The scene opens with a soliloquy by the Duke of Albany, in which he laments the fact that he cannot always be with his wife. He tells her that he has never seen the Duke like this, and that she is different from the nine other women who have been killed by their husbands. He says that the Duke wants to spend the rest of his life with her, but she is not worthy of it. She is a slave, he says, and he wants to give her everything and be her support