Arch-Bishop of Canterbury.
My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urg'd,
Which, in th'eleventh year o'th' last King's reign,
Was like, and had, indeed, against us past,
But that the scambling and unquiet time
Did push it out of farther question.

Ely.
But how, my lord, shall we resist it now?

Cant.
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,
Would they strip from us; being valu'd thus,
As much as would maintain, to the King's honour,
Full fifteen Earls and fifteen hundred Knights,
Six thousand and two hundred good Esquires:
And to relief of lazars, and weak age,
Of indigent faint souls, past corporal toil,
A hundred alms-houses, right well supply'd;
And to the coffers of the King, beside,
A thousand pounds by th'year. Thus runs the bill.

Ely.
This would drink deep.

Cant.
'Twould drink the cup, and all.

Ely.
But what prevention?

Cant.
The King is full of grace and fair regard.

Ely.
And a true lover of the holy Church.

Cant.
The courses of his youth promis'd it not;
The breath no sooner left his father's body,
But that his wildness, mortify'd in him,
Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration, like an angel, came,
And whipt th'offending Adam out of him;
Leaving his Body as a paradise,
T'invelope and contain celestial spirits.
Never was such a sudden scholar made:
Never came reformation in a flood
With such a heady current, scow'ring faults:
Nor ever Hydra-headed wilfulness
So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this King.

Ely.
We're blessed in the change.

Cant.
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'd say, it hath been all in all his study.
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battel render'd you in musick.

Turn him to any cause of policy,
The Gordian knot of it he will unloose,
Familiar as his garter. When he speaks,
The air, a charter'd libertine, is still;
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honied sentences:
So that the Act, and practic part of life,(3) ^note

Ely.
The Strawberry grows underneath the nettle,
And wholsom berries thrive, and ripen best,
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 in his faculty.

Cant.
It must be so; for miracles are ceas'd:
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 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 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.

Ely.
How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord?

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
Of his true titles to some certain Dukedoms,
And, generally, to the Crown of France,
Deriv'd from Edward his great grandfather.

Ely.
What was th'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 embassie:
Which I could with a ready guess declare,
Before the Frenchman speaks a word of it.

Ely.
I'll wait upon you, and I long to hear it. [Exeunt.

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