Henry V by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 1
London. An ante-chamber in the KING’S palace.
Archbishop of Canterbury : My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urged,
[p]Which in the
eleventh year of the last king's reign
[p]Was like, and had indeed
against us pass'd,
[p]But that the scambling and unquiet time
[p]Did
push it out of farther question.
Bishop of Ely : But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?
Archbishop of Canterbury : It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
[p]We lose the better
half of our possession:
[p]For all the temporal lands which men
devout
[p]By testament have given to the church
[p]Would they strip
from us; being valued thus:
[p]As much as would maintain, to the
king's honour,
[p]Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred
knights,
[p]Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
[p]And, to
relief of lazars and weak age,
[p]Of indigent faint souls past
corporal toil.
[p]A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
[p]And to
the coffers of the king beside,
[p]A thousand pounds by the year: thus
runs the bill.
Bishop of Ely : This would drink deep.
Archbishop of Canterbury : 'Twould drink the cup and all.
Bishop of Ely : But what prevention?
Archbishop of Canterbury : The king is full of grace and fair regard.
Bishop of Ely : And a true lover of the holy church.
Archbishop of Canterbury : The courses of his youth promised it not.
[p]The breath no sooner left
his father's body,
[p]But that his wildness, mortified in
him,
[p]Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment
[p]Consideration,
like an angel, came
[p]And whipp'd the offending Adam out of
him,
[p]Leaving his body as a paradise,
[p]To envelop and contain
celestial spirits.
[p]Never was such a sudden scholar made;
[p]Never
came reformation in a flood,
[p]With such a heady currance, scouring
faults
[p]Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness
[p]So soon did lose his
seat and all at once
[p]As in this king.
Bishop of Ely : We are blessed in the change.
Archbishop of Canterbury : Hear him but reason in divinity,
[p]And all-admiring with an inward
wish
[p]You would desire the king were made a prelate:
[p]Hear him
debate of commonwealth affairs,
[p]You would say it hath been all in
all his study:
[p]List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
[p]A
fearful battle render'd you in music:
[p]Turn him to any cause of
policy,
[p]The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
[p]Familiar as his
garter: that, when he speaks,
[p]The air, a charter'd libertine, is
still,
[p]And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
[p]To steal his
sweet and honey'd sentences;
[p]So that the art and practic part of
life
[p]Must be the mistress to this theoric:
[p]Which is a wonder how
his grace should glean it,
[p]Since his addiction was to courses
vain,
[p]His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,
[p]His hours
fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports,
[p]And never noted in him any
study,
[p]Any retirement, any sequestration
[p]From open haunts and
popularity.
Bishop of Ely : The strawberry grows underneath the nettle
[p]And wholesome berries
thrive and ripen best
[p]Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality:
[p]And
so the prince obscured his contemplation
[p]Under the veil of
wildness; which, no doubt,
[p]Grew like the summer grass, fastest by
night,
[p]Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.
Archbishop of Canterbury : It must be so; for miracles are ceased;
[p]And therefore we must needs
admit the means
[p]How things are perfected.
Bishop of Ely : But, my good lord,
[p]How now for mitigation of this bill
[p]Urged by
the commons? Doth his majesty
[p]Incline to it, or no?
Archbishop of Canterbury : He seems indifferent,
[p]Or rather swaying more upon our part
[p]Than
cherishing the exhibiters against us;
[p]For I have made an offer to
his majesty,
[p]Upon our spiritual convocation
[p]And in regard of
causes now in hand,
[p]Which I have open'd to his grace at
large,
[p]As touching France, to give a greater sum
[p]Than ever at
one time the clergy yet
[p]Did to his predecessors part withal.
Bishop of Ely : How did this offer seem received, my lord?
Archbishop of Canterbury : With good acceptance of his majesty;
[p]Save that there was not time
enough to hear,
[p]As I perceived his grace would fain have
done,
[p]The severals and unhidden passages
[p]Of his true titles to
some certain dukedoms
[p]And generally to the crown and seat of
France
[p]Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.
Bishop of Ely : What was the impediment that broke this off?
Archbishop of Canterbury : The French ambassador upon that instant
[p]Craved audience; and the
hour, I think, is come
[p]To give him hearing: is it four o'clock?
Bishop of Ely : It is.
Archbishop of Canterbury : Then go we in, to know his embassy;
[p]Which I could with a ready
guess declare,
[p]Before the Frenchman speak a word of it.
Bishop of Ely : I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it.
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Next: Act 1 - Scene 2
