Enter CHORUS. O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend A kingdom for a stage, Princes to act, Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, The flat unraised spirit, that hath dar'd, And let us, cyphers to this great accompt, Suppose, within the girdle of these walls Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them Printing their proud hoofs i'the receiving earth: Carry them here and there; jumping o'er tim Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. KING HENRY V. ACT I SCENE F. London. An Antechamber in the King's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of CANTERBURY, and Bishop of ELY. Cant. My Lord, I'll tell you, bill is urg'd, that self Which, in the eleventh year o' the last King's reign Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, 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: Would they strip from us; being valued thus, Full fifteen earls, and fifteen hundred knights; Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil, A thousand pounds by the year; Thus runs the bill. Ely. This would drink deep. Cant. Twould drink the cup and all. Cant. The King is full of grace, and fair regard, And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him; To envelop and contain celestial spirits. With such a heady current, scouring faults; So soon did lose his seat, and all at once Ely. We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, And, all-admiring, with a 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 The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks, Which is a wonder, how his Grace should glean it, Since his addiction was to courses vain: His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow; Any retirement, any sequestration 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, 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 Cant. He seems indifferent; Or, rather, swaying more upon our part, |