arch? 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,

Will. 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 subjecs; if his cause he wrong, our obe-'tis a foolish saying. dience to the tig wipes the crime of it out of

113.

Will. But, if the cause be not good, the king himself bath a heavy reckoning to make; when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day,* and cry all-We died 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 afeard 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. Hen. 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. Hen. I embrace it.

Will. How shall I know thee again.

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

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

K. Hen. 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 take thee a box on the ear.

K. Hen. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.

Will. Thou darest as well be hanged.

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

could tell how to reckon.

K. Hen. 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 treason to cut French Crowns; and
to-morrow, the king himself will be a clipper.
[Exeunt Soldiers.

Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
Our debts, our careful wives, our children,
and
Our sins lay on the king-we must bear all.
O hard condition! twin-born with greatness,
Subjected to the breath of every fool,
Whose sense no more can feel but his own
wringing!

K. Hen. So, if a son, that is by his father sent about merchandise, do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be imposed upon his fa ther that sent him: or if a servaut under his master's command, transporting a sum of money, be assailed by robbers, and die in many irre- Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well. conciled iniquities, you may call the business of Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be the master the author of the servant's damna-friends; we have Freuch quarrels enough, if you tion :-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 outrun native punishment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war is his vengeance; so that here men are punished, for before-breach of the king's laws, in now the king's quarrel 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 the 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 mote 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 inaking God so free an offer, he let him outlive that day to see his greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare.

Will. 'Tis certain, that 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. Hen. I myself heard the king say, he would not be ransomed.

What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,
That private men enjoy!
And what have kings, that privates have not
too,

Save ceremony, save general ceremony ?—
And what art thou, thon idel ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
Of mortal griefs, than do thy worshippers?
What are thy rents? what are thy comings in?
ceremony, show me but thy worth!
What is the soul of adoration? +
Art thou aught else but place, degree, and
form,

Creating awe and fear in other men?
Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd
Than they in fearing.

What drink'st thou oft, instead of homage
sweet,
[ness,
But poison'd flattery? O be sick, great great-
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
Think'st thou, the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation?
Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's
knee,

Command the health of it? No, thou proud
dream;

That play'st so subtly with a king's repose'; Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheer-I am a king, that find thee; and I know, fully but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransomed, and we ne'er the wiser.

K. Hen. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.

Will. 'Mass, you'll pay him then! That's a perious shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and private displeasure can do against a non

The last day, the day of judgment.

+ Suddenly. five country.

to account, to punish.

1 J. e. Punishment in their wa
To pay here signifies to bring

'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The enter-tissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced title running 'fore the king,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,

Too rough. +"What is the real worth an intrinsic value of adoration." : Farced stuffed. The tumid pugy titles with which a kiner name is introduced

Fr. Sol. O, prennez misericorde! ayez pitié SCENE V.-Another part of the Field of de moy!

Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for?

Orl. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom?

Bour. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but
shame!

Let us die instant. Once more back again;
And he that will not follow Bourbon now,
Let him go hence, and, with his cap in hand,
Like a base pander, hold the chamber-door,
Whilst by a slave, no gentler than my dog, t
His fairest daughter is contaminate.

Con. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us
now!

An old cant word for a sword, so called from a fa- Let us, in heap3, go offer up our lives vous sword cutler of the name of Fox.

458

Orl. We are enough, yet living in the field,
To smother up the English in our throngs,
If any order might be thought upon.

Bour. The devil take order now! I'll to the
throng;

Let life be short; else, shame will be too long.
[Exeunt.
SCENE VI.-Another part of the Field.
Alarums.

Enter King HENRY and Forces;
EXETER, and others.

K. Hen. Well have we done, thrice-valiant
countrymen :

But all's not done, yet keep the French the field. Exe. The duke of York commends him to your majesty.

K. Hen. Lives he, good uncle? thrice, with-
in this hour,

I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting;
From helmet to the spur, all blood he was.
Exe. In which array, (brave soldier,) doth
he lie,

Larding the plain: and by his bloody side,
(Yoke-fellow to bis honour-owing wounds,)
The noble earl of Suffolk also lies.

