“Anna Bolena” by Gaetano Donizetti libretto (English)

Contents: Characters; Act 1; Act 2; Act 3

Act 2

Scene 1

An entrance hall which leads to Anna's rooms and to a room where the Counsel is gathered with guards at the entrance.

CHORUS:
Oh! wherever have the sycophantic crowds gone,
who gathered around her in her happy days!
Seymour, Seymour herself has distanced herself from her.
But we will always be with you, unhappy girl.
Either your triumph or your ultimate disaster prepares itself:
Fate has left you few hearts but they are tender ones.
Behold her…afflicted and pale, she drags her feet wearily.

Scene 2

Enter Anna. All gather around her. She sits.
Anna and above. Hervey with soldiers.

CHORUS:
Queen! Take heart,
put your faith in Heaven,
let tears be banished,
virtue cannot die.

ANNA:
O my faithful ones, o the only ones
who remain as consolation to me in my misfortune,
every hope, it is true,
is placed in Heaven and in it alone…On earth
there is no remedy for my ruin.

(Hervey enters)

What do you carry, Hervey?

HERVEY:
Queen!…
The bitter commission pains me to which
the Counsel of Parliament elected me.

ANNA:
Well, speak.

HERVEY:
He calls these servants
before him.

CHORUS:
Us!

ANNA:
Then the King is firm in his resolution?
He will require so much
from my wounded heart.

HERVEY:
What can I say?

ANNA:
I needs must bow my head
to the royal will, whatsoever it might be.
Be you the witnesses
of my innocence
tender friends.
CHORUS:
Oh! What a terrible day!

ANNA:
(embracing them)

Go.

(Partono con Hervey)

Scene 3

Anna, then Giovanna Seymour

ANNA:
(after the servants have left she raises her hands to Heaven, kneels and says.)

God who sees within my heart,
I turn to you…judge you
if I deserve this shame.

(sits and weeps)

JANE:
The afflicted lady weeps…Alas! how
will I bear her gaze?

ANNA:
Ah! yes: the anguish
of the unhappy lady of Aragon
must not be in vain, and your severity
has determined a terrible punishment for me…
But it is too terrible…

JANE:
(approaches weeping: kneels at her feet and kisses her hand)

Oh, my Queen!

ANNA:
Seymour…returned to me!
Have you not forgotten me? Arise…What do I see?
You are pale! Are you trembling?
Are you bringing me
new misfortune perhaps?

JANE:
Dreadful…extreme!
Could I give you joy?
Ah! no…listen to me.
The trap is thus laid
that you are lost. At any cost
the King wants to shatter
the unfortunate knots
that bind you to him…
your life at least…
if not your royal name,
alas, save your life at least!

ANNA:
And how? Explain yourself.

JANE:
I tremble to say it…
yet say it I must. Confessing yourself to be guilty
will unbind you from the King and rescue you from death.

ANNA:
What are you saying?

JANE:
The fate which pursues you,
leaves no other means
of escape to you.

ANNA:
And thus you can advise me, my Seymour…

JANE:
Alas, have mercy.

ANNA:
That I should purchase my life with infamy?

JANE:
Do you wish infamy and death?
Queen, oh Heavens, give in…
The King advises you to do it…the wretched woman
who Henry has destined for the throne
implores you.

ANNA:
Oh! Who is this woman? Do you know her?
Speak. Was she so impudent
as to advise me to villainy? Villainy
to her Queen! Speak: who is she?

JANE:
(sobbing)

An unhappy woman.

ANNA:
And she is doing this to me.
Let God place on her head
his punishing arm.

JANE:
Alas! Listen to me.

ANNA:
Let her vile heart be tortured
just as mine is.
JANE:
Ah! Pardon!

ANNA:
Let the crown with which she coveted for her head
be of thorns;

(in growing fury. Jane little by little is bewildered)

let watchfulness and suspicion
lie on the pillow of the royal bed….
let a menacing spectre arise
between her and her husband the king…
and let the axe which is assigned to me
more cruelly deny her the King.

JANE:
(A cruel sentence! I feel like I'm dying…)

Ah! Cease!
Alas, have pity, pity…on me!

(kneeling and clasping Anna's knees)

ANNA:
You! What do I hear!

JANE:
Ah!…yes, prostrate at your feet
is the traitress.

ANNA:
My rival!…

JANE:
But tortured by remorse and unhappy.

ANNA:
Go away…go away…

JANE:
Forgive me:
I am punished by my heart

(with growing passion. Anna, little by little, softens)

Inexperienced…enticed…
I was seduced and dazzled…
I love Henry…and it embarrasses me…
My torture is this love…
I groan and weep, and yet love
is not smothered by my tears.

ANNA:
Get up! Ah! get up…
The only one who is guilty
is the one who lit such a flame in you.

(raises her and embraces her)

Go unhappy girl, to you is given
the pardon of Bolena.
in my furious and blind sorrow
I cursed you with terrible suffering…
Now I ask for your pardon from God,
and it will be granted to you.
In this farewell there remains to you
my love and my pity.

JANE:
Ah! worse is your pardon
than the scorn which I feared,
You leave me a throne as a punishment
for the crime of which I am guilty.
There a great God awaits me
who will punish the sin.
Ah! This farewell is the first
of the torments which he gives me.

(Anna goes back into her rooms. Jane leaves greatly afflicted)

Scene 4

Chorus of courtiers then Hervey

FIRST CHORUS:
Well? which of the villains
was taken before the judges?

