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Pift. Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate Upon St. David's day.

K. Henry. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, left he knock that about yours.

Pift. Art thou his friend?

K. Henry. And his kinsman too.
Pift. The Figo for thee then!

K. Henry. I thank you: God be with you.
Pift. My name is Piftol call'd.

K. Henry. It forts well with your fierceness.

[Exit.

[Manet King Henry.

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

Gow. Captain Fluellen.

Flu. So; in the name of Chefbu Chrift, fpeak fewer: it is the greatest admiration in the univerfal 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 fhall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp: I warrant you, you fhall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the fobrieties of it, and the modesty of it to be otherwife.

Gozo. Why, the enemy is loud, you hear him all night. Flu. If the enemy is an Afs and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should alfo, look you, be an Afs and a fool, and a prating coxcomb? in your own confcience now?

Gow. I will speak lower.

Flu. I pray you and befeech you, that you will. [Exe. K. Henry. Tho' it appear a little out of fashion, There is much care and valour in this Welshman.

SCENE

III.

Enter three Soldiers, John Bates, Alexander Court, and

Michael Williams.

Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which

breaks yonder?

Bates. I think it be, but we have no great caufe to defire the approach of day.

Will

Will. We fee yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never fee the end of it. Who goes there? K. Henry. A friend.

Will. Under what captain ferve you?

K. Henry. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.

Will. A good old commander, and a moft kind gentleman: I pray you what thinks he of our eftate?

K. Henry. Even as men wreck'd upon a fand, that look to be wash'd off the next tide.

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the King?

K. Henry. No; nor is it meet he should: for though I fpeak 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 fhews to him as it doth to me; all his fenfes have but human conditions. His ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man; and tho' his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; therefore when he fees reafon of fears as we do, his fears out of doubt be of the fame relish as ours are; yet in reafon no man fhould poffefs him with any appearance of fear, left he, by fhewing it, fhould difhearten his army.

Bates. He may fhew 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 fo I would he were, and I by him at all adventures, fo we were quit here.

K. Henry. By my troth, I will speak my confcience of the King; I think he would not wish himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then would he were here alone; fo fhould he be fure to be ranfomed, and many poor mens lives faved.

K. Henry. I dare fay, you love him not fo ill to wish him here alone; howfoever you fpeak this to feel other mens minds. Methinks I could not die any where fo contented as in the King's company: his caufe being juft, and his quarrel honourable.

Will. That's more than we know.

Bates. Ay, or more than we fhould feek after; for we know enough, if we know we are the King's fubjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the King wipes the crime of it out of us.

Will.

Will. But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make; when all thofe legs and arms and heads chop'd' off in a battel fhall join together at the latter day, and cry all We dy'd at fuch a place; fome fwearing, fome crying for a furgeon; fome upon their wives left poor behind them; fome upon the debts they owe; fome upon their children rawly left. I am afear'd there are few die well that die in battle; for how can they charitably difpofe of any thing when blood is their argument? now if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the King that led them to it, whom to difobey were against all proportion of fubjection.

K. Henry. So if a fon that is fent by his father about merchandize, do fall into fome lewd action and mifcarry, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, fhould be impofed upon his father that fent him; or if a fervant under his master's command transporting a fum of mony, be affail'd by robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may call the business of the mafter the author of the fervant's damnation; but this is not fo: the King is not bound to answer the particular endings of his foldiers, the father of his fon, nor the mafter of his fervant; for they purpofe not their death when they purpose their services. Befides, there is no King, be his caufe never fo spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of fwords, can try it out with all unfpotted foldiers: fome peradventure have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murther; fome of beguiling virgins with the broken feals of perjury; some making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bofom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now if thefe men have defeated the law, and out-run native punifhment; though they can out-ftrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. War is his bedel, war is his vengeance; fo that here men are punish'd for former breach of the King's laws in the King's quarrel now: where they feared the death, they have born life away, and where they would be fafe, they perish. Then if they die unprovided, no more is the King guilty of their damnation, than he was before guilty of thofe impieties for which they are now vifited. Every fubject's duty is the King's, but every fubject's

fubject's foul is his own. Therefore fhould every foldier in the wars do as every fick man in his bed, wash every moth out of his confcience and dying fo, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was well spent wherein fuch preparation was gained: and in him that escapes it were not fin to think, that making God fo free an offer, he let him out-live that day to fee his greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare.

Will. "Tis certain every man that dies ill, the ill is upon his own head, the King is not to answer for it,

Bates. I do not defire he should answer for me, and yet I determine to fight luftily for him.

1

K. Henry. I my felf heard the King fay he would not be ranfom'd.

Will. Ay, he said so to make us fight chearfully; but when our throats are cut, he may be ranfom'd, and we ne'er the wifer.

K. Henry. If I live to fee it, I will never truft his word after.

Will. You pay him then; that's a perilous fhot out of an elder-gun, that a poor and private difpleafure can do against a Monarch! you may as well go about to turn the fun to ice, with fanning in his face with a peacock's feather: you'll never truft his word after! come, 'tis a foolish faying.

K. Henry. Your reproof is fomething too round; I fhould be angry with you, if the time were convenient. Will. Let it be a quarrel between us if you live. K. Henry. I embrace it.

Will. How fhall I know thee again?

K. Henry. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet: then if ever thou dar'st acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel.

Will. Here's my glove; give me another of thine.
K. Henry. There.

Will. This will I also wear in my cap; if ever thou come to me and fay after to-morrow, This is my glove; by this hand, I will give thee a box on the ear.

K. Henry. If ever I live to fee it, I will challenge it. Will, Thou dar'ft as well be hang'd.

K, Henry.

K. Henry. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the King's company.

Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well.

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends; we have French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon. [Exeunt Soldiers.

SCENE IV.* *

K. Henry. Upon the King! let us our lives, our fouls, Our debts, our careful wives, our children and Our fins, lay on the King; he must bear all.

hard condition, and twin-born with greatness, Subjected to the breath of ev'ry fool,

Whofe fenfe no more can feel but his own wringing.
What infinite heart-ease muft Kings neglect,
That private men enjoy! and what have Kings
That privates have not too, fave ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idol Ceremony ?
What kind of God art thou? that fuffer'ft more
Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers.
What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in?
O ceremony, tell me but thy worth:

What is thy fhew of adoration?

Art thou ought elfe but place, degree and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?

Wherein thou art lefs happy, being fear'd,
Than they in fearing.

What drink'ft thou oft, instead of homage fweet,
But poifon'd flattery? O be fick, great Greatness,
And bid thy Ceremony give thee cure.
Think'ft thou the fiery feaver will go out

With titles blown from adulation ?

Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Can't thou, when thou command'ft the beggar's knee,
Command the health of it? no, thou proud dream,
That play'ft fo fubtly with a King's repofe;

SCENE IV.

K. Henry. Indeed the French may lay twenty French crowns to one they will beat us, for they bear them upon their shoulders; but it is no English treafon to cut French crowns, and to-morrow the King himself will be a clipper.

Upon the King!

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