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Henry IV, Part 2, continues the story of Henry IV, Part I. Northumberland learns that his son Hotspur is dead, and he rejoins the remaining rebels. When Hotspur’s widow convinces Northumberland to withdraw, the rebels are then led by the archbishop of York and Lords Mowbray and Hastings, who muster at York to confront the king’s forces.
Sir John Falstaff, meanwhile, glories in the reputation he has gained by falsely claiming to have killed Hotspur, and he uses his wit and cunning to escape charges by the Lord Chief Justice. Prince Hal and his companion Poins disguise themselves to observe Falstaff, and they hear him insult them both. After they confront him, Prince Hal and Falstaff must return to the wars. The king’s army is again victorious, but more through deceit and false promises than through valor.
With the rebellion over, Prince Hal attends his dying father. Hal becomes Henry V, reassures the Lord Chief Justice, and turns away Falstaff, who had expected royal favor.
INDUCTION
The vent of hearing when loud Rumor speaks ?
I , from the orient to the drooping west ,
Making the wind my post-horse , still unfold
The acts commencèd on this ball of earth .
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride ,
The which in every language I pronounce ,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports .
I speak of peace while covert enmity
Under the smile of safety wounds the world .
And who but Rumor , who but only I ,
Make fearful musters and prepared defense
Whiles the big year , swoll’n with some other grief ,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war ,
And no such matter ? Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises , jealousies , conjectures ,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads ,
The still-discordant wav’ring multitude ,
Can play upon it . But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize
Among my household ? Why is Rumor here ?
I run before King Harry’s victory ,
[9] INDUCTION Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops ,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels’ blood . But what mean I
To speak so true at first ? My office is
To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur’s sword ,
And that the King before the Douglas’ rage
Stooped his anointed head as low as death .
This have I rumored through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone ,
Where Hotspur’s father , old Northumberland ,
Lies crafty-sick . The posts come tiring on ,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learnt of me . From Rumor’s
tongues
They bring smooth comforts false , worse than
true wrongs .
ACT 1
Scene 1
Where is the Earl ?
That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here .
Please it your Honor knock but at the gate
And he himself will answer .
kerchief and supporting himself with a crutch .
Should be the father of some stratagem .
The times are wild . Contention , like a horse
[13] ACT 1. SC. 1 Full of high feeding , madly hath broke loose
And bears down all before him .
I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury .
The King is almost wounded to the death ,
And , in the fortune of my lord your son ,
Prince Harry slain outright ; and both the Blunts
Killed by the hand of Douglas ; young Prince John
And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field ;
And Harry Monmouth’s brawn , the hulk Sir John ,
Is prisoner to your son . O , such a day ,
So fought , so followed , and so fairly won ,
Came not till now to dignify the times
Since Caesar’s fortunes .
Saw you the field ? Came you from Shrewsbury ?
A gentleman well bred and of good name ,
That freely rendered me these news for true .
On Tuesday last to listen after news .
And he is furnished with no certainties
More than he haply may retail from me .
[15] ACT 1. SC. 1 With joyful tidings and , being better horsed ,
Outrode me . After him came spurring hard
A gentleman , almost forspent with speed ,
That stopped by me to breathe his bloodied horse .
He asked the way to Chester , and of him
I did demand what news from Shrewsbury .
He told me that rebellion had bad luck
And that young Harry Percy’s spur was cold .
With that he gave his able horse the head
And , bending forward , struck his armèd heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel-head , and starting so
He seemed in running to devour the way ,
Staying no longer question .
Said he young Harry Percy’s spur was cold ?
Of Hotspur , Coldspur ? That rebellion
Had met ill luck ?
If my young lord your son have not the day ,
Upon mine honor , for a silken point
I’ll give my barony . Never talk of it .
Give then such instances of loss ?
He was some hilding fellow that had stol’n
The horse he rode on and , upon my life ,
Spoke at a venture .
Look , here comes more news .
Foretells the nature of a tragic volume .
[17] ACT 1. SC. 1 So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witnessed usurpation . —
Say , Morton , didst thou come from Shrewsbury ?
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
To fright our party .
Thou tremblest , and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand .
Even such a man , so faint , so spiritless ,
So dull , so dead in look , so woebegone ,
Drew Priam’s curtain in the dead of night
And would have told him half his Troy was burnt ;
But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue ,
And I my Percy’s death ere thou report’st it .
This thou wouldst say : ‘Your son did thus and thus ;
Your brother thus ; so fought the noble Douglas’ —
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds .
But in the end , to stop my ear indeed ,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise ,
Ending with ‘Brother , son , and all are dead .’
But for my lord your son —
See what a ready tongue suspicion hath !
He that but fears the thing he would not know
Hath , by instinct , knowledge from others’ eyes
That what he feared is chancèd . Yet speak ,
Morton .
Tell thou an earl his divination lies ,
And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
And make thee rich for doing me such wrong .
Your spirit is too true , your fears too certain .
[19]ACT 1. SC. 1
I see a strange confession in thine eye .
Thou shak’st thy head and hold’st it fear or sin
To speak a truth . If he be slain , say so .
The tongue offends not that reports his death ;
And he doth sin that doth belie the dead ,
Not he which says the dead is not alive .
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office , and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell
Remembered tolling a departing friend .
That which I would to God I had not seen ,
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state ,
Rend’ring faint quittance , wearied and outbreathed ,
To Harry Monmouth , whose swift wrath beat down
The never-daunted Percy to the earth ,
From whence with life he never more sprung up .
In few , his death , whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp ,
Being bruited once , took fire and heat away
From the best-tempered courage in his troops ;
For from his mettle was his party steeled ,
Which , once in him abated , all the rest
Turned on themselves , like dull and heavy lead .
And as the thing that’s heavy in itself
Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed ,
So did our men , heavy in Hotspur’s loss ,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim
Than did our soldiers , aiming at their safety ,
[21] ACT 1. SC. 1 Fly from the field . Then was that noble Worcester
So soon ta’en prisoner ; and that furious Scot ,
The bloody Douglas , whose well-laboring sword
Had three times slain th’ appearance of the King ,
Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame
Of those that turned their backs and in his flight ,
Stumbling in fear , was took . The sum of all
Is that the King hath won and hath sent out
A speedy power to encounter you , my lord ,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster
And Westmoreland . This is the news at full .
In poison there is physic , and these news ,
Having been well , that would have made me sick ,
Being sick , have in some measure made me well .
And as the wretch whose fever-weakened joints ,
Like strengthless hinges , buckle under life ,
Impatient of his fit , breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper’s arms , even so my limbs ,
Weakened with grief , being now enraged with
grief ,
Are thrice themselves . Hence therefore , thou
nice crutch .
A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
Must glove this hand . And hence , thou sickly
coif .
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head
Which princes , fleshed with conquest , aim to hit .
Now bind my brows with iron , and approach
The ragged’st hour that time and spite dare bring
To frown upon th’ enraged Northumberland .
Let heaven kiss Earth ! Now let not Nature’s hand
Keep the wild flood confined . Let order die ,
And let this world no longer be a stage
[23] ACT 1. SC. 1 To feed contention in a lingering act ;
But let one spirit of the firstborn Cain
Reign in all bosoms , that , each heart being set
On bloody courses , the rude scene may end ,
And darkness be the burier of the dead .
The lives of all your loving complices
Lean on your health , the which , if you give o’er
To stormy passion , must perforce decay .
You cast th’ event of war , my noble lord ,
And summed the accompt of chance before you
said
‘Let us make head .’ It was your presurmise
That in the dole of blows your son might drop .
You knew he walked o’er perils on an edge ,
More likely to fall in than to get o’er .
You were advised his flesh was capable
Of wounds and scars , and that his forward spirit
Would lift him where most trade of danger
ranged .
Yet did you say ‘Go forth ,’ and none of this ,
Though strongly apprehended , could restrain
The stiff-borne action . What hath then befall’n ,
Or what did this bold enterprise bring forth ,
More than that being which was like to be ?
Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
That if we wrought out life , ’twas ten to one ;
And yet we ventured , for the gain proposed
Choked the respect of likely peril feared ;
And since we are o’erset , venture again .
Come , we will all put forth , body and goods .
[25]ACT 1. SC. 1
I hear for certain , and dare speak the truth :
The gentle Archbishop of York is up
With well-appointed powers . He is a man
Who with a double surety binds his followers .
My lord your son had only but the corpse ,
But shadows and the shows of men , to fight ;
For that same word ‘rebellion’ did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls ,
And they did fight with queasiness , constrained ,
As men drink potions , that their weapons only
Seemed on our side . But , for their spirits and
souls ,
This word ‘rebellion ,’ it had froze them up
As fish are in a pond . But now the Bishop
Turns insurrection to religion .
Supposed sincere and holy in his thoughts ,
He’s followed both with body and with mind ,
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
Of fair King Richard , scraped from Pomfret
stones ;
Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause ;
Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land ,
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke ;
And more and less do flock to follow him .
This present grief had wiped it from my mind .
Go in with me and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety and revenge .
Get posts and letters , and make friends with speed .
Never so few , and never yet more need .
[27]ACT 1. SC. 2
Scene 2
and buckler .
water ?
water , but , for the party that owed it , he might have
more diseases than he knew for .
The brain of this foolish-compounded clay , man , is
not able to invent anything that intends to laughter
more than I invent , or is invented on me . I am not
only witty in myself , but the cause that wit is in
other men . I do here walk before thee like a sow
that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one . If the
Prince put thee into my service for any other reason
than to set me off , why then I have no judgment .
