Outline
Characters
Dreamweaver
[Enter the Witch Margery Jourdain, the two Priests, 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.
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.
[Exit Hume.]
Bolingbroke
Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate and grovel on the earth. John
Southwell, read you; and let us to our work.
[Enter Duchess aloft, Hume following.]
Eleanor
Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this gear, the sooner the
better.
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;
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 hallowed verge.
[_Here they do the ceremonies belonging, and make the circle;
Bolingbroke or Southwell reads_ “Conjuro te”, _etc. It thunders and
lightens terribly; then the Spirit riseth._]
Spirit
_Adsum_.
M. Jourdain
Asnath,
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
[_Reads_.] _First of the King: what shall of him become?_
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
[_Reads_.] _What fates await the Duke of Suffolk?_
Spirit
By water shall he die and take his end.
Bolingbroke
[_Reads_.] _What shall befall the Duke of Somerset?_
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!
False fiend, avoid!
[Thunder and lightning. Exit Spirit.]
[Enter the Duke of York and the Duke of Buckingham with their Guard, and]
Bolingbroke
Sir Humphrey Stafford, and break in.
York
Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash.
Beldam, I think we watched you at an inch.
What, madam, are you there? The King and commonweal
Are deeply indebted for this piece of pains.
My Lord Protector will, I doubt it not,
See you well guerdoned for these good deserts.
Eleanor
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?
Away with them! Let them be clapped up close
And kept asunder.—You, madam, shall with us.—
Stafford, take her to thee.
[Exit Stafford.]
[Exeunt above, Duchess and Hume, guarded.]
Buckingham
We’ll see your trinkets here all forthcoming.
All, away!
[Exeunt guard with Jourdain, Southwell, Bolingbroke, etc.]
York
Lord Buckingham, methinks you watched 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.
But him outlive and die a violent death._
Why, this is just
[Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse.]
York
Well, to the rest:
_Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?
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._
Come, come, my lords, these oracles
Are hardly attained, and hardly understood.
The King is now in progress towards Saint Albans,
With him the husband of this lovely lady.
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.
York
At your pleasure, my good lord.
[Exit Buckingham.]
York
Who’s within there, ho!
[Enter a Servingman.]
York
Invite my Lords of Salisbury and Warwick
To sup with me tomorrow night. Away!
[Exeunt.]