Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,
And all-admiring with an inward wish
You would desire the king were made a prelate:40
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say it hath been all in all his study:[4529]
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music:
Turn him to any cause of policy,[4530]45
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter: that, when he speaks,[4531]
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;50
So that the art and practic part of life[4532]
Must be the mistress to this theoric:[4533]
Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain,
His companies unletter'd, rude and shallow,55
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 nettle60
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbour'd 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,65
Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.[4534]
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 bill70
Urged 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,75
Upon our spiritual convocation[4535]
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 yet80
Did to his predecessors part withal.
Ely. How did this offer seem received, my lord?
Cant. With good acceptance of his majesty;
Save that there was not time enough to hear,
As I perceived his grace would fain have done,85
The severals and unhidden passages[4536]
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms
And generally to the crown and seat of France[4537]
Derived from Edward, his great-grandfather.
Ely. What was the impediment that broke this off?90
Cant. 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.