Thou whoreson mandrake , thou art fitter to be
worn in my cap than to wait at my heels . I was never
manned with an agate till now , but I will inset you
neither in gold nor silver , but in vile apparel , and
send you back again to your master for a jewel . The
juvenal , the Prince your master , whose chin is not
yet fledge — I will sooner have a beard grow in the
palm of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek ,
and yet he will not stick to say his face is a face
royal . God may finish it when He will . ’Tis not a hair
amiss yet . He may keep it still at a face royal , for a
barber shall never earn sixpence out of it , and yet
he’ll be crowing as if he had writ man ever since his
father was a bachelor . He may keep his own grace ,
but he’s almost out of mine , I can assure him . What
said Master Dommelton about the satin for my
short cloak and my slops ?
[29]ACT 1. SC. 2
assurance than Bardolph . He would not take his
band and yours . He liked not the security .
God his tongue be hotter ! A whoreson Achitophel , a
rascally yea-forsooth knave , to bear a gentleman in
hand and then stand upon security ! The whoreson
smoothy-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes
and bunches of keys at their girdles ; and if a man is
through with them in honest taking up , then they
must stand upon security . I had as lief they would
put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to stop it with
‘security .’ I looked he should have sent me two-and-twenty
yards of satin , as I am a true knight , and
he sends me ‘security .’ Well , he may sleep in
security , for he hath the horn of abundance , and the
lightness of his wife shines through it , and yet
cannot he see though he have his own lantern to
light him . Where’s Bardolph ?
horse .
horse in Smithfield . An I could get me but a wife in
the stews , I were manned , horsed , and wived .
committed the Prince for striking him about
Bardolph .
[31] ACT 1. SC. 2 service at Shrewsbury , and , as I hear , is now going
with some charge to the Lord John of Lancaster .
anything good . — Go pluck him by the elbow . I must
speak with him .
not wars ? Is there not employment ? Doth not the
King lack subjects ? Do not the rebels need soldiers ?
Though it be a shame to be on any side but one , it is
worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side ,
were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell
how to make it .
Setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside , I
had lied in my throat if I had said so .
your soldiership aside , and give me leave to tell you ,
you lie in your throat if you say I am any other than
an honest man .
which grows to me ? If thou gett’st any leave of me ,
hang me ; if thou tak’st leave , thou wert better be
hanged . You hunt counter . Hence ! Avaunt !
time of the day . I am glad to see your Lordship
abroad . I heard say your Lordship was sick . I hope
your Lordship goes abroad by advice . Your Lordship ,
[33] ACT 1. SC. 2 though not clean past your youth , have yet
some smack of an ague in you , some relish of the
saltness of time in you , and I most humbly beseech
your Lordship to have a reverend care of your
health .
expedition to Shrewsbury .
is returned with some discomfort from Wales .
come when I sent for you .
into this same whoreson apoplexy .
speak with you .
lethargy , an ’t please your Lordship , a kind of
sleeping in the blood , a whoreson tingling .
study , and perturbation of the brain . I have read the
cause of his effects in Galen . It is a kind of deafness .
for you hear not what I say to you .
please you , it is the disease of not listening , the
malady of not marking , that I am troubled withal .
the attention of your ears , and I care not if I do
become your physician .
patient . Your Lordship may minister the potion of
imprisonment to me in respect of poverty , but how
I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions ,
the wise may make some dram of a scruple ,
or indeed a scruple itself .
[35]ACT 1. SC. 2
against you for your life , to come speak with me .
in the laws of this land-service , I did not come .
great infamy .
live in less .
waste is great .
were greater and my waist slender .
fellow with the great belly , and he my dog .
wound . Your day’s service at Shrewsbury hath a
little gilded over your night’s exploit on Gad’s Hill .
You may thank th’ unquiet time for your quiet
o’erposting that action .
a sleeping wolf .
part burnt out .
say of wax , my growth would approve the truth .
should have his effect of gravity .
down like his ill angel .
hope he that looks upon me will take me without
weighing . And yet in some respects I grant I cannot
[37] ACT 1. SC. 2 go . I cannot tell . Virtue is of so little regard in these
costermongers’ times that true valor is turned bearherd ;
pregnancy is made a tapster , and hath his
quick wit wasted in giving reckonings . All the other
gifts appurtenant to man , as the malice of this age
shapes them , are not worth a gooseberry . You that
are old consider not the capacities of us that are
young . You do measure the heat of our livers with
the bitterness of your galls , and we that are in the
vaward of our youth , I must confess , are wags too .
of youth , that are written down old with all the
characters of age ? Have you not a moist eye , a dry
hand , a yellow cheek , a white beard , a decreasing
leg , an increasing belly ? Is not your voice broken ,
your wind short , your chin double , your wit single ,
and every part about you blasted with antiquity ?
And will you yet call yourself young ? Fie , fie , fie , Sir
John .
in the afternoon , with a white head and something
a round belly . For my voice , I have lost it with
halloing and singing of anthems . To approve my
youth further , I will not . The truth is , I am only old
in judgment and understanding . And he that will
caper with me for a thousand marks , let him lend
me the money , and have at him . For the box of the
ear that the Prince gave you , he gave it like a rude
prince , and you took it like a sensible lord . I have
checked him for it , and the young lion repents .
new silk and old sack .
companion .
cannot rid my hands of him .
[39]ACT 1. SC. 2
Prince Harry . I hear you are going with Lord John
of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of
Northumberland .
look you pray , all you that kiss my Lady Peace at
home , that our armies join not in a hot day , for , by
the Lord , I take but two shirts out with me , and I
mean not to sweat extraordinarily . If it be a hot day
and I brandish anything but a bottle , I would I
might never spit white again . There is not a dangerous
action can peep out his head but I am thrust
upon it . Well , I cannot last ever . But it was always
yet the trick of our English nation , if they have a
good thing , to make it too common . If you will
needs say I am an old man , you should give me rest .
I would to God my name were not so terrible to the
enemy as it is . I were better to be eaten to death
with a rust than to be scoured to nothing with
perpetual motion .
bless your expedition .
pound to furnish me forth ?
impatient to bear crosses . Fare you well . Commend
me to my cousin Westmoreland .
man can no more separate age and covetousness
than he can part young limbs and lechery ; but the
gout galls the one , and the pox pinches the other ,
and so both the degrees prevent my curses . — Boy !
[41]ACT 1. SC. 3
of the purse . Borrowing only lingers and lingers
it out , but the disease is incurable . Giving
papers to the Page . Go bear this letter to my Lord
of Lancaster , this to the Prince , this to the Earl
of Westmoreland , and this to old Mistress Ursula ,
whom I have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived
the first white hair of my chin . About it . You
know where to find me . Page exits . A pox of this
gout ! Or a gout of this pox , for the one or the other
plays the rogue with my great toe . ’Tis no matter if I
do halt . I have the wars for my color , and my
pension shall seem the more reasonable . A good wit
will make use of anything . I will turn diseases to
commodity .
Scene 3
Marshal ) , the Lord Hastings , and Lord Bardolph .
means ,
And , my most noble friends , I pray you all
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes .
And first , Lord Marshal , what say you to it ?
But gladly would be better satisfied
How in our means we should advance ourselves
To look with forehead bold and big enough
Upon the power and puissance of the King .
[43] ACT 1. SC. 3 To five-and-twenty thousand men of choice ,
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland , whose bosom burns
With an incensèd fire of injuries .
Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland .
But if without him we be thought too feeble ,
My judgment is we should not step too far
Till we had his assistance by the hand .
For in a theme so bloody-faced as this ,
Conjecture , expectation , and surmise
Of aids incertain should not be admitted .
It was young Hotspur’s cause at Shrewsbury .
Eating the air and promise of supply ,
Flatt’ring himself in project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts ,
And so , with great imagination
Proper to madmen , led his powers to death
And , winking , leapt into destruction .
To lay down likelihoods and forms of hope .
Indeed the instant action , a cause on foot —
Lives so in hope , as in an early spring
We see th’ appearing buds , which to prove fruit
[45] ACT 1. SC. 3 Hope gives not so much warrant as despair
That frosts will bite them . When we mean to build ,
We first survey the plot , then draw the model ,
And when we see the figure of the house ,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection ,
Which if we find outweighs ability ,
What do we then but draw anew the model
In fewer offices , or at least desist
To build at all ? Much more in this great work ,
Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down
And set another up , should we survey
The plot of situation and the model ,
Consent upon a sure foundation ,
Question surveyors , know our own estate ,
How able such a work to undergo ,
To weigh against his opposite . Or else
We fortify in paper and in figures ,
Using the names of men instead of men ,
Like one that draws the model of an house
Beyond his power to build it , who , half through ,
Gives o’er and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds
And waste for churlish winter’s tyranny .
Should be stillborn and that we now possessed
The utmost man of expectation ,
I think we are a body strong enough ,
Even as we are , to equal with the King .
For his divisions , as the times do brawl ,
Are in three heads : one power against the French ,
And one against Glendower ; perforce a third
[47] ACT 1. SC. 3 Must take up us . So is the unfirm king
In three divided , and his coffers sound
With hollow poverty and emptiness .
And come against us in full puissance
Need not to be dreaded .
He leaves his back unarmed , the French and Welsh
Baying him at the heels . Never fear that .
Against the Welsh , himself and Harry Monmouth ;
But who is substituted against the French
I have no certain notice .
And publish the occasion of our arms .
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice .
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited .
An habitation giddy and unsure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart .
O thou fond many , with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be .
And being now trimmed in thine own desires ,
Thou , beastly feeder , art so full of him
That thou provok’st thyself to cast him up .
So , so , thou common dog , didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard ,
And now thou wouldst eat thy dead vomit up
And howl’st to find it . What trust is in these
times ?
They that , when Richard lived , would have him die
Are now become enamored on his grave .
[49] ACT 1. SC. 3 Thou , that threw’st dust upon his goodly head
When through proud London he came sighing on
After th’ admirèd heels of Bolingbroke ,
Criest now ‘O earth , yield us that king again ,
And take thou this !’ O thoughts of men accursed !
