A thousand pounds by th’ 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 promised it not.

The breath no sooner left his father’s body

But that his wildness, mortified in him,

Seemed to die too. Yea, at that very moment

Consideration like an angel came

And whipped th‘offending Adam out of him,

Leaving his body as a paradise

T’envelop 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 rendered 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 chartered libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men’s ears

To steal his sweet and honeyed 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 unlettered, rude, and shallow,

His hours filled 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

Neighboured 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.

CANTERBURY

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?

CANTERBURY He seems indifferent,

Or rather swaying more upon our part

Than cherishing th’exhibitors 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 opened 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?

CANTERBURY

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.

ELY

What was th’impediment that broke this off?

CANTERBURY

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. 95

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

1.2 Enter King Harry, the Dukes of Gloucester, ⌈Clarence⌉, and Exeter, and the Earls of Warwick and Westmorland

KING HARRY

Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury?

EXETER

Not here in presence.

KING HARRY Send for him, good uncle.

WESTMORLAND

Shall we call in th’ambassador, my liege?

KING HARRY

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

CANTERBURY

God and his angels guard your sacred throne,

And make you long become it.

KING HARRY Sure we thank you.

My learnèd lord, we pray you to proceed,

And justly and religiously unfold

Why the law Salic 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,