K. Hen. Then you are a better than the king. Pist. The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold; A lad of life, an imp of fame;

Of parents good, of fist most valiant;

I kiss his dirty shoe, and from my heart-strings
I love the lovely bully. What's thy name?
K. Hen. Harry le Roy.

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

K. Hen. No, I am a Welshman.

Pist. Know'st thou Fluellen ?

K. Hen. Yes.

Pist. Tell him, I'll knock his leek about his pate, Upon St. Davy's day.

K. Hen. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest he knock that about yours.

Pist. Art thou his friend?

K. Hen. And his kinsman too.

Pist. The figo for thee then!

My name is Pistol call'd.

[Exit PISTOL.

K. Hen. It sorts well with

your

fierceness.

Enter FLUELLEN and Gower.

Gow. Captain Fluellen! Captain Fluellen!

Flu. So; speak fewer.-It is the greatest admiration in the universal 'orld, when the true and ancient 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 shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle taddle, nor pibble babble, 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 sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.

Gow. Why, the enemy is loud; you heard him all night.

Flu. If the enemy is an ass 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 conscience now ? Gow. I will speak lower.

Flu. I pray you, and beseech you that you will. [Exeunt GoWER, and FLUELLEN,

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

Enter WILLIAMS and BATES.

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

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

Will. We see yonder the beginning of the day; but, I think, we shall never see the end of it.-Who goes there?

K. Hen. A friend.

Will. Under what captain serve you?

K. Hen. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.

Will. A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he of our

estate?

K. Hen. Even as men wreck'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. Hen. 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 shows to him, as it doth to me: all his senses have but human conditions: therefore, when he sees reason of fears, as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as ours are: Yet, in reason, no man should possess him with any appearance of fear; lest he, by showing it, should dishearten his army.

Bates. He may show what outward courage he will: but, I believe, as cold a night as 'tis, he could wish himself in the Thames up to the neck; and so I

would he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.

K. Hen. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king; I think, he would not wish himself any where but where he is.

Bates. Then 'would he were here alone!-so should he be sure to be ransomed, and many poor men's lives saved.

K. Hen. I dare say, you love him not so ill, to wish him here alone; howsoever 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, and 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 cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs, and arms, and heads, chopp'd 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. 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 father, that sent him: But this is not so: the king is not bound to answer the particular endings of his soldiers, nor the father of his son; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose

their services. 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 making God so free an offer, he let him outlive that day, to see his greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare.

Wil. '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 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.

Will. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully; 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. That's a perilous shot out of an elder-gun! -You'll never trust his word after! Come, 'tis a fool ish saying.

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 dar'st 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 dar'st as well be hang'd.

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

Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well.

reckon.

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends; we
have French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to
[Exeunt WILLIAMS and BATES.
K. Hen. Upon the king! let us our lives, our souls,
Our sins lay on the king;—we must bear all.
O hard condition, twin born with greatness!
What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,
That private men enjoy!—and what have kings,
That privates have not too, save ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idol, ceremony?
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? O, be sick, great greatness,
And bid thy ceremony give thee cure.

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,
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
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 ;
And, but for ceremony, such a wretch,

Winding up days with toil, and nights with sleep,
Hath the fore-hand and vantage of a king.

Enter SIR THOMAS ERPINGHAM.

Erp. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, Seek through your camp to find you.