Past and to come seems best ; things present ,
worst .
[53]
ACT 2
Scene 1
Fang and Snare , who lags behind .
Will he stand to ’t ?
and all .
will stab .
in mine own house , and that most beastly , in good
faith . He cares not what mischief he does . If his
weapon be out , he will foin like any devil . He will
spare neither man , woman , nor child .
view —
[55] ACT 2. SC. 1 an infinitive thing upon my score . Good Master
Fang , hold him sure . Good Master Snare , let him
not ’scape . He comes continuantly to Pie Corner ,
saving your manhoods , to buy a saddle , and he is
indited to dinner to the Lubber’s Head in Lumbert
Street , to Master Smooth’s the silkman . I pray you ,
since my exion is entered , and my case so openly
known to the world , let him be brought in to his
answer . A hundred mark is a long one for a poor
lone woman to bear , and I have borne , and borne ,
and borne , and have been fubbed off , and fubbed
off , and fubbed off from this day to that day , that it is
a shame to be thought on . There is no honesty in
such dealing , unless a woman should be made an
ass and a beast to bear every knave’s wrong . Yonder
he comes , and that arrant malmsey-nose knave ,
Bardolph , with him . Do your offices , do your offices ,
Master Fang and Master Snare , do me , do me ,
do me your offices .
matter ?
Quickly .
the villain’s head . Throw the quean in the
channel .
the channel . Wilt thou , wilt thou , thou bastardly
rogue ? — Murder , murder ! — Ah , thou honeysuckle
villain , wilt thou kill God’s officers and the King’s ?
Ah , thou honeyseed rogue , thou art a honeyseed , a
man-queller , and a woman-queller .
[57]ACT 2. SC. 1
wot , wot thou ? Thou wot , wot ta ? Do , do , thou
rogue . Do , thou hempseed .
I’ll tickle your catastrophe .
stand to me .
Doth this become your place , your time , and
business ?
You should have been well on your way to York . —
Stand from him , fellow . Wherefore hang’st thou
upon him ?
Grace , I am a poor widow of Eastcheap , and he is
arrested at my suit .
have . He hath eaten me out of house and home . He
hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his .
will ride thee o’ nights like the mare .
any vantage of ground to get up .
man of good temper would endure this tempest of
exclamation ? Are you not ashamed to enforce a
poor widow to so rough a course to come by her
own ?
[59]ACT 2. SC. 1
and the money too . Thou didst swear to me upon a
parcel-gilt goblet , sitting in my Dolphin chamber at
the round table by a sea-coal fire , upon Wednesday
in Wheeson week , when the Prince broke thy head
for liking his father to a singing-man of Windsor ,
thou didst swear to me then , as I was washing thy
wound , to marry me and make me my lady thy wife .
Canst thou deny it ? Did not Goodwife Keech , the
butcher’s wife , come in then and call me Gossip
Quickly , coming in to borrow a mess of vinegar ,
telling us she had a good dish of prawns , whereby
thou didst desire to eat some , whereby I told thee
they were ill for a green wound ? And didst thou not ,
when she was gone downstairs , desire me to be no
more so familiarity with such poor people , saying
that ere long they should call me madam ? And didst
thou not kiss me and bid me fetch thee thirty
shillings ? I put thee now to thy book-oath . Deny it if
thou canst .
up and down the town that her eldest son is like
you . She hath been in good case , and the truth is ,
poverty hath distracted her . But , for these foolish
officers , I beseech you I may have redress against
them .
with your manner of wrenching the true cause the
false way . It is not a confident brow , nor the throng
of words that come with such more than impudent
sauciness from you , can thrust me from a level
consideration . You have , as it appears to me , practiced
upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman ,
and made her serve your uses both in purse and in
person .
[61]ACT 2. SC. 1
owe her , and unpay the villainy you have done with
her . The one you may do with sterling money , and
the other with current repentance .
reply . You call honorable boldness ‘impudent
sauciness .’ If a man will make curtsy and say
nothing , he is virtuous . No , my lord , my humble
duty remembered , I will not be your suitor . I say to
you , I do desire deliverance from these officers ,
being upon hasty employment in the King’s affairs .
but answer in th’ effect of your reputation , and
satisfy the poor woman .
Are near at hand . The rest the paper tells .
of it .
fain to pawn both my plate and the tapestry of my
dining chambers .
thy walls , a pretty slight drollery , or the story of the
Prodigal or the German hunting in waterwork is
worth a thousand of these bed-hangers and these
[63] ACT 2. SC. 1 fly-bitten tapestries . Let it be ten pound , if thou
canst . Come , an ’twere not for thy humors , there’s
not a better wench in England . Go wash thy face ,
and draw the action . Come , thou must not be in this
humor with me . Dost not know me ? Come , come . I
know thou wast set on to this .
nobles . I’ faith , I am loath to pawn my plate , so God
save me , la .
fool still .
gown . I hope you’ll come to supper . You’ll pay
me all together ?
with her . Hook on , hook on .
supper ?
and others exit .
lord ?
tonight ?
well . What is the news , my lord ?
Are marched up to my Lord of Lancaster
Against Northumberland and the Archbishop .
[65]ACT 2. SC. 2
Come . Go along with me , good Master Gower .
dinner ?
you , good Sir John .
you are to take soldiers up in counties as you go .
manners , Sir John ?
a fool that taught them me . — This is the right
fencing grace , my lord : tap for tap , and so part fair .
great fool .
Scene 2
not have attached one of so high blood .
of my greatness to acknowledge it . Doth it
not show vilely in me to desire small beer ?
as to remember so weak a composition .
[67]ACT 2. SC. 2
for , by my troth , I do now remember the poor
creature small beer . But indeed these humble considerations
make me out of love with my greatness .
What a disgrace is it to me to remember thy name ,
or to know thy face tomorrow , or to take note how
many pair of silk stockings thou hast — with these ,
and those that were thy peach-colored ones — or to
bear the inventory of thy shirts , as , one for superfluity
and another for use . But that the tennis-court
keeper knows better than I , for it is a low ebb of
linen with thee when thou keepest not racket there ,
as thou hast not done a great while , because the rest
of the low countries have made a shift to eat up thy
holland ; and God knows whether those that bawl
out the ruins of thy linen shall inherit His kingdom ;
but the midwives say the children are not in the
fault , whereupon the world increases and kindreds
are mightily strengthened .
hard , you should talk so idly ! Tell me , how many
good young princes would do so , their fathers being
so sick as yours at this time is ?
than thine .
you will tell .
sad , now my father is sick — albeit I could tell to
thee , as to one it pleases me , for fault of a better , to
call my friend , I could be sad , and sad indeed too .
[69]ACT 2. SC. 2
devil’s book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and
persistency . Let the end try the man . But I tell thee ,
my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is so sick ;
and keeping such vile company as thou art hath in
reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow .
weep ?
a blessed fellow to think as every man thinks . Never
a man’s thought in the world keeps the roadway
better than thine . Every man would think me an
hypocrite indeed . And what accites your most worshipful
thought to think so ?
much engraffed to Falstaff .
with mine own ears . The worst that they can say of
me is that I am a second brother , and that I am a
proper fellow of my hands ; and those two things , I
confess , I cannot help . By the Mass , here comes
Bardolph .
from me Christian , and look if the fat villain have
not transformed him ape .
fool , must you be blushing ? Wherefore blush
you now ? What a maidenly man-at-arms are you
[71] ACT 2. SC. 2 become ! Is ’t such a matter to get a pottle-pot’s
maidenhead ?
lattice , and I could discern no part of his face from
the window . At last I spied his eyes , and methought
he had made two holes in the ale-wife’s new
petticoat and so peeped through .
away !
of a firebrand , and therefore I call him her dream .
’tis , boy .
cankers ! Well , there is sixpence to preserve thee .
you , the gallows shall have wrong .
Grace’s coming to town . There’s a letter for you .
Martlemas your master ?
that moves not him . Though that be sick , it dies not .
my dog , and he holds his place , for look you how he
writes .
Every man must know that as oft as he has occasion
[73] ACT 2. SC. 2 to name himself , even like those that are kin to the
King , for they never prick their finger but they say
‘There’s some of the King’s blood spilt .’ ‘How
comes that ?’ says he that takes upon him not to
conceive . The answer is as ready as a borrower’s
cap : ‘I am the King’s poor cousin , sir .’
from Japheth . But to the letter :
Falstaff , knight , to the son of the King nearest his
father , Harry Prince of Wales , greeting .
brevity .
and I leave thee . Be not too familiar with Poins , for he
misuses thy favors so much that he swears thou art to
marry his sister Nell . Repent at idle times as thou
mayst , and so farewell .
Thine by yea and no , which is as much as
to say , as thou usest him ,
Jack Falstaff with my familiars ,
John with my brothers and sisters , and
Sir John with all Europe .
him eat it .
But do you use me thus , Ned ? Must I marry your
sister ?
never said so .
the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us .
[75]ACT 2. SC. 2
old frank ?
Mistress Doll Tearsheet .
my master’s .
town bull . — Shall we steal upon them , Ned , at
supper ?
your master that I am yet come to town . There’s for
your silence .
This Doll Tearsheet should be some road .
Saint Albans and London .
tonight in his true colors , and not ourselves be
seen ?
wait upon him at his table as drawers .
was Jove’s case . From a prince to a ’prentice : a low
transformation that shall be mine , for in everything
the purpose must weigh with the folly . Follow me ,
Ned .
[77]ACT 2. SC. 3
Scene 3
Harry Percy .
Give even way unto my rough affairs .
Put not you on the visage of the times
And be , like them , to Percy troublesome .
Do what you will ; your wisdom be your guide .
And , but my going , nothing can redeem it .
