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The English camp at Agincourt.
[Enter KING HENRY, BEDFORD, and GLOUCESTER]
KING HENRY V
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Gloucester,| 'tis true | that we | are in great |
danger,
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The great|er there|fore should | our cour|age be.
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->
Good mor|row broth|er Bed|ford: God | Almigh||ty,
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2 ,
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There | is some soul | of good|ness in things |
evil,
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Would men | observ|ingly | distil | it out.
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For our bad neigh|bor makes | us ear|ly
stirrers,
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Which is both health|ful, and / good hus|bandry.
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Besides,| they are | our out|ward con|sciences,
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And preach|ers to | us all;| admon|ishing,
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That we | should dress | us fair|ly for | our
end.
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Thus^may | we gath|er hon|ey from | the weed,
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And make | a mor|al of | the devil | himself.
[Enter ERPINGHAM]
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Good mor|row old | Sir Thom|as Erp|ingham:
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T
A good soft pil|low for | that good white head,
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Were bet|ter than | a churl|ish turf | of France.
ERPINGHAM
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Not so | my liege,| this lod|ging likes | me
better,
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Since I | may* say,| Now* lie | I like | a king.
KING HENRY V
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'Tis good | for men | to love | their pres|ent
pains,
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Upon | examp|le, so | the spirit | is eased:
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And when | the mind | is quick|ened, out | of
doubt
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The org|ans, though | defunct | and dead |
before,
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Break^up | their drow|sy grave,| and new|ly move
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With cast|ed slough,| and fresh | leger|ity.
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Lend me | thy cloak | Sir Thom|as: broth|ers
both,
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Commend | me to | the princ|es in | our camp;
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Do my | good mor|row to | them, and | anon
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Desire | them all | to my | pavil|ion.
GLOUCESTER
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We shall,| my liege. \\
ERPINGHAM
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Shall I | attend | your grace?
KING HENRY V
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No, my | good^knight:
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Go with my | brothers | to my | lords of |
England:
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I and | my bos|om must | debate | awhile,
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And then | I would | no oth|er comp|any.
ERPINGHAM
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The Lord | in heaven | bless thee,| noble |
Harry.
[Exeunt all but KING HENRY]
KING HENRY V
God-a-mercy old heart, thou speakst cheerfully.
[Enter PISTOL]
PISTOL
Qui va la?
KING HENRY V
A friend.
PISTOL
Discuss unto me, art thou officer, Or art thou base, common and popular?
KING HENRY V
I am a gentleman of a company.
PISTOL
Trailst thou the puissant pike?
KING HENRY V
Even so: What are you?
PISTOL
As good a gentleman as the emperor.
KING HENRY V
Then you are a better than the king.
PISTOL
The king's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, a lad of life, an imp of fame, of
parents good, of fist most valiant: I kiss his dirty shoe, and from
heart-string I love the lovely bully. What is thy name?
KING HENRY V
Harry le Roy.
PISTOL
Le Roy? a Cornish name: art thou of Cornish crew?
KING HENRY V
No, I am a Welshman.
PISTOL
Knowst thou Fluellen?
KING HENRY V
Yes.
PISTOL
Tell him I'll knock his leek about his pate upon Saint Davy's day.
KING HENRY V
Do not you wear your dagger in your cap that day, lest he knock that about
yours.
PISTOL
Art thou his friend?
KING HENRY V
And his kinsman too.
PISTOL
The figo for thee then.
KING HENRY V
I thank you: God be with you.
PISTOL
My name is Pistol called.
[Exit]
KING HENRY V
It sorts well with your fierceness.
[Enter FLUELLEN and GOWER]
GOWER
Captain Fluellen.
FLUELLEN
So, in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower: It is the greatest admiration
of the universal world, when the true and aunchient prerogatifes and laws of
the wars is not kept: if you would take the pains but to examine the wars of
Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that there is no tiddle
toddle nor pibble pabble in Pompey's camp: I warrant you, you shall find the
ceremonies of the wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the
sobriety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise.
GOWER
Why the enemy is loud, you hear him all night.
