Auto Light and its 98,000 dealers bring you Mr. James Mason in tonight's presentation
of Suspense.
Tonight, Auto Light presents the true story of Lord Essex's attempt to gain the throne
of England from Queen Elizabeth.
Dramatization is called The Queen's Ring, our star Mr. James Mason.
Hi, Hap.
Buying a magazine, I see.
Yes, sir, Harlow.
Well, why not take this one?
No, no, thanks.
Everyone to his own taste, you know, Harlow.
In buying magazines, yes, Hap.
But in replacing electrical system parts for your car, definitely no.
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See your car dealer or your dealer handling Auto Light original service parts.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
And now, Auto Light presents Transcribed, The Queen's Ring, starring Mr. James Mason
with Pamela Mason as Mary Howard, hoping once again to keep you in suspense.
And of what stuff are you, my lord ethic soldier, warrior, hero?
And for this, you bid me sail from Spain to London, sweet Bess,
because you're parched to tell me the things I am.
You're a fop, fop and dandy lizard and golden fly that buzzes around pots of sweet.
The Spanish honey is wild, sweet Bess.
And you sat in bannered tent and silken hose and sipped the honeycomb while...
While my men flooded your treasury with casks of Spanish gold.
While your men bled and died for you, a trollop dumped your tomb.
A girl of the sun, a girl of summer.
Young.
Young, but a darting little firefly compared to the flame of the autumn woman, you.
I am old. Is that what you say of me, lord ethic?
Autumn woman, fired with a thousand memories and ten thousand longings.
Full woman at full season.
Buzz, buzz, buzz, you golden fly.
You'd tear my wings from me, sweet Bess?
Yes.
And for this, you summons me from Cadiz.
Yes.
You are queen, and you can do with love what you will.
Yes.
Do it then, Bess.
But gently, because your own winter and your own dying lies with me.
There are rumors about your plot against me.
You want my throne.
What webs must I spend for your love, Bess girl?
What trickery? What young lovers' magics?
It's you I want, Bess girl. Not your throne.
Traitor. Liar.
Lover.
Liar. And your lies fall sweet on the ears of an old woman.
Do they now, Bess?
And what matter to me, you call it false? Call it whatever you like, and let me...
Stand from me, Essex.
Bess. Golden Bess. Sweet.
Stand from me, Essex.
Queen's command, and women do also.
You go to Ireland, my lord, Essex.
What?
Rebellion flares again in Ireland, and because you are loyal to me, you will trumpet men to yourself, and you will quack it and extinguish it, and bring me their unconditional surrender.
With blood again. And this time, perhaps mine.
Yes.
Would you have me dead?
You are a traitor to me, sweet Robin. I would have you dead. Traitor with girls of summer.
I will bejewel you with Ireland as I have with Cadiz. Your leave, Majesty.
Majesty.
Robin. Robin! Come to me.
This ring. Take it from my finger. No, no, kiss not. Kiss not. Take it.
And what is its symbol, sweet Queen?
Your life. The purchase back of your life when your Queen is galled with Essex. For I know you will trick me again.
Bess.
You will trick me, and it will be the last time. For I will send you to the gibbet, and you will die, except for the ring.
Send it back to me then, and I will remember how with youth's tempest. Love me, sweet Robin, and I will give you back your life.
Go.
Robin.
Hark, and how a soft voice beckons me. What is Mary? Mary, whose shame the pink and hues of...
You were long with your Queen, Robin.
Your Queen too, Mary. Ah, winsome, handsome Mary.
Long with your Queen, and wrapping round her all the lying promises you weave so pretty.
The woman is Queen, Mary, and the cavalier must...
Then tell me it's me, you love, and not that balding crone.
When I'm back from Ireland, Mary, I'll tell you things that'll spin you and wind you in silk. And no longer Mary Howard, lady-in-waiting to Elizabeth, but Mary Howard.
Will you serve England well, Mary, when Essex is on the throne?
But love me, Robin. Love me, and not her. And I'll serve you however you fancy.
So prettily lipped. And lips on mine to bid the gentle adieu.
Robin.
Hmm. Ireland will but the gentler for the memory of this mouth.
Sweet adieu, Mary.
Now consider it, Roger. Admit there's drama in it.
Oh, there is.
A city of Ireland canon to death because I ordered it.
That's drama.
I said it, Essex.
I ordered it, and from a hill I watched it done. Which was all of my promise to Queen Bess.
Roger.
I want to hear no more of it.
I tell you the plan I have.
