: The LIFE of King HENRY V. (2) ACTI. SCENE, An Antechamber in the English Court, at Kenilworth. Enter the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, and Bishop of Ely. M Arch-Bishop of CANTERBURY. Y lord, I'll tell you; that felf bill is urg'd, reign, Was like, and had, indeed, against us past, Did push it out of farther question. Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now ? (2) The Life of K. Henry] The Transactions, compriz'd in this Hiftorical Play, commence about the latter end of the first, and terminate in the 8th Year of this King's Reign; when he married Catharine Princess of France, and closed up the Differences betwixt England and that Crown. Cant. It must be thought on: if it pass against us, 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. Cant. The courses of his youth promis'd it not; The breath no sooner left his father's body, With such a heady current, scow'ring faults: Ely. We're blessed in the change. Turn Turn him to any cause of policy, From open haunts and popularity. Ely. The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle, Cant. It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd : Ely. But, my good lord, How now for mitigation of this bill, (3) 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 Passage. The Archbishop has been shewing, what a Master 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 should now wed that Theory to Action, and the putting the several 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 Act, and practic &c. Thus we have a Consonance in the Terms and Sense. For Theory is the Art, and Study of the Rules of any Science; and Action, the Exemplification of those Rules by Proof and Experiment. Cant. He seems indifferent ; Ely. How did this offer feem receiv'd, my lord? Save that there was not time enough to hear 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. SCENE opens to the Presence. [Exeunt. Enter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmorland, and Exeter. HERE is my gracious lord of Canter K. Henry. WHERE Exe. Not here in presence. K. Henry. Send for him, good uncle. West. Shall we call in th'ambassador, my Liege? K. Henry. K. Henry. Not yet, my cousin; we would be refolv'd, Before we hear him, of some 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 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 foul With opening titles miscreate, whose right Sutes 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 fleeping sword of war : We charge you in the name of God, take heed. For never two such kingdoms did contend Without much fall of blood; whose guiltless drops Are every one a woe, a fore complaint, 'Gainst him, whose wrong gives edge unto the fwords, That make fuch waste in brief mortality. Under this conjuration, speak, 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 Soveraign, and you Peers, That owe your lives, your faith, and services, Which Salike land the French unjustly gloze To |