The time was , father , that you broke your word
When you were more endeared to it than now ,
When your own Percy , when my heart’s dear Harry ,
Threw many a northward look to see his father
Bring up his powers ; but he did long in vain .
Who then persuaded you to stay at home ?
There were two honors lost , yours and your son’s .
For yours , the God of heaven brighten it .
For his , it stuck upon him as the sun
In the gray vault of heaven , and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts . He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves .
He had no legs that practiced not his gait ;
And speaking thick , which nature made his blemish ,
Became the accents of the valiant ;
For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse
[79] ACT 2. SC. 3 To seem like him . So that in speech , in gait ,
In diet , in affections of delight ,
In military rules , humors of blood ,
He was the mark and glass , copy and book ,
That fashioned others . And him — O wondrous him !
O miracle of men ! — him did you leave ,
Second to none , unseconded by you ,
To look upon the hideous god of war
In disadvantage , to abide a field
Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur’s name
Did seem defensible . So you left him .
Never , O never , do his ghost the wrong
To hold your honor more precise and nice
With others than with him . Let them alone .
The Marshal and the Archbishop are strong .
Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers ,
Today might I , hanging on Hotspur’s neck ,
Have talked of Monmouth’s grave .
heart ,
Fair daughter , you do draw my spirits from me
With new lamenting ancient oversights .
But I must go and meet with danger there ,
Or it will seek me in another place
And find me worse provided .
Till that the nobles and the armèd commons
Have of their puissance made a little taste .
Then join you with them like a rib of steel
To make strength stronger ; but , for all our loves ,
First let them try themselves . So did your son ;
He was so suffered . So came I a widow ,
And never shall have length of life enough
[81] ACT 2. SC. 4 To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes
That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven
For recordation to my noble husband .
As with the tide swelled up unto his height ,
That makes a still-stand , running neither way .
Fain would I go to meet the Archbishop ,
But many thousand reasons hold me back .
I will resolve for Scotland . There am I
Till time and vantage crave my company .
Scene 4
applejohns ? Thou knowest Sir John cannot endure
an applejohn .
once set a dish of applejohns before him and told
him there were five more Sir Johns and , putting off
his hat , said ‘I will now take my leave of these six
dry , round , old , withered knights .’ It angered him
to the heart . But he hath forgot that .
thou canst find out Sneak’s noise . Mistress Tearsheet
would fain hear some music . Dispatch . The
room where they supped is too hot . They’ll come in
straight .
Poins anon , and they will put on two of our jerkins
[83] ACT 2. SC. 4 and aprons , and Sir John must not know of it .
Bardolph hath brought word .
will be an excellent stratagem .
an excellent good temperality . Your pulsidge beats
as extraordinarily as heart would desire , and your
color , I warrant you , is as red as any rose , in good
truth , la . But , i’ faith , you have drunk too much
canaries , and that’s a marvellous searching wine ,
and it perfumes the blood ere one can say ‘What’s
this ?’ How do you now ?
gold . Lo , here comes Sir John .
And was a worthy king —
How now , Mistress Doll ?
they are sick .
comfort you give me ?
I make them not .
[85]ACT 2. SC. 4
help to make the diseases , Doll . We catch of you ,
Doll , we catch of you . Grant that , my poor virtue ,
grant that .
serve bravely is to come halting off , you know ; to
come off the breach with his pike bent bravely , and
to surgery bravely , to venture upon the charged
chambers bravely —
never meet but you fall to some discord . You are
both , i’ good truth , as rheumatic as two dry toasts .
You cannot one bear with another’s confirmities .
What the good-year ! One must bear , and
that must be you . You are the weaker vessel , as they
say , the emptier vessel .
hogshead ? There’s a whole merchant’s venture of
Bordeaux stuff in him . You have not seen a hulk
better stuffed in the hold . — Come , I’ll be friends
with thee , Jack . Thou art going to the wars , and
whether I shall ever see thee again or no , there is
nobody cares .
with you .
hither . It is the foul-mouthed’st rogue in England .
my faith , I must live among my neighbors . I’ll no
swaggerers . I am in good name and fame with the
[87] ACT 2. SC. 4 very best . Shut the door . There comes no swaggerers
here . I have not lived all this while to have
swaggering now . Shut the door , I pray you .
comes no swaggerers here .
ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors . I was
before Master Tisick the debuty t’ other day , and , as
he said to me — ’twas no longer ago than Wednesday
last , i’ good faith — ‘Neighbor Quickly ,’ says
he — Master Dumb , our minister , was by then —
‘Neighbor Quickly ,’ says he , ‘receive those that
are civil , for ,’ said he , ‘you are in an ill name .’
Now he said so , I can tell whereupon . ‘For ,’ says
he , ‘you are an honest woman , and well thought
on . Therefore take heed what guests you receive .
Receive ,’ says he , ‘no swaggering companions .’
There comes none here . You would bless you to
hear what he said . No , I’ll no swaggerers .
faith . You may stroke him as gently as a puppy
greyhound . He’ll not swagger with a Barbary hen if
her feathers turn back in any show of resistance . —
Call him up , drawer .
man my house , nor no cheater , but I do not love
swaggering . By my troth , I am the worse when one
says ‘swagger .’ Feel , masters , how I shake ; look
you , I warrant you .
aspen leaf . I cannot abide swaggerers .
[89]ACT 2. SC. 4
charge you with a cup of sack . Do you discharge
upon mine hostess .
bullets .
offend her .
drink no more than will do me good , for no man’s
pleasure , I .
you .
What , you poor , base , rascally , cheating lack-linen
mate ! Away , you mouldy rogue , away ! I am meat for
your master .
By this wine , I’ll thrust my knife in your mouldy
chaps an you play the saucy cuttle with me . Away ,
you bottle-ale rascal , you basket-hilt stale juggler ,
you . Since when , I pray you , sir ? God’s light , with
two points on your shoulder ? Much !
for this .
here . Discharge yourself of our company , Pistol .
captain !
thou not ashamed to be called captain ? An captains
[91] ACT 2. SC. 4 were of my mind , they would truncheon you out for
taking their names upon you before you have
earned them . You a captain ? You slave , for what ?
For tearing a poor whore’s ruff in a bawdy house ?
He a captain ! Hang him , rogue . He lives upon
mouldy stewed prunes and dried cakes . A captain ?
God’s light , these villains will make the word as
odious as the word ‘occupy ,’ which was an excellent
good word before it was ill sorted . Therefore
captains had need look to ’t .
Bardolph , I could tear her . I’ll be revenged of her .
lake , by this hand , to th’ infernal deep with Erebus
and tortures vile also . Hold hook and line , say I .
Down , down , dogs ! Down , Fates ! Have we not
Hiren here ?
i’ faith . I beseek you now , aggravate your choler .
and hollow pampered jades of Asia , which
cannot go but thirty mile a day , compare with
Caesars and with cannibals and Troyant Greeks ?
Nay , rather damn them with King Cerberus , and let
the welkin roar . Shall we fall foul for toys ?
words .
brawl anon .
we not Hiren here ?
[93]ACT 2. SC. 4
What the good-year , do you think I would deny her ?
For God’s sake , be quiet .
give ’s some sack . Si fortune me tormente , sperato
me contento . Fear we broadsides ? No , let the fiend
give fire . Give me some sack , and , sweetheart , lie
thou there . Laying down his sword . Come we to
full points here ? And are etceteras nothings ?
seen the seven stars .
endure such a fustian rascal .
nags ?
shilling . Nay , an he do nothing but speak
nothing , he shall be nothing here .
incision ? Shall we imbrue ? Then death rock me
asleep , abridge my doleful days . Why then , let
grievous , ghastly , gaping wounds untwind the Sisters
Three . Come , Atropos , I say .
house afore I’ll be in these tirrits and frights . So ,
murder , I warrant now . Alas , alas , put up your
naked weapons , put up your naked weapons .
you whoreson little valiant villain , you .
[95]ACT 2. SC. 4
Methought he made a shrewd thrust at your belly .
him , sir , i’ th’ shoulder .
how thou sweat’st ! Come , let me wipe thy face .
Come on , you whoreson chops . Ah , rogue , i’ faith , I
love thee . Thou art as valorous as Hector of Troy ,
worth five of Agamemnon , and ten times better
than the Nine Worthies . Ah , villain !
blanket .
canvass thee between a pair of sheets .
Doll . A rascal bragging slave ! The rogue fled from
me like quicksilver .
Thou whoreson little tidy Bartholomew boar-pig ,
when wilt thou leave fighting a-days and foining a-nights
and begin to patch up thine old body for
heaven ?
do not bid me remember mine end .
[97] ACT 2. SC. 4 made a good pantler ; he would ’a chipped bread
well .
as thick as Tewkesbury mustard . There’s no more
conceit in him than is in a mallet .
he plays at quoits well , and eats conger and fennel ,
and drinks off candles’ ends for flap-dragons , and
rides the wild mare with the boys , and jumps upon
joint stools , and swears with a good grace , and
wears his boots very smooth like unto the sign of
the Leg , and breeds no bate with telling of discreet
stories , and such other gambol faculties he has that
show a weak mind and an able body , for the which
the Prince admits him ; for the Prince himself is
such another . The weight of a hair will turn the
scales between their avoirdupois .
have his ears cut off ?
poll clawed like a parrot .
outlive performance ?
conjunction ! What says th’ almanac to that ?
not lisping to his master’s old tables , his notebook ,
his counsel keeper .
heart .