If Bess knew of it, she'd have you hung.
Now there's the crux of it, I suppose. Which of us will have the other hung? Will Bess hang me, or will I hang her?
She's afraid of me. My success is here in Ireland, and the crowd's at home saying my name too much to has. My Queen Bess frightens.
I call your plan treachery.
If I should wear the crown of England.
And not Elizabeth.
If I should wear it, and not Elizabeth.
Surely you'll die for these thoughts.
Which is the point in which you are incorrect. Not surely I will die for it, perhaps I will die for it.
This ring, Roger. Do not forget this ring. It ensures my life. I can mock her, or try to use her per throne. This ring, this ring, it buys back my life.
It buys... What horseman is that so close?
I will see.
Halt! Halt or I kill you and horse, Irishman!
Sword to slitch off, frode Irishman. And tell me, what do you hear at the tent of Essex?
To speak with him. To entreat him.
You are coward and you flee from battle to...
To speak with the Lord Essex and to parley with him.
Of what?
Of truce. Armistice.
The Irish blood flows thin. Dismount then, coward. Throw your sword to earth.
I take you to your Lord Essex.
Essex!
What brambled filthy beast do you bring me, Roger?
He wants truce, he says.
What makes you so bold to speak of truce with your Lord Essex?
I am Sean of Lemoore.
The Irish chief? I'm honoured. You fought bold and brave, Sean.
Take to Queen Elizabeth my proffering of truce.
Why to Elizabeth?
She is your Queen. In her name have you spilled our blood.
You want truce? Yes.
And you will get it not from Elizabeth or from her Parliament or her privy privy Lords, but from me. From Essex.
Robin, does your stomach crawl with the thought of it, Roger?
You have no right to make truce. You are only...
I am only this. Lord Essex, who will continue battle until the last rebel Irishman lies in scarlet ribbon on the sweet green field.
I am only this. Lord Essex, who was commanded by Elizabeth to bring her unconditional surrender.
I can give you truce, Sean. With honour. Not unconditional surrender.
Truce? That's what I want.
But with only one condition. Allegiance to Essex. With your armies.
Allegiance to Essex with my armies.
You shall have truce, Sean. Bold, exquisite, brave, filthy, wild and wise Sean.
Not loyal, but an end to bloodletting and home soon and disbanding of your armies, Essex.
Disband? Disband, Roger? Then how will I entreat for Elizabeth's throne?
A traitor's army? She will hang you high.
You forget, Roger. The ring. The ring. See. See how it shines. How it glitters. As if alive.
We shall see who will hang.
In with you, my lord.
How now, good Bess?
Up, Rhine. Let me look at you.
Traitor! Violent, treacherous man.
How good to feel again your fingers on my cheek.
The effrontery of you. To march an army on London. Ragged band that deserted at the first shot.
What did you hope to gain? Applause? Cheers?
Say what you mean, Bess. Tis your crown, I wish.
Tell me you are suddenly insane and I'll sign your death warrant with cheers.
Tis your crown, Bess. And yourself, what I want. These two and I would be master of England. And one without the other.
Let me not think of you as a man whose tongue was plucked from its roots because of thy lies.
Only truth, Bess. The crown. And my lady. And I shall have them.
Indeed. I touch your throat, Robin. Your dear throat.
Where tomorrow the rope will be. Your dear throat. And the cruel rope.
Noon and the hangman's rope.
Jailer! To the dungeon with him. Tomorrow he hangs.
Come, my lord.
Wait! Robin.
Good Bess.
Have you nothing to say to me? To give to me?
Nothing.
Auto Light is bringing you Mr. James Mason in The Queen's Ring with Pamela Mason as Mary Howard and Jeanette Nolan as Elizabeth.
Tonight's presentation in radio's outstanding theater of thrills, Suspense.
Say, Hap, if a reader asked for a sports magazine, would he let the man substitute detective stories?
Why, of course not, Harlow.
Yet many magazine readers will stand for substitute parts in the vital electrical system of their auto light equipped cars.
But why, Harlow?
Well, Hap, I guess it's because readers can easily see what's inside the cover of a magazine, but not what's under the hood of the car.
But it's simple, Harlow. Just insist on auto light original service parts for your auto light equipped car, and then you can't go wrong.
Right, Hap. Auto light original service parts meet the exact specifications of leading car manufacturers who specify auto light electrical systems as original equipment.
That means they fit and work as a balanced team with the rest of the electrical system to give you the smoothest performance money can buy.
You don't take substitutes in magazines, so why take them for your car?
