The two occurrences of the word 'investments' are mutually illuminating and have an ironic or polemical twist in their association of clerical robes with deception. At the beginning of the Gaultre Forest episode of 2Henry IV, in which the King's generals invite the rebel leaders to a conference only to break their word, arrest and execute them, Westmoreland addresses the Archbishop of York:
You, Lord Archbishop,
42 Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd,
43 Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd,
44 Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor'd,
45 Whose white investments figure innocence,
46 The dove, and very blessed spirit of peace,
47 Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself
48 Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace,
49 Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war? (2H4. 4.1.42-49)
Polonius almost sounds as if he had the Archbishop in mind when he warns Ophelia against Hamlet
In few, Ophelia,
127 Do not believe his vows, for they are brokers,
128 Not of that dye which their investments show,
129 But mere [implorators] of unholy suits,
130 Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
131 The better to [beguile]. (Ham.1.3.126-131)
17 September 1999