Michael Williams.
Court.
Brother John Bates, is not that the morning
which breaks yonder?
-- 437 --
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. Henry.
A friend.
Will.
Under what captain serve you?
K. Henry.
Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.
Will.
A good old commander, and a most kind
gentleman. I pray you, what thinks he of our estate?
K. Henry.
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. Henry.
No; nor is it meet, he should; for tho'
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 shews to him as it doth to me; all his senses
have but human 9 noteconditions. 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 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 shewing it, should dishearten his
army.
Bates.
He may shew 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. Henry.
By my troth, I will speak my conscience
of the King; I think, he would not wish himself any
where but where he is.
-- 438 --
Bates.
Then 'would he were here alone; so should
he be sure to be ransom'd, and many poor men's lives
saved.
K. Henry.
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 shou'd 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 those
legs, and arms, and heads, chop'd off in a battle, shall
join together at the latter day, and cry all, We
dy'd at such a place, some, swearing; some, crying
for a surgeon; some, upon their wives left poor behind
them; some, upon the debts they owe; some,
upon their children 1 note
rawly left. I am afear'd there
are few die well, that die in battle; for how can they
charitably dispose 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 disobey were against all proportion of subjection.
K. Henry.
So, if a son, that is sent by his father
about merchandize, do fall into some lewd action and
miscarry, the imputation of his wickedness, by your
rule, should be imposed upon his father that sent him;
or if a servant, under his master's command transporting
a sum of mony, be assail'd by robbers, and
die in many irreconcil'd iniquities; you may call the
-- 439 --
business of the master the author of the servant's damnation.
But this is not so: the King is not bound to
answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father
of his son, nor the master of his servant; for they
purpose not their death, when they purpose their services.
Besides, there is no King, be his cause never
so spotless, if it come to the arbitrement of swords,
can try it out with all unspotted soldiers; some, peradventure,
have on them the guilt of premeditated
and contrived murder; some, of beguiling virgins
with the broken seals of perjury; some, making the
wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle
bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now if
these men have defeated the law, and out-run native
punishment; though they can out-strip men; they
have no wings to fly from God. War is his beadle,
war is his vengeance; so that here men are punished,
for before-breach of the King's laws, in the King's
quarrel now: where they feared the death, they have
borne life away; and where they would be safe, they
perish. Then if they die unprovided, no more is the
King guilty of their damnation, than he was before
guilty of those impieties for which they are now visited.
2 noteEvery subject's duty is the King's, but every
subject's soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier
in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash
every moth out of his conscience; and dying so, death
is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly
lost, wherein such preparation was gained: and,
in him that escapes, it were not sin to think, that making
God so free an offer, he let him out-live that day
to see his greatness, and to teach others how they should
prepare.
Will.
'Tis certain, that every man that dies ill, the
-- 440 --
ill is upon his own head, the King is not to answer
for it.
Bates.
I do not desire he should answer for me, and
yet I determine to fight lustily for him.
K. Henry.
I myself heard the King say, he would
not be ransom'd.
Will.
Ay, he said so, to make us fight chearfully;
but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransom'd,
and we ne'er the wiser.
K. Henry.
If I live to see it, I will never trust his
word after.
Will.
You pay him then; that's a perilous shot out
of an Elder-gun,3 note that a poor and private displeasure
can do against a monarch! you may as well go about
to turn the sun to ice, with fanning in his face with a
Peacock's feather; you'll never trust his word after!
come, 'tis a foolish saying.
K. Henry.
Your reproof is something too round: I
should 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 shall 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 say, 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 see it, I will challenge it.
Will.
Thou dar'st as well be hang'd.
K. Henry.
Well, I will do it, though I take thee in
the King's company.
-- 441 --
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.
K. Henry.
Indeed, the French may lay * notetwenty French
crowns to one, they will beat us, for they bear them
on their shoulders; but it is no English treason to cut
French crowns, and to morrow the King himself will
be a clipper.
[Exeunt soldiers.
Samuel Johnson [1765], The plays of William Shakespeare, in eight volumes, with the corrections and illustrations of Various Commentators; To which are added notes by Sam. Johnson (Printed for J. and R. Tonson [and] C. Corbet [etc.], London) [word count] [S11001].