Page:Henry V (1918) Yale.djvu/16

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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; 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 practic part of life

Must be the mistress to 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 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?

 45 cause of policy: political question

46 Gordian knot; cf. n.

47 that: so that

48 charter'd: privileged

51 art; cf. n.

practic: practical

52 theoric: theory

55 companies: companions

57 never noted: there was never noted

58 sequestration: withdrawal

59 popularity: low company

63 contemplation: thoughtful nature

66 crescive in his faculty: increasing by its own power 