And let these have a day apointed them
For single combat in convenient place,

For he hath witness of his servant's malice:

This is the law, and this Duke Humphrey's doom.
King. Then be it so. My Lord of Somerset,
We make your Grace our regent o'er the French.

Som. I humbly thank your royal Majesty.

Hor. And I accept the combat willingly.

Pet. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God's sake, pity my case! The spite of man prevaileth against me. - O Lord, have mercy upon me! I shall never be able to fight a blow: O Lord, my heart!

Glo. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang'd. King. Away with them to prison; and the day Of combat shall be the last of the next month. Come, Somerset, we'll see thee sent away.

[Exeunt.

Enter MARGERY JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and BOLING

BROKE.

Hume. Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects performance of your promises.

Boling. Master Hume, we are therefore provided: will her ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms?1

Hume. Ay, what else? fear you not her courage.

Boling. 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.] —

1 Exorcism and exorcise mean in Shakespeare just the reverse of what they do now; that is, the act of calling up spirits, not of driving them away. See vol. iv. page 124, note 30.

Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate, and grovel on the earth; and let us to our work.

-John Southwell, read you;

Enter the Duchess above; and presently HUME.

Duch. Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this gear; 2 the sooner the better.

Boling. Patience, good lady; wizards know their times:
Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,3
The time of night when Troy was set on fire;

The time when screech-owls cry, and ban-dogs 4 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 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.

Spir. Adsum.

M. Jour. Asmath,

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.
Spir. Ask what thou wilt: — that I had said and done !5

2 Gear was formerly used for any matter or business in hand. See vol. iii. page 118, note 25.

3 A similar expression occurs in 2 Henry IV., v. 3: "Now comes in the sweet of the night." Likewise in The Tempest, i. 2: Urchins shall, for that

vast of night that they may work, all exercise on thee."

4 Ban-dog, or band-dog, any great fierce dog which required to be tied or chained up. "Canis Molossus, a mastive, beare-dog, or bull-dog." It is

sometimes called in the dictionaries canis catenarius."

5 That is, "Would that I had said and done!" It was believed that spirits raised by incantations were impatient of delay and reluctant to

answer.

Boling. [Reading out of a paper.] First of the King:

what shall of him become?

Spir. The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death.

[As the Spirit speaks, SOUTHWELL writes the answers. Boling. What fates await the Duke of Suffolk? Spir. By water shall he die, and take his end. Boling. What shall befall the Duke of Somerset ? Spir. 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.

Boling. Descend to darkness and the burning lake! Foul fiend, avoid! [Thunder and lightning. Spirit descends.

Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM, breaking in with their Guards.

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 deep-indebted for this piece of pains:

My Lord Protector will, I doubt it not,

See you well guerdon'd for these good deserts.

Duch. Not half so bad as thine to England's King, Injurious duke, that threatest where's no cause.

Buck. True, madam, none at all: what call you this?

[Showing her the papers.

Away with them! let them be clapp'd up close,

Stafford, take her to thee.

We'll see your trinkets here forthcoming all.

Away!

[Exeunt, above, Duchess and HUME, guarded.

[Exeunt, below, SOUTHWELL, BOLINGBROKE, &c., guarded. 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; But him outlive, and die a violent death.

Why, this is just

Aio te, Eacida, Romanos vincere posse.

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 lord;

These oracles are hardily attain'd,

And hardly understood.8

The King is now in progress towards Saint Alban's,
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.

Buck. 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. Who's within there, ho!

6 The ambiguous oracle which is said to have been given by the Pythian Apollo to Pyrrhus. The English of it is, “I say that you, the son of Æacus, the Romans can conquer."

7 Here, again, and also in the second line below, the wording of the matter has changed rather notably in passing from one hand to another. See page 136, note 2.

8 That is, it requires much hardihood to obtain them, and when obtained they are hard to understand.

ACT II.

SCENE I. - Saint Alban's.

Enter King HENRY, Queen MARGARET, GLOSTER, the Cardinal, and SUFFOLK, with Falconers hallooing.

Queen. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook,1
I saw not better sport these seven years' day:
Yet, by your leave, the wind was very high;
And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.2

King. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made,
And what a pitch she flew above the rest!
To see how God in all his creatures works!
Yea, man and birds are fain3 of climbing high.
Suf. No marvel, an it like your Majesty,
My Lord Protector's hawks do tower so well;
They know their master loves to be aloft,
And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch.
Glo. My lord, 'tis but a base ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.

Car. I thought as much: he'd be above the clouds.

1 The falconer's term for hawking at water-fowl. Here, as often, for is as for, or as to the matter of.

2 Percy explains this, "The wind was so high, it was ten to one old Joan would not have taken her flight at the game." Which is confirmed by Latham's Falconry, 1633: "When you shall come afterward to fly her, she must be altogether guided and governed by her stomacke; yea, she will be kept and also lost by the same: for let her faile of that never so little, and every puff of wind will blow her away from you; nay, if there be no wind stirring, yet she will wheele and sinke away from him and from his voice, that all the time before had lured and trained her up."

3 Fain is fond or glad. So Spenser:

And in her hand she held a mirror bright,
Wherein her face she often viewed fain.