A Digital Anthology of Early Modern English Drama emed.folger.edu Discover over four hundred early modern English plays that were professionally performed in London between 1576 and 1642. Browse plays written by Shakespeare’s contemporaries; explore the repertoires of London’s professional companies; and download plays for reading and research. This documentary edition has been edited to provide an accurate and transparent transcription of a single copy of the earliest surviving print edition of this play. Further material, including editorial policy and XML files of the play, is available on the EMED website. EMED texts are edited and encoded by Meaghan Brown, Michael Poston, and Elizabeth Williamson, and build on work done by the EEBO-TCP and the Shakespeare His Contemporaries project. This project is funded by a Humanities Collections and Reference Resources grant from the NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access. Plays distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. img: 1­a ismigg: :[ N1­/bA] sig: A2r ln 0001 THE ln 0002 MASSACRE ln 0003 AT PARIS: ln 0004 With the Death of the Duke ln 0005 of Guise. ln 0006 As it was played by the right honorable the ln 0007 Lord high Admiral his Servants. ln 0008 Written by Christopher Marlowe. ln 0009 AT LONDON ln 0010 Printed by E. A. for Edward White, dwelling near ln 0011 the little North door of St. Paul’s ln 0012 Church at the sign of ln 0013 the Gun. img: 2­a ismigg: :A 22­vb sig: A3r wln 0001 THE wln 0002 MASSACRE wln 0003 AT PARIS. wln 0004 With the Death of the wln 0005 Duke of Guise. wln 0006 Enter Charles the French King, the Queen Mother, wln 0007 the King of Navarre, the Prince of Condé, the wln 0008 Lord high Admiral, and the Queen of Navarre, wln 0009 with others. wln 0010 Charles. wln 0011 PRince of Navarre my honorable wln 0012 brother, wln 0013 Prince Condé, and my good Lord wln 0014 Admiral, wln 0015 I wish this union and religious league, wln 0016 Knit in these hands thus joined in nuptial rites, wln 0017 May not dissolve, till death dissolve our lives, wln 0018 And that the native sparks of princely love, img: 3­a sig: A3v wln 0019 That kindled first this motion in our hearts: wln 0020 May still be fueled in our progeny. wln 0021 Navarre. The many favors which your grace wln 0022 hath shown, wln 0023 From time to time, but specially in this: wln 0024 Shall bind me ever to your highness’ will, wln 0025 In what Queen Mother or your grace commands. wln 0026 Old Queen Thanks son Navarre, you see we love wln 0027 you well, wln 0028 That link you in marriage with our daughter here: wln 0029 And as you know our difference in Religion, wln 0030 Might be a means to cross you in your love. wln 0031 Charles. Well Madam, let that rest: wln 0032 And now my Lords the marriage rites performed, wln 0033 We think it good to go and consummate the rest, wln 0034 With hearing of a holy Mass: Sister, I think wln 0035 yourself will bear us company. wln 0036 Queen Margaret I will my good Lord, wln 0037 Charles. The rest that will not go (my Lords) wln 0038 may stay: wln 0039 Come Mother let us go to honor this solemnity. wln 0040 Old Queen Which I’ll dissolve with blood wln 0041 and cruelty. wln 0042 Exit the King, Queen Mother, and the Queen of Navarre, wln 0043 and manet Navarre, the Prince of Condé, and wln 0044 the Lord high Admiral. wln 0045 Navarre. Prince Condé and my good Lord Admiral, wln 0046 Now Guise may storm but do us little hurt: wln 0047 Having the King, Queen Mother on our sides, wln 0048 To stop the malice of his envious heart, img: 3­b sig: A4r wln 0049 That seeks to murder all the Protestants: wln 0050 Have you not heard of late how he decreed, wln 0051 If that the King had given consent thereto, wln 0052 That all the protestants that are in Paris, wln 0053 Should have been murdered the other night? wln 0054 Admiral My Lord I marvel that th’ aspiring Guise, wln 0055 Dares once adventure without the King’s consent, wln 0056 To meddle or attempt such dangerous things. wln 0057 Condé My Lord you need not marvel at the Guise, wln 0058 For what he doth the Pope will ratify: wln 0059 In murder, mischief, or in tyranny. wln 0060 Navarre But he that sits and rules above the clouds, wln 0061 Doth hear