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The LIFE of

King HENRY V. (2)

ACTI.

SCENE, An Antechamber in the Englifh Court, at Kenilworth.

Enter the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of

M

Ely.

Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY.

Y lord, I'll tell you; that felf bill is urg'd,
Which, in th’eleventh year o'th' last King's

reign,

Was like, and had, indeed, against us past,
But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of farther question.

Ely. But how, my lord, fhall we refift it now?

(2) The Life of K. Henry] The Tranfactions, compriz'd in this Hif torical Play, commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the 8th Year of this King's Reign; when he married Catharine Princess of France, and closed up the Differences betwixt England and that Crown.

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Cant. It must be thought on: if it pass against us,
We lofe the better half of our poffeffion :

For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By teftament have given to the Church,

Would they ftrip from us; being valu'd thus,
As much as would maintain, to the King's honour,
Full fifteen Earls and fifteen hundred Knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good Efquires:
And to relief of lazars, and weak age,
Of indigent faint fouls, paft corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houses, right well supply'd ;
And to the coffers of the King, befide,

A thousand pounds by th'year.

Ely. This would drink deep.

Thus runs the bill.

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 promis'd it not ;
The breath no fooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Confideration, like an angel, came,

And whipt th'offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his Body as a paradise,

T'invelope and contain celeftial fpirits.

Never was fuch a fudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood

With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults:
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness

So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,

As in this King.

Ely. We're bleffed in the change.

Cant. Hear him but reafon in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward with

You would defire, the King were made a Prelate.
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You'd fay, it hath been all in all his study.
Lift his difcourfe of war, and you fhall hear
A fearful battel render'd you in mufick.

Turn

Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe,
Familiar as his garter. When he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still;
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To fteal his fweet and honied fentences:
So that the Act, and practic part of life, (3)
Must be the mistress to this theorique.

Which is a wonder how his Grace fhould glean it,
Since his addiction was to courfes vain ;
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, fports;
And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any fequeftration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholfom berries thrive, and ripen best,
Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality:

And fo the Prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildnefs; which, no doubt,
Grew like the fummer grafs, fafteft by night,
Unseen, yet crefcive in his faculty.

Cant. It must be fo; 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 Majefty
Incline to it, or no?

(3) So that the Art and practic part of Life] All the Editions, if I am not deceiv'd, are guilty of a flight corruption in this Paffage. The Archbishop has been fhewing, what a Mafter the King was in the Theory of Divinity, War, and Policy: fo that it must be expected (as I conceive, he would infer ;) that the King fhould now wed that Theory to Action, and the putting the feveral parts of his Knowledge into practice. If this be our Author's Meaning, I think, we can hardly doubt but he wrote,

So that the A&t, and practic &c.

Thus we have a Confonance in the Terms and Senfe. For Theory is the Art, and Study of the Rules of any Science; and Action, the Exemplification of thofe Rules by Proof and Experiment.

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Cant. He feems indifferent;

Or rather fwaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing th'exhibiters against us.
For I have made an offer to his Majefty,
Upon our spiritual Convocation,

And in regard of caufes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his Grace at large,
As touching France, to give a greater fum,
Than ever at one time the Clergy yet
Did to his predeceffors part withal.

Ely. How did this offer feem receiv'd, my lord?
Cant. With good acceptance of his Majefty:
Save that there was not time enough to hear
(As, I perceiv'd, his Grace would fain have done)
The feverals, and unhidden paffages

Of his true titles to fome certain Dukedoms,
And, generally, to the Crown of France,
Deriv'd from Edward his great grandfather.

Ely. What was th'impediment, that broke this off?
Cant. The French ambaffador 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.

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

SCENE opens to the Presence.

[Exeunt.

Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Weftmorland, and Exeter.

K. Henry. WHERE is my gracious lord of Canter

bury?

Exe. Not here in presence.

K. Henry. Send for him, good uncle.

Weft. Shall we call in th'ambaffador, my Liege?

K. Henry,

K. Henry. Not yet, my coufin; we would be refolv'd, Before we hear him, of fome things of weight, That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.

Cant. God and his angels guard your facred throne, And make you long become it!

K. Henry. Sure, we thank you.

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed;
And justly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salike, that they have in France,
Or fhould, or should not, bar us in our claim.
And, God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,
That you should fashion, wreft, or bow your reading;
Or nicely charge your understanding foul
With opening titles mifcreate, whose right
Sutes 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 fhall incite us to.
Therefore take heed, how you impawn our perfon;
How you awake our fleeping fword of war:
We charge you in the name of God, take heed.
For never two fuch kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood; whofe guiltlefs drops
Are every one a woe, a fore complaint,

'Gainft him, whofe wrong gives edge unto the fwords, That make fuch wafte in brief mortality.

Under this conjuration, fpeak, my lord;

For we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience washt,

As pure as fin with baptifm.

Cant. Then hear me, gracious Soveraign, and you Peers, That owe your lives, your faith, and fervices,

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 nè fuccedant;
No woman fhall fucceed in Salike land:
Which Salike land the French unjustly gloze

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