[99]ACT 2. SC. 4
boy of them all .
receive money o’ Thursday ; thou shalt have a cap
tomorrow . A merry song ! Come , it grows late . We’ll
to bed . Thou ’lt forget me when I am gone .
sayst so . Prove that ever I dress myself handsome till
thy return . Well , harken a’ th’ end .
not thou Poins his brother ?
life dost thou lead ?
art a drawer .
the ears .
troth , welcome to London . Now the Lord bless that
sweet face of thine . O Jesu , are you come from
Wales ?
of majesty , by this light flesh and corrupt blood ,
thou art welcome .
and turn all to a merriment if you take not the heat .
how vilely did you speak of me even now before
this honest , virtuous , civil gentlewoman !
is , by my troth .
[101]ACT 2. SC. 4
away by Gad’s Hill . You knew I was at your back ,
and spoke it on purpose to try my patience .
within hearing .
abuse , and then I know how to handle you .
bread-chipper and I know not what ?
none . I dispraised him before the wicked ,
Prince )
thee ; in which doing , I have done the part of a
careful friend and a true subject , and thy father is to
give me thanks for it . No abuse , Hal . — None , Ned ,
none . No , faith , boys , none .
doth not make thee wrong this virtuous gentlewoman
to close with us . Is she of the wicked , is
thine hostess here of the wicked , or is thy boy of the
wicked , or honest Bardolph , whose zeal burns in
his nose , of the wicked ?
and his face is Lucifer’s privy kitchen ,
where he doth nothing but roast malt-worms . For
the boy , there is a good angel about him , but the
devil blinds him too .
burns poor souls . For th’ other , I owe her money ,
and whether she be damned for that I know not .
[103]ACT 2. SC. 4
for that . Marry , there is another indictment upon
thee for suffering flesh to be eaten in thy house
contrary to the law , for the which I think thou wilt
howl .
two in a whole Lent ?
against .
there , Francis .
And there are twenty weak and wearied posts
Come from the north , and as I came along
I met and overtook a dozen captains ,
Bareheaded , sweating , knocking at the taverns
And asking everyone for Sir John Falstaff .
So idly to profane the precious time
When tempest of commotion , like the south
Borne with black vapor , doth begin to melt
And drop upon our bare unarmèd heads . —
Give me my sword and cloak . — Falstaff , good
night .
night , and we must hence and leave it unpicked .
[105] ACT 2. SC. 4 ( Knocking . Bardolph exits . ) More knocking at the
door ? ( Bardolph returns . ) How now , what’s the
matter ?
A dozen captains stay at door for you .
Farewell , hostess . — Farewell , Doll . You see , my
good wenches , how men of merit are sought after .
The undeserver may sleep when the man of action
is called on . Farewell , good wenches . If I be not sent
away post , I will see you again ere I go .
burst — well , sweet Jack , have a care of thyself .
twenty-nine years , come peasecod time , but an
honester and truer-hearted man — well , fare thee
well .
master .
She comes blubbered . — Yea ! Will you come , Doll ?
[109]
ACT 3
Scene 1
But , ere they come , bid them o’erread these letters
And well consider of them . Make good speed .
How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep ! O sleep , O gentle sleep ,
Nature’s soft nurse , how have I frighted thee ,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetfulness ?
Why rather , sleep , liest thou in smoky cribs ,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee ,
And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber ,
Than in the perfumed chambers of the great ,
Under the canopies of costly state ,
And lulled with sound of sweetest melody ?
O thou dull god , why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds and leavest the kingly couch
A watch-case or a common ’larum bell ?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the shipboy’s eyes and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge
And in the visitation of the winds ,
[111] ACT 3. SC. 1 Who take the ruffian billows by the top ,
Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deafing clamor in the slippery clouds
That with the hurly death itself awakes ?
Canst thou , O partial sleep , give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude ,
And , in the calmest and most stillest night ,
With all appliances and means to boot ,
Deny it to a king ? Then , happy low , lie down .
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown .
Have you read o’er the letter that I sent you ?
How foul it is , what rank diseases grow ,
And with what danger near the heart of it .
Which to his former strength may be restored
With good advice and little medicine .
My Lord Northumberland will soon be cooled .
And see the revolution of the times
Make mountains level , and the continent ,
Weary of solid firmness , melt itself
Into the sea , and other times to see
[113] ACT 3. SC. 1 The beachy girdle of the ocean
Too wide for Neptune’s hips ; how chance’s mocks
And changes fill the cup of alteration
With divers liquors ! O , if this were seen ,
The happiest youth , viewing his progress through ,
What perils past , what crosses to ensue ,
Would shut the book and sit him down and die .
’Tis not ten years gone
Since Richard and Northumberland , great friends ,
Did feast together , and in two years after
Were they at wars . It is but eight years since
This Percy was the man nearest my soul ,
Who like a brother toiled in my affairs
And laid his love and life under my foot ,
Yea , for my sake , even to the eyes of Richard
Gave him defiance . But which of you was by —
remember —
When Richard , with his eye brimful of tears ,
Then checked and rated by Northumberland ,
Did speak these words , now proved a prophecy ?
‘Northumberland , thou ladder by the which
My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne’ —
Though then , God knows , I had no such intent ,
But that necessity so bowed the state
That I and greatness were compelled to kiss —
‘The time shall come ,’ thus did he follow it ,
‘The time will come that foul sin , gathering head ,
Shall break into corruption’ — so went on ,
Foretelling this same time’s condition
And the division of our amity .
Figuring the natures of the times deceased ,
The which observed , a man may prophesy ,
With a near aim , of the main chance of things
[115] ACT 3. SC. 1 As yet not come to life , who in their seeds
And weak beginning lie intreasurèd .
Such things become the hatch and brood of time ,
And by the necessary form of this ,
King Richard might create a perfect guess
That great Northumberland , then false to him ,
Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness ,
Which should not find a ground to root upon
Unless on you .
Then let us meet them like necessities .
And that same word even now cries out on us .
They say the Bishop and Northumberland
Are fifty thousand strong .
Rumor doth double , like the voice and echo ,
The numbers of the feared . Please it your Grace
To go to bed . Upon my soul , my lord ,
The powers that you already have sent forth
Shall bring this prize in very easily .
To comfort you the more , I have received
A certain instance that Glendower is dead .
Your Majesty hath been this fortnight ill ,
And these unseasoned hours perforce must add
Unto your sickness .
And were these inward wars once out of hand ,
We would , dear lords , unto the Holy Land .
[117]ACT 3. SC. 2
Scene 2
hand , sir , give me your hand , sir . An early stirrer , by
the rood . And how doth my good cousin Silence ?
And your fairest daughter and mine , my goddaughter
Ellen ?
William is become a good scholar . He is at Oxford
still , is he not ?
was once of Clement’s Inn , where I think they will
talk of mad Shallow yet .
cousin .
would have done anything indeed too , and roundly
too . There was I , and little John Doit of Staffordshire ,
and black George Barnes , and Francis Pickbone ,
and Will Squele , a Cotswold man . You had
not four such swinge-bucklers in all the Inns o’
Court again . And I may say to you , we knew where
the bona robas were and had the best of them all at
commandment . Then was Jack Falstaff , now Sir
John , a boy , and page to Thomas Mowbray , Duke of
Norfolk .
about soldiers ?
break Scoggin’s head at the court gate , when he
was a crack not thus high ; and the very same day did
[119] ACT 3. SC. 2 I fight with one Sampson Stockfish , a fruiterer ,
behind Grey’s Inn . Jesu , Jesu , the mad days that I
have spent ! And to see how many of my old acquaintance
are dead .
Death , as the Psalmist saith , is certain to all . All
shall die . How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford
Fair ?
living yet ?
dead ? He shot a fine shoot . John o’ Gaunt loved him
well , and betted much money on his head . Dead ! He
would have clapped i’ th’ clout at twelve score , and
carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen
and a half , that it would have done a man’s
heart good to see . How a score of ewes now ?
may be worth ten pounds .
think .
this county and one of the King’s justices of the
peace . What is your good pleasure with me ?
captain , Sir John Falstaff , a tall gentleman , by
heaven , and a most gallant leader .
[121]ACT 3. SC. 2
backsword man . How doth the good knight ? May I
ask how my lady his wife doth ?
than with a wife .
indeed too . ‘Better accommodated .’ It is good ,
yea , indeed is it . Good phrases are surely , and ever
were , very commendable . ‘Accommodated .’ It
comes of accommodo . Very good , a good phrase .
‘phrase’ call you it ? By this day , I know not the
phrase , but I will maintain the word with my sword
to be a soldierlike word , and a word of exceeding
good command , by heaven . ‘Accommodated ,’ that
is when a man is , as they say , accommodated , or
when a man is being whereby he may be thought to
be accommodated , which is an excellent thing .
John . — Give me your good hand , give me your
Worship’s good hand . By my troth , you like well and
bear your years very well . Welcome , good Sir John .
Robert Shallow . — Master Sure-card , as I think ?
commission with me .
should be of the peace .
provided me here half a dozen sufficient men ?
[123]ACT 3. SC. 2
the roll ? Let me see , let me see , let me see . So , so ,
so , so , so . So , so . Yea , marry , sir . — Rafe Mouldy ! —
Let them appear as I call , let them do so , let them
do so .
and Bullcalf .
Let me see , where is Mouldy ?
fellow , young , strong , and of good friends .
that are mouldy lack use . Very singular good , in
faith . Well said , Sir John , very well said .
could have let me alone . My old dame will be
undone now for one to do her husbandry and her
drudgery . You need not to have pricked me . There
are other men fitter to go out than I .
it is time you were spent .
where you are ? — For th’ other , Sir John . Let me
see . — Simon Shadow !
He’s like to be a cold soldier .
