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 61
Neighbor'd 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.

Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceased;

Ely.

And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.

But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty
Incline to it, or no?

Cant.

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,

70

61, 62. "wholesome berries," etc.; it has been pointed out that Montaigne expresses this idea more explicitly in a passage (iii. 9) which Shakespeare perhaps knew in the original. In Florio's translation (1603) it runs: "Roses and Violets are ever the sweeter and more odoriferous, that grow neere under Garlike and Onions, forasmuch as they suck and draw all the ill savours of the ground unto them."-C. H. H.

66. “crescive in his faculty"; increasing in virtue of its latent capacity.-C. H. H.

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?
Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty;

80

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 the impediment that broke this

off?

90

Cant. 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.

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.

86. "passages"; that is, the particulars, and clear unconcealed circumstances.-"Severals," plural, was of old used much as we use details.-H. N. H.

SCENE II

The same. The Presence chamber.

Enter King Henry, Gloucester, 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 the ambassador, my liege?
K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be re-
solved,

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.

Cant. God and his angels guard your sacred throne,

Sc. 2. The princes Humphrey and John were made dukes of Gloucester and Bedford at the parliament mentioned in scene i. ll. 7-19. At the same time, according to Holinshed, Thomas Beaufort, marquess of Dorset, was made duke of Exeter. The Beaufort family sprung from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swynford, to whom he was married after she had borne him several children.— The earldom of Warwick was at that time in the family of Beauchamp, and the earl of Westmoreland was Ralph Nevil.-H. N. H. 3. In all the quartos the play begins at this speech. It is there assigned to Exeter, and runs thus: "Shall I call in the ambassador, my liege?"-H. N. H.

4. "cousin"; Westmoreland was a cousin only by marriage. He had married, as his second wife, a daughter of John of Gaunt, half sister of Henry IV, and aunt of the king.-C. H. H.

And make you long become it!

Sure, we thank you.
My learned lord, we pray you to proceed
And justly and religiously unfold

10

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 colors 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.

20

8-32. We subjoin this speech as it stands in the quartos, that the reader may have some means of judging for himself touching some points handled in our Introduction:

"Sure we thank you: and, good my lord, proceed,
Why the law Salique, which they have in France,
Or should or should not stop in us our claim:
And God forbid, my wise and learned lord,
That you should fashion, frame, or wrest the same.
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 the sleeping sword of war:
We charge you in the name of God take heed.
After this conjuration, speak, my lord;

And we will judge, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is wash'd as pure

As sin in basptism."-H. N. H.

14. "bow"; warp.-C. H. H.

15, 16. "Or nicely

miscreate"; 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 be false.-H. N. H.

Therefore take heed how you impawn our per

son,

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;

For we will hear, note and believe in heart 30
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 ne succedant:'
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 41
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
That the land Salique is in Germany,

32. "as pure as sin"; (concisely expressed for) "as pure as the

heart from sin."-C. H. H.

33. The whole of the archbishop's exposition is taken from Holinshed, in parts almost word for word.-C. H. H.