SECOND CHORUS:
Smeton.

FIRST CHORUS:
Has the lad perhaps
revealed some misdeed?…

SECOND CHORUS:
No one knows the outcome of the investigation.
He's been enclosed with them for a whole hour.

ALL:
Ah! Heaven prevent the weak
and inexperienced heart
from letting itself be either seduced or overcome
by hope or by fear;
let it never allow him to forget
that the accuser is the King.

(The doors open, enter Hervey.)

CHORUS:
Behold, behold Hervey.

HERVEY:
(to the soldiers who are leaving)

Let Anna and Percy be led in.

CHORUS:
(surrounding him)

What is happening?

HERVEY:
Smeton has spoken.

CHORUS:
Has he accidentally accused Anna?

HERVEY:
He confessed a crime
which makes one tremble and blush.
She is lost.

CHORUS:
Alas! Poor girl!
(The accuser is the King.)

Scene 5

Enrico, Hervey and the chorus

HERVEY:
Go away…the King is arriving…

(the chorus retreat)

And who drives you away from the meeting?

HENRY:
My presence would be inappropriate.
The first blow has descended;
the one who stuck it hides himself.

HERVEY:
Oh! how Smeton fell into the trap!

HENRY:
The blind boy returns to his prison,
and he still believes,
since the hour of my vengeance
has been suspended, that he has saved
the life of Anna. Let her come forward.

HERVEY:
And hence
Percy comes, brought in by his guards.

HENRY:
(about to leave)

I'll avoid them.

Scene 6

Anna and Percy from opposite ends between guards.
Enrico and Hervey.

ANNA:
(from a distance)

Stop, Henry!

(Henry wants to leave; she approaches with dignity)

Stop…and hear me.

HENRY:
The Counsel will hear you.

ANNA:
I prostrate myself at your feet.
Slay me yourself but don't exhibit me, O Sire,
to the shame of judgement:
ensure that my royal name is respected.

HENRY:
Have you respected
the royal rank? The wife of Henry
to descend to a Percy.

PERCY:
(who had drawn apart, at these words comes forward)

and yet you didn't disdain
to make this despised Percy your rival…
and take his lover from him

HENRY:
Felon! How dare you?

PERCY:
I speak the truth to you, listen
Soon I will be before a tribunal
more holy and more terrible
than yours is. By that I swear…I swear
that she did not offend you…that she drove me away,
that she burnt with indignation against my impudent hopes…

HENRY:
She made a vile page
more worthy of her love…he confessed it…

ANNA:
(fiercely)

Cease
with this vile accusation
I claim back my dignity, and rather than Smeton,
I loudly decry you, Sire,
as a seducer

HENRY:
Impudent woman!

ANNA:
I defy the powerful fear.
It can give me death
but not infamy. My crime
is to have sacrificed for the throne
such a noble heart
as that of Percy; to have thought it
supreme happiness
to be the King's consort.

PERCY:
Oh, extreme joy!
No, you did not nourish
such a base affection…
I am certain of it; and happy
in that certainty I await my fate…
but you will live…yes, you will live.

HENRY:
What do I hear!
Both of you will die, O traitors;
what can deliver you from death

PERCY:
Justice can…

ANNA:
Justice!!
It is silent in the court of Henry!

HENRY:
It learnt to be silent
when on the English throne a Queen
had to surrender her place to you.

PERCY:
But she will soon speak
and you must listen to her, O King.
if for a betrayed nuptial bed
rightful vengeance might be given,
only mine may be avenged…
it is written in Heaven.
We were betrothed.

HENRY:
You betrothed!

ANNA:
Ah! What are you saying?

HENRY:
Are you so bold?

PERCY:
I take back my rights.
let her be returned to me.

HENRY:
And you are his wife!…

ANNA:
(faltering)

I…

PERCY:
Can you deny it?…

ANNA:
(Alas!…)

PERCY:
From your most tender years
you were mine, you know it;
you betrayed me; wretch that I am
I loved you even though unfaithful.
As he betrayed me, he has betrayed you
he takes from you honour and life…
I open my arms to you; I wish to give back to you
life and honour.

ANNA:
Ah, what proof you give to me
of your generous heart!
Perish the day when, as a traitor
I left you for that cruel man!
Righteous Heaven has punished me
for that betrayed faith…
I found nothing on the throne
other than anguish and horror.

HENRY:
(The deception is clear, futile
the conspiracy is clear enough…
But, you treacherous pair, do not think
that I would ever retract…
You will still be punished
for your cunning deceits…
You will never have a grief more cruel
you will never have greater torment.)
Let them be taken to the Council, O guards.

ANNA:
Do you still insist on that?

PERCY:
Let the Council hear of it.

HENRY:
Go, confess your former bond,
Do not fear that I might want to undo it.

ANNA:
Heaven! Explain yourself…repressed fury
most terrible is displayed in your face.

HENRY:
False pain! Your own deceit
will fall on your hated heads!
On the throne of England
another lady will ascend more worthy of affection:
abhorred, infamous, false, outcast
your name, your blood will be.

ANNA and PERCY:
May another woman never learn
how deadly, alas! how deadly your gift is!
May England never hear again
of the wicked destruction which was brought on Anna.

(Anna and Percy leave between the soldiers)

Contents: Characters; Act 1; Act 2; Act 3