[125]ACT 3. SC. 2
father’s shadow . So the son of the female is the
shadow of the male . It is often so , indeed , but much
of the father’s substance .
for we have a number of shadows to fill up the
muster book .
upon his back , and the whole frame stands upon
pins . Prick him no more .
commend you well . — Francis Feeble !
he’d ha’ pricked you . — Wilt thou make as many
holes in an enemy’s battle as thou hast done in a
woman’s petticoat ?
more .
courageous Feeble . Thou wilt be as valiant as the
[127] ACT 3. SC. 2 wrathful dove or most magnanimous mouse . —
Prick the woman’s tailor well , Master Shallow ,
deep , Master Shallow .
mightst mend him and make him fit to go . I cannot
put him to a private soldier that is the leader of so
many thousands . Let that suffice , most forcible
Feeble .
is the next ?
Bullcalf till he roar again .
pricked ?
caught with ringing in the King’s affairs upon his
coronation day , sir .
We will have away thy cold , and I will take such
order that thy friends shall ring for thee . — Is here
all ?
You must have but four here , sir , and so I pray you
go in with me to dinner .
tarry dinner . I am glad to see you , by my troth ,
Master Shallow .
[129]ACT 3. SC. 2
all night in the windmill in Saint George’s Field ?
more of that .
alive ?
not abide Master Shallow .
She was then a bona roba . Doth she hold her own
well ?
be old . Certain , she’s old , and had Robin Nightwork
by old Nightwork before I came to Clement’s Inn .
that this knight and I have seen ! — Ha , Sir John , said
I well ?
Shallow .
faith , Sir John , we have . Our watchword was ‘Hem ,
boys .’ Come , let’s to dinner , come , let’s to dinner .
Jesus , the days that we have seen ! Come , come .
friend , and here’s four Harry ten-shillings in
French crowns for you . He gives Bardolph money .
In very truth , sir , I had as lief be hanged , sir , as go .
And yet , for mine own part , sir , I do not care , but
rather because I am unwilling , and , for mine own
part , have a desire to stay with my friends . Else , sir ,
I did not care , for mine own part , so much .
[131]ACT 3. SC. 2
old dame’s sake , stand my friend . She has nobody to
do anything about her when I am gone , and she is
old and cannot help herself . You shall have forty ,
sir .
once . We owe God a death . I’ll ne’er bear a base
mind . An ’t be my destiny , so ; an ’t be not , so . No
man’s too good to serve ’s prince , and let it go
which way it will , he that dies this year is quit for
the next .
have three pound to free Mouldy and Bullcalf .
Shadow .
at home till you are past service . — And for your
part , Bullcalf , grow till you come unto it . I will
none of you .
They are your likeliest men , and I would have you
served with the best .
choose a man ? Care I for the limb , the thews , the
[133] ACT 3. SC. 2 stature , bulk and big assemblance of a man ? Give
me the spirit , Master Shallow . Here’s Wart . You see
what a ragged appearance it is . He shall charge you
and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer’s
hammer , come off and on swifter than he that
gibbets on the brewer’s bucket . And this same half-faced
fellow , Shadow , give me this man . He presents
no mark to the enemy . The foeman may with
as great aim level at the edge of a penknife . And for
a retreat , how swiftly will this Feeble , the woman’s
tailor , run off ! O , give me the spare men , and spare
me the great ones . — Put me a caliver into Wart’s
hand , Bardolph .
Thas , thas , thas .
very well , go to , very good , exceeding good . O , give
me always a little , lean , old , chopped , bald shot .
Well said , i’ faith , Wart . Th’ art a good scab . Hold ,
there’s a tester for thee .
right . I remember at Mile End Green , when I lay at
Clement’s Inn — I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur’s
show — there was a little quiver fellow , and he
would manage you his piece thus . Shallow performs
with the musket . And he would about and
about , and come you in , and come you in . ‘Rah ,
tah , tah ,’ would he say . ‘Bounce ,’ would he say ,
and away again would he go , and again would he
come . I shall ne’er see such a fellow .
— God keep you , Master Silence . I will not use
many words with you . Fare you well , gentlemen
both . I thank you . I must a dozen mile tonight . —
Bardolph , give the soldiers coats .
[135]ACT 3. SC. 2
your affairs . God send us peace . At your return , visit
our house . Let our old acquaintance be renewed .
Peradventure I will with you to the court .
Shallow .
On , Bardolph . Lead the men away .
As I return , I will fetch off these justices . I do see
the bottom of Justice Shallow . Lord , Lord , how
subject we old men are to this vice of lying . This
same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to
me of the wildness of his youth and the feats he hath
done about Turnbull Street , and every third word a
lie , duer paid to the hearer than the Turk’s tribute . I
do remember him at Clement’s Inn , like a man
made after supper of a cheese paring . When he was
naked , he was , for all the world , like a forked radish
with a head fantastically carved upon it with a
knife . He was so forlorn that his dimensions to
any thick sight were invincible . He was the very
genius of famine , yet lecherous as a monkey ,
and the whores called him ‘mandrake .’ He came
ever in the rearward of the fashion , and sung
those tunes to the overscutched huswives that he
heard the carmen whistle , and swore they were his
fancies or his good-nights . And now is this Vice’s
dagger become a squire , and talks as familiarly
of John o’ Gaunt as if he had been sworn brother
to him , and I’ll be sworn he ne’er saw him but
once in the tilt-yard , and then he burst his head
for crowding among the Marshal’s men . I saw it
and told John o’ Gaunt he beat his own name , for
[137] ACT 3. SC. 2 you might have thrust him and all his apparel into
an eel-skin ; the case of a treble hautboy was a
mansion for him , a court . And now has he land and
beefs . Well , I’ll be acquainted with him if I return ,
and ’t shall go hard but I’ll make him a philosopher’s
two stones to me . If the young dace be a
bait for the old pike , I see no reason in the law of
nature but I may snap at him . Let time shape , and
there an end .
[141]
ACT 4
Scene 1
Bardolph , Hastings , and their officers within the Forest
of Gaultree .
To know the numbers of our enemies .
My friends and brethren in these great affairs ,
I must acquaint you that I have received
New-dated letters from Northumberland ,
Their cold intent , tenor , and substance , thus :
Here doth he wish his person , with such powers
As might hold sortance with his quality ,
The which he could not levy ; whereupon
He is retired , to ripe his growing fortunes ,
To Scotland , and concludes in hearty prayers
That your attempts may overlive the hazard
And fearful meeting of their opposite .
And dash themselves to pieces .
[143]ACT 4. SC. 1
In goodly form comes on the enemy ,
And , by the ground they hide , I judge their number
Upon or near the rate of thirty thousand .
Let us sway on and face them in the field .
The Prince Lord John and Duke of Lancaster .
What doth concern your coming .
Unto your Grace do I in chief address
The substance of my speech . If that rebellion
Came like itself , in base and abject routs ,
Led on by bloody youth , guarded with rage ,
And countenanced by boys and beggary —
I say , if damned commotion so appeared
In his true , native , and most proper shape ,
You , reverend father , and these noble lords
Had not been here to dress the ugly form
Of base and bloody insurrection
With your fair honors . You , Lord Archbishop ,
[145] ACT 4. SC. 1 Whose see is by a civil peace maintained ,
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touched ,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutored ,
Whose white investments figure innocence ,
The dove and very blessèd spirit of peace ,
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself
Out of the speech of peace , that bears such grace ,
Into the harsh and boist’rous tongue of war ,
Turning your books to graves , your ink to blood ,
Your pens to lances , and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet and a point of war ?
Briefly , to this end : we are all diseased
And with our surfeiting and wanton hours
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever ,
And we must bleed for it ; of which disease
Our late King Richard , being infected , died .
But , my most noble Lord of Westmoreland ,
I take not on me here as a physician ,
Nor do I as an enemy to peace
Troop in the throngs of military men ,
But rather show awhile like fearful war
To diet rank minds sick of happiness
And purge th’ obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life . Hear me more plainly .
I have in equal balance justly weighed
What wrongs our arms may do , what wrongs we
suffer ,
And find our griefs heavier than our offenses .
We see which way the stream of time doth run
And are enforced from our most quiet there
By the rough torrent of occasion ,
And have the summary of all our griefs ,
When time shall serve , to show in articles ;
[147] ACT 4. SC. 1 Which long ere this we offered to the King
And might by no suit gain our audience .
When we are wronged and would unfold our griefs ,
We are denied access unto his person
Even by those men that most have done us wrong .
The dangers of the days but newly gone ,
Whose memory is written on the earth
With yet-appearing blood , and the examples
Of every minute’s instance , present now ,
Hath put us in these ill-beseeming arms ,
Not to break peace or any branch of it ,
But to establish here a peace indeed ,
Concurring both in name and quality .
Wherein have you been gallèd by the King ?
What peer hath been suborned to grate on you ,
That you should seal this lawless bloody book
Of forged rebellion with a seal divine
And consecrate commotion’s bitter edge ?
To brother born an household cruelty ,
I make my quarrel in particular .
Or if there were , it not belongs to you .
That feel the bruises of the days before
And suffer the condition of these times
To lay a heavy and unequal hand
Upon our honors ?
Construe the times to their necessities ,
[149] ACT 4. SC. 1 And you shall say indeed it is the time ,
And not the King , that doth you injuries .
Yet for your part , it not appears to me
Either from the King or in the present time
That you should have an inch of any ground
To build a grief on . Were you not restored
To all the Duke of Norfolk’s seigniories ,
Your noble and right well remembered father’s ?
That need to be revived and breathed in me ?
The King that loved him , as the state stood then ,
Was force perforce compelled to banish him ,
And then that Henry Bolingbroke and he ,
Being mounted and both rousèd in their seats ,
Their neighing coursers daring of the spur ,
Their armèd staves in charge , their beavers down ,
Their eyes of fire sparkling through sights of steel ,
And the loud trumpet blowing them together ,
Then , then , when there was nothing could have
stayed
My father from the breast of Bolingbroke ,
O , when the King did throw his warder down —
His own life hung upon the staff he threw —
Then threw he down himself and all their lives
That by indictment and by dint of sword
Have since miscarried under Bolingbroke .
