reign i.e., 1410

3 like likely (to be passed)

4 scambling scuffling, disordered

9 temporal secular (as opposed to sacred)

15 lazars lepers

A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the King beside,
A thousand pounds by th’ 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 promised it not.

The breath no sooner left his father’s body
But that his wildness, mortified° in him,
Seemed to die too; yea, at that very moment
Consideration° like an angel came
And whipped th’ offending Adam° out of him,
Leaving his body as a paradise
T’ envelop 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° willfulness
So soon did lose his seat°—and all at once—
As in this king.

Ely. We are blessèd 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;°

22 regard repute

26 mortified dead (a religious usage)

28 Consideration meditation

29 whipped th’ offending Adam drove original sin

34 heady currance headlong current

35 Hydra-headed Hydra was a mythological beast with nine heads, growing two more for every one cut off

36 seat throne

38 reason debate

42 all in all all things in all respects

43 List listen to

44 rend‘red you in music recounted with harmonious and stirring eloquence

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 chartered libertine,° is still,
And the mute wonder° lurketh in men’s ears
To steal his sweet and honeyed 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° unlettered, rude, and shallow,
His hours filled 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
Neighbored 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.°

Canterbury. 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

45 cause of policy political problem

46 Gordian knot (tied by Gordius when chosen King of Gordium; the oracle declared that whoever loosened it would rule Asia; Alexander the Great cut through it with his sword)

48 chartered liberline one licensed to go his own way

49 wonder wonderer

50 sentences sayings

51-52 art ... theoric practice and experience must have taught him theory

53 Grace Majesty (a formal title)

55 companies companions

59 open haunts and popularity public places and familiarity

63 contemplation study of life 66 crescive in his faculty growing because that is its nature

67 miracles are ceased (protestants believed miracles ceased to occur after the revelation of Christ)

68 means i.e., natural cause

Urged by the commons?° Doth his Majesty
Incline to it, or no?

Canterbury. He seems indifferent;°

Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing th’ 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 opened° 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 received, my lord?

Canterbury. 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°
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 th’ impediment that broke this off?

Canterbury. The French ambassador upon that instant

Craved 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.

71 commons House of Commons in the parliament of England

72 indifferent impartial

74 exhibiters presenters of the bill

76 Convocation formal meeting of the ctergy

77 causes affairs

78 opened revealed 86 severals and unhidden passages details and clear (obvious) lines of descent

[Scene 2. The presence chamber in the palace.]

Enter the King, Humphrey [Duke of Gloucester], Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, Westmoreland, and Exeter, [with Attendants].

King. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury?

Exeter. Not here in presence.

King. Send for him, good uncle.

Westmoreland. Shall we call in th’ ambassador, my liege?

King. 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 two Bishops [the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely].

Canterbury. God and his angels guard your sacred throne,

And make you long become it!

King.