An Antichamber in the English Court.
Emer the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. Y Lord, I'll tell you, that felf bill is urg'd, Which in th' eleventh year o' th' laft King's reign
Was like, and had indeed against us paft,
But that the fcambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther question.
Ely. But how, my Lord, fhall we refift it now?
Cant. It must be thought on: if it pass against us,
We lofe the better half of our poffeffions:
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,
This Play was writ (as appears from a paffage in the Chorus to the fifth Act) at the time of the Earl of Efex's commanding the forces in Ireland, in the reign of Q. Elisabeth; and not till after Henry the Sixth had been play'd; as may be feen by the conclusion of this Play.
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 fupply'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 wildness, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
Confideration, like an angel, came,
And whipt th' offending Adam out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradife
T' invelope and contain celeftial spirits.
Never was fuch a fudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood
With fuch a heady current, fcow'ring faults:
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness
So foon did lofe his feat, and fall at once,
As in this King.
Ely. We're bleffed 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 hath been all in all his ftudy.
Lift his discourse of war, and you fhall hear
A fearful battel render'd you in mufick.
Turn him to any cause 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 honied fentences:
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress to his theorique.
Which is a wonder how his Grace fhould glean it,
Since his addiction was to courfes 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 fequeftration
From open haunts and popularity.
Ely. The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholfome berries thrive and ripen best Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality :
And fo the Prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildness, which no doubt
Grew like the fummer grafs, fatteft by night,
Unseen, 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.
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 feems 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 fpiritual convocation,
And in regard of caufes now in hand,
Which I have open'd to his Grace at large,
As touching France, to give a greater fum
Than ever at one time the clergy yet
Did to his predeceffors part withal.
Ely. How did this offer feem receiv'd, my Lord?
Cant. With good acceptance of his Majefty:
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
(As I perceiv'd his Grace would fain have done)
The feveral and unhidden paffages
Of his true titles to fome certain Dukedoms,
And generally to the crown of France,
Deriv'd from Edward his great grandfather.
Ely. What was th' impediment that broke this off?
Cant. The French ambaffador upon that inftant
Crav'd audience; and the hour I think is come
To give him hearing. Is it four a-clock ?
Ely. It is.
Cant. Then go we in to know his embaffie:
Which I could with a ready guess declare,
Before the Frenchman speaks a word of it.
Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt. SCENE II. The Prefence-Chamber.
Enter King Henry, Gloucefter, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Weftmorland, and Exeter.
K. Henry. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury ? Exe. Not here in prefence.
K. Henry. Send for him, good uncle.
Weft. Shall we call in th' ambassador, my Liege?
K. Henry. Not yet, my coufin; we would be refolv'd,
Before we hear him, of fome things of weight,
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.
Enter the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely.
Cant. God and his angels guard your facred throne,
And make you long become it!
My learned Lord, we prayou to proceed,
And juftly and religiously unfold,
Why the law Salike, that they have in France,
Or fhould, or fhould not bar us in our claim.
And God forbid, my dear and faithful Lord,
That you fhould fashion, wreft, or bow your reading,
Or nicely charge your understanding foul
With opening titles mifcreate, whofe right
Sutes 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 fhall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our perfon,
How you awake our fleeping fword of war:
We charge you in the name of God take heed,
For never two fuch kingdoms did contend
Without much fall of blood, whofe guiltless drops
Are every one a woe, a fore complaint
'Gainft him, whofe wrong gives edge unto the fwords
That make fuch wafte in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, fpeak, my Lord;
For we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your confcience washt
As pure as fin with baptism.
Cant. Then hear me, gracious Sovereign, and you Peers,
That owe your lives, your faith, and fervices,
To this imperial throne. There is no bar
To make against your Highness' claim to France,
But this which they produce from Pharamond,
No woman fball fucceed in Salike land:
Which Salike land the French unjustly glofs
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 Salike lyes in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elye:
Where Charles the great having fubdu'd the Saxons,
There left behind and fettled certain French: .
Who holding in difdain the German women,
For fome difhoneft manners of their life,
Establisht then this law; to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salike land:
Which Salike, as I faid, 'twixt Elve and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd Meifen.
Thus doth it well appear, the Salike land
Was not devised for the realm of France.
Nor did the French poffefs the Salike land
Until four hundred one and twenty years
After defunction of King Pharamond,
(Idly fuppos'd the founder of this law,)
Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty fix; and Charles the great
Subdu'd the Saxons, and did feat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year
Eight hundred five. Befides, their writers fay,
VOL. V.
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