Chafe at his father's ruling. But what then?

The rider quietly controls the steed,

The father sways the son.

TSAR. Sometimes the horse

Doth throw the rider, nor is the son at all times

Quite 'neath the father's will; we can restrain

The people only by unsleeping sternness.

So thought Ivan, sagacious autocrat

And storm-subduer; so his fierce grandson thought.

No, no, kindness is lost upon the people;

Act well - it thanks you not at all; extort

And execute - 'twill be no worse for you.

(Enter a boyar.) What now?

BOYAR. The foreign guests are come.

TSAR. I go

To welcome them. Basmanov, wait, stay here;

I still have need to speak: a word with thee.

(Exit.) BASMANOV. High sovereign spirit! God grant he may subdue

The accurst Otrepiev; and much, still much

Of good he'll do for Russia. A great thought

Within his mind has taken birth; it must not

Be suffered to grow cold. What a career

For me when the ancestral horn he breaks

Of the nobility. I have no rivals

In war. I shall stand closest to the throne -

And it may chance - But what is that strange sound?

(Alarum. Boyars and court-attendants run in

disorder, meet each other and whisper.)

ONE. Fetch a physician!

ANOTHER. Quickly to the Patriarch!

A THIRD. He calls for the tsarevich, the tsarevich!

A FOURTH. A confessor!

BASMANOV. What has happened?

A FIFTH AND SIXTH. The tsar is ill,

The tsar is dying.

BASMANOV. Good God!

A FIFTH. Upon the throne

He sat, and suddenly he fell; blood gushed

From his mouth and ears.