Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth; Who, prologue like, your humble patience pray ACT I. SCENE I. London.1 An Antechamber in the King's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.2 Canterbury. My lord, I'll tell you,-that self bill is urged, Which in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign But that the scambling and unquiet time Did push it out of further question. Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? Cant. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, We lose the better half of our possession; For all the temporal lands, which men devout 1 This first scene was added in the folio, together with the choruses and other amplifications. It appears from Hall and Holinshed, that the events passed at Leicester, where king Henry V. held a parliament in the second year of his reign. But the chorus at the beginning of the second act shows that the Poet intended to make London the place of his first scene. 2 "Canterbury and Ely." Henry Chicheley, a Carthusian monk, recently promoted to the see of Canterbury. John Fordham, bishop of Ely, consecrated 1388, died 1426. As much as would maintain, to the king's honor, Thus runs the bill. "Twould drink the cup and all. Ely. But what prevention? Cant. The king is full of grace, and fair regard. Cant. The courses of his youth promised it not. And whipped the offending Adam out of him; To envelop and contain celestial spirits. With such a heady current, scouring faults; So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, Ely. You would desire, the king were made a prelate : You would say,-it hath been all in all his study: 1 The same thought occurs in the preceding play, where king Henry V. says: "My father is gone wild into his grave, For in his tomb lie my affections." The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it, His companies unlettered, rude, and shallow; Any retirement, any sequestration Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle; And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best, Neighbored by fruit of baser quality. And so the prince obscured his contemplation Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceased; Ely. But, my good lord, Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty Cant. He seems indifferent; Or, rather, swaying more upon our part, And in regard of causes now in hand, 1 He discourses with so much skill on all subjects, "that his theory must have been taught by art and practice." Practic and theoric, or rather practique and theorique, was the old orthography of practice and theory. 2 This expressive word is used by Drant, in his Translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567. As touching France,-to give a greater sum Ely. How did this offer seem received, my lord? 1 Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms; Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off? Ely. SCENE II. The same. same. [Exeunt. A Room of State in the 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.2 West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolved, 1 "The severals and unhidden passages." The particulars and clear, unconcealed circumstances of his true titles, &c. 2 "Send for him, good uncle." The person here addressed was Thomas Beaufort, half brother to king Henry IV., being one of the sons of John of Gaunt by Katharine Swynford. He was not made duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, 1416. He was properly now only earl of Dorset. Shakspeare may have confounded this character with John Holland, duke of Exeter, who married Elizabeth, the king's aunt. He was executed at Plashey, in 1400. The old play began with the next speech. 16 VOL. IV. Before we hear him, of some things of weight, Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. Cant. God, and his angels, guard your sacred throne, And make you long become it! K. Hen. Why the law Salique, that they have in France, That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, Of what your reverence shall incite us to. '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 washed Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,—and you peers, That owe your lives, your faith, and services, 1 Or burden your knowing or conscious soul with displaying false titles in a specious manner or opening pretensions, which, if shown in their native colors, would appear to be false. |