Scene Three
[The Same. A Hall of Justice]
Sound Trumpets. Enter the King and State [including Queen, Gloucester, York, Suffolk, and Salisbury], with Guard, to banish the Duchess. [Margery Jordan, Hume, Southwell, and Bolingbroke are also brought in.]
King. Stand forth, Dame Eleanor Cobham, Gloucester's wife.
In sight of God and us your guilt is great:
Receive the sentence of the law for sins
Such as by God's book are adjudg'd to death. 4
You four, from hence to prison back again;
From thence, unto the place of execution:
The witch in Smithfield shall be burnt to ashes,
And you three shall be strangled on the gallows. 8
You, madam, for you are more nobly born,
Despoiled of your honour in your life,
Shall, after three days' open penance done,
Live in your country here in banishment, 12
With Sir John Stanley, in the Isle of Man.
Elea. Welcome is banishment; welcome were my death.
Glo. Eleanor, the law, thou seest, hath judged thee:
I cannot justify whom the law condemns. 16
Mine eyes are full of tears, my heart of grief.
Ah, Humphrey! this dishonour in thine age
Will bring thy head with sorrow to the ground.
I beseech your majesty, give me leave to go; 20
Sorrow would solace and mine age would ease.
