Page 506 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

John Southwell, read you; and let us to our work.

Enter Eleanor 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. - [15]
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 bandogs howl,
And spirits walk, and ghosts break up their graves;
That time best fits the work we have in hand. [20]
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, ‘Coniuro te’, etc. It thunders and lightens

terribly; then the Spirit riseth.

SPIRIT

Adsum.

JOURDAIN

Asmath,
By the eternal God, whose name and power [25]
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

[reading from a scroll]
‘First, of the king: what shall of him become?’

SPIRIT

The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose: [30]