The Earl of Hereford was reputed then
In England the most valiant gentleman .
Who knows on whom fortune would then have
smiled ?
But if your father had been victor there ,
He ne’er had borne it out of Coventry ;
[151] ACT 4. SC. 1 For all the country in a general voice
Cried hate upon him ; and all their prayers and
love
Were set on Hereford , whom they doted on
And blessed and graced , indeed more than the
King .
But this is mere digression from my purpose .
Here come I from our princely general
To know your griefs , to tell you from his Grace
That he will give you audience ; and wherein
It shall appear that your demands are just ,
You shall enjoy them , everything set off
That might so much as think you enemies .
And it proceeds from policy , not love .
This offer comes from mercy , not from fear .
For , lo , within a ken our army lies ,
Upon mine honor , all too confident
To give admittance to a thought of fear .
Our battle is more full of names than yours ,
Our men more perfect in the use of arms ,
Our armor all as strong , our cause the best .
Then reason will our hearts should be as good .
Say you not then our offer is compelled .
A rotten case abides no handling .
In very ample virtue of his father ,
[153] ACT 4. SC. 1 To hear and absolutely to determine
Of what conditions we shall stand upon ?
I muse you make so slight a question .
For this contains our general grievances .
Each several article herein redressed ,
All members of our cause , both here and hence
That are insinewed to this action ,
Acquitted by a true substantial form
And present execution of our wills
To us and to our purposes confined ,
We come within our awful banks again
And knit our powers to the arm of peace .
In sight of both our battles we may meet ,
And either end in peace , which God so frame ,
Or to the place of difference call the swords
Which must decide it .
That no conditions of our peace can stand .
Upon such large terms and so absolute
As our conditions shall consist upon ,
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains .
That every slight and false-derivèd cause ,
[155] ACT 4. SC. 1 Yea , every idle , nice , and wanton reason ,
Shall to the King taste of this action ,
That , were our royal faiths martyrs in love ,
We shall be winnowed with so rough a wind
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff ,
And good from bad find no partition .
Of dainty and such picking grievances ,
For he hath found to end one doubt by death
Revives two greater in the heirs of life ;
And therefore will he wipe his tables clean
And keep no telltale to his memory
That may repeat and history his loss
To new remembrance . For full well he knows
He cannot so precisely weed this land
As his misdoubts present occasion ;
His foes are so enrooted with his friends
That , plucking to unfix an enemy ,
He doth unfasten so and shake a friend ;
So that this land , like an offensive wife
That hath enraged him on to offer strokes ,
As he is striking holds his infant up
And hangs resolved correction in the arm
That was upreared to execution .
On late offenders , that he now doth lack
The very instruments of chastisement ,
So that his power , like to a fangless lion ,
May offer but not hold .
And therefore be assured , my good Lord Marshal ,
If we do now make our atonement well ,
Our peace will , like a broken limb united ,
Grow stronger for the breaking .
[157]ACT 4. SC. 1
Here is returned my Lord of Westmoreland .
To meet his Grace just distance ’tween our armies .
forward .
Mowbray . —
Good day to you , gentle Lord Archbishop , —
And so to you , Lord Hastings , and to all . —
My Lord of York , it better showed with you
When that your flock , assembled by the bell ,
Encircled you to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text
Than now to see you here , an iron man talking ,
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum ,
Turning the word to sword , and life to death .
That man that sits within a monarch’s heart
And ripens in the sunshine of his favor ,
Would he abuse the countenance of the King ,
Alack , what mischiefs might he set abroach
In shadow of such greatness ! With you , Lord
Bishop ,
It is even so . Who hath not heard it spoken
How deep you were within the books of God ,
[159] ACT 4. SC. 1 To us the speaker in His parliament ,
To us th’ imagined voice of God Himself ,
The very opener and intelligencer
Between the grace , the sanctities , of heaven ,
And our dull workings ? O , who shall believe
But you misuse the reverence of your place ,
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven
As a false favorite doth his prince’s name ,
In deeds dishonorable ? You have ta’en up ,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God ,
The subjects of His substitute , my father ,
And both against the peace of heaven and him
Have here up-swarmed them .
Lancaster ,
I am not here against your father’s peace ,
But , as I told my Lord of Westmoreland ,
The time misordered doth , in common sense ,
Crowd us and crush us to this monstrous form
To hold our safety up . I sent your Grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief ,
The which hath been with scorn shoved from the
court ,
Whereon this Hydra son of war is born ,
Whose dangerous eyes may well be charmed asleep
With grant of our most just and right desires ,
And true obedience , of this madness cured ,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty .
To the last man .
We have supplies to second our attempt ;
If they miscarry , theirs shall second them ,
And so success of mischief shall be born ,
[161] ACT 4. SC. 1 And heir from heir shall hold his quarrel up
Whiles England shall have generation .
To sound the bottom of the after-times .
How far forth you do like their articles .
And swear here by the honor of my blood
My father’s purposes have been mistook ,
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning and authority .
with speed redressed ;
Upon my soul , they shall . If this may please you ,
Discharge your powers unto their several counties ,
As we will ours , and here , between the armies ,
Let’s drink together friendly and embrace ,
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home
Of our restorèd love and amity .
And thereupon I drink unto your Grace .
This news of peace . Let them have pay , and part .
I know it will well please them . Hie thee , captain .
I have bestowed to breed this present peace ,
You would drink freely . But my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter .
Health to my lord and gentle cousin , Mowbray .
For I am on the sudden something ill .
But heaviness foreruns the good event .
Serves to say thus : ‘Some good thing comes
tomorrow .’
shout .
For then both parties nobly are subdued ,
And neither party loser .
And let our army be dischargèd too .
[165] ACT 4. SC. 1
you , let our trains
March by us , that we may peruse the men
We should have coped withal .
Hastings ,
And ere they be dismissed , let them march by .
Now , cousin , wherefore stands our army still ?
Will not go off until they hear you speak .
Like youthful steers unyoked , they take their
courses
East , west , north , south , or , like a school broke up ,
Each hurries toward his home and sporting-place .
I do arrest thee , traitor , of high treason . —
And you , Lord Archbishop , and you , Lord Mowbray ,
Of capital treason I attach you both .
[167]ACT 4. SC. 2
I promised you redress of these same grievances
Whereof you did complain , which , by mine honor ,
I will perform with a most Christian care .
But for you rebels , look to taste the due
Meet for rebellion and such acts as yours .
Most shallowly did you these arms commence ,
Fondly brought here , and foolishly sent hence . —
Strike up our drums ; pursue the scattered stray .
God , and not we , hath safely fought today . —
Some guard these traitors to the block of death ,
Treason’s true bed and yielder-up of breath .
Scene 2
you , and of what place , I pray ?
the Dale .
your degree , and your place the Dale . Colevile shall
be still your name , a traitor your degree , and the
dungeon your place , a place deep enough so shall
you be still Colevile of the Dale .
you yield , sir , or shall I sweat for you ? If I do sweat ,
they are the drops of thy lovers and they weep for
thy death . Therefore rouse up fear and trembling ,
and do observance to my mercy .
thought yield me .
[169]ACT 4. SC. 2
of mine , and not a tongue of them all speaks any
other word but my name . An I had but a belly of any
indifferency , I were simply the most active fellow in
Europe . My womb , my womb , my womb undoes
me . Here comes our general .
Call in the powers , good cousin Westmoreland .
Now , Falstaff , where have you been all this while ?
When everything is ended , then you come .
These tardy tricks of yours will , on my life ,
One time or other break some gallows’ back .
thus . I never knew yet but rebuke and check was the
reward of valor . Do you think me a swallow , an
arrow , or a bullet ? Have I in my poor and old
motion the expedition of thought ? I have speeded
hither with the very extremest inch of possibility . I
have foundered ninescore and odd posts , and here ,
travel-tainted as I am , have in my pure and immaculate
valor taken Sir John Colevile of the Dale , a most
furious knight and valorous enemy . But what of
that ? He saw me and yielded , that I may justly say ,
with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome , ‘There , cousin ,
I came , saw , and overcame .’
your deserving .
And I beseech your Grace let it be booked with the
rest of this day’s deeds , or , by the Lord , I will have it
in a particular ballad else , with mine own picture
on the top on ’t , Colevile kissing my foot ; to the
[171] ACT 4. SC. 2 which course if I be enforced , if you do not all show
like gilt twopences to me , and I in the clear sky of
fame o’ershine you as much as the full moon doth
the cinders of the element ( which show like pins’
heads to her ) , believe not the word of the noble .
Therefore let me have right , and let desert mount .
do me good , and call it what you will .
Colevile .
That led me hither . Had they been ruled by me ,
You should have won them dearer than you have .
thou , like a kind fellow , gavest thyself away gratis ,
and I thank thee for thee .
To York , to present execution . —
Blunt , lead him hence , and see you guard him sure .
And now dispatch we toward the court , my lords .
I hear the King my father is sore sick .
[173] ACT 4. SC. 2 Our news shall go before us to his Majesty ,
to comfort him ,
And we with sober speed will follow you .
through Gloucestershire , and , when you come to
court , stand my good lord , pray , in your good
report .
Shall better speak of you than you deserve .
than your dukedom . Good faith , this same young
sober-blooded boy doth not love me , nor a man
cannot make him laugh . But that’s no marvel ; he
drinks no wine . There’s never none of these demure
boys come to any proof , for thin drink doth so
overcool their blood , and making many fish meals ,
that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness , and
then , when they marry , they get wenches . They are
generally fools and cowards , which some of us
should be too , but for inflammation . A good sherris
sack hath a two-fold operation in it . It ascends me
into the brain , dries me there all the foolish and
dull and crudy vapors which environ it , makes it
apprehensive , quick , forgetive , full of nimble , fiery ,
and delectable shapes , which , delivered o’er to the
voice , the tongue , which is the birth , becomes
excellent wit . The second property of your excellent
sherris is the warming of the blood , which ,
before cold and settled , left the liver white and pale ,
which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice .
