Before Holy­rood, a buzzing crowd waits with antic­i­pa­tion. Among them—soldiers, burgess­es, and a preacher—engage in spec­u­la­tive chat­ter about the fate await­ing Chaste­lard. Ques­tions and judg­ments are freely exchanged, reflect­ing the pub­lic’s curios­i­ty and out­rage toward a man accused of entan­gling the queen in scan­dalous inti­ma­cy.

One cit­i­zen ques­tions whether Chaste­lard will face the gal­lows with the same tear­ful sor­row observed in a recent exe­cu­tion, sug­gest­ing a dis­dain for those who enter­tain through arts but meet their end in dis­grace. Anoth­er adds fuel to the fire, hint­ing at Chaste­lard’s rumored affec­tions with the queen, depict­ed as brazen and unseem­ly for their pub­lic dis­plays.

As the crowd’s con­ver­sa­tion deep­ens, a shared dis­taste for what they per­ceive as Chaste­lard’s moral cor­rup­tion emerges. They scorn his poet­ry, which they believe to be laced with illic­it desires, and crit­i­cize the queen’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in cre­at­ing such ‘music’ that they deem suit­able only for the damned.

Dis­cus­sion turns towards the poten­tial com­pa­ny of Priest Black at the exe­cu­tion, reveal­ing a broad­er con­tempt for reli­gious fig­ures taint­ed by asso­ci­a­tion with scan­dal. The cit­i­zens express a vis­cer­al dis­like for hypocrisy with­in the church, sug­gest­ing a desire for even­tu­al divine ret­ri­bu­tion.

Amidst the col­lec­tive vil­i­fi­ca­tion, a voice of curios­i­ty arises—a woman in the crowd ques­tions the nature of Chastelard’s allure that could cap­ti­vate a queen. Her inquiry sig­nals a slight shift away from out­right con­dem­na­tion, hint­ing at the com­plex­i­ty of Chastelard’s char­ac­ter and his rela­tion­ship with the queen.

This snap­shot before Holy­rood cap­tures a moment of pub­lic judg­ment and spec­ta­cle, where the com­mu­ni­ty eager­ly awaits the down­fall of a man caught in a web of love, poet­ry, and pol­i­tics. Their con­ver­sa­tions reflect the soci­etal norms and expec­ta­tions sur­round­ing moral­i­ty, pow­er, and the arts, serv­ing as a pre­lude to the trag­ic end that awaits Chaste­lard.