Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts:
Into a thoufand parts divide one man,
And make imaginary puissance :

Think, when we talk of horses, that you fee them
Printing their proud hoofs i' th' receiving earth.
For 'tis your thoughts that now muft deck our Kings,
Carry them here, and there; jumping o'er times;
Turning th' accomplishment of many years

Into an hour-glafs: for the which fupply,
Admit me Chorus to this hiftory;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,
Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our Play.

3

The

I

The LIFE of

King HENRY V.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

An Antechamber in the English Court,
at Kenilworth.

Enter the Arch-bifhop of Canterbury, and Bishop

2

M

of Ely.

Arch-bishop of CANTERBURY.

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 past,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

Did push it out of further queftion.

1 The life of Henry V.] This play was writ (as appears from a paffage in the chorus to the fifth act) at the time of the Earl of Effex's commanding the forces in Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and not till after Henry the VIth had been played, as may be seen by the conclufion of this play. Mr. Pope.

2 Arch bishop of Canterbury.] This firft fcene was added fince the edition of 1608, which is much fhort of the prefent editions, wherein the fpeeches are generally enlarg'd and raised: Several whole fcenes befides, and all the chorus's alfo, were fince added by Shakespear. Mr. Pope.

VOL. IV.

Y

Ely,

Ely. But how, my lord, fhall we resist it now? Cant. It must be thought on: if it pass against us, We lofe the better half of our poffeffion :

For all the temporal lands, which men devout
By teftament have given to the Church,
Would they strip 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, past corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houfes, 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 courses 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,

66

66

T'invelope and contain celeftial fpirits.

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 all at once,

As in this King.

Ely. We're bleffed in the change.

Cant. 3 Hear him but reafon in divinity,

And,

3 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,

And, all-admiring, with an inward wifh

You would defire, the King were made a Prelate.
Hear him debate of common-wealth affairs,
You'd fay, 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;
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To fteal his sweet and honied fentences:
So that the (a) Act, and practic part of life,
Must be the mistress to this theorique.
Which is a wonder how his Grace fhould glean it,
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 fequeftration
From open haunts and popularity.

Ely. The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle, And wholfom berries thrive, and ripen best, Neighbour'd by fruit of bafer quality:

And fo the Prince obfcur'd his contemplation
Under the veil of wildnefs; which, no doubt,
Grew like the fummer grafs, fafteft 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.

fays, died foon afterwards, and probably doated then, at the Hampton-Court conference, declared himself verily perfuaded, that his facred Majefty spake by the Spirit of God. And, in effect, this scene was added after King James's acceffion to the crown: So that we have no way of avoiding its being esteemed a compliment to him, but by fuppofing it was a fatire on his bishops.

[(a) At, Mr. Theobald.

Vulg. Art.]
Y 2

Ely.

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 fwaying more upon our part,
Than cherishing th' exhibiters against us.
For I have made an offer to his Majefty,
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 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 Majesty:
Save that there was not time enough to hear
(As, I perceiv'd, his Grace would fain have done)
The feverals, 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 o'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