of musicians. By God! my lady, less merry-making in your abode, may it please you, and less mourning in ours; fewer merry-andrews here and fewer headsmen yonder; fewer showmen's booths at Westminster, and fewer scaffolds at Tyburn! ”

“ At the centre of all his creations, we find the point of intersection of greatness and truth; and where these great things and these true things meet, art is complete. Shakespeare, like Michelangelo, seems to have been created to solve that strange problem of which the mere enunciation seems absurd: to remain always within the limits of nature, while going outside of them now and again.—Shakespeare exaggerates proportions, but he maintains the relations of things. Marvellous omnipotence of the poet! he makes things higher than ourselves, which live as we do. ”

“ Fabiani.⁠By Heaven, villain, you are not a man, you are my conscience dressed as a Jew!
The Man.⁠I propose to speak to you as your conscience, my lord. This is your case. You are the Queen's favourite. The Queen has given you the Garter and an earldom. Empty honours these! the Garter's a rag; the earldom's a mere word—the privilege of having your head cut off. You must have something more, my lord; you must have fine estates, noble castles, and handsome revenues in good pounds sterling. Now King Henry the Eighth confiscated the estates of Lord Talbot, who was beheaded sixteen years ago. ”

“ These men who are of no country are without pity for any country when they are powerful.
Montagu.⁠Said you not, Chandos, that the Queen is ill? That does not prevent her leading a merry life with her favourite.
Clinton.⁠A merry life! a merry life! While the Queen laughs, the people weep and the favourite is gorged. He eats silver and drinks gold, does that man! The Queen hath given him Lord Talbot's estates, the great Lord Talbot! The Queen hath made him Earl of Clanbrassil and Baron Dinasmonddy,—this Fabiano Fabiani, who says that he is of the Spanish family of Peñalver, and who lies! ”

“ The great captivates the masses, the true impresses the individual spectator.
The aim of the dramatic poet, whatever his general ideas concerning art, should be therefore, first of all, to seek the great, like Corneille, or the true, like Molière; or, better still,—and this is the highest elevation that genius can attain,—to aspire to both the great and the true, the great in the true, the true in the great, like Shakespeare. ”