SCENE I. THE ENGLISH CAMP AT AGINCOURT. Enter King Henry, Bedford, and Glo'ster. K. Hen. Glo'ster, 'tis true, that we are in great danger; The greater therefore should our courage be.— For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, Enter Erpingham. Good morrow, old sir Thomas Erpingham: Erp. Not so, my liege; this lodging likes me Since I may say-now lie I like a king. K. Hen. 'Tis good for men to love their present Upon example; so the spirit is eased: Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move Lend me thy cloak, sir Thomas.-Brothers both, Glo. We shall, my liege. [Exeunt Glo'ster and Bedford. No, my good knight; Erp. Shall I attend your grace? K. Hen. Go with my brothers to my lords of England: I and my bosom must debate a-while, And then I would no other company. Erp. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry! [Exit Erpingham. K. Hen. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'st cheerfully. Enter Pistol. Pist. Qui va lá? K. Hen. A friend. Pist. Discuss unto me; Art thou officer? Pist. As good a gentleman as the emperor. Of parents good, of fist most valiant: I kiss his dirty shoe, and from my heart-strings I love the lovely bully. What's thy name? K. Hen. Harry le Roy. Pist. Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of K. Hen. No, I am a Welshman. Pist. Know'st thou Fluellen? K. Hen. Yes. Pist. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate, Upon saint Davy's day. K. Hen. Do not you wear your dagger in cap that day, lest he knock that about yours. Pist. Art thou his friend? K. Hen. And his kinsman too. Pist. The figo for thee then! K. Hen. I thank you: God be with you! K. Hen. It sorts well with your fierceness. Enter Fluellen and Gower, severally. Gow. Captain Fluellen! your [Exit. Flu. So in the name of Cheshu Christ, speak lower. It is the greatest admiration in the universal 'orld, when the true and auncient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of Pompey the great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle, nor pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise. Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard him all night. Flu. If the enemy is an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb; in your own conscience now? Gow. I will speak lower. Flu. I pray you, and beseech you, that you will. [Exeunt Gower and Fluellen. K. Hen. Though it appear a little out of fashion, There is much care and valour in this Welshman. Enter Bates, Court, and Williams. Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder? Bates. I think it be: but we have no great cause to desire the approach of day. Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but, I think, we shall never see the end of it.Who goes there? K. Hen. A friend. Will. Under what captain serve you? K. Hen. Under sir Thomas Erpingham. Will. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? K. Hen. Even as men wreck'd upon a sand, that look to be wash'd off the next tide. Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king? K. Hen. No; nor it is not meet he should. For, though I speak it to you, I think, the king is but a man, as I am: the violet smells to him, as it doth to me; the element shows to him, as it doth to me; all his senses have but human conditions: his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; therefore when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army. Bates. He may show what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in the Thames up to the neck; and so I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here. K. Hen. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king; I think, he would not wish himself any where but where he is. Bates. Then, 'would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransom'd, and a many poor men's lives saved. K. Hen. I dare say, you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone; howsoever you speak this, to feel other men's minds: Methinks, I could not die any where so contented, as in the king's company; his cause being just, and his quarrel honourable. Will. That's more than we know. Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime of it out of us. Will. But, if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make; when all |