King Henry VI, Part II
| ACT I SCENE IV | Gloucester’s garden. | |
| [ Enter MARGARET JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and BOLINGBROKE ] | ||
| HUME | Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects | |
| performance of your promises. | ||
| BOLINGBROKE | Master Hume, we are therefore provided: will her | |
| ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms? | ||
| HUME | Ay, what else? fear you not her courage. | 5 |
| BOLINGBROKE | I have heard her reported to be a woman of an | |
| invincible spirit: but it shall be convenient, | ||
| Master Hume, that you be by her aloft, while we be | ||
| busy below; and so, I pray you, go, in God’s name, | ||
| and leave us. | 10 | |
| [Exit HUME] | ||
| Mother Jourdain, be you | ||
| prostrate and grovel on the earth; John Southwell, | ||
| read you; and let us to our work. | ||
| [Enter the DUCHESS aloft, HUME following] | ||
| DUCHESS | Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this | |
| gear the sooner the better. | 15 | |
| BOLINGBROKE | Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: | |
| Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, | ||
| The time of night when Troy was set on fire; | ||
| The time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl, | ||
| And spirits walk and ghosts break up their graves, | 20 | |
| That time best fits the work we have in hand. | ||
| Madam, sit you and fear not: whom we raise, | ||
| We will make fast within a hallow’d verge. | ||
| [ Here they do the ceremonies belonging, and make the circle; BOLINGBROKE or SOUTHWELL reads, Conjuro te, &c. It thunders and lightens terribly; then the Spirit riseth ] | ||
| Spirit | Adsum. | |
| MARGARET JOURDAIN | Asmath, | 25 |
| By the eternal God, whose name and power | ||
| Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask; | ||
| For, till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence. | ||
| Spirit | Ask what thou wilt. That I had said and done! | |
| BOLINGBROKE | ‘First of the king: what shall of him become?’ | 30 |
| [Reading out of a paper] | ||
| Spirit | The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; | |
| But him outlive, and die a violent death. | ||
| [As the Spirit speaks, SOUTHWELL writes the answer] | ||
| BOLINGBROKE | ‘What fates await the Duke of Suffolk?’ | |
| Spirit | By water shall he die, and take his end. | |
| BOLINGBROKE | ‘What shall befall the Duke of Somerset?’ | 35 |
| Spirit | Let him shun castles; | |
| Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains | ||
| Than where castles mounted stand. | ||
| Have done, for more I hardly can endure. | ||
| BOLINGBROKE | Descend to darkness and the burning lake! | 40 |
| False fiend, avoid! | ||
| [Thunder and lightning. Exit Spirit] | ||
| [ Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM with their Guard and break in ] | ||
| YORK | Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash. | |
| Beldam, I think we watch’d you at an inch. | ||
| What, madam, are you there? the king and commonweal | ||
| Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains: | 45 | |
| My lord protector will, I doubt it not, | ||
| See you well guerdon’d for these good deserts. | ||
| DUCHESS | Not half so bad as thine to England’s king, | |
| Injurious duke, that threatest where’s no cause. | ||
| BUCKINGHAM | True, madam, none at all: what call you this? | 50 |
| Away with them! let them be clapp’d up close. | ||
| And kept asunder. You, madam, shall with us. | ||
| Stafford, take her to thee. | ||
| [Exeunt above DUCHESS and HUME, guarded] | ||
| We’ll see your trinkets here all forthcoming. | ||
| All, away! | 55 | |
| [Exeunt guard with MARGARET JOURDAIN, SOUTHWELL, &c] | ||
| YORK | Lord Buckingham, methinks, you watch’d her well: | |
| A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon! | ||
| Now, pray, my lord, let’s see the devil’s writ. | ||
| What have we here? | ||
| [Reads] | ||
| ‘The duke yet lives, that Henry shall depose; | 60 | |
| But him outlive, and die a violent death.’ | ||
| Why, this is just | ||
| ‘Aio te, AEacida, Romanos vincere posse.’ | ||
| Well, to the rest: | ||
| ‘Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk? | 65 | |
| By water shall he die, and take his end. | ||
| What shall betide the Duke of Somerset? | ||
| Let him shun castles; | ||
| Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains | ||
| Than where castles mounted stand.’ | 70 | |
| Come, come, my lords; | ||
| These oracles are hardly attain’d, | ||
| And hardly understood. | ||
| The king is now in progress towards Saint Alban’s, | ||
| With him the husband of this lovely lady: | 75 | |
| Thither go these news, as fast as horse can | ||
| carry them: | ||
| A sorry breakfast for my lord protector. | ||
| BUCKINGHAM | Your grace shall give me leave, my Lord of York, | |
| To be the post, in hope of his reward. | 80 | |
| YORK | At your pleasure, my good lord. Who’s within | |
| there, ho! | ||
| [Enter a Servingman] | ||
| Invite my Lords of Salisbury and Warwick | ||
| To sup with me to-morrow night. Away! | ||
| [Exeunt] | ||
Continue to 2 Henry VI, Act 2, Scene 1