Page 1078 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

And so to you, Lord Hastings, and to all.
My Lord of York, it better showed with you
When that your flock, assembled by the bell, [5]
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. [10]

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, [15]
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 imagined voice of God himself,
The very opener and intelligencer [20]
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven
And our dull workings. O, who shall believe

But you misuse the reverence of your place,
Imply the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince’s name, [25]
In deeds dishonourable? You have ta’en 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 upswarmed them.

ARCHBISHOP
Good my Lord of Lancaster, [30]

I am not here against your father’s peace,
But, as I told my Lord of Westmoreland,
The time misordered doth, in common sense,

Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form,
To hold our safety up. I sent your grace [35]
The parcels and particulars of our grief,
The which hath been with scorn shoved from the court,