KING: 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 his 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.
Biographical aspects of the Sonnets - Examines the worth of Shakespeare's
sonnets in piecing together clues as to the nature of his romantic
life.
Doubtful Plays of Shakespeare - Analysis of evidence supporting the
claim of Shakespearean authorship of several questionable Elizabethan
plays.
Greene's Jealousy of Shakespeare - As early as 1592, Shakespeare's dramatic
work had excited the envy and indignation of his contemporaries,
including the accomplished scholar and dramatist, Robert Greene.
Shakespeare Index - An index of articles on to the Elizabethan dramatist.
The Shakespeare-Bacon Theory - Analysis of the theory that the plays
of William Shakespeare were not written by the man whose biography
we are familiar with, but rather under pseudonym by Lord Chancellor
Francis Bacon.
