I this infer,--
That many things, having full reference
To one consent, may work contrariously:
As many arrows, loosed several ways,
Fly to one mark;
As many several ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea;
As many lines close in the dial's centre;
So may a thousand actions, once a-foot,
End in one purpose, and be all well borne
Without defeat.
HENRY V is but one of Shakespeare's second-rate plays. Yet by
quoting passages, like this, from his second-rate plays alone, we
might make a volume 'rich with his praise',
As is the oozy bottom of the sea
With sunken wrack and sumless treasuries.
Of this sort are the king's remonstrance to Scroop, Grey, and
Cambridge, on the detection of their treason, his address to the
soldiers at the siege of Harfleur, and the still finer one before
the battle of Agincourt, the description of the night before the
battle, and the reflections on ceremony put into the mouth of the
king.
O hard condition; twin-born with greatness,
Subjected to the breath of every fool,
Whose sense no more can feel but his own wringing!
What infinite heart's ease must kings neglect,
That private men enjoy? and what have kings,
That privates have not too, save ceremony?
Save general ceremony?
And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more
Of mortal griefs, than do thy worshippers?
What are thy rents? what are thy comings-in?
O ceremony, show me but thy worth!
What is thy soul, O adoration?
Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form,
Creating awe and fear in other men?
Wherein thou art less happy, being feared,
Than they in fearing.
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