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