Yes, friends, be sure you get what's best for your auto light equipped car.
See your car dealer or your dealer handling auto light original service parts.
And remember, from bumper to tail light, you're always right with auto light.
And now auto light brings back to our Hollywood soundstage Mr. James Mason with Pamela Mason and Jeanette Nolan in Elliot Lewis's production of The Queen's Ring, a tale well calculated to keep you in suspense.
Essex, do you sleep? Wake. Wake, Essex. Wake, man.
You shook a dreaming from my embrace, Roger. A lilt of a dream.
Cock crow in the dawn of your hanging robin and you can sleep and dream the liltings things.
I will tell you this, Roger.
What?
If it's the last dreaming I will ever make, for the fair one was fashioned in my sleeping brain. Passing fair.
And at noon the hangman's rope will twist out of you all the fair and bonny things.
It's what I'm told. At noon.
You're a madman, Robin. To thirst for her throne, to purchase a rabble army out of London alleys in the derelict streets, and to march on her.
It's how the dice fell, Roger. I flung them against the heavens and I lost.
Roger.
Yes?
At noon, when hangman wraps my throat with rope, at this noon will you weep for me?
Yes.
And who else?
Bess.
Will sweet Bess weep for me? And Mary Howard and the damsels of a hundred grassy fields, will they weep?
Madman.
How mad? How much am I mad? Shall I dance you a caper, Roger, and leer, and grimace?
You need not hang.
I need not.
Then what is my need?
Send her the ring you wear. The ring Elizabeth gave you. It will buy you another life.
Send the ring?
Yes, yes.
Tell me, Roger, how did Bess sleep last night?
What are you?
Come now, Roger. You are at court, and the court whispers of the Queen's waking and the Queen sleeping. How did Bess sleep last night?
It is said she sobbed the night.
Her sobbing made a great drifting moan through the castle vaults.
Yes.
Then why send her back the ring?
For your life, Essex.
When I can hold it for so little cost, when I can have it for the price of an old woman's tears, for the price of her longing and her moaning for me, I have but to dry her weeping.
And I do not pay out of my pride, or beggar-wise crawl to her and hold out a puny ring and ask the alms for my life.
It is a sparkling ring, and worth a thousand sapphire pounds.
She will not have it back from me, and I will not hang.
Robin, tell Elizabeth this, that at her age she cannot weather more tears, nor night sobbing, or she becomes a hag in the crone, and sits on England like a bony, desert bird, without Essex, without me.
Go to. Tell her that, sweet friend.
Majesty.
Lady Nere.
Yes.
Arise.
Come to me.
Lean your face to me.
I will touch it.
Oh, the feel of silk and youth to your cheek.
Bright eyes, scarlet, fulsome lips.
Now, put your hand to my face.
Tell me what your fingers feel.
Your Highness.
Do it.
Touch here the wrinkle.
Here the hollow cheek and the dry, parched lips.
What, Mary, you cannot?
Why can you not?
Please, dear Highness, let me.
I'll tell you why you cannot.
Because age and dying lie deep against my cheek.
Here where the tears are flooded.
Here where the lip was bit so bleeding.
For Lord Essex?
For Robin.
For Lord Essex.
And yet in a space of hours you will hang him?
He could fall from his pride and live.
How, Majesty?
He has entreated you not?
He has pleaded not for his life?
How will Robin live?
He has but to send me the ring I gave him.
What ring?
Mine that he wears.
I told him he could purchase back his life with it.
And forgiveness.
No matter what dying I commanded him.
And he has not sent it to you?
No.
Then perhaps he loves you not as well as he has whispered you.
And prefers this dying.
And if it's so, then you're well rid of Essex.
Essex does love me.
Go to him, Mary.
Go to him and beg of him the ring.
Yes, Highness.
And Lady Mary.
Yes.
Say it is I who beg.
Say not, Elizabeth, not your Queen.
Say woman's fate.
Say anguished woman's fate.
And he will give it to you.
And you will see how well Robin does love me.
Go to him.
The time is soon for his leading out and he is dying,
my Lady Mary, but little more than an hour.
In an hour.
Nor do I need reminding of it, Jailor.
Mary!
Good Mary.
Robin.
Oh, Robin, love.
Robin.
Sweet Mary, sweet girl.
Mary of the sweet face and tender glance.
How will you miss me?
How?
With cruel tears that burn small furrows in your cheek?
Don't cry for me.
Only smile.
Smile always when you think of me.
So that when we shall meet again, your face...
