3 Will. 'Mass, you'll pay him then! That's a perilous shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and 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. 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. 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 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 enough, if 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; we must bear all. 3 To pay here signifies to bring to account, to punish. O hard condition! twin-born with greatness, Whose sense no more can feel but his own wringing! And what have kings, that privates have not too, Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, 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! Think'st 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, 5 Farced is stuffed. The tumid puffy titles with which a king's name is introduced. No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread; Enter ERPINGHAM. Erp. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, Seek through your camp to find you. K. Hen. Good old knight, [Exit. Collect them all together at my tent : Erp. I shall do't, my lord. K. Hen. O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts! Possess them not with fear; take from them now 6 The sun. And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears, Glo. My liege! Enter GLOSTER. K. Hen. My brother Gloster'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 Dauphin, ORLEANS, RAMBURES, and others. Orl. The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords. Dau. Montez à cheval:- My horse! valet! lacquay! ha! Orl. O brave spirit! Dau. Via!-les eaux et la terre Orl. Rien puis? l'air et le feu Dau. Ciel! cousin Orleans. Enter Constable. Now, my lord constable! Con. Hark, how our steeds for present service neigh. 7 An old encouraging exclamation. Dau. Mount them, and make incision in their hides; That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, How shall we then behold their natural tears? Enter a Messenger. Mess. The English are embattled, you French peers. Con. To horse, you gallant princes! straight to horse! Do but behold yon poor and starved band, That our French gallants shall to-day draw out, 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 enough But that our honours must not. What's to say? And all is done. Then let the trumpets sound 8 Do them out, extinguish them. 9 Mean, despicable. 1 The name of an introductory flourish on the trumpet. |