Kenilworth (novel)
Introduction
Kenilworth is apparently set in 1575, and centers on the secret marriage of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Amy Robsart, daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart. The tragic series of events begins when Amy flees her father and her betrothed, Tressilian, to marry the Earl. Amy passionately loves her husband, and the Earl loves her in return, but he is driven by ambition. He is courting the favour of Queen Elizabeth I, and only by keeping his marriage to Amy secret can he hope to rise to the height of power that he desires. At the end of the book, the queen finally discovers the truth, to the shame of the Earl. But the disclosure has come too late, for Amy has been murdered by the Earl's even more ambitious steward, Varney.Plot summary
Giles
Gosling, the innkeeper, had just welcomed his scape-grace nephew Michael
Lambourne on his return from Flanders. He invited the Cornishman, Tressilian, and other
guests to drink with them. Lambourne made a wager he would obtain an
introduction to a certain young lady under the steward Foster's charge at Cumnor Place,
seat of the Earl of Leicester, and the Cornish stranger begged permission to
accompany him. On arriving there Tressilian found that this lady was his former
lady-love, Amy. He would have carried back to her home, but she refused; and as
he was leaving he quarrelled with Richard Varney, the earl's squire, and might
have taken his life had not Lambourne intervened. Amy was soothed in her
seclusion by costly presents from the earl, and during his next visit she
pleaded that she might inform her father of their secret marriage, but he was
afraid of Elizabeth's resentment.
Warned by his host against the squire, and
having confided to him how Amy had been entrapped, Tressilian left Cumnor by
night, and, after several adventures by the way, reached the residence of Sir
Hugh Robsart, Amy's father, to assist him in laying his daughter's case before
the queen. Returning to London, Tressilian's servant, Wayland Smith, cured the
Earl of Sussex of a dangerous illness. On hearing about this from Walter Raleigh,
Elizabeth at once set out to visit Leicester's rival, and it was in this way
that Tressilian's petition, in Amy's behalf, was handed to her. The queen was
agitated to learn of this secret marriage. Varney was accordingly summoned to
the royal presence, but he boldly declared that Amy was his wife, and Leicester
was restored to the queen's favour.
Tressilian's servant then gained access to
the secret countess Amy as a pedlar, and, having hinted that Elizabeth would
shortly marry the earl, sold her a cure for the heartache, warning her
attendant Janet at the same time that there might be an attempt to poison her
mistress. Meanwhile Leicester was preparing to entertain the queen at
Kenilworth, where she had commanded that Amy should be introduced to her, and
Varney was, accordingly, despatched with a letter begging the countess to
appear at the revels pretending to be Varney's bride. Having indignantly
refused to do so, and having recovered from the effects of a cordial which had
been prepared for her by the astrologer Alasco, she escaped, with the help of
her maid, from Cumnor, and started for Kenilworth, escorted by Wayland Smith.
Travelling thither as brother and sister,
they joined a party of mummers,
and then, to avoid the crowd of people thronging the principal approaches,
proceeded by circuitous by-paths to the castle. Having, with Dickie Sludge's
help, passed into the courtyard, they were shown into a room, where Amy was
waiting while her attendant carried a note to the earl, when she was startled
by the entrance of Tressilian, whom she entreated not to interfere until after
the expiration of twenty-four hours. On entering the park, Elizabeth was
received by her favourite attended by a numerous cavalcade bearing waxen
torches, and a variety of entertainments followed. During the evening she
enquired for Varney's wife, and was told she was too ill to be present.
Tressilian offered to lose his head if within twenty-four hours he did not
prove the statement to be false. Nevertheless, the ostensible bridegroom was
knighted by the queen.
Receiving
no reply to her note, which Wayland had lost, Amy found her way the next
morning to a grotto in the gardens, where she was discovered by Elizabeth, who
had just told her host that "she must be the wife and mother of England
alone." Falling on her knees the countess besought protection against
Varney, who she declared was not her husband, and added that the Earl of
Leicester knew all. The earl was instantly summoned to the royal presence, and
would have been committed to the Tower, had not Amy recalled her words, when
she was consigned to Lord Hunsdon's care as bereft of her reason, Varney coming
forward and pretending that she had just escaped from a special treatment for
her madness. Leicester insisted on an interview with her, when she implored him
to confess their marriage to Elizabeth, and then, with a broken heart, she
would not long darken his brighter prospects. Varney, however, succeeded in
persuading him that Amy had acted in connivance with Tressilian, and in
obtaining medical sanction for her custody as mentally disordered, asking only
for the earl's signet-ring as his authority. The next day a duel between
Tressilian and the earl was interrupted by Dickie, who produced the countess's
note, and, convinced of her innocence, Leicester confessed that she was his
wife. With the queen's permission he at once deputed his rival and Sir Walter
Raleigh to proceed to Cumnor, whither he had already despatched Lambourne, to
stay his squire's further proceedings.
Varney, however, had shot the messenger on
receiving his instructions, and had caused Amy to be conducted by Foster to an
apartment reached by a long flight of stairs and a narrow wooden bridge. The
following evening the tread of a horse was heard in the courtyard, and a
whistle like the earl's signal, upon which she rushed from the room, and the
instant she stepped on the bridge, it parted in the middle, and she fell to her
death. Her murderer poisoned himself, and the skeleton of his accomplice was
found, many years afterwards, in a cell where he secreted his money. The news
of the countess's fate put an end to the revels at Kenilworth: Leicester
retired for a time from Court, and Sir Hugh Robsart, who died very soon after
his daughter, settled his estate on Tressilian. Leicester pressed for an
impartial inquiry. Though the jury found that Amy's death was an accident
(concluding that Lady Dudley, staying alone "in a certain chamber",
had fallen down the adjoining stairs, sustaining two head injuries and breaking
her neck), it was widely suspected that Leicester had arranged his wife's death
to be able to marry the Queen.
Characters
- Giles Gosling, host of the "Black Bear" at Cumnor
- Michael Lambourne, his nephew
- Edmund Tressilian, a Cornish gentleman, Amy's former lover
- Wayland Smith, his servant
- Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex
- Sir Nicholas Blount, master of house to the Earl of Sussex
- Sir Walter Raleigh, a gentleman in the household of the Earl of Sussex
- Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
- Richard Varney, his squire
- Anthony Foster, steward of Cumnor Place
- Master Erasmus Holiday, a village pedagogue
- Dickie Sludge, alias Flibbertigibbet, one of his pupils
- Doctor Doboobie, alias Alasco, an astrologer
- Sir Hugh Robsart, of Lidcote Hall, Devonshire
- Amy Robsart, his daughter
- Janet Foster, her attendant at Cumnor
- Queen Elizabeth, at Kenilworth
- In attendance on the Queen
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