The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 5 of 9] · William Shakespeare
SCENE IV. GLOUCESTER’S _garden_.
_Enter_ MARGERY JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, _and_ BOLINGBROKE. _Hume._ Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects [bad001] performance of your promises. _Boling._ Master Hume, we are therefore provided: will her ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms? _Hume._ Ay, what else? fear you not her courage. [bad005] _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._] Mother Jourdain, be you prostrate and grovel on the earth; [bad010] John Southwell, read you; and let us to our work. [bad011] _Enter_ Duchess _aloft_, HUME _following_. _Duch._ Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To [bad012] this gear the sooner the better. _Boling._ Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night, [bad015] 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, [bad018] That time best fits the work we have in hand. Madam, sit you and fear not: whom we raise, ·bad020· We will make fast within a hallow’d verge. [bad021] [_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._
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