Enter the two Bishops of Canterbury and Ely. BISHOP OF CANTERBURY
My lord, I’ll tell you that self bill is urged
Which in th’ eleventh year of the last king’s reign
Was like, and had indeed against us passed
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther question. 5 BISHOP OF ELY
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? | At King Henry V's swanky English palace, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely chat about a bill that's been raised by Parliament. It turns out that the bill was raised years ago during Henry IV's reign, but it got pushed off to the side during the chaos of the civil wars. (How convenient!) Now that England is no longer at war, the bill has resurfaced. |
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY
It must be thought on. If it pass against us,
We lose the better half of our possession,
For all the temporal lands which men devout
By testament have given to the Church 10
Would they strip from us, being valued thus:
“As much as would maintain, to the King’s honor,
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires;
And, to relief of lazars and weak age 15
Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil,
A hundred almshouses right well supplied;
And to the coffers of the King besides,
A thousand pounds by th’ year.” Thus runs the bill. | If the bill passes, the Church will lose a ton of money and land that it has collected over the years from generous rich people. Some of this money and property would go to the king's treasury and some of it would be used to fund the army and feed the poor. |
BISHOP OF 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 30
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 35
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. BISHOP OF ELY We are blessèd in the change. 40 BISHOP OF 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; 45
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rendered you in music;
Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter; that, when he speaks, 50
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; 55
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, 60
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity. BISHOP OF ELY
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best
Neighbored by fruit of baser quality; 65
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. BISHOP OF CANTERBURY
It must be so, for miracles are ceased, 70
And therefore we must needs admit the means
How things are perfected. BISHOP OF ELY But, my good lord,
How now for mitigation of this bill
Urged by the Commons? Doth his Majesty 75
Incline to it or no? | Canterbury and Ely go off on a tangent about how lucky they all are that King Henry has recently undergone a miraculous transformation. Back in the day, Henry was a wild young prince who spent all his time drinking and carousing with his low-life pals. These days, he's the perfect king. |
BISHOP OF CANTERBURY He seems indifferent,
Or rather swaying more upon our part
Than cherishing th’ exhibitors against us;
For I have made an offer to his Majesty— 80
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 85
Did to his predecessors part withal. BISHOP OF ELY
How did this offer seem received, my lord? BISHOP OF 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, 90
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. BISHOP OF ELY
What was th’ impediment that broke this off? 95 BISHOP OF 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? BISHOP OF ELY It is. BISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Then go we in to know his embassy, 100
Which I could with a ready guess declare
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. BISHOP OF ELY
I’ll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. They exit. | We learn that Canterbury has recently offered the Henry the biggest chunk of change that's ever been given to a monarch by the Church. This money will come in handy, because King Henry's thinking about declaring war on France and helping himself to the French crown. (Hmm. This sounds a little bit like a bribe, don't you think?) |