d dream,
That play'st so subtly with a king's repose:
I am a king that find thee; and I know,
'Tis not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high shore of this world,
No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony,
Not all these, laid in bed majestical,
Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave,
Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind,
Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread;
And but for ceremony, such a wretch,
Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep,
Had the fore-hand and vantage of a king.

_Enter ERPINGHAM, R.H._

_Erp._ My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence,
Seek through your camp to find you.

_K. Hen._ Good old knight,
Collect them all together at my tent:
I'll be before thee.

[_Gives back the Cloak to ERPINGHAM._

_Erp._ I shall do't, my lord. _[Exit, R.H._

_K. Hen._ O God of battles! steel my soldier's hearts;
Possess them not with fear; take from them now
The sense of reckoning, lest the opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them!--Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard's body have interred new;(C)
And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears,
Than from it issu'd forced drops of blood:
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood:
More will I do--

[_Trumpet sounds without, R._

The day, my friends, and all things stay for me.

[_Exit, R.H._

[Footnote IV.1: _----popular_] i.e., one of the people.]

[Footnote IV.2: _----you are a better than the king._] i.e.,
a better _man_ than the king.]

[Footnote IV.3: _The king's a bawcock,_] A burlesque term of
endearment, supposed to be derived from _beau coq_.]

[Footnote IV.4: _----an imp of fame;_] An _imp_ is a young shoot,
but means a _son_ in Shakespeare. In this sense the word has
become obsolete, and is now only understood as a small or inferior
devil.

In Holingshed, p. 951, the last words of Lord Cromwell are
preserved, who says:-- "----and after him, that his son Prince
Edward, that goodly _imp_, may long reign over you."]

[Footnote IV.5: _It sorts_] i.e., it agr