and see the prayers of the just: wln 0062 And will revenge the blood of innocents, wln 0063 That Guise hath slain by treason of his heart, wln 0064 And brought by murder to their timeless ends. wln 0065 Admiral My Lord, but did you mark the Cardinal, wln 0066 The Guise’s brother and the Duke Dumaine: wln 0067 How they did storm at these your nuptial rites, wln 0068 Because the house of Bourbon now comes in, wln 0069 And joins your lineage to the crown of France? wln 0070 Navarre And that’s the cause that Guise so frowns at us, wln 0071 And beats his brains to catch us in his trap: wln 0072 Which he hath pitched within his deadly toil. wln 0073 Come my Lords let’s go to the Church and pray, wln 0074 That God may still defend the right of France: wln 0075 And make his Gospel flourish in this land. Exeunt. wln 0076 Enter the Duke of Guise. wln 0077 Guise. If ever Hymen loured at marriage rites, wln 0078 And had his altars decked with dusky lights: img: 4­a sig: A4v wln 0079 If ever sun stained heaven with bloody clouds, wln 0080 And made it look with terror on the world: wln 0081 If ever day were turned to ugly night. wln 0082 And night made semblance of the hue of hell, wln 0083 This day, this hour, this fatal night, wln 0084 Shall fully show the fury of them all, wln 0085 Apothecary. wln 0086 Enter the Pothecary. wln 0087 Pothecary My Lord. wln 0088 Guise. Now shall I prove and guerdon to the full, wln 0089 The love thou bear’st unto the house of Guise: wln 0090 Where are those perfumed gloves which I sent wln 0091 To be poisoned, hast thou done them? speak, wln 0092 Will every savor breed a pang of death? wln 0093 Pothecary See where they be my good Lord, wln 0094 And he that smells but to them, dies. wln 0095 Guise. Then thou remainest resolute. wln 0096 Pothecary I am my Lord, in what your grace wln 0097 commands till death. wln 0098 Guise. Thanks my good friend, I will requite thy love, wln 0099 Go then present them to the Queen Navarre: wln 0100 For she is that huge blemish in our eye, wln 0101 That makes these upstart heresies in France: wln 0102 Be gone my friend present them to her straight. wln 0103 Soldier. Exit Pothecary. wln 0104 Enter a Soldier. wln 0105 Soldier My Lord, wln 0106 Guise. Now come thou forth and play thy wln 0107 tragic part. wln 0108 Stand in some window opening near the street, img: 4­b sig: A5r wln 0109 And when thou seest the Admiral ride by, wln 0110 Discharge thy musket and perform his death: wln 0111 And then I’ll guerdon thee with store of crowns. wln 0112 Soldier I will my Lord. Exit Souldier. wln 0113 Guise. Now Guise begins those deep engendered wln 0114 thoughts, wln 0115 To burst abroad those never dying flames, wln 0116 Which cannot be extinguished but by blood. wln 0117 Oft have I levelled, and at last have learned, wln 0118 That peril is the chiefest way to happiness, wln 0119 And resolution honor's fairest aim. wln 0120 What glory is there in a common good, wln 0121 That hangs for every peasant to achieve? wln 0122 That like I best that flies beyond my reach, wln 0123 Set me to scale the high Pyramids, wln 0124 And thereon set the Diadem of France, wln 0125 I’ll either rend it with my nails to naught, wln 0126 Or mount the top with my aspiring wings, wln 0127 Although my downfall be the deepest hell. wln 0128 For this, I wake, when others think I sleep, wln 0129 For this, I wait, that scorns attendance else: wln 0130 For this, my quenchless thirst whereon I build, wln 0131 Hath often pleaded kindred to the King. wln 0132 For this, this head, this heart, this hand and sword, wln 0133 Contrives, imagines and fully executes, wln 0134 Matters of import, aimed at by many, wln 0135 Yet understood by none. wln 0136 For this, hath heaven engendered me of earth, wln 0137 For this, this earth sustains my body’s weight, wln 0138 And with this weight I’ll counterpoise a Crown, img: 5­a sig: A5v wln 0139 Or with seditions weary all the world: wln 0140 For this, from Spain the stately Catholics, wln 0141 Sends Indian gold to coin me French ecus: wln 0142 For this have I a largesse from the Pope, wln 0143 A pension and a dispensation too: wln 0144 And by that privilege to work upon, wln 0145 My policy hath framed religion, wln 0146 Religion: O Diabole.