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And, Princes all, believe me, I beseech you;
My father is gone wild into his grave;
For in his tomb lie my affections;
And with his fpirit fadly I furvive,

To mock the expectations of the world;
To fruftrate prophecies, and to raze out
Rotten opinion, which hath writ me down
After my feeming. Though my tide of blood
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity till now;
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the fea,
Where it fhall mingle with the state of floods,
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.
Now call we our high court of Parliament;
And let us chufe fuch limbs of noble counsel,
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best govern'd nation;
That war or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us,
In which you, father, fhall have foremoft hand,
Our coronation done, we will accite

(As I before remember'd) all our state,

And (Heav'n configning to my good intents)
No prince, nor peer, fhall have juft caufe to fay,
Heav'n fhorten Harry's happy life one day.

CHA P. XII.

SHAKESPEAR.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY AND BISHOP

CANT.

OF ELY.

:

Y Lord, I'll tell you; that felf bill is urg'd,

M which, in th' eleventh year o' th' laft King's

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Was like, and had indeed against us pafs'd,
But that the fcrambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of further question.

ELY. But how my Lord, fhall we refift it now? CANT. It must be thought on. If it pafs against us, We lose the better half of our poffeffion :

For all the temporal lands which men devout
By teftament have given to the church,

Would they ftrip from us; being valu'd thus;
As much as would maintain, to the King's honour,
Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good efquires;
And to relief of lazars, and weak age
Of indigent faint fouls, paft corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houses, right well supply'd;
And to the coffers of the king, befide,

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 courfes of his youth promis'd it not;
The breath no fooner left his father's body,.
But that his wildnefs, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Confideration, like an angel, came,

And whipp'd th' offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his body as a paradife,

T'invelope and contain celeftial fpirits.
Never was fuch a fudden scholar made:

Never came reformation in a flood

With fuch a heady current, fcowering faults:
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness

So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,

As in this King.

ELY. We're blessed in the change.

CANT. Hear him but reafon in divinity,
And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would defire, the King were made a Prelate.
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You'd fay, it had been all in all his study.
Lift his difcourfe of

war, and you fhall hear A fearful battle render'd you in music. Turn him to any caufe of policy,

The Gordian knot of it he will unloofe,

Familiar as his garter. When he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is ftill;
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed fentences:
So that the act, and practic part of life,
Must be the mistress to this theorique.

Which is a wonder how his Grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain;

His companies unletter'd, rude, and fhallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;
And never noted in him any ftudy,

Any retirement, any fequeftration,

From open haunts and popularity.

ELY. The ftrawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive, and ripen beft,
Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality:
And fo the Prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildne fs; which, no doubt,

Grew

Grew like the fummer-grafs, fastest by night,

Unfeen, yet crefcive in his faculty.

CANT. It must be fo: for miracles are ceas'd: And therefore we must needs admit the means,

How things are perfected.

SHAKESPEAR.

HOR.

CHA P.. XIII.

HAMLET AND HORATIO..

AIL to your Lordship!

HALL

HAM. I am glad to fee

Horatio, --or I do forget myself.

you well,

HOR. The fame, my Lord, and your poor fervant ever. HAM. Sir, my good friend; I'll change that name with

you:

And what makes you from Wittenberg, Horatio ?.

HOR. A truant difpofition, good my Lord.
HAM. I would not hear your enemy fay fo;

Nor fhall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it trufter of your own report
Against yourself. I know you are no truant;
But what is your affair in Elfincor?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

HOR. My Lord, I came to fee your father's funeral.
HAM. I pr'ythee do not mock me, fellow-ftudent;

I think it was to fee my mother's wedding.

HOR. Indeed, my Lord, it follow'd hard upon.

HAM. Thrift, thrift, Horatio; the funeral bak'd meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my deareft foe in heav'n; ·

Or

Or ever I had feen that day, Horatio!

My father methinks I fee my father.
HOR. Oh where, my Lord?

HAM. In my mind's eye, Horatio.

HOR. I faw him once, he was a goodly King.
HAM. He was a man, take him for all in all,
I fhall not look upon his like again.

HOR. My Lord, I think I saw him yesternight.
HAM. Saw! who?

HOR. My Lord, the King your father.
HAM. The King my father!

HOR. Seafon your admiration but a while,
With an attentive ear; till I deliver,
Upon the witnefs of thefe gentlemen,
This marvel to you.

HAM.

For Heaven's love, let me hear.

HOR. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernado, on their watch,

In the dead waste and middle of the night,

Been thus encountered: A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points exactly, cap-a-pee,
Appears before them, and with folemn march
Goes flow and stately by them; thrice he walk'd ·
By their opprefs'd and fear-furprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they (diftill'd
Almost to jelly with th' effect of fear)

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful fecrecy impart they did,

And I with them the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,

The

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