King Henry V | Page 4

the coffers of the King beside,

A thousand pounds by the year. Thus runs the bill.
ELY.
This would drink deep.
CANTERBURY.
'Twould drink the cup and all.
ELY.
But what prevention?
CANTERBURY.
The King is full of grace and fair regard.
ELY.
And a true lover of the holy Church.
CANTERBURY.
The courses of his youth promis'd it not.
The
breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortifi'd
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.
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.
CANTERBURY.
Hear him but reason in divinity,
And,
all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would desire the King were
made a prelate;
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 rend'red 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.
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 obscur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of
wildness; which, no doubt,
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by
night,
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
CANTERBURY.

It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd,
And
therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.
ELY.
But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill


Urg'd by the commons? Doth his Majesty
Incline to it, or no?
CANTERBURY.
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 receiv'd, my lord?
CANTERBURY.
With good acceptance of his Majesty;
Save that
there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceiv'd 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
Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather.
ELY.
What was the impediment that broke this off?
CANTERBURY.
The French ambassador upon that instant
Crav'd
audience; and the hour, I think, is come
To give him hearing. Is it
four o'clock?
ELY.
It is.
CANTERBURY.
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.]
SCENE II. The same. The presence chamber.
[Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Warwick,


Westmoreland [and Attendants.]
KING HENRY.
Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?
EXETER.
Not here in presence.
KING HENRY.
Send for him, good uncle.
WESTMORELAND.
Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
KING HENRY.
Not yet, my cousin. We would be resolv'd,
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.]
CANTERBURY.
God and his angels guard your sacred throne

And make you long become it!
KING HENRY.
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
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 gives
edge unto the swords
That makes 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.
CANTERBURY.
Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,

That owe yourselves, your lives, and services
To