Michael 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. 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 shou'd: for tho' I
speak it to you, I think, the King is but a man as I am:
&wlquo;the Violet smells to him as it doth to me; the element
shews to him as it doth to me; 7 noteall his senses
-- 386 --
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 sees reason of fears as we do, his fears,
out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are;&wrquo;
yet in reason no man should possess him with any appearance
of fear, lest he, by shewing it, should dishearten
his army.
&wlquo;Bates.
&wlquo;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.&wrquo;
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.
Bates.
Then would he were here alone; so should
he be sure to be ransomed, 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; &wlquo;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 rawly left.&wrquo; I am afeard there are
-- 387 --
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.
&wlquo;K. Henry.
&wlquo;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 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 murther;
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 8 noteout-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
-- 388 --
their damnation, than he was before guilty of those
impieties for which they are now visited. Every
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 outlive
that day to see his greatness, and to teach others
how they should prepare.&wrquo;
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 desire he should answer for me, and
yet I determine to fight lustily for him.
K. Henry.
I my self 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, 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.
-- 389 --
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.
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.
Alexander Pope [1747], The works of Shakespear in eight volumes. The Genuine Text (collated with all the former Editions, and then corrected and emended) is here settled: Being restored from the Blunders of the first Editors, and the Interpolations of the two Last: with A Comment and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton (Printed for J. and P. Knapton, [and] S. Birt [etc.], London) [word count] [S11301].