Suffolk first died, and York, all haggled over,
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd,
And takes him by the beard; kisses the gashes,
That bloodily did yawn upon his face;
And cries aloud.-Tarry, dear cousin Suffolk!
My soul shall thine keep company to heaven:
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly a
breast;

As, in this glorious and well-foughten field,
We kept together in our chivalry!

Upon these words I came, and cheer'd him up:
He smil'd me in the face, raught me his hand,
And, with a feeble gripe, says,-Dear my lord,
Commend my service to my sovereign.
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck

He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips;
And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd
A testament of noble-ending love.
The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd
Those waters from me, which I would

stopp'd;

But I had not so much of man in me,
But all my mother came into mine eyes,
And gave me up to tears.

K. Hen. I blame you not;

Gow. I think, Alexander the great was born in Macedon; his father was called-Philip of Macedon, as I take it.

Flu. I think, it is in Macedon, where Alexander is porn. I tell you, captain,-If you look in the maps of the 'orld, I warrant, you shall find, in the comparisons between Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is both alike. There is a river in Macedon; and there is also moreover a river at Monmouth: it is called Wye, at Monmouth: but it is out of my prains, what is the name of the other river; but If you 'tis all one, 'tis so like as my fingers is to my fingers, and there is salmons in both. mark Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things. Alexander (God knows, and you know,) in his rages and his furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and his displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a little intoxicates in his prains, did, în bis ales and his angers, look you, kill his pest friend, Clytus.

Gow. Our king is not like him in that; he never killed any of his friends.

Flu. Is it not well done, mark you now, to take tales out of my mouth, ere it is made an end and finished. I speak but in the figures and comparisons of it: As Alexander is kill bis friend Clytus, being in his ales and his cups; so also Harry Monmouth, being in right wits and his goot judgments, is turn away the fat knight with the great pelly-doublet: he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and mocks; I am forget his name.

Gow. Sir John Falstaff.

Flu. That is be: I can tell you, there is goot Gow. Here comes his majesty. men born at Monmouth.

Alarum. Enter King HENRY, with a part of
the English Forces; WARWICK, GLOSTER,
EXETER, and others.

K. Hen. I was pot angry since I came to
France

have Until this instant.-Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yon hill;
If they will fight with us, bid them come down,
Or void the field; they do offend our sight:
If they'll do neither, we will come to them;
And make them skirr away as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings:
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have;
And not a man of them, that we shall take,
Shall taste our mercy :-Go, and tell them so.
Enter MONTJOY.

For, hearing this, I must perforce compound
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too.-

[Alarum. But, hark! what new alarum is this same ?The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men :

Then every soldier kill his prisoners;
Give the word through.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.-Another part of the Field. Alarums. Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER. Flu. Kill the poys and the luggage! 'tis expressly against the law of arms: 'tis as arrant a piece of knavery, mark you now, as can be offered, in the 'orld; In your conscience now, 's it not?

Gow. 'Tis certain, there's not a boy left alive;
and the cowardly rascals, that ran from the bat-
tle, have done this slaughter: besides, they have
burned and carried away all that was in the
king's tent; wherefore the king, most worthily,
hath caused every soldier to cut his prisoner's
throat. Oh! 'tis a gallant king.

Flu. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, captain
Gower: What call you the town's name, where
Alexander the pig was born?

Gow. Alexander the great.

Flu Why, I pray you, is not pig, great? The pig, or the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, are all one reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations.

• Reached.

Exe. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege.

Glo. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be.

K. Hen. How now, what means this, herald ? know'st thou not,

That I have fln'd these bones of mine for ran

som?

Com'st thou again for ransom ?

Mont. No, great king:

I come to thee for charitable license,
That we may wander o'er this bloody field
To book our dead, and then to bury them;
To sort our nobles from our common men;
For many of our princes (woe the while!)
Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood;
(So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs
In blood of princes ;) and their wounded steeds
Fret fetlock deep in gore, and, with wild rage,
Yerk out their armed heels at their dead mas
O give us leave, great king
Killing them twice.
To view the field in safety, and dispose,
of their dead bodies.

ters,

K. Hen. I tell thee truly, herald,

I know not if the day be our's or no;

• Scout.