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

K. HEN. 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 where fo contented, as in the king's company; his caufe being juft, and his quarrel honourable.5 WILL. That's more than we know.

any

BATES. Ay, or more than we should seek after;" for we know enough, if we know we are the king's fubjects; 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 thofe legs, and arms, and heads, chopped off in a battle, fhall join together at the latter day,' and cry all-We died 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

5 his caufe being juft, and his quarrel honourable.] So, Holinfhed: "calling his capitaines and his fouldiers aboute him, he [Henry V.] made to them a right harty oration, requiring them to play the men, that they might obtaine a glorious victorie, as there was good hope they should, if they would remember the just caufe and quarrel for the whiche they fought." MALONE.

Bates. Ay, or more &c.] This fentiment does not correfpond with what Bates has just before said. The speech, I believe, should be given to Court. See p. 432, n. 4. MALONE. the latter day,] i. e. the last day, the day of judgment. Our author has, in other inftances, used the comparative for the fuperlative. STEEVENS.

7

their children rawly left.] That is, without prepara

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 these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it; whom to difobey, were againft all proportion of fubjection.

K. HEN. So, if a fon, that is by his father fent about merchandife, do finfully miscarry upon the fea, the imputation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be impofed upon his father that fent him: or if a fervant, under his mafter's command, traufporting a fum of money, be affailed by robbers, and die in many irreconciled iniquities, you may call the business 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 mafter of his fervant; for they purpose not their death, when they purpose their fervices. Befides, there is no king, be his caufe never fo spotlefs, if it come to the arbitrement of fwords, can try it out with all unfpotted foldiers. Some, peradventure, have on them the guilt of premeditated and contrived murder; fome, of beguiling virgins with the broken feals of perjury;9 fome, making the wars their bulwark, that have before gored the gentle bofom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if thefe

tion, haftily, fuddenly. What is not matured is raw. Macbeth:

66

Why in this rawness left he wife and children?"

Rawly left, is left young and helpless. RITSON.

So, in

JOHNSON,

9 the broken feals of perjury;] So, in the fong at the beginning of the fourth Act of Meafure for Measure:

"That fo fweetly were forfworn

"Seals of love, but feal'd in vain." STEEVENS,

I

men have defeated the law, and outrun native punishment, though they can outftrip men, they have no wings to fly from God: war is his beadle, war is his vengeance; fo that here men are punished, 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 fafe, they perifh: 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 visited. Every fubject's duty is the king's; but every fubject's foul is his own. Therefore fhould every foldier in the wars do as every fick man in his bed, wash every mote3 out of his confcience and dying fo, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was bleffedly loft, wherein fuch preparation was gained: and, in him that efcapes, it were not fin to think, that making God fo free an offer, he let him outlive that day to fee his greatness, and to teach others how they fhould

prepare.

WILL. 'Tis certain,4 every man that dies ill, the

1-native punishment,] That is, punishment in their native country. HEATH.

2

So, in a subsequent scene:

"A many of our bodies fhall, no doubt,

"Find native graves." MALONE.

Native punishment is fuch as they are born to, if they offend.

STEEVENS.

Every fubject's duty-] This is a very just distinction, and the whole argument is well followed, and properly concluded.

3

JOHNSON.

every mote-] Old copy-moth, which was only the ancient fpelling of mote. I fufpected, but did not know, this to be the cafe, when I propofed the true reading of a paffage in King John. See Vol. X. p. 466, n. 1. MALONE.

• Will. 'Tis certain, &c.] In the quarto this little speech is

ill is upon his own head, the king is not to answer for it.

BATES. I do not defire he fhould anfwer for me; and yet I determine to fight luftily for him.

K. HEN. I myself heard the king say, he would not be ranfomed.

WILL. Ay, he faid fo, to make us fight cheerfully but, when our throats are cut, he may be ranfomed, and we ne'er the wiser.

K. HEN. If I live to fee it, I will never truft his word after.

WILL. 'Mafs, you'll pay him then !5 That's a perilous fhot 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 fun to ice, with fanning in his face with a peacock's feather. You'll

not given to the fame foldier who endeavours to prove that the King was answerable for the mischiefs of war; and who afterwards gives his glove to Henry. The perfons are indeed there only diftinguished by figures, 1, 2, 3. But this circumftance, as well as the tenour of the present speech, fhows, that it does not belong to Williams, who has just been maintaining the contrary doctrine. It might with propriety be transferred to Court, who is on the scene, and fays fcarcely a word. MALONE.

5 'Mafs, you'll pay him then!] To pay, in old language, meant to thrash or beat; and here fignifies to bring to account, to punish. See Vol. XI. p. 286, n. 2. The text is here made out from the folio and quarto. MALONE.

pay him-] In addition to my note, Vol. XI. p. 287, it may be observed, that Falstaff says, in the fame Vol. p. 417: "I have paid Percy. I have made him fure." Here he certainly means more than thrashed or beaten. REED.

6 •That's a perilous fhot out of an elder gun,] In the old play [the quarto, 1600,] the thought is more opened. It is a great difpleasure that an elder gun can do against a cannon, or a fubject against a monarch. JOHNSON. Ff

VOL. XII.

never truft his word after! come, 'tis a foolifh faying.

K. HEN. Your reproof is fomething too round;" I should be angry with you, if the time were con

venient.

WILL. Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live. K. HEN. I embrace it.

WILL. How fhall 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 alfo wear in my cap: if ever thou come to me and fay, 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 fee it, I will challenge it. WILL. Thou dareft 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

too round ;] i. e. too rough, too unceremonious. So,

in Hamlet:

"'Pray you, be round with him." STEEVENS.

twenty French crowns] This conceit, rather too