I and my bofom must debate a while,

And then I would no other company.

Erping. The Lord in heaven blefs thee, noble Harry! K. Henry. God-a-mercy, old heart! thou speak'ft cheer[Exeunt.

fully.

Pift. Qui va lá?

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 fo: What art thou?
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 most valiant:

I kiis his dirty fhoe, and from my heart-ftrings

I love the lovely bully. What's thy name?

K. Henry. Harry le Roy.

Pift. Le Roy! a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?

K. Henry. No, I am a Welshman.

Pift. Know'st thou Fluellen ?

K. Henry. Yes.

Pist. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate

Upon faint 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?

bawcock,]-a brave fellow.

h imp of fame ;]-a sprig, child, fon.

F 4

K. Henry.

K. Henry. And his kinfman too.

Pift. The figo for thee then!

K. Henry. I thank you: God be with you!
Pift. My name is Pistol call'd.

K. Henry. It forts well with your fierceness.

Enter Fluellen, and Gower, feverally.

Gow. Captain Fluellen,

[Exit.

Flu. So! in the name of Cheshu Christ, speak fewer. It is the greateft admiration in the universal 'orld, 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 will find, I warrant you, that there is no tittle tattle, nor pibble pabble, in Pompey's camp; I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the fobriety of it, and the modefty of it, to be otherwise. Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard 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 ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, in your own confcience now?

Gow. I will speak lower.

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

[Exeunt. K. Henry. Though it appear a little out of fashion, There is much care and valour in this Welshman.

Enter three foldiers, John Bates, Alexander Court, and Michael Williams.

Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning which breaks yonder?

It forts-agrees, correfponds.

Bates.

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

Will. You 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 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 wash'd off next tide.

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king?

K. Henry. No; nor it is not 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 fhews to him, as it doth to me; all his fenfes 'have but human conditions: his ceremonies laid by, in his nakednefs he appears but a man ; and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop with the like wing; therefore when he fees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the fame relish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man fhould poffefs him with any appearance of fear, left he, by fhewing it, should dishearten his army.

Bates. He may fhew what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could with himfelf in the Thames up to the neck; and fo I would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, fo we were quit here.

K. Henry. By my troth, I will speak my confcience of

1 bave but buman conditions:]-qualities-his fenfations are like those of common mortals, objects are reprefented to him through the same mediums as they are to other men.

the

the king; I think, he would not wifh himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then, 'would he were here alone; fo fhould he be fure to be ranfom'd, and a many poor men's lives faved.

K. Kenry. I dare fay, you love him not fo ill, to wish him here alone; howfoever 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 should feek after: for we know enough, if we know we are the king's fubjects: if his caufe 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 thofe legs, and arms, and heads, chop'd off in a battle, fhall 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 afeard there are few die well, that die in battle; for how can they charitably difpofe 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 disobey, were against all proportion of fubjection.

K. Henry. So, if a fon, that is by his father fent about merchandize, do finfully miscarry upon the sea, the im

fins.

rawly left.]-young and helpless.

their argument ?]-the bufinefs they are engaged in.

do finfully mifcarry upon the fea,]-be drowned in the midft of his

putation

putation of his wickednefs, by your rule, fhould be impofed upon his father that fent him: or if a fervant, under his master's command, tranfporting a fum of money, be affail'd by robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may call the bufinefs 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 master of his fervant; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their fervices. Besides, there is no king, be his cause never fo fpotlefs, if it come to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all unspotted foldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; 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; so that here men are punished, for beforebreach 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 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 fubject's foul is his own. Therefore should every foldier in the wars do as every fick man in his bed, wash every moth out of his confcience: and dying fo, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly loft, wherein fuch preparation was

P native punishment,]-the due reward of their crimes in their own country.

gained: