Continued from Part Seven.
He – the man with the packing cases – picks up his empty tea cup and begins to walk towards the small table near the entrance door of the large room in which the mystery play ran its course. It’s important that everything is cleared, he thinks; restored to how it was, pristine…
Laughing to himself, he realises that he is walking the edges of the square of what was the royal court floor, though nothing of it remains outside of his imagination…and the memories of nineteen other people who helped bring it to life.
This was her space, he whispers to the silent air, still reverential, still listening for her commands to those within the square of black and white, the world of polarity. That, moment…that moment when enough had been seeded by clever language and innocent moves within the squares. That moment when the Sovereign stepped forward, intellectually, to declare her intentions. His memory of that second is acute. He relives it, but as what? Is he the playwright, above the creation, but guiding it as director? No, his involvement is still too acute. Is he, then, William Shakespeare, a character that thinks he is a creator? Perhaps… Or, is he each of the characters, permitted to play alongside the actors, if in memory only?
Putting the cup down on a table top full of other used cups, he realises he is all these things, because he is alive, and graced with the evolving stories of life – both his and the life of the world in which he lives and writes. And, most importantly, that the lives of the other players came together with his, and his with theirs, and the result was beautiful.
Realising this, with a clarity that is shocking, he shifts from writer to playwright character, to Queen…
Robert Cecil, horrified and incredulous has just spoken.
“Your Majesty, the Jesuit is still in our presence!”
The Queen holds back the smile out of deference to her First Minister, and scolds the man with the folded hands, sitting, quietly, in the West of the court… with whom she is secretly delighted, though she would have let Frances Walsingham kill him, had Dr Dee not been so… upright. Few understand what being a Queen entails… the embodiment of purpose.
“Priest! I gave you leave–are you so eager to forfeit your life?”
The Jesuit stands. His quiet voice belies the fear he has generated in her world – but not in her. “Your Majesty, I mean no offence,” he says. “I have no home as such… My life is spent in the shelter of others’ homes, often locked away in dirty holes in the ground where I must wait out Lord Cecil’s men… And all this for the giving of the Mass to those that need it! Never have I plotted against the Crown, never have I sought to cause distress or fomented uprising against your government or your reign.”
The priest looks down at his own feet, shaking his head in disbelief that he is still here, mere yards from two of the Queen’s closest guardians who would run him through in a second, if permitted. But the small voice continues:
“A man I do not know has just saved my life – an honest man, in my opinion – and the image of Christ within me says: ‘Stay and risk what little is yours to help defend him.’ You did promise me safety if I became part of this gathering. I beg you to let me stay a while longer and see if I can earn a deeper contribution, here”.
The Queen watches through narrowed eyes as Dr Dee looks at the Lady Rab’ya, who looks at the priest. The Saracen woman knows what Dr Dee knows: that the essence of the whole chamber has changed… And The Queen knows it, too.
Robert Cecil is still standing, glaring at the Jesuit. His words are fully the equivalent of Frances’s dagger.
“Your Grace! I can take no more of this!”
The Queen puts as much gentleness into her voice as she deems proper. “Robert, you are a good man. Stay with me… my plans are only partly unveiled and I seek, before God, to do no harm to you or your causes.”
She watches as the twin forces within him wrestle for his soul: his desire to better his father in service to his Sovereign; and his need to kill the long-hunted priest. He breathes deeply but is not calm.
“I am a good man, Your Majesty; I would follow in my father’s footsteps. For years he hunted that man, who was protected by some of the richest families in your Kingdom! Now, I have him in my grasp and you want me to let him go!”
The Queen gathers the material of her royal dress, allowing a few more seconds to pass.
“Robert, I, too, fight with the legacy of my father – King Henry. They were dark times… When I was halfway to my third year, my mother was taken from me, to walk, mere days later, to her execution. Later, still young, along with my dear Dudley, I was thrown into the tower by my half-sister, Queen Mary… Just Dudley, me.. and the ravens, the three ravens…”
The ravens, the three ravens that will come to mean so much more in this chamber… She continues:
“Your father, Baron Burghley, and Frances’s father, Francis Walsingham, swore to protect and guide my young life… and they did… A debt I could never repay.”
She must tell it from the heart, now. Must bare some of the most hideous detail to help this young, gifted and determined man raise his eyes and see beyond vengeance.
“Your father once told me that he had calculated that the Tudor dynasty had taken the lives of more than fifty thousand people. He left me to draw my own conclusions. Must we forever feed this cycle of blood and terror? The mighty Armada is vanquished. Even Imperial Spain does not have the wealth to rebuild it.” Then, softly. “Robert, could we not, now, build on the peace, in matters religious as well as military?
Robert Cecil says nothing. He holds his head in his hands for a moment, then rises, still full of rage. He strides down the Outer Court’s passageway, stopping to glare at the Jesuit, then wrenches aside the heavy door of the court chamber, letting it slam closed as he leaves.
There is silence in the royal court. For a while, not even the Queen dares to speak.
Other parts in this series:
Part One, Part Two, Part Three
Part Four, Part Five , Part Six
Stephen Tanham is a director of the Silent Eye School of Consciousness, a not-for-profit organisation that helps people find the reality and essence of their existence via home-based, practical courses which are low-cost and personally supervised by email.
His personal blog, Sun in Gemini, is at stevetanham.wordpress.com.
You’ll find friends, poetry, literature and photography there…and some great guest posts on related topics.
©Stephen Tanham
Thank you, Sue x
I am enjoying the retelling of the play very much, though I must say that I have not yet managed to connect these parts with my studies yet. I am sure time will open some doors for me though, and until then, I still enjoy reading them. I know the day will dawn when the lights will come on. Right now there are lots of parts that I have not been able to connect, but I keep trying.
Hi Anne. There are two aspects to the studies. The three year course gives a life foundation and a ‘map’ for understanding and navigating consciousness and everyday experience. The workshops will attempt to apply that knowledge to particular situations. In the case of the April workshops, which are held in the symbolic Spring, the core will be a story, told as a Mystery Play, in which all may play their part. In this year’s, the setting was the court of Queen Elizabeth Tudor, grown wise and wily at the end of her reign.
Gosh, thanks Steve! I am glad to know this and am definitely looking forward to knowing more. After the three year course, is there more study available? I like the plays here and I am beginning to get a bit of an idea of these things and the people as I always look everything up about that for which I am uncertain. Since I am so new to the study, it is helping me a lot to check the meanings of the things that are discussed. I am sure not all of my “understanding” of what I am reading is correct, but it is OK because I am still growing via my studies, and it is taking on a wealth of meaning for me. Thank you one and all.
That’s good, Anne. And remember we can only reveal a little in these general pieces. Only the initiate knows the full story!
Ah So . . . the plot thickens! Well, it doesn’t hurt to guess. Even if I get it wrong, I keep trying, and pretty soon I come to something that seems closer to what is. But it wouldn’t be a mystery if we did it any other way, so it is ok, and that is half the fun. It causes us to think hard, read fast, and write slowly something that we are thinking. Well, it is still growth, isn’t it? And lots of fun too! We just can’t take ourselves too seriously. But exercise of the mind is a good thing, even when we come to the wrong conclusions. How can we learn if we don’t try to figure it out? Well, thank you all good folks. You are making this fun for all of us. Even though it is serious study, we might as well have fun doing it.
I don’t think I have ever looked forward to a course of study so much.