But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of further question.

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against

us,

We lose the better half of our possession;
For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By testament have given to the church,
Would they strip from us, being valued thus:
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars and weak age,

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,

A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the king beside,

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15

A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill. Ely. This would drink deep.

Cant.

"Twould drink the cup and all.

Ely. But what prevention?

Cant. The king is full of grace and fair regard.
Ely. And a true lover of the holy church.
Cant. The courses of his youth promised it not.

The breath no sooner left his father's body
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise

To envelope and contain celestial spirits.

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30

Never was such a sudden scholar made;

Never came reformation in a flood

With such a heady currance, scouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,

As in this king.

Ely.

We are blessed in the change.

Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,

And all-admiring with an inward wish

85

You would desire the king were made a prel

ate;

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You would say it hath been all in all his study;
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music;

Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,

Familiar as his garter, that, when he speaks,

The air, a charter'd libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,

To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;

So that the art and practic part of life

Must be the mistress to this theoric:

Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow,
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
And never noted in him any study,

Any retirement, any sequestration

From open haunts and popularity.

61

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality; And so the prince obscured his contemplation Under the veil of wildness, which, no doubt, Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty:

Cant. It must be so, for miracles are ceased; And therefore we must needs admit the means How things are perfected.

Ely.

65

But, my good lord,

70

How now for mitigation of this bill

Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty
Incline to it, or no?

Cant.

He seems indifferent,

Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing the exhibiters against us;
For I have made an offer to his majesty
Upon our spiritual convocation

And in regard of causes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his grace at large,
As touching France - to give a greater sum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet

Did to his predecessors part withal.

Ely. How did this offer seem received, my

lord?

Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty; Save that there was not time enough to hear,

As I perceived his grace would fain have done, 85 The severals and unhidden passages

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,

And generally to the crown and seat of France,
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.
Ely. What was the impediment that broke this

off?

90

Cant. The French ambassador upon that in

stant

Craved audience, and the hour, I think, is come
To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock?

Ely. It is.

Cant. Then go we in, to know his embassy, Which I could with a ready guess declare Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.

95

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same.

The Presence-chamber.

Enter KING HENRY, Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, WARWICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.

K. Hen. Where is my gracious Lord of Canter

West.

Send for him, good uncle.

Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?

K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be

resolved,

Before we hear him, of some things of weight

That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed

And justly and religiously unfold

10

Why the law Salique that they have in France
Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your read-

ing,

Or nicely charge your understanding soul

15

With opening titles miscreate, whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;

For God doth know how many now in health
Shall drop their blood in approbation
Of what your reverence shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you awake our sleeping sword of war.
We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
For never two such kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood, whose guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a sore complaint

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'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the

swords

That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration speak, my lord;