Michael Williams.
Court.
Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks
yonder?
-- 456 --
Bates.
I think it be, but we have to great cause to desire the
approach of day.
Williams.
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 John 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 wrack'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 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 shews 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
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.
Bates.
Then would he were here alone; so should he be sure
to be ransomed, and many poor mens 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 mens minds.
-- 457 --
Methinks I could not die any where so contented as in the King's
company; his cause being just, and his quarrel honourable.
Wil.
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.
Wil.
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 battel 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 rawly
left. I am afear'd there are few die well that die in battel; 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 a notefall 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 b notecrave 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
-- 458 --
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 punish'd for c noteformer 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
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. 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 d notewell spent
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.
Wil.
'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.
Wil.
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.
Wil.
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.
-- 459 --
Wil.
Let it be a quarrel between us if you live.
K. Henry.
I embrace it.
Wil.
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.
Wil.
Here's my glove; give me another of thine.
K. Henry.
There.
Wil.
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.
Wil.
Thou dar'st as well be hang'd.
K. Henry.
Well I will do it, though I take thee in the King's
company.
Wil.
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.
note
George Sewell [1723–5], The works of Shakespear in six [seven] volumes. Collated and Corrected by the former Editions, By Mr. Pope ([Vol. 7] Printed by J. Darby, for A. Bettesworth [and] F. Fayram [etc.], London) [word count] [S11101].