To the editor:

The war against Saddam Hussein has provoked a variety of opinions, and it calls to mind another war of almost 600 years ago between an English army of 5,000, under King Henry V, and a French army of 25,000.

William Shakespeare, in his play “Henry V,” gives a description of a battle between these two armies on Oct. 25, 1415, in a field near Agincourt, France, and in it he provides a description of the thoughts of a common English soldier, William, on the eve of that battle.

Here are William’s thoughts:

“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 afeared there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing 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 was against” (the rightful duties of a soldier).

— “Henry V,” Act IV, Scene 1

James O. Maloney,

Lawrence