Never came reformation in a flood,4
With such a heady current, scouring faults;
Nor never Hydra-headed wilfulness

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once,
As in this king.

Ely.

We are blessed in the change. Cant. Hear him but reason in divinity,5

4 Never came reformation in a flood,] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleansed the famous stables, when he turned a river through them. Hercules still is in our author's head when he mentions the Hydra. Johnson.

5 Hear him but reason in divinity, &c.] This speech seems to have been copied from King James's prelates, speaking of their Solomon; when Archbishop Whitgift, who, as an eminent writer says, died soon afterwards, and probably doated then, at the Hampton-Court conference, declared himself verily persuaded, that his sacred majesty spake by the spirit of God. And, in effect, this scene was added after King James's accession to the crown: so that we have no way of avoiding its being esteemed a compli ment to him, but by supposing it a compliment to his bishops. Warburton.

Why these lines should be divided from the rest of the speech and applied to King James, I am not able to conceive; nor why an opportunity should be so eagerly snatched to treat with contempt that part of his character which was the least contemptible. King James's theological knowledge was not inconsiderable. To preside at disputations is not very suitable to a king, but to understand the questions is surely laudable. The poet, if he had James in his thoughts, was no skilful encomiast; for the mention of Harry's skill in war forced upon the remembrance of his audience the great deficiency of their present king; who yet, with all his faults, and many faults he had, was such, that Sir Robert Cotton says, he would be content that England should never have a better, provided that it should never have a worse. Johnson.

Those who are solicitous that justice should be done to the theological knowledge of our British Solomon, may very easily furnish themselves with specimens of it from a book entitled, Rex Platonicus, sive de potentissimi Principis Jacobi Britanniarum Regis ad illustrissimam Academiam Oxoniensem adventu, Aug. 27, Anno 1605. In this performance we may still hear him reasoning in Divinity, Physick, Jurisprudence, and Philosophy. On the second of these subjects he has not failed to express his wellknown enmity to tobacco, and throws out many a royal witticism on the "Medici Nicotianista," and "Tobacconista" of the age; insomuch, that Isaac Wake, the chronicler of his triumphs at Oxford, declares, that "nemo nisi iniquissimus rerum æstimator, bonique publici pessimè invidus Jacobo nostro recusabit immortalem gloriæ aram figere, qui ipse adeo mirabilem in Theologia,

And, all-admiring, with an inward wish

You would desire, the king were made a prefate:
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 render'd you in musick:
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 charter'd libertine, is still,"
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences;
So that the art and practick part of life'
Must be the mistress to this theorick:&
Which is a wonder, how his grace should glean it,
Since his addiction was to courses vain:
His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow;
His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports;

Jurisprudentia, et Medicine arcanis peritiam eamque planè divinitus assecutus est, ut" &c. Steevens.

6 The air, &c.] This line is exquisitely beautiful. Johnson. The same thought occurs in As you Like it, Act II, sc. vii: I must have liberty

So that the art and practick part of life-] He discourses with so much skill on all subjects, that the art and practice of life must be the mistress or teacher of his theorick; that is, that his theory must have been taught by art and practice; which, says he, is strange, since he could see little of the true art or practice among his loose companions, nor ever retired to digest his practice into theory. Art is used by the author for practice, as distinguished from science or theory. Johnson.

8 to this theorick:] Theorick is what terminates in speculation. So, in The Valiant Welshman, 1615:

-son Caradoc,

"'Tis yet unfit that, on this sudden warning,
"You leave your fair wife to the theorique
"Of matrimonial pleasure and delight."

Bookish theorick is mentioned in Othello. Steevens.

In our author's time this word was always used where we now use theory. See Vol. V, p. 269, n. 8. Malme.

9

companies] Is here used for companions. It is used by other authors of Shakspeare's age in the same sense.

Malone.

And never noted in him any study,
Any retirement, any sequestration
From open haunts and popularity.1

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle;2 And wholesome 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.3

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?

4

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,

1

• popularity.] i. e. plebeian intercourse; an unusual sense of the word: though perhaps the same idea was meant to be com. municated by it in King Henry IV, Part I, where King Richard II, is represented as having

"Enfeoff'd himself to popularity." Steevens.

2 The strawberry &c.] i. e. the wild fruit so called, that grows in the woods. Steevens.

3

crescive in his faculty.] Increasing in its proper power.

Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night,

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty.]

"Crescit occulto velut arbor ævo

"Fama Marcelli."

Johnson.

Crescive is a word used by Drant, in his translation of Horace's Art of Poetry, 1567:

"As lusty youths of crescive age doe flourishe freshe and grow." Steevens.

swaying more upon our part,] Swaying is inclining. So,

in King Henry VI, Part III:

"Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea,

"Now sways it that way." Malone.

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,5

Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms;
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 speaks a word of it.
Ely. I'll wait upon you; and I long to hear it.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

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 uncle.

5 The severals, and unhidden passages,] This line I suspect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: the passages of his titles are the lines of succession by which his claims descend. Unhidden is open, clear Johnson.

I believe we should read several, instead of severals.
M. Mason.

6 Send for him, good uncle.] The person here addressed was Thomas Beaufort, Earl of Dorset, who was half-brother to King Henry IV, being one of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Katharine Swynford. Shakspeare is a little too early in giving him the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken, and he

West. Shall we call in the ambassador, my liege?? K. Hen. Not yet, my cousin; we would be resolv'd, Before we hear him, of some things of weight, That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. 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 miscreate,1 whose right
Suits not in native colours with the truth;
For God doth know, how many, now in health,
Shall drop their blood in approbation2

was appointed governor of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, Nov. 14, 1416. Malone.

Perhaps Shakspeare confounded this character with that of John Holland, Duke of Exeter, who was married to Elizabeth, the king's aunt He was executed at Plashey in 1400: but with this circumstance our author might have been unacquainted. See Remarks &c. on the last edition of Shakspeare, [i. e. that of 1778] p. 239. Steevens.

7 Shall we call in &c.] Here began the old play. Pope.

8 task] Keep busied with scruples and laborious disquisitions. Johnson.

9 Or nicely charge your understanding soul-] Take heed, lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or knowingly burthen your soul, with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colours, would appear to be false. Johnson. 1- miscreate,] Ill-begotten, illegitimate, spurious. Johnson. in approbation] i. e. in proving and supporting that title which shall be now set up. So, in Braithwaite's Survey of Histories, 1614: "Composing what he wrote, not by report of others, but by the approbation of his own eyes."

2

Again, in The Winter's Tale:

“That lack'd sight only;―nought for approbation,
"But only seeing." Malone.