What manner of man are you, Robin?
I had a speech for you.
Let me finish it.
It's what I mean.
In an hour you die and still you act the lover.
Don't mock me before I die, little girl.
Let me have my play.
Listen, I saw the Queen.
And how is she?
Magnificent shamble of a woman that she is.
How is Bess?
How is Elizabeth, my Queen?
Did you love her, Robin?
Loved her, hated her, admired her, cursed her, prayed for her,
that she'd live, that she'd die, that she'd suffer, that she'd...
All the things a man could feel for a woman.
You said you saw her.
What of it?
She said she'd given you a ring.
Mary.
Don't gentle me, Robin, nor touch me now.
But if you want the truth, I love only you.
On your word?
On my heart, Mary, that having it only you.
Then listen.
She said she gave you a ring and a promise.
Whatever happened, she would forgive me, she said.
Return the ring to her, Robin.
No matter what, she said, but is leading an army upon her for her crown.
Coward army.
That ring you wear?
The very ring.
Then you give it to her.
I do not think so.
She prays for it, Robin.
She sent me for it.
Oh?
You bring it to her and she will release you and you will not die, and there will be no
more.
No more what?
There will be teeth, then.
And no more fighting and...
And no more what?
Oh, the ring, dear Robin.
Mary.
The ring.
Yes, yes, here.
Here, take it.
Mary.
Yes.
You're right.
Suddenly the thought of dying has no sable in it.
I could rule England with her as man and wife.
Take the ring, go to her.
Tell her she's won.
Jailer!
Jailer, open!
Quickly, quickly, Mary.
Go to her.
Give her the ring.
Go.
Enter, enter.
My Queen.
Quickly, come.
Will.
He said...
The ring.
Did he send the ring?
No.
What?
He laughed.
He said he had beaten you.
Oh, Robin.
Robin.
He said...
What?
There I say.
Say it!
Say as else you will climb the gibbet with him.
But you were a crone.
Oh, he loved me.
But if he loved you, he would have sent back the ring.
If he valued your forgiveness, he would have given me the ring for you.
But he did not.
Yes, yes.
My Queen, come to the window.
Let me help you to the window to see.
See?
My Queen.
See?
Mount the scaffold.
And the top of it, the trap.
Crone, he said you were.
But what must he think of you now?
Forsaken.
What?
Forsaken.
You denied him his life.
But the ring he would not return it.
His pride has killed him.
See, now they placed the rope down there.
And the man you owned, whose body you owned, and soul, old woman, to deny it to me, who
he truly loved.
What are you saying?
Who he truly loved.
And he must die for it.
That is the only way I can triumph over both of you.
You?
Yes.
Alive, he would run to you.
And you would lay your fingers against his hair and swoon inside of you and give to him
what he desired.
Yes.
Even to the throne if he wanted it.
My Lord!
Send to the square!
Send to the hangar!
Send to the hangman and tell to him, My Lord, their strictest to be found!
Robin!
Brave Robin!
I lied to you, my Queen.
He asked me to give you this.
Suspense!
Presented by Auto Light, tonight's star, Mr. James Mason.
This is Harlow Wilcox speaking for Auto Light, the world's largest independent manufacturer
of automotive electrical equipment.
In 28 plants from coast to coast, Auto Light makes over 400 products for cars, trucks,
tractors, planes, boats, and industry.
These products include bumpers, die castings, industrial thermometers, and batteries such
as the famous Auto Light Stayful, ignition engineered Auto Light spark plugs, both standard
and resistor types, voltage regulators, wire, and battery cable, Auto Light bullseye sealed
beam units, and Auto Light original service parts for all Auto Light electrical systems.
Auto Light is proud to serve the greatest names in the industry.
So from bumper to tail light, you're always right with Auto Light.
Next week, one of the most terrifying half hours ever presented on Suspense, a young
couple and a mad woman, and what happened to them on a country road.
Our star, Mr. Frank Lovejoy.
That's next week on Suspense.
Suspense is transcribed and directed by Elliot Lewis with music composed by Lucian Morrowick
and conducted by Lud Gluskin.
The Queen's Ring was adapted for Suspense by Morton Fine and David Friedkin.
In tonight's story, Jeanette Nolan was heard as Elizabeth and Pamela Mason as Mary.
Featured in the cast were Joseph Kearns and Ben Wright.
James Mason may currently be seen starring in the United Artists picture, The Man Between.
And remember, next week, Mr. Frank Lovejoy in on a country road.
This is the CBS Radio Network.