Shuisky.  Thou’rt right; but be advised;
Of this, of all things, for a time we’ll speak
No word.

Pushkin.  Assuredly, keep thine own counsel. 
Thou art—­a person of discretion; always
I am glad to commune with thee; and if aught
At any time disturbs me, I endure not
To keep it from thee; and, truth to tell, thy mead
And velvet ale today have so untied
My tongue...Farewell then, prince.

Shuisky.  Brother, farewell. 
Farewell, my brother, till we meet again.

(He escorts pushkin out.)

PALACE OF THE TSAR

The tsarevich is drawing a map.  The
tsarevna.  The nurse of the Tsarevna

Ksenia. (Kisses a portrait.) My dear bridegroom, comely son of a king, not to me wast thou given, not to thy affianced bride, but to a dark sepulchre in a strange land; never shall I take comfort, ever shall I weep for thee.

Nurse.  Eh, tsarevna!  A maiden weeps as the dew falls; the sun will rise, will dry the dew.  Thou wilt have another bridegroom—­and handsome and affable.  My charming child, thou wilt learn to love him, thou wilt forget Ivan the king’s son.

Ksenia.  Nay, nurse, I will be true to him even in death.

(Boris enters.)

Tsar.  What, Ksenia?  What, my sweet one?  In thy girlhood
Already a woe-stricken widow, ever
Bewailing thy dead bridegroom!  Fate forbade me
To be the author of thy bliss.  Perchance
I angered Heaven; it was not mine to compass
Thy happiness.  Innocent one, for what
Art thou a sufferer?  And thou, my son,
With what art thou employed?  What’s this?

Feodor.  A chart
Of all the land of Muscovy; our tsardom
From end to end.  Here you see; there is Moscow,
There Novgorod, there Astrakhan.  Here lies
The sea, here the dense forest tract of Perm,
And here Siberia.

Tsar.  And what is this
Which makes a winding pattern here?

Feodor.  That is
The Volga.

Tsar.  Very good!  Here’s the sweet fruit
Of learning.  One can view as from the clouds
Our whole dominion at a glance; its frontiers,
Its towns, its rivers.  Learn, my son; ’tis science
Which gives to us an abstract of the events
Of our swift-flowing life.  Some day, perchance
Soon, all the lands which thou so cunningly
Today hast drawn on paper, all will come
Under thy hand.  Learn, therefore; and more smoothly,
More clearly wilt thou take, my son, upon thee
The cares of state.

(Semyon Godunov enters.)

But there comes Godunov
Bringing reports to me. (To Ksenia.) Go to thy chamber
Dearest; farewe1l, my child; God comfort thee.