CHOR. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend

The brightest heaven of invention,

A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels,

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Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword and fire

Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all,

The flat unraised spirits that hath dared
On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth
So great an object: can this cockpit hold
The vasty fields of France? or may we cram
Within this wooden O the very casques
That did affright the air at Agincourt?
O, pardon! since a crooked figure may
Attest in little place a million;

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt,
On your imaginary forces work.

Suppose within the girdle of these walls
Are now confined two mighty monarchies,
Whose high upreared and abutting fronts
The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder:

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

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them
Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth;

For 'tis your thoughts that now must deck our kings,
Carry them here and there; jumping o'er times,
Turning the accomplishment of many years
Into an hour-glass: for the which supply,
Admit me Chorus to this history;

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray,

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play.

[Exit.

SCENE I. London. An Ante-chamber in the KING'S

Palace.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the

BISHOP OF ELY.

CANT. My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,

Which in the eleventh year o' the last king's reign
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,

But that the scambling and unquiet time

30

Did push it out of further question.

5

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:

For all the temporal lands, which men devout

By testament have given to the church,

10

Would they strip from us; being valued thus:
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars and weak age,
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the king beside,

A thousand pounds by the year: thus runs the bill.
ELY. This would drink deep.
CANT.

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'Twould drink the cup and all.

20

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 promised it not.
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortified in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration like an angel came,

And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him,

25

Leaving his body as a paradise,

30

And all-admiring with an inward wish

You would desire the king were made a prelate :

40

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,

You would say it hath been all in all his study:

Which is a wonder how his grace should 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 sequestration

From open haunts and popularity.

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 obscured 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 ceased;
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected.

ELY.

But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the commons? Doth his majesty.
Incline to it, or no?

55

60

65

70

75

And in regard of causes 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

80

Did to his predecessors part withal.

ELY. How did this offer seem received, my lord? CANT. With good acceptance of his majesty; Save that there was not time enough to hear,

As I perceived his grace would fain have done,
The severals and unhidden passages

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Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms,
And generally to the crown and seat of France,
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.

ELY. What was the impediment that broke this off?
CANT. The French ambassador upon that instant

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Craved 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 embassy;

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Which I could with a ready guess declare,
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
ELY. I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.

SCENE II. The same.

[Exeunt.

The Presence Chamber.

Enter KING HENRY, GLOUCESTER, BEDFORD, EXETER, WARWICK,
WESTMORELAND, and Attendants.

K. HEN. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

EXE. Not here in presence.

K. HEN.
Send for him, good uncle.
WEST. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?
K. HEN. Not yet, my cousin: we would be resolved,
Before we hear him, of some things of weight
That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY and the
BISHOP OF ELY.

CANT. God and his angels guard your sacred throne,
And make you long become it!

K. HEN.

Sure, we thank you. My learned lord, we pray you to proceed,

And justly and religiously unfold

Why the law Salique that they have in France

5

10

Or should, or should not, bar us in our claim :

And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord,

That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading,

Or nicely charge your understanding soul

15

With opening titles miscreate, whose right

Suits 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 shall incite us to.
Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,
How you
awake our sleeping sword of war:

We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;
For never two such kingdoms did contend

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Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops

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Are every one a woe, a sore complaint

'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the swords

That makes such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration speak, my lord;

And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,

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That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
As pure as sin with baptism.