that sent him; or if a servant, under his master's command
transporting a sum of money, be assailed 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 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 beadle, war is His
vengeance; so 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 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
vantage" target="_blank" title="n.优势;利益">
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, making God so free an offer, He
let him outlive that day to see His
greatness, and to teach
others how they should prepare.
WILLIAMS. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill 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.
KING HENRY. I myself heard the King say he would not be ransom'd.
WILLIAMS. Ay, he said so, to make us fight
cheerfully; but when our
throats are cut he may be ransom'd, and we ne'er the wiser.
KING HENRY. If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.
WILLIAMS. You pay him then! That's a
perilous shot out of an
elder-gun, that a poor and a 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.
KING HENRY. Your
reproof is something too round; I should be angry
with you, if the time were convenient.
WILLIAMS. Let it be a quarrel between us if you live.
KING HENRY. I
embrace it.
WILLIAMS. How shall I know thee again?
KING 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.
WILLIAMS. Here's my glove; give me another of thine.
KING HENRY. There.
WILLIAMS. 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.
KING HENRY. If ever I live to see it, I will
challenge it.
WILLIAMS. Thou dar'st as well be hang'd.
KING HENRY. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the King's
company.
WILLIAMS. 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.
KING 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
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, subject to the breath
Of every fool, whose sense no more can feel
But his own wringing! 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, thou idol 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?
O Ceremony, show me but thy worth!
What is thy 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,
But poison'd
flattery? O, be sick, great
greatness,
And bid thy
ceremony give thee cure!
Thinks 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.
I am a king that find thee; and I know
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl,
The farced tide
running fore the king,
The
throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world-
No, not all these,
thricegorgeousceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the
wretched slave
Who, with a body fill'd and
vacant mind,
Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
Never sees
horrid night, the child of hell;
But, like a lackey, from the rise to set
Sweats in the eye of Pheebus, and all night
Sleeps in Elysium; next day, after dawn,
Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse;
And follows so the ever-
running year
With
profitable labour, to his grave.
And but for
ceremony, such a wretch,
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
Had the fore-hand and
vantage of a king.
The slave, a member of the country's peace,
Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots
What watch the king keeps to
maintain the peace
Whose hours the
peasant best
vantage" target="_blank" title="n.优势;利益">
advantages.
Enter ERPINGHAM
ERPINGHAM. My lord, your nobles,
jealous of your absence,
Seek through your camp to find you.
KING. Good old knight,
Collect them all together at my tent:
I'll be before thee.
ERPINGHAM. I shall do't, my lord. Exit
KING. O God of battles, steel my soldiers' hearts,
Possess them not with fear! Take from them now
The sense of reck'ning, if th' opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them! Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard's body have interred new,
And on it have bestowed more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood;
Five hundred poor I have in
yearly pay,
Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward heaven, to
pardon blood; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and
solemn priests
Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
Since that my penitence comes after all,
Imploring
pardon.
Enter GLOUCESTER
GLOUCESTER. My liege!
KING HENRY. My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay;
I know thy
errand, I will go with thee;
The day, my friends, and all things, stay for me. Exeunt
SCENE II.
The French camp
Enter the DAUPHIN, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others
ORLEANS. The sun doth gild our
armour; up, my lords!
DAUPHIN. Montez a cheval! My horse! Varlet, laquais! Ha!
ORLEANS. O brave spirit!
DAUPHIN. Via! Les eaux et la terre-
ORLEANS. Rien puis? L'air et le feu.
DAUPHIN. Ciel! cousin Orleans.
Enter CONSTABLE
Now, my Lord Constable!
CONSTABLE. Hark how our steeds for present service neigh!
DAUPHIN. Mount them, and make incision in their hides,
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes,
And dout them with
superfluous courage, ha!
RAMBURES. What, will you have them weep our horses' blood?
How shall we then behold their natural tears?
Enter a MESSENGER
MESSENGER. The English are embattl'd, you French peers.
CONSTABLE. To horse, you
gallant Princes! straight to horse!
Do but behold yon poor and starved band,
And your fair show shall suck away their souls,
Leaving them but the shales and husks of men.
There is not work enough for all our hands;
Scarce blood enough in all their
sickly veins
To give each naked curtle-axe a stain
That our French
gallants shall to-day draw out,
And sheathe for lack of sport. Let us but blow on them,
The vapour of our
valour will o'erturn them.
'Tis
positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords,
That our
superfluous lackeys and our
peasants-
Who in unnecessary action swarm
About our squares of battle- were enow
To purge this field of, such a hilding foe;
Though we upon this mountain's basis by
Took stand for idle speculation-
But that our honours must not. What's to say?
A very little little let us do,
And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound
The tucket sonance and the note to mount;
For our approach shall so much dare the field
That England shall couch down in fear and yield.
Enter GRANDPRE
GRANDPRE. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France?
Yond island carrions,
desperate of their bones,
Ill-favouredly become the morning field;
Their
ragged curtains
poorly are let loose,
And our air shakes them passing scornfully;
Big Mars seems
bankrupt in their beggar'd host,