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.

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.

But, my good lord,
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

52 mistress to this theoric] the inspirer or teacher of this theoretical knowledge.

55 companies] companions, associates.

59 popularity] intercourse with the common people.

63 obscured his contemplation] concealed his devotion to study.

66 crescive in his faculty] growing by virtue of its inherent force. 73 swaying] inclining.

70

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,
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.

80

ELY. What was the impediment that broke this off? 90 CANT. The French ambassador upon that instant 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.

[Exeunt. 74 exhibiters] movers or proposers of the obnoxious bill in Parliament. Cf. M. Wives, II, i, 23: "I'll exhibit a bill in the Parliament."

86 The severals . . . passages] The details and clear or undoubted steps in the lineage.

89 Edward, his great-grandfather] Edward II, whose wife Isabella was daughter of Philip the Fair, King of France.

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 Canterbury ? EXE. Not here in presence.

K. HEN. Send for him, good uncle. WEST. 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.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP of CANTERBURY and the BISHOP of ELY

CANT. God and his angels guard your sacred throne And make you long become it!

K. HEN.

Sure, we thank you. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed

And justly and religiously unfold

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 reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding soul

4 resolved satisfied.

11 the law Salique] the Salic law against the succession of females, which is fully described in lines 38-51, infra.

15 nicely charge. . . soul] by subtlety or sophistry oppress or injure your conscience, which knows the truth.

10

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

'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the swords
That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration speak, my lord;

For we will hear, note and believe in heart
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
As pure as sin with baptism.

CANT. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you

peers,

That owe yourselves, your lives and services

To this imperial throne. There is no bar

To make against your highness' claim to France
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
"In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
"No woman shall succeed in Salique land:"

16 With .. 19-20 in approbation Of] in making good, in actively carrying out. 35-100 There is no bar. . . unto the daughter] The whole of this speech is transferred to the play almost verbatim from Holinshed's Chronicle, Vol. III, p. 545.

miscreate] By setting forth spurious titles.

20

30

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salique is in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;

Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
Then doth it well appear the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France;
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
Idly supposed the founder of this law;
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,

Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,

40 gloze] explain, interpret. In Holinshed the words here run: "which

the French glossers expound."

49 dishonest] unchaste.