READ STUDY GUIDE: Prologue and Act I, scene i |
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Act I, Scene i:
London. An ante-chamber in the King's palace.
London. An ante-chamber in the King's palace.
| [Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely.] |
| CANTERBURY: |
| My lord, I'll tell you: that self bill is urg'd, |
| Which in the eleventh year of the last king's reign |
| Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, |
| But that the scambling and unquiet time |
| Did push it out of farther question. |
| ELY: |
| But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? |
| CANTERBURY: |
| 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, |
| 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 esquires; |
| And, to relief of lazars and weak age, |
| Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil, |
| A hundred almshouses right well suppli'd; |
| And to the coffers of the King beside, |
| A thousand pounds by the year. Thus runs the bill. |
| ELY: |
| This would drink deep. |
| CANTERBURY: |
| 'Twould drink the cup and all. |
| ELY: |
| But what prevention? |
| CANTERBURY: |
| The King is full of grace and fair regard. |
| ELY: |
| And a true lover of the holy Church. |
| CANTERBURY: |
| The courses of his youth promis'd it not. |
| The breath no sooner left his father's body, |
| But that his wildness, mortifi'd 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, |
| Leaving his body as a paradise |
| To envelope and contain celestial spirits. |
| Never was such a sudden scholar made; |
| Never came reformation in a flood |
| With such a heady currance, scouring faults; |
| Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness |
| So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, |
| As in this king. |
| ELY: |
| We are blessed in the change. |
| CANTERBURY: |
| Hear him but reason in divinity, |
| And, all-admiring, with an 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 |
| A fearful battle rend'red you in music; |
| Turn him to any cause of policy, |
| The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, |
| Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks, |
| The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, |
| And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, |
| To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences; |
| So that the art and practic' part of life |
| Must be the mistress to this theoric: |
| 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 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. |
| CANTERBURY: |
| 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 |
| Urg'd by the commons? Doth his Majesty |
| Incline to it, or no? |
| CANTERBURY: |
| He seems indifferent, |
| Or rather swaying more upon our part |
| Than cherishing the exhibiters against us; |
| For I have made an offer to his Majesty, |
| Upon our spiritual convocation |
| 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 |
| Did to his predecessors part withal. |
| ELY: |
| How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord? |
| CANTERBURY: |
| 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 severals and unhidden passages |
| Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms, |
| And generally to the crown and seat of France |
| Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. |
| ELY: |
| What was the impediment that broke this off? |
| CANTERBURY: |
| The French ambassador upon that instant |
| Crav'd audience; and the hour, I think, is come |
| To give him hearing. Is it four o'clock? |
| ELY: |
| It is. |
| CANTERBURY: |
| Then go we in, to know his embassy; |
| 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. |
| [Exeunt.] |
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