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 the 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 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.
Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish [late:
You would desire the king were made a pre-
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 honey'd sentences;
So that the art and practick part of life
Must be the mistress to this theorick:
Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean
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.

[it,

[nettle, Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the 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 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,
As touching France,-to give a greater sum

Cant. The French ambassador upon that 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.-London. A Room of State in the

Palace.

K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin: we would be 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 sa-
And make you long become it! [cred throne,
K. Hen.
Sure, we thank you.

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,
And justly and religiously unfold, [France,
Why the law Salique, that they have in
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 Are every one a woe, a sore complaint, [drops '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
As pure as sin with baptism.
[wash'd,
Cant. Then hear me, gracious sov'reign
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,
[mond,-
But this, which they produce from Phara-
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
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 subdu'd 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 [Clothair,
Of Blithild, which was daughter to king
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 show of truth,
(Though in pure truth, it was corrupt and

naught,)

Convey'd himself as heir to the lady Lingare,
Daugliter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
Of Charles the great. Also king Lewis the
Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, [tenth,
Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
The fair queen Isabel, his grandmother,
Was lineal of the lady Ermengare, [Lorain
Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of
By the which marriage, the line of Charles the
Was re-united to the crown of France. [great
So that, as clear as is the summer's sun,

King Pepin's title, and Hugh Capet's claim,
King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
To hold in tight and title of the female :
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female:
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
K. Hen. May I with right and conscience
make this claim?
[vereign!

Cant. The sin upon my head, dread so-
For in the Book of Numbers is it writ,-
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back into your mighty ancestors:
Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's
tomb,
[spirit,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike
And your great uncle's, Edward the black
prince,

Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France,
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility.
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride of France,
And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action! [dead,

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant And with your puissant arm renew their feats : You are their heir; you sit upon their throne; The blood and courage, that renowned them, Runs in your veins: and my thrice-puissant Is in the very May-morn of his youth, [liege Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

Exe. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, As did the former lions of your blood.

West. They know your grace hath cause and means and might:

So hath your highness; never king of England Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects, Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England,

And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear

liege,

[right: With blood, and sword, and fire, to win your In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty Will raise your highness such a mighty sum, As never did the clergy at one time Bring in to any of your ancestors..

K. Hen. We must not only arm to invade the French,

But lay down our proportions to defend Against the Scot, who will make road upon us With all advantages.

Cant. They of those marches, gracious soShall be a wall sufficient to defend [vereign, Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

snatchers only,

But fear the main intendment of the Scot,
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France,
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays,
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook and trembled at th' ill neighbour-
hood.
[harm'd, my liege;
Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than
For hear her but exampled by herself :-
When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And she a mourning widow of her nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken, and impounded as a stray,
The king of Scots; whom she did send to France,
To fill king Edward's fame with prisoner kings,
And make your chronicle as rich with praise,
As is the ooze and bottom of the sea
With sunken wreck and sunless treasuries.
West. But there's a saying, very old and
"If that you will France win, [true,
Then with Scotland first begin:'
For once the eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot
Comes sneaking, and so sucks her princely eggs;
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat,
To spoil and havoc more than she can eat.

Exe. It follows, then, the cat must stay at Yet that is but a crush'd necessity; [home. Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. While that the armèd hand doth fight abroad, The advised head defends itself at home;

For government, though high, and low, and lower,

Put into parts, doth keep in one concent,
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like music.

Cant. Therefore doth heaven divide
The state of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion;
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience: for so work the honey bees;
Creatures that, by a rule in nature, teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a king, and officers of sorts:
Where some, like magistrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad;
Others, like soldiers, armèd in their stings,
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds ;
Which pillage they with merry march bring
To the tent-royal of their emperor : [home
Who, busied in his majesty, surveys
The singing masons building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanic porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate;
The sad-ey'd justice, with his surly hum,

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer,-
That many things, having full reference
To one concent, may work contrariously:
As many arrows, loosed several ways, [town;
Fly to one mark; as many ways meet in one
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre ;
So may a thousand actions, once afoot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat. Therefore to France, my
Divide your happy England into four; [liege.
Whereof take you one quarter into France,
And you withal shall make all Gallia shake.
If we, with thrice such powers left at home,
Cannot defend our own doors from the dog,
Let us be worried, and our nation lose
The name of hardiness and policy.

K. Hen. Call in the messengers sent from

the Dauphin. [Exit an Attendant. Now are we well resolv'd; and, by God's help, And yours, the noble sinews of our power, France being ours, we'll bend it to our awe, Or break it all to pieces: or there we'll sit, Ruling in large and ample empery, [doms, O'er France, and all her almost kingly dukeOr lay these bones in an unworthy urn, Tombless, with no remembrance over them: Either our history shall with full mouth Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth,

Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph.

Enter Ambassadors of France. Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure Of our fair cousin Dauphin; for we hear Your greeting is from him, not from the king. 1 Amb. May't please your majesty to give us leave

Freely to render what we have in charge;
Or shall we sparingly show you far off
The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy?

K. Hen. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king;

Unto whose grace our passion is as subject, As are our wretches fetter'd in our prisons: Therefore with frank and with uncurbèd plainTell us the Dauphin's mind.

[ness

I Amb.
Thus, then, in few.
Your highness, lately sending into France,
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right
Of your great predecessor, king Edward the
third.
[master
In answer of which claim, the prince our
Says, that you savour too much of your youth;
And bids you be advis'd, there's nought in
France

That can be with a nimble galliard won:
You cannot revel into dukedoms there.
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit,
This ton of treasure; and, in lieu of this,
Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin
speaks.