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Earl of Warwick
Wife to the Duke of Gloucester, the Duchess is a proud, ambitious woman who scorns England’s new queen, Margaret, for Margaret’s impoverished background. She tries to tempt Gloucester to usurp King Henry VI’s throne, but loyal Gloucester indignantly rebukes her. To bring about Gloucester’s downfall, Gloucester’s political enemies, the Duke of Suffolk and Cardinal Beaufort, pay a greedy priest named Sir John Hume to entice the Duchess into treasonous witchcraft. After the Duchess is caught participating in the interrogation of a spirit about the fate of Henry and other powerful political figures, Henry exiles her and revokes Gloucester’s position as Lord Protector. The Duchess warns Gloucester about his enemies’ plots before going into exile, but Gloucester ignores her, wrongly assuming that his innocence and loyalty to the king will protect him.
Dame Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester Quotes in Henry VI Part 2
The Henry VI Part 2 quotes below are all either spoken by Dame Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester or refer to Dame Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1, Scene 2 Quotes
Gloucester:
Banish the canker of ambitious thoughts!
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Act 1, Scene 4 Quotes
York:
[(Reads.)] The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose,
But him outlive and die a violent death.
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Act 2, Scene 4 Quotes
Duchess:
For whilst I think I am thy married wife
And thou a prince, Protector of this land,
Methinks I should not thus be led along,
Mailed up in shame, with papers on my back,
And followed with a rabble that rejoice
To see my tears and hear my deep-fet groans.
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Duchess:
My joy is death—
Death, at whose name I oft have been afeard,
Because I wished this world’s eternity.
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Dame Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester Character Timeline in Henry VI Part 2
The timeline below shows where the character Dame Eleanor Cobham, Duchess of Gloucester appears in Henry VI Part 2. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1, Scene 2
Gloucester’s wife, Duchess Eleanor, asks why he’s in a bad mood. She speculates that he’s thinking of King...
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The Duchess says Gloucester’s dream means that anyone who challenges his protectorship will be beheaded. Then she...
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...arrives, inviting Gloucester to hawk with King Henry and Queen Margaret. Gloucester asks whether the Duchess will come. When she says she will in a moment, Gloucester leaves with the messenger....
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Act 1, Scene 3
...that any number of English lords seem more powerful than Henry himself. She also says Duchess Eleanor puts on airs, expressing contempt for Margaret’s poor background. Margaret wants revenge on the...
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Trumpets play as King Henry, Gloucester, the Duchess, Cardinal Beaufort, Buckingham, Salisbury, Somerset sporting a red rose, York sporting a white rose, and...
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Margaret drops her fan and demands the Duchess pick it up for her. When the Duchess doesn’t, Margaret hits her in the ear....
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Act 1, Scene 4
As Hume and the Duchess watch from above, the conjurers Margery Jourdain, Bolingbroke, and Southwell perform a ritual. A spirit...
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...Stafford burst in with guards. York orders the conjurers arrested and calls up to the Duchess that Gloucester will no doubt reward her for her good actions. Guards lead away the...
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Act 2, Scene 1
Buckingham arrives and announces that they caught the Duchess colluding with conjurers who summoned a spirit and asked it questions about King Henry and...
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Act 2, Scene 3
...trumpets play, King Henry, Queen Margaret, Gloucester, and other lords stand in judgment over the Duchess, Margery Jourdain, Bolingbroke, Hume, and Southwell. Though Henry condemns the Duchess’s non-aristocratic accomplices to death,...
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Act 2, Scene 4
Gloucester and his servants wait for the Duchess to pass by during her public penance. She approaches on bare feet, wearing a white...
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...summoning Gloucester to Parliament the next month. Gloucester asks the men in charge of the Duchess’s penance and exile not to treat her worse than her punishment demands; then he exits....
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Act 3, Scene 1
Suffolk agrees with Margaret and claims that Gloucester was directly or indirectly responsible for the Duchess’s treason. Cardinal Beaufort says that Gloucester condemned minor criminals to cruel, weird executions. York insinuates...
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