Definition of Ethos
The Queen requests that Cornelius, a court physician, bring her some powerful drugs and chemicals. When he warns her that the “poisonous compounds” he has brought her are lethal and asks her what she wants them for, she employs ethos in her response, highlighting her own authority as an advanced student of such chemicals, a virtuous woman, and a Queen:
I wonder, doctor,
Thou ask’st me such a question. Have I not been
Thy pupil long? Hast thou not learned me how
To make perfumes, distil, preserve—yea, so
That our great king himself doth woo me oft
For my confections? Having thus far proceeded,
Unless thou think’st me devilish, is ’t not meet
That I did amplify my judgment in
Other conclusions? I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such creatures as
We count not worth the hanging—but none human—
To try the vigor of them and apply
Allayments to their act [...]