With winged heels, as English Mercuries. And hides a sword, from hilts unto the point, APOSTROPHE TO ENGLAND. O England!-model to thy inward greatness, Like little body with a mighty heart,— What might'st thou do, that honour would thee do. Were all thy children kind and natural! But see thy fault! France hath in thee found out A nest of hollow bosoms, which he* fills With treacherous crowns. FALSE APPEARANCES. 0, how hast thou with jealousy infected The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful? Why, so didst thou: Seem they grave and learned? Why, so didst thou: Come they of noble family? Why, so didst thou: Seem they religious? Why, so didst thou: Or are they spare in diet; Free from gross passion, or of mirth, or anger; Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood; Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement;† Not working with the eye, without the ear, And, but in purged judgment, trusting neither? Such, and so finely bolted, didst thou seem: And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, To mark the full-fraught man, and best indued,§ With some suspicion. DAME QUICKLY'S ACCOUNT OF FALSTAFF'S DEATH. 'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom|| child; 'a parted even just between twelve and one, e'en at turning o' the tide; for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a * i. e. The king of France. † Accomplishment. § Endowed. A child not more than a month old. + Sifted. pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. How now, bir John? quoth I: what, man! be of good cheer. So cried out-God, God, God! three or four times: now I, to comfort him, bid him, 'a should not think of God; I hoped there was no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet: So, 'a bade me lay more clothes on his feet: I put my hand into the bed, and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone. KING HENRY'S CHARACTER BY THE CONSTABLE OF FRANCE. You are too much mistaken in this king: ACT III. CHORUS. DESCRIPTION OF A FLEET SETTING SAIL. Suppose that you have seen The well-appointed king at Hampton pier With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning, In making objections. + Wasted, exhausted. ACT IV. CHORUS. DESCRIPTION OF NIGHT IN A CAMP. From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, The hum of either army stilly* sounds, That the fix'd sentinels almost receive The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, Sit patiently, and inly ruminate The morning's danger; and their gesture sad, So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will behold Bids them good morrow, with a modest smile; How dread an army hath enrounded him; # Gently, lowly. + Discoloured by the gleam of the fires. + Over-saucy. Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour His liberal eye doth give to every one, Enter BATES, COURT, and WILLIAMS. Court. 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 wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed 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:* his ceremonies laid by, in his nakedness he appears but a man: and though his affections are higher mounted than ours, yet when they stoop, they stoop with the like wings; 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 * Qualities. 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, or 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 chopped off in a battle shall join together at the latter day,* and cry allWe 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 rawlyf 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 sub jection. 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: 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 busi* The last day, the day of judgment. †Suddenly. |