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And to the coffers of the king beside,

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 promis'd 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 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 current 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

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 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 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 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.

Cant. 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?

Cant.

He seems indifferent,

Or, rather, swaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing th' 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? Cant. 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 th' impediment that broke this off?
Cant. 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.

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.

SCENE II.

The Same. A Room of State in the Same.

Enter King HENRY, Gloster, 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 th' ambassador, my liege1? K. Hen. 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 Bishop of ELY.

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

5 Shall we call in th' ambassador, my liege ?] At this point the play, according to the quartos of 1600, 1602, and 1608, begins, but they all assign the line to Exeter, and give it thus:

"Shall I call in th' ambassadors, my liege ?"

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,
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,

And 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 nè succedant,
"No woman shall succeed in Salique land."
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze',
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond

• Shall drop their blood in APPROBATION] i. e. in probation or proof.
- unjustly GLOZE,] i. e. Expound, explain.

7

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 suppos'd 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 Childerick,

Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to king Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,-who usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,-
To find his title with some shows of truth,
Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
Convey'd himself as th' heir to the lady Lingare,

8 Where Charles the GREAT,-] In the quarto editions it stands, "Where Charles the fift.”

• TO FIND his title] So the folio, and it is not necessary to alter it, though the quartos read fine, which on some accounts (in the sense of refine) might seem preferable. The quartos can only be a guide, even in more doubtful cases.

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