In equal rank with the best govern'd nation ;
That war or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us.
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
Our coronation done, we will accite
(As I before remember'd) all our state,
And (Heav'n consigning to my good intents)
No prince, or peer, shall have just cause to say,
Heav'n shorten Harry's happy life one day.

SHAKSPEARE.

CHAP. XII.

ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY AND BISHOP OF ELY.

Cant. My lord, I'll tell you; that self bill is urg'd,
Which, in the eleventh year o' th' last king's reign,
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd,
But that the scrambling 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 temp'ral 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 corp'ral toil,
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.
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, mortified in him,

Seem'd to die too; yea, at that very moment,
Consideration, like an angel came,

And whipp'd the 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 ready current, scouring 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 had been all in all his study.
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle render'd you in music.
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 honey'd sentences:
So that the art and practic part of life
Must be the mistress of this theoric.

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;
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, 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 a 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.

SHAKSPEARE.

CHAP. XIII.

HAMLET AND HORATIO.

Hor. HAIL to your lordship!

Ham. I am glad to see you well.

Horatio!or I do forget myself.

Hor. The same, my lord, and your poor servant ever.

Ham. Sir, my good friend : I'll change that name with you:

And what makes you from Wittenberg, Horatio ?
Hor. A truant disposition, good my lord.
Ham. I would not hear your enemy say so!
Nor shall you do mine ear that violence,
To make it truster of your own report
Against yourself. I know you are no truant;
But what is your affair in Elsinoor?

We'll teach you to drink deep ere you depart.

Hor. My lord, I came to see your father's fun'ral. Ham. I pray thee do not mock me, fellow-student ; I think it was to see my mother's wedding.

Hor. Indeed, my lord, it follow'd hard upon.

Ham. Thrift, thrift, Horatio; the funeral bak'd meats Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables. Would I had met my direst foe in Heav'n, Or ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! My father-Methinks I see my father. Hor. Oh where, my lord? Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. Hor. I saw him once, he was a goodly king. Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all, I shall not look upon his like again.

Hor. My lord, I think I saw him yesternight.

Ham. Saw! who?

Hor. My lord, the king your father.

Ham. The king my father!

Hor. Season your admiration but a while

With an attentive ear; till I deliver,
Upon the witness of these gentlemen,

This marvel to you.

Ham. For Heav'n's love, let me hear !
Hor. Two nights together had these gentlemen,

Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,
In the dead waste and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd: A figure like your father,
Arm'd at all points exactly, cap à pié,
Appears before them, and with solenın march
Goes slow and stately by them; thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; while they (distill'd
Almost to jelly with th' effect of fear)
Stand dumb, and speak not to him.
In dreadful secrecy impart they did,
And with them the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,

This to me

Form of the thing, each word made true and good,

The apparition comes.

comes. I knew your father :

These hands are not more like.

Ham. But where was this?

Hor. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

Ham. Did you not speak to it?

Hor. My lord, I did;

But answer made it none.

Yet once methought

lifted up it's head, and did address

Itself to motion, like as it would speak,

But even then the morning cock crew loud;

And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,

And vanish'd from our sight.

Ham. "very strange.

do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true :

we did think it writ down in our duty,

To let you know of it.

Ham Indeed, indeed, but this troubles me.

Hold you the watch to night?

Mar. and Ber. We do, my lord.

Ham. Arm'd, say you?

Hor. Arm'd, my lord.

Ham. From top to toe?

Hor. My lord, from head to foot.

Ham. Then saw you not his face ?

Hor. O yes, my lord: he wore his beaver up.

Ham. What, look'd he frowningly ?

Hor. A count'nance more in sorrow than in anger.

Ham. Pale, or red?

Hor. Nay, very pale.

Ham. And fix'd his eyes upon you?

Hor. Most constantly.

Ham. I would I had been there! (

Hor. It would have much amaz'd you.

Ham. Very like. Staid it long?

Hor. While one with mod'rate haste might tell a hundred.

Ham. His beard was grisled ?-no.

Hor. It was, as I have seen it in his life,

A sable silver'd.

Ham. I'll watch to night; perchance 'twill walk again.
Hor. I warrant you it will.

Ham. If it assumes my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though Hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be ten'ble in your silence still :
And whatsoever shall befal to night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue :
I will requite your love: so fare ye well.
Upon the platform 'twixt eleven and twelve
I'll visit you.

SHAKSPEARE.

CHAP. XIV.

BRUTUS AND CASSIUS.

Cas. WILL you go see the order of the course ?

Bru. Not I.

Cas. I pray you, do.