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 1o 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
Urg'd by the commons? Doth his majesty
Incline to it, or no?

Cant.

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.

lord?

Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my 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 severals, and unhidden passages

11

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;

10 'Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.'

Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo

Fama Marcelli.

This expressive word is used by Drant, in his Translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567 :—

'As lusty youths of crescive age doe flourish fresh and grow.' 11 The severals, and unhidden passages.' The particulars and clear unconcealed circumstances of his true titles, &c.

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? Cant. 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. Cant. 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.

SCENE II.

The same. A Room of State in the same.

Enter KING HENRY, GLOSTER, 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 uncle1.

West. Shall we call in the ambassador my liege? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd,

Before we hear of him, of some things of weight, That task our thoughts, concerning us and France.

1 Send for him, good uncle.' The person here addressed was Thomas Beaufort, half brother to King Henry IV. being one of the sons of John of Gaunt by Katharine Swynford. He was not made duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, 1416. He was properly now only earl of Dorset. Shakspeare may have confounded this character with John Holland, duke of Exeter, who married Elizabeth, the king's aunt. He was executed at Plashey, in 1400. The old play began with the next speech.

2 i. e. keep our thoughts busied.

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury, and 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,
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
With opening titles miscreate3, 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 5,
How you awake the sleeping 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 sore complaint,

3

'Or nicely charge your understanding soul
With opening titles miscreate.'

Or burthen your knowing or conscious soul with displaying false titles in a specious manner or opening pretensions, which, if shown in their native colours, would appear to be false.

4 Shall drop their blood in approbation.' Approbation is used by Shakspeare for proving or establishing by proof. Thus in Cymbeline:- Would I had put my estate and my neighbour's on the approbation of what I have spoke. This sense was not peculiar to our poet; for Braithwaite, in his Survey of Histories, 1614, says, 'Composing what he wrote not by the report of others, but by the approbation of his own eyes.'

5 Therefore take heed how you impawn our person.' To impawn was to engage or pledge. See Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2.

'Gainst him, whose wrongs give edge unto the swords
That make such waste in brief mortality.
Under this conjuration, speak, my lord:
And we will hear, note, and believe in heart,
That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd
As pure as sin with baptism.

Cant. Then hear me, gracious sovereign,—and

you peers,

That owe your lives, your faith, and services,
To this imperial throne:-There is no bar
To make against your highness' claim to France,
But this, which they produce from Pharamond,—
In terram Salicam mulieres nè succedant,
No woman shall succeed in Salique land:
Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze,
To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
The founder of this law and female bar.
Yet their own authors faithfully affirm,
That the land Salique lies in Germany,
Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe:

Where Charles the great, having subdued the Saxons,
There left behind and settled certain French;
Who, holding in disdain the German women,
For some dishonest manners of their life,
Establish'd there this law,-to wit, no female
Should be inheritrix in Salique land;

Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
Is at this day in Germany call'd-Meisen.
Thus doth it well appear, the Salique law
Was not devised for the realm of France:
Nor did the French possess the Salique land
Until four hundred one and twenty years

6. There is no bar,' &c. The whole speech is taken from Holinshed.

7 To gloze is to expound or explain, and sometimes to comment upon. See Troilus and Cressida, Act ii. Sc. 2.

After defunction of king Pharamond,

Idly suppos'd the founder of this law;

Who died within the year of our redemption
Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
Beyond the river Sala, in the year

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
King Pepin, which deposed Childerick,

Did, as heir general, being descended

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
Make claim and title to the crown of France.
Hugh Capet also,-that usurp'd the crown
Of Charles the duke of Lorain, sole heir male
Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,-
To fine his title with some show of truth,
(Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught),
Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son

8 To fine his title with some show of truth.' To fine is to embellish, to trim, to make showy or specious: Limare.

9 Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare. Shakspeare found this expression in Holinshed; and, though it sounds odd to modern ears, it is classical. Bishop Cooper renders 'Conjicere se in familiam; to convey himself to be of some noble family.' Malone's guess-work explanation of' derived his title,' is sufficiently erroneous. Its true meaning is,' he passed himself off as heir to the Lady Lingare.' These fictitious personages and pedigrees (as Ritson remarks) seem to have been devised by the English Heralds to fine a title with some show of truth,' which in pure truth was corrupt and naught.' It was manifestly impossible that Henry, who had no title to his own dominions, could derive one, by the same colour, to another person's. He merely proposed the invasion and conquest of France in prosecution of the dying advice of his father:

to busy giddy minds

In foreign quarrels; that action, thence borne out,
Might waste the memory of former days.'

The zeal and eloquence of the Archbishop are owing to similar motives.