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Shakespeare plays ASNATH on stage

A view of the stage, with a sign telling us that we are in the Duke of Gloucester‘s house; lighted candles indicate that it is night. Shakespeare is performing as the demon Asnath dressed all in red, rising up out of a trapdoor in the centre of the stage wreathed in smoke. Bolingbroke and a monk step back in horror, while the actor playing Margery Jourdain prostrates himself before the mighty apparition

[It thunders and lightens terribly; then the Spirit riseth]

SPIRIT Adsum.

JOURDAIN Asnath, by the eternal God
Whose name and power thou tremblest at,
Answer what I shall ask, for till thou speak,
Thou shalt not pass from hence.

SPIRIT Ask what thou wilt, that I can be said and done.

Henry VI part 2, Act 3 Scene 4

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