Henry VI, Part II by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 4
GLOUCESTER’s garden.
Father John Hume : Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects
[p]performance of
your promises.
Bolingbroke : Master Hume, we are therefore provided: will her
[p]ladyship behold
and hear our exorcisms?
Father John Hume : Ay, what else? fear you not her courage.
Bolingbroke : I have heard her reported to be a woman of an
[p]invincible spirit:
but it shall be convenient,
[p]Master Hume, that you be by her aloft,
while we be
[p]busy below; and so, I pray you, go, in God's
name,
[p]and leave us.
[p][Exit HUME]
[p]Mother Jourdain, be
you
[p]prostrate and grovel on the earth; John Southwell,
[p]read you;
and let us to our work.
Eleanor : Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this
[p]gear the sooner the
better.
Bolingbroke : Patience, good lady; wizards know their times:
[p]Deep night, dark
night, the silent of the night,
[p]The time of night when Troy was set
on fire;
[p]The time when screech-owls cry and ban-dogs howl,
[p]And
spirits walk and ghosts break up their graves,
[p]That time best fits
the work we have in hand.
[p]Madam, sit you and fear not: whom we
raise,
[p]We will make fast within a hallow'd verge.
[p][Here they do
the ceremonies belonging, and make the]
[p]circle; BOLINGBROKE or
SOUTHWELL reads, Conjuro te,
[p]&c. It thunders and lightens terribly;
then the
[p]Spirit riseth]
Spirit : Adsum.
Margaret Jourdain : Asmath,
[p]By the eternal God, whose name and power
[p]Thou tremblest
at, answer that I shall ask;
[p]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?'
Spirit : The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose;
[p]But him outlive, and
die a violent death.
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?'
Spirit : Let him shun castles;
[p]Safer shall he be upon the sandy
plains
[p]Than where castles mounted stand.
[p]Have done, for more I
hardly can endure.
Bolingbroke : Descend to darkness and the burning lake!
[p]False fiend,
avoid!
[p][Thunder and lightning. Exit Spirit]
[p][Enter YORK and
BUCKINGHAM with their Guard]
[p]and break in]
Eleanor : Not half so bad as thine to England's king,
[p]Injurious duke, that
threatest where's no cause.
Previous: Act 1 - Scene 3
Next: Act 2 - Scene 1
