about merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon 160
the sea, the imputation of his wickedness, by
your rule, should be imposed upon his father
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 irreconciled iniquities, you may call the
business of the master the author of the serv-
ant'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 170
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 sol-
diers: 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 180
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 venge-
ance; so that here men are punished for be-
fore-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

160. "sinfully miscarry upon the sea"; Pope reads from Qq. “fall into some lewd action and miscarry."—I. G.

would be safe, they perish: then if they die 190
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 prepa-
ration 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.

Will. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the
ill upon his own head, the king is not to an-
swer it.

Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me;

200

and yet I determine to fight lustily for him. 210 K. Hen. I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.

Will. Aye, 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. You pay him then. That's a perilous shot out of an elder-gun, that a poor and a

198. "mote"; Malone's emendation of Ff. "Moth"; Qq., "moath." -I. G.

private displeasure can do against a mon- 220 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, 'tis a foolish 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 darest acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel.

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

K. Hen. There.

230

Will. This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come to me and say, after to-morrow, 240 "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.

Will. Keep thy word: fare thee well.

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends: we have French quarrels enow, if 250 you 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: 260
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 worshipers?
What are thy rents? what are thy comings
in?

O ceremony, show me but thy worth!

270

254–257. "but it is," etc.; of course reference is here had to the old doctrine, that marring or defacing the king's image on the coin was equivalent to making war on the king.-H. N. H.

258. There is something very striking and solemn in the soliloquy into which the king breaks immediately as soon as he is left alone. Something like this every breast has felt. Reflection and seriousness rush upon the mind upon the separation of gay company, and especially after forced and unwilling merriment (Johnson).-H. N. H.

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 great

ness,

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure!
Think'st thou the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation?

280

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 scepter and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The intertissued 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,

290

273. "What is thy soul of adoration?”; Knight's reading; F. 1 reads, "What? is thy Soule of Odoration?"; Ff. 2, 3, 4, “Adoration"; Warburton, "What is thy toll, O adoration?"; Hanmer, "What is thy shew of adoration?"; Johnson, "What is thy soul, O adoration?" &c., &c. (v. Glossary).—I. G.

This is the reading of the old copy, which Malone changed to "What is the soul of adoration?" The present reading is sufficiently intelligible: "O ceremony, show me what value thou art of! What is thy soul or essence of external worship or adoration?"-H. N. H.