Page 1683 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

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
[100] 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 wing. Therefore when he sees [105] 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 [110] believe, as cold a
night as ’tis, he could wish himself in Thames up to the neck, and so I would
he were, and I by him, at all adventures, so we were quit here.

KING HENRY
By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the King: I think he would not wish

himself any where [115] but where he is.

BATES
Then I would he were here alone; so should he be sure to be ransomed, and
a many poor men’s lives saved.

KING HENRY
I dare say you love him not so ill to wish him here alone, howsoever you
speak this to feel other [120] 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.

WILLIAMS
That’s more than we know.

BATES
Ay, or more than we should seek after; for we [125] 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.