FLUELLEN
If the enemy is an ass and a fool, and a prating coxcomb; is it meet, think
you, that we should also, look you, be an ass and a fool, and a prating
coxcomb, in your own conscience now?
GOWER
I will speak lower.
FLUELLEN
I pray you, and beseech you, that you will.
[Exeunt GOWER and FLUELLEN]
KING HENRY V
Though it appear a little out of fashion, there is much care and valor in
this Welshman.
[Enter three soldiers, JOHN BATES, ALEXANDER COURT, and MICHAEL 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.
WILLIAMS
We see yonder the beginning of the day, but I think we shall never see the
end of it. Who goes there?
KING HENRY V
A friend.
WILLIAMS
Under what captain serve you?
KING HENRY V
Under Sir Thomas Erpingham.
WILLIAMS
A good old commander, and a most kind gentleman: I pray you, what thinks he
of our estate?
KING HENRY V
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?
KING HENRY V
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 wing: 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 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 V
By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king: I think he would not
wish himself anywhere, 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 V
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
honorable.
WILLIAMS
That's more than we know.
BATES
Aye, or more than we should seek after; for we know enough, if we know we
are the kings subjects: if his cause be wrong, our obedience to the king
wipes the crime of it out of us.
WILLIAMS
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 all, We 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 rawly left: I
am afeard, there are few die well, that die in a battle: for how can they
charitably dispose of anything, 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; who to disobey, were against all proportion of subjection.
KING HENRY V
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 business of the master the
author of the servant'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 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 soldiers: 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 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 vengeance: so
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 safe, they perish. Then if they die 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 preparation 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.
WILLIAMS
'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill upon his own head, the king
is not to answer it.
BATES
I do not desire he should answer for me, and yet I determine to fight
lustily for him.
KING HENRY V
I myself heard the king say he would not be ransomed.
WILLIAMS
Aye, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully: but when our throats are cut,
he may be ransomed, and we nere the wiser.
KING HENRY V
If I live to see it, I will never trust his word after.
WILLIAMS
You 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.
KING HENRY V
Your reproof is something too round, I should be angry with you, if the time
were convenient.
WILLIAMS
Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live.
KING HENRY V
I embrace it.
WILLIAMS
How shall I know thee again?
KING HENRY V
Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear it in my bonnet: then, if ever
thou darst acknowledge it, I will make it my quarrel.
WILLIAMS
Here's my glove: give me another of thine.
KING HENRY V
There.
WILLIAMS
This will I also wear in my cap: if ever thou come to me and say, after
tomorrow, This is my glove, by this hand, I will take thee a box on the
ear.
KING HENRY V
If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it.
WILLIAMS
Thou darst as well be hanged.
KING HENRY V
Well, I will do it, though I take thee in the king's company.
WILLIAMS
Keep thy word: fare thee well.
BATES
Be friends you English fools, be friends, we have French quarrels enow, if
you could tell how to reckon.
KING HENRY V
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 tomorrow the king himself will be a clipper.
[Exeunt soldiers]
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Upon | the king,| let us | our lives,| our souls,
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Our debts,| our care|ful wives, \\
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Our child|ren, and | our sins,| lay^on | the
king:
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We must | bear^all. \\
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O hard | condi|tion, twin-|born with | greatness,
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Subject | to the breath | of eve|ry fool,| whose
sense
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No more | can feel,| but his own | wringing,
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What in|finite / heart's-ease | must kings |
neglect,
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That priv|ate men | enjoy? \\
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And what | have kings,| that priv|ates have | not
too,
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Save ceremony, save general ceremony?
????
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And what | art thou,| thou id|le ce|remony?
??
,
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What kind | of god | art thou?| That suf|ferst
more
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Of mort|al griefs,| than do | thy worsh|ippers.
,
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What are | thy rents?| What are | thy com|ings
in?
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O cer|emo|ny, show | me but | thy worth.
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What? Is | thy soul | of ad|ora|tion?
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Art thou | aught^else | but place,| degree,|
and form,
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Creat|ing awe | and fear | in oth|er men?
,
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Wherein | thou art | less^hap|py, be|ing feared,
??
