KING HENRY V.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-London. An Ante-chamber in the King's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, and Bishop of ELY.

Canterbury.

My lord, I'll tell you,that self bill is urg'd,
Which, in th' eleventh year o' th' last king's reign
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

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
By testament have given to the church,
Would they strip from us; being valued thus,
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights;
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires ;
And, to relief of lazars, and weak age,

Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,

A hundred alms-houses, right well supplied;

And to the coffers of the king beside,

A thousand pounds by th' 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,

To 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 :8

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,

[5] As paradise, when sin and Adam were driven out by the angel, became the habitation of celestial spirits, so the king's heart, since consideration has driven out his follies, is now the receptacle of wisdom and of virtue. JOHNSON.

[6] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleansed the famous stables, when he turned a river through them. Hercules is still in our author's head when he mentions the Hydra. JOHNSON.

[7] This line is exquisitely beautiful. JOHNSON.

[8] Theoric is what terminates in speculation. STEEVENS.

[9] Companies for companions. MALONE.

11 That is plebeian intercourse. STEEVENS.

Unseen, yet cressive 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. [Exe

SCENE II.-The same. A room of state in the same. Fnter King HENRY, GLOSTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WAR WICK, WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.

K. Hen. Where is my gracious lord of Canterbury? Exe. Not here in presence.

[2] Increasing in its proper power. JOHNSON.

"Crescit occulto velut arbor æva

"Fama Marcelli." STEEVENS.

[3] This line I suspect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: VOL. IV.

2

K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.

West. Shall we call in th' ambassador, my liege? 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!

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 the 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 your lives, your faith, and services,

To this imperial throne ;-There is no bar

the passages of his titles of the lines of succession by which his claims descended Unhidden is open, clear. JOHNSON.

[4] Take heed, lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or knowingly burthen your soul, with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true coours, would appear to be false. JOHNSON.

[5] The allusion here is to the game of chess, and to the disposition of the pawns with respect to the King, at the commencement of this mimetic contest. HENLEY.

[6] This whole speech is copied (in a manner verbatim) from Hall's Chronicle, Henry V. year the second, folio iv. xx. xxx. xl. &c. POPE

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
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
That the land Salique lies 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 there 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.
Thus 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,-that usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the great,—
To fine his title with some show of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and nought,)
Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare,

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son

REED.

[7] Glose-Expound, explain, and sometimes comment upon. [8] This is the reading of the quarto of 1680; that of the folio is-To find his title. -I believe that find is right; the jury finds for the plaintiff, or finds for the defendant; to find his title, is, to determine in favour of his title with some show of truth. STEEVENS. [9] Derived his title. MALONE.