Go with my Brothers to my Lords of England:

I and my Bofom must debate a while,

And then I would no other Company.

Erping. The Lord in Heav'n bless thee, noble Harry.

[Exeunt K. Henry. God a mercy, old Heart, thou speak' chear

fully.

Pift. Qui va la?

K. Henry. A Friend.

Enter Piftol.

Pift. Difcufs unto me, art thou Officer, or art thou base, common and popular?

K. Henry. I am a Gentleman of a Company.
Pift. Trail'st thou the puiffant Pike?

K. Henry. Even so: What are you?

Pift. As good a Gentleman as the Emperor.
K. Henry. Then you are a better than the King.

Pift. The King's a Bawcock, and a Heart of Gold, a Lad of Life, an Imp of Fame, of Parents good, of Fift moft valiant: I kifs his dirty Shooe, and from Heart-ftring I › love the lovely Bully. What is thy Name?

K. Henry. Harry le Roy.

Pift. Le Roy! a Cornish Name: Art thou of Cornish Crew?
K. Henry. No, I am a Welchman.
Pift. Know'st thou Fluellen ?

K. Henry. Yes.

Pift. Tell him I'll knock his Leek about his Fate upon St. David's Day.

K. Henry. Do not you wear your Dagger in your Cap that Day, left he knock that about yours.

Pift. Art thou his Friend?

K. Henry. And his Kinsman too.

Pift. The Figo for thee then.

K. Henry. I thank you: God be with you.
Pift. My Name is Piftol call'd.

K. Henry. It forts well with your Fierceness.

[Exit.

[Manet King Henry.

Enter Fluellen and Gower.

Gow. Captain Fluellen.

Flu.

Flu. So, in the Name of Jefu Chrift, fpeak fewer: It is the greatest Admiration in the univerfal World, when the true and auncient Prerogatifes and Laws of the Wars is not kept: If you would take the Pains but to examine the Wars of Pompey the Great, you fhall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle, nor pibble babble in Pompey's Camp I warrant you, you fhall find the Ceremonies of the Wars, and the Cares of it, and the Forms of it, and the Sobriety of it, and the Modefty of it, to be otherwife.

Gew. Why, the Enemy is loud, you hear him all Night.

Flu. If the Enemy is an Afs, and a Fool, and a prating Coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, look you, be an Afs, and a Fool, and a prating Coxcomb, in your own Conscience now?

Gow, I will speak lower.

Flu. I pray you, and beseech you, that you will.

[Exeunt.

K. Henry. Tho' it appear a little out of fashion, There is much Care and Valour in this Welchman. Enter three Soldiers, John Bates, Alexander Court, and 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 de fire the Approach of Day.

Williams. We fee yonder the Beginning of the Day, but I think we fhall never fee 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 moft 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 fhould: For though I fpeak it to you, I think the King is but a Man, as I am :

The

The Violet fmells to him, as it doth to me; the Element fhews to him, as it doth to me; all his Senfes 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 ftoop they ftoop with the like Wing; therefore, when he fees reafon of Fears, as we do, his Fears, out of doubt, be of the fame relish as ours are; yet, in reafon, no Man fhould poffefs him with any appearance of Fear, left he, by fhewing it, fhould difhearten his Army.

Bates. He may fhew what outward Courage he will; but, I believe, as cold a Night as 'tis, he could with himself in the Thames up to the Neck, and fo I would he were, and Iby him, at all Adventures, fo we were quit here.

K. Henry. By my troth, I will speak my Confcience of the King, I think he would not wish himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then would he were here alone; fo fhould he be fure to be ranfomed, and a many poor Mens Lives faved. K. Henry. I dare fay, you love him not fo ill to wish him here alone; howfoever, you speak this to feel other Mens Minds. Methinks I could not die any where fo contented as in the King's Company; his Cause being juft, and his Quarrel honourable.

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 Subjects: If his Cause be wrong, our Obedience to the King wipes the Crime of it out of us.

Will. But if the Caufe be not good, the King himself hath a heavy Reckoning to make, when all thofe Legs, and Arms, and Heads chop'd off in a Battel, fhall join together at the latter day, and cry all Wedy'd at fuch a Place; fome Swearing, fome crying for a Surgeon; 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 Battel; for how can they charitably difpofe 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:

VOL. IV.

G

K. Henry. So, ifa Son, that is by his Father fent about Merchandize, do finfully mifcarry upon the Sea, the imputation of his Wickednefs, by your Rule, fhould be impo ed upon his Father that fent him; or, if a Servant under his Mafter's Command, tranfporting a fum of Mony, be affail'd by Robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd Iniquities; you nay call the business of the Mafter the Author of the Servant's Damnation; but this is not fo: The King is not bound to answer the particular endings of his Soldiers, the Father of his Son, nor the Mafter of his Servant; for they purpose not their Death, when they purpose their Services. Befides, there is no King, be his Caufe never so fpotless, if it come to the Arbitrement of Swords, can try it out with all unfpotted Soldiers: Some, peradventure, have on them the gilt of premeditated and contrived Murther; fome, of beguiling Virgins with the broken Seals 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 punish'd, for before breach of the King's Laws, in now the King's Quarrel; where they feared the Death, they have born Life away, and where they would be fafe they perish. Then if they die unprovided, no more is the King guilty of their Damnation, than he was before guilty of thofe Impieties, for the which they are now vifited. Every Subject's Duty is the King's, but every Subject's Soul is his own. Therefore fhould every Soldier 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 efcapes it were not Sin 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 fhould prepare.

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 defire he fhould anfwer for me, and yet I determine to fight luftily for him.

K. Henry.

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

Will. Ay, he faid 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.

Will. You pay him then; that's a perilous fhot 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 Sun to Ice, with fanning in his Face with a Peacock's Feather: You'll never truft his Word after! Come, 'tis a foolish Saying.

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 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't as well be hang'd.

K Henry. Well, I will do it, tho' 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.

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. Upon the King! let us our Lives, our Souls, Our Debts, our careful Wives, our Children, and