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

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 most kind gentleman. I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? K. Henry. Even as men wreck'd upon a fand, that look to be wafh'd off the next tide.

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the King? K. Henry. No; nor is it meet, he fhould; for tho' I fpeak it to you, I think, the King is but a man as I am: the Violet fmells 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 relifh as ours are; yet in reafon no man fhould poffefs him with any appearance of fear, left he, by fhewing it, fhould dishearten his

army.

Bates. He may fhew what outward courage he will; but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wifh himfelf in the Thames up to the neck; and fo 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 wifh himfelt any where but where he is.

9 Conditions are qualities. The meaning is, that objects are reprefented by his fenfes to him, as to other men by theirs. What is

danger to another is danger likewife to him, and when he feels fear it is like the fear of mean

er mortals.

Ff 3

Bates.

Bates. Then 'would he were here alone; fo fhould he be fure to be ranfom'd, and many poor men's 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 men's minds. Methinks, I could not die any where fo contented as in the King's company; his caufe being just, and his quarrel honourable.

Will. That's more than we know.

Bates. Ay, or more than we shou'd 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. But if the cause be not good, the King him. felf hath a heavy reckoning to make; when all thofe 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 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 dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? now, if thefe 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 mafter's command tranfporting a fum of mony, be affail'd by robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd iniquities; you may call the

Rawly.] That is, without in Macbeth, preparation, baftily, Juddenly. What is not matured is raw. So

Why in this rawness left be swift

and children.

business

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 purpose not their death, when they purpose their fervices. Befides, there is no King, be his caufe never fo fpotless, 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 murder; fome, of beguiling virgins with the broken feals of perjury; fome, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bofom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now if these men have defeated the law, and out-run native punishment; though they can out-ftrip men, they have no wings to fly from God. War is his beadle, war is his vengeance; fo 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 fafe, they perifh. 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 visited. Every fubject's duty is the King's, but every fubject's foul is his own. Therefore fhould every foldier in the wars do as every fick man in his bed, wafh every moth out of his confcience; and dying fo, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was bleffedly loft, 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 greatnefs, and to teach others how they should prepare.

2

Will. 'Tis certain, that every man that dies ill, the

This is a very juft diftin&tion, followed, and properly conand the whole argument is well cluded.

ill is upon his own head, the King is not to anfwer for it.

yet

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

K. Henry. I myself heard the King fay, he would not be ranfom'd.

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

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

3

Will. You pay him then; that's a perilous shot out of an Elder-gun, that a poor and private difpleasure 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'ft 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 alfo 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. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the King's company.

3 That's a terilous fht out of is a great displeasure that an elder an Elder-gun.] In the old play gun can draga nfl a cannon. the thought is more opened.

It

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 *twenty French crowns to one, they will beat us, for they bear them on their shoulders; but it is no English treafon to cut French crowns, and to morrow the King himself will be a clipper. [Exeunt Joldiers.

4 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.
O hard condition, and twin-born with greatness,
Subject to breath of ev'ry fool, whofe fenfe
No more can feel but his own wringing.
What infinite heart ease must King's neglect,
That private men enjoy? and what have Kings,
That private have not too, fave ceremony?
Save gen'ral 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?
s What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?