I have been parted from my faithful women, And from my servants; tell me, where are they? What is their fate? I can indeed dispense At present with their service, but my heart Will feel rejoiced to know these faithful ones Are not exposed to suffering and to want! (PAULET: Your servants have been cared for; Going.) And will you leave my presence thus again, And not relieve my fearful, anxious heart From the fell torments of uncertainty? Thanks to the vigilance of your hateful spies, I am divided from the world; no voice Can reach me through these prison-walls; my fate Lies in the hands of those who wish my ruin. A month of dread suspense is passed already Since when the forty high commissioners Surprised me in this castle, and erected, With most unseemly haste, their dread tribunal; They forced me, stunned, amazed, and unprepared, Without an advocate, from memory, Before their unexampled court, to answer Their weighty charges, artfully arranged. They came like ghosts,--like ghosts they disappeared, And since that day all mouths are closed to me. In vain I seek to construe from your looks Which hath prevailed--my cause's innocence And my friends' zeal--or my foes' cursed counsel. Oh, break this silence! let me know the worst; What have I still to fear, and what to hope. (PAULET: Close your accounts with heaven.) From heaven I hope For mercy, sir; and from my earthly judges I hope, and still expect, the strictest justice.

Mary Stuart Monologue from Mary Stuart: A Tragedy

Rehearse Mary Stuart's monologue