So foon did lofe his feat, and all at once,
As in this King.

Ely. We're bleffed in the change.

Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity, +
And, all admiring with an inward with
You would defire, the King were made a Prelate.
Hear him debate of common-wealth affairs,
You'd say it hath been all in all his study.
Lift his difcourfe of war, and you fhall hear
A fearful battle 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; 5
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and hony'd fentences.

4 Hear him but reafon in divinity, &c.] This fpeech feems to have been copied from King James's prelates, fpeaking of their Solomon; when Archbishop Whitgift, who, as an eminent writer fays, died foon afterawards, and probably doated then, at the Hampton-Court conference, declared himself verily perfuaded, that his facred Majesty jpake by the Spirit of God. And, in effect, this fcene was added after King James's acceffion to the crown: So that we have no way of avoiding its being efteemed a compliment to him, but by fuppofing it was a fa ire on his bifhops: WARBURTON.

Why thefe line fhould be divided from the rest of the fpeech and applied to king James, I am not able to conceive; nor why an opportunity fhould be fo eager

ly fnatched to treat with contempt that part of his character which was leaft contemptible. King James's theological knowledge was not inconfiderable. To prefide at difputations is not very fuitable to a king, but to understand the questions is furely laudable. The poet, if he had James in his thoughts, was no fkilful encomiaft; for the mention of Harry's fkill in war, forced upon the remembrance of his audience the great deficiency of their prefent king; who yet with all his faults, and many faults he had, was fuch that Sir Robert Cotton fays, he would be content that England should never have a better, provided that it should ne ver have a worse.

5 The air, &c.] This line is exquifitely beautiful.

Se

So that the Art, and practic part of life,"
Must be the miftrefs to this 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 filled up with riots, banquets, fports;
And never noted in him any ftudy,

Any retirement, any fequeftration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholefome berries thrive, and ripen beft, 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, fafteft by night,
Unfeen, yet crefcive in his faculty. 7

Cant. It must be fo; for miracles are ceased:
And therefore we must needs admit the means,
How things are perfected.

6 So that the Art and practic part of Life,] All the Editions, if I am not deceiv'd, are guilty of a flight Corruption in this Paffage. The Archbishop has been fhewing, what a Mafter the King was in the Theory of Divinity, War and Policy: fo that it must be expected (as I conceive, he would infer;) that the King thould now wed that Theory to Action, and the putting the feveral Parts of his Knowledge into Practice. If this be our author's Meaning, I think, we can hardly doubt but he wrote,

So that the A&t, and practic, &c. Thus we have a Confonance in the Terms and Senfe. For Theory is the Art, and Study of the Rules of any Science; and Action, the Exemplification of

thofe Rules by Proof and Ex. periment. THEOBALD.

This emendation. is received by Dr. Warburton, but it ap pears to me founded upon a mifinterpretation. The true meaning feems to be this. He difcourfes with fo much skill on all fubjects, that the art and practice of life must be the mistress or teacher of his theorique, that is, that his theory must have been taught by art and practice, which, Jays he, is ftrange fince he could fee little of the true art or practice among his loofe companions, nor ever retired to difgeft his practice into theory: Art is used by the authour for practice, as diftinguished from feience or theory.

Encreafing in its proper power. 7 crefcive in his faculty.]

Ely.

Ely. But, my good Lord,

How now for mitigation of this bill,

Urg'd by the Commons? doth his Majefty
Incline to it, or no?

Cant. He feems indifferent;

Or rather fwaying 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 caufes 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 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 severals, and unhidden passages &

8

Of his true titles to fome certain Dukedoms,
And, generally, to the Crown and feat 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 o'clock?
Ely. It is.

Cant. Then go we in to know his embaffy; Which I could with a ready guefs declare, Before the Frenchman speaks a word of it. Ely. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt.

The feverals, and unhidden paffages] This line I fufpect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: the

paffages of his titles are the lines of fucceffion, by which his claims defcend. Unhidden is open, clear.

SCENE

SCENE II.

1

Opens to the Prefence.

Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland, and Exeter.

K. Henry.

HERE is my gracious Lord of
Canterbury?

WHERE is

Exe. Not here in présence.

K. Henry. Send for him, good uncle.

Weft. Shall we call in th' ambaffador, 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 Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. Cant. God and his angels guard your facred throne, And make you long become it!

K. Henry. Sure, we thank you.

My learned Lord, we pray you to proceed;
And justly and religiously unfold,

Why the law Salike, that they have in France,
Or fhould, or should not, bar us in our claim.
And, God forbid, my dear and faithful Lord,
That you should fashion, wreft, or bow your reading;
Or nicely charge your understanding foul
With opening titles + mifcreate, whose right
Suites 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.

9 Shall we call in, &c.] Here
began the old play. POPE.
tak] Keep bufied with fcru-
ples and laborious difquifitions.
1 Or nicely charge your under
flanding foul] Take heed,
left by nice and fubtle fophiftry
you burthen your knowing foul,

or knowingly burthen your foul, with the guilt of advancing a falfe title, or of maintaining, by fpecious fallacies, a claim which, if fhewn in its native and true colours, would appear to be falfe.

+ mifcreate-] Ill begotten; illegitimate; fpurious.

Therefore

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 waste 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 baptifm.

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 3
To make against your Highness' claim to France,
But this which they produce from Pharamond ;
In terram Salicam Mulieres nè fuccedant;
No Woman fall 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 lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elve,