Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/91

King Henry the Fourth, IV. ii

Encircled you to hear with reverence

Your exposition on the holy text

Than now to see you here an iron man,

Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,

Turning the word to sword and life to death.

That man that sits within a monarch's heart

And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,

Would he abuse the countenance of the king,

Alack! what mischiefs might he set abroach

In shadow of such greatness. With you, lord bishop,

It is even so. Who hath not heard it spoken

How deep you were within the books of God?

To us the speaker in his parliament;

To us the imagin'd voice of God himself;

The very opener and intelligencer

Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,

And our dull workings. O! who shall believe

But you misuse the reverence of your place,

Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,

As a false favourite doth his prince's name,

In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up,

Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

The subjects of his substitute, my father;

And both against the peace of heaven and him

Have here upswarm'd them.

Arch.Good my Lord of Lancaster,

I am not here against your father's peace;

But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland,

The time misorder'd doth, in common sense,

Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form,

To hold our safety up. I sent your Grace

The parcels and particulars of our grief,—

 20 intelligencer: interpreter

22 workings: actions

26 taken up: levied 