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Than they | in fear|ing. \\
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What drinkst | thou oft,| instead | of hom|age
sweet,
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T 2->
But pois|oned flat|tery? O,| be sick, great
great||ness,
,
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And bid | thy cer|emo|ny give | thee cure.
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Thinks^thou | the fie|ry fev|er will / go out
??
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With tit|les blown | from ad|ula|tion?
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Will it give | place to | flexure | and low
| bending?
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Canst^thou,| when thou | commandst | the
beg|gar's knee,
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T
Command | the health | of it? No,| thou proud
dream,
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That playst | so sub|tly with | a king's |
repose.
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I am | a king | that find | thee: and | I know,
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'Tis not | the balm,| the scep|ter, and | the
ball,
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The sword,| the mace,| the crown | imper|ial,
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The int|ertis|sued robe | of gold | and pearl,
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The farc|ed tit|le run|ning 'fore | the king,
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The throne | he sits | on: nor | the tide | of
pomp,
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That beats | upon | the high | shore of | this
world:
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No, not all | these, thrice-gor|geous
ce|remo||ny;
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Not | all these, laid | in bed | maje|stical,
(hex with prev)
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Can sleep | so sound|ly as | the wretch|ed slave:
,
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Who with | a bo|dy filled,| and vac|ant mind,
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Gets him | to rest,| crammed with | distress|ful
bread,
Tx T T
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Never sees hor|rid night,| the child | of hell:
,
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But like | a lack|ey, from | the rise | to set,
,
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Sweats in | the eye | of Phoe|bus; and / all
night
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Sleeps in E|lysium:| next day aft|er dawn,
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Doth rise | and help | Hyper|ion | to his horse,
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And fol|lows so | the ev|er-run|ning year
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With prof|itab|le lab|or to | his grave:
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And but | for cer|emo|ny, such | a wretch,
,
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Winding | up days | with toil,| and nights | with
sleep,
T . T
T ,
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Had the fore-hand | and vant|age of | a king.
,
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The slave,| a mem|ber of | the count|ry's peace,
x ,
T T T ,
Enjoys it;| but in | gross brain lit|tle wots,
, ,
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What watch | the king | keeps to | maintain | the
peace;
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Whose hours,| the peas|ant best | advant|ages.
[Enter ERPINGHAM]
ERPINGHAM
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My lord,| your nob|les, jeal|ous of your /
absence,
,
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Seek^through | your camp | to find | you.
KING HENRY V
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Good | old knight,
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, ,
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Collect | them all | togeth|er at | my tent:
,
,
I'll be | before | thee.
ERPINGHAM
, x
,
I | shall do it,| my lord.
[Exit]
KING HENRY V
,
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O God | of bat|tles, steel | my sol|diers'
hearts,
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Possess | them not | with fear:| take from*| them
now
, ,
2 , 2 ,
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The sense | of reck|oning of | the opposed |
numbers:
,
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Pluck their | hearts from / them. Not^|today,| O
Lord,
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O not | today,| think^not | upon | the fault
,
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My fath|er made,| in comp|assing | the crown.
, ,
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I Rich|ard's bo|dy have | interred | anew,
, , ,
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And on | it have | bestowed | more* con/trite
tears,
, , , ,
,
Than from | it is|sued forc|ed drops | of blood.
, ,
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Five^hund|red poor | I have | in year|ly pay,
,
, , , ,
Who twice | a day | their with|ered hands |
hold^up
T Tx
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Toward heaven, to pard|on blood:
, 2
, ,
And I have | built two*| chantries, (tri
with prev)
,
, ,
T T T
Where the | sad and | solemn | priests sing still
, , ,
, oo
For Rich|ard's soul.| More will | I do;|
, ,
, ,
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Though all | that I / can do,| is noth|ing worth;
,
, ,
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Since that | my pen|itence | comes^aft|er all,
,
, 2
Implor|ing pard|on.
[Enter GLOUCESTER]
GLOUCESTER
,
My liege. \\
KING HENRY V
, , , ___
oo
My broth|er Glouce|ster's voice?| Aye:|
, ,
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I know | thy er|rand, I | will go | with thee:
, ,
. T T T ,
The day,| my friend,| and all things stay | for
me.
[Exeunt]