But the sherris warms it and makes it course from
the inwards to the parts’ extremes . It illumineth the
[175] ACT 4. SC. 2 face , which as a beacon gives warning to all the rest
of this little kingdom , man , to arm ; and then the
vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster me
all to their captain , the heart , who , great and puffed
up with this retinue , doth any deed of courage , and
this valor comes of sherris . So that skill in the
weapon is nothing without sack , for that sets it
a-work ; and learning a mere hoard of gold kept
by a devil till sack commences it and sets it in
act and use . Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is
valiant , for the cold blood he did naturally inherit
of his father he hath , like lean , sterile , and bare
land , manured , husbanded , and tilled with excellent
endeavor of drinking good and good store
of fertile sherris , that he is become very hot and valiant .
If I had a thousand sons , the first human principle
I would teach them should be to forswear
thin potations and to addict themselves to sack .
How now , Bardolph ?
and there will I visit Master Robert Shallow ,
Esquire . I have him already temp’ring between my
finger and my thumb , and shortly will I seal with
him . Come away .
[177]ACT 4. SC. 3
Scene 3
Clarence , Humphrey Duke of Gloucester , and
Attendants .
To this debate that bleedeth at our doors ,
We will our youth lead on to higher fields
And draw no swords but what are sanctified .
Our navy is addressed , our power collected ,
Our substitutes in absence well invested ,
And everything lies level to our wish .
Only we want a little personal strength ;
And pause us till these rebels now afoot
Come underneath the yoke of government .
Shall soon enjoy .
Prince your brother ?
my lord and father ?
[179] ACT 4. SC. 3 How chance thou art not with the Prince thy
brother ?
He loves thee , and thou dost neglect him , Thomas .
Thou hast a better place in his affection
Than all thy brothers . Cherish it , my boy ,
And noble offices thou mayst effect
Of mediation , after I am dead ,
Between his greatness and thy other brethren .
Therefore omit him not , blunt not his love ,
Nor lose the good advantage of his grace
By seeming cold or careless of his will .
For he is gracious if he be observed ;
He hath a tear for pity , and a hand
Open as day for melting charity ;
Yet notwithstanding , being incensed he is flint ,
As humorous as winter , and as sudden
As flaws congealèd in the spring of day .
His temper therefore must be well observed .
Chide him for faults , and do it reverently ,
When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth ;
But , being moody , give him time and scope
Till that his passions , like a whale on ground ,
Confound themselves with working . Learn this ,
Thomas ,
And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends ,
A hoop of gold to bind thy brothers in ,
That the united vessel of their blood ,
Mingled with venom of suggestion
( As , force perforce , the age will pour it in ) ,
Shall never leak , though it do work as strong
As aconitum or rash gunpowder .
[181]ACT 4. SC. 3
And he , the noble image of my youth ,
Is overspread with them ; therefore my grief
Stretches itself beyond the hour of death .
The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape ,
In forms imaginary , th’ unguided days
And rotten times that you shall look upon
When I am sleeping with my ancestors .
For when his headstrong riot hath no curb ,
When rage and hot blood are his counsellors ,
When means and lavish manners meet together ,
O , with what wings shall his affections fly
Towards fronting peril and opposed decay !
The Prince but studies his companions
Like a strange tongue , wherein , to gain the
language ,
’Tis needful that the most immodest word
Be looked upon and learned ; which , once attained ,
Your Highness knows , comes to no further use
But to be known and hated . So , like gross terms ,
The Prince will , in the perfectness of time ,
Cast off his followers , and their memory
Shall as a pattern or a measure live ,
By which his Grace must mete the lives of others ,
Turning past evils to advantages .
[183]ACT 4. SC. 3
In the dead carrion .
Who’s here ? Westmoreland ?
Added to that that I am to deliver .
Prince John your son doth kiss your Grace’s hand .
Mowbray , the Bishop Scroop , Hastings , and all
Are brought to the correction of your law .
There is not now a rebel’s sword unsheathed ,
But peace puts forth her olive everywhere .
The manner how this action hath been borne
Here at more leisure may your Highness read
With every course in his particular .
Which ever in the haunch of winter sings
The lifting up of day .
Look , here’s more news .
And when they stand against you , may they fall
As those that I am come to tell you of .
The Earl Northumberland and the Lord Bardolph ,
With a great power of English and of Scots ,
Are by the shrieve of Yorkshire overthrown .
The manner and true order of the fight
This packet , please it you , contains at large .
[185]ACT 4. SC. 3
sick ?
Will Fortune never come with both hands full ,
But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?
She either gives a stomach and no food —
Such are the poor , in health — or else a feast
And takes away the stomach — such are the rich ,
That have abundance and enjoy it not .
I should rejoice now at this happy news ,
And now my sight fails , and my brain is giddy .
O , me ! Come near me , now I am much ill .
Are with his Highness very ordinary .
Stand from him , give him air . He’ll straight be
well .
Th’ incessant care and labor of his mind
Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in
So thin that life looks through and will break out .
Unfathered heirs and loathly births of nature .
The seasons change their manners , as the year
Had found some months asleep and leapt them
over .
And the old folk , time’s doting chronicles ,
[187] ACT 4. SC. 3 Say it did so a little time before
That our great-grandsire , Edward , sicked and died .
Into some other chamber . Softly , pray .
part of the stage .
Let there be no noise made , my gentle friends ,
Unless some dull and favorable hand
Will whisper music to my weary spirit .
How doth the King ?
[189]ACT 4. SC. 3
physic .
low .
The King your father is disposed to sleep .
Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow ,
Being so troublesome a bedfellow ?
O polished perturbation , golden care ,
That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night ! Sleep with it now ;
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night . O majesty ,
When thou dost pinch thy bearer , thou dost sit
Like a rich armor worn in heat of day ,
That scald’st with safety . By his gates of breath
There lies a downy feather which stirs not ;
Did he suspire , that light and weightless down
Perforce must move . My gracious lord , my father ,
This sleep is sound indeed . This is a sleep
That from this golden rigol hath divorced
So many English kings . Thy due from me
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood ,
Which nature , love , and filial tenderness
Shall , O dear father , pay thee plenteously .
My due from thee is this imperial crown ,
Which , as immediate from thy place and blood ,
Derives itself to me . He puts on the crown . Lo ,
where it sits ,
[191] ACT 4. SC. 3 Which God shall guard . And , put the world’s whole
strength
Into one giant arm , it shall not force
This lineal honor from me . This from thee
Will I to mine leave , as ’tis left to me .
Clarence !
Who undertook to sit and watch by you .
He is not here .
stayed .
Is he so hasty that he doth suppose my sleep my
death ?
Find him , my Lord of Warwick . Chide him hither .
This part of his conjoins with my disease
[193] ACT 4. SC. 3 And helps to end me . See , sons , what things you
are ,
How quickly nature falls into revolt
When gold becomes her object !
For this the foolish overcareful fathers
Have broke their sleep with thoughts ,
Their brains with care , their bones with industry .
For this they have engrossèd and piled up
The cankered heaps of strange-achievèd gold .
For this they have been thoughtful to invest
Their sons with arts and martial exercises —
When , like the bee , tolling from every flower
The virtuous sweets ,
Our thighs packed with wax , our mouths with
honey ,
We bring it to the hive and , like the bees ,
Are murdered for our pains . This bitter taste
Yields his engrossments to the ending father .
Now where is he that will not stay so long
Till his friend sickness hath determined me ?
Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks ,
With such a deep demeanor in great sorrow
That tyranny , which never quaffed but blood ,
Would , by beholding him , have washed his knife
With gentle eyedrops . He is coming hither .
Lo where he comes . — Come hither to me , Harry . —
Depart the chamber . Leave us here alone .
[195]ACT 4. SC. 3
I stay too long by thee ; I weary thee .
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honors
Before thy hour be ripe ? O foolish youth ,
Thou seek’st the greatness that will overwhelm
thee .
Stay but a little , for my cloud of dignity
Is held from falling with so weak a wind
That it will quickly drop . My day is dim .
Thou hast stol’n that which after some few hours
Were thine without offense , and at my death
Thou hast sealed up my expectation .
Thy life did manifest thou loved’st me not ,
And thou wilt have me die assured of it .
Thou hid’st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts ,
Whom thou hast whetted on thy stony heart
To stab at half an hour of my life .
What , canst thou not forbear me half an hour ?
Then get thee gone , and dig my grave thyself ,
And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
That thou art crownèd , not that I am dead .
Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head ;
Only compound me with forgotten dust .
Give that which gave thee life unto the worms .
Pluck down my officers , break my decrees ,
For now a time is come to mock at form .
Harry the Fifth is crowned . Up , vanity ,
Down , royal state , all you sage councillors ,
hence ,
And to the English court assemble now ,
From every region , apes of idleness .
[197] ACT 4. SC. 3 Now , neighbor confines , purge you of your scum .
Have you a ruffian that will swear , drink , dance ,
Revel the night , rob , murder , and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways ?
Be happy , he will trouble you no more .
England shall double gild his treble guilt .
England shall give him office , honor , might ,
For the fifth Harry from curbed license plucks
The muzzle of restraint , and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent .
O my poor kingdom , sick with civil blows !
When that my care could not withhold thy riots ,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care ?
O , thou wilt be a wilderness again ,
Peopled with wolves , thy old inhabitants .
The moist impediments unto my speech ,
I had forestalled this dear and deep rebuke
Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
The course of it so far . There is your crown ,
And He that wears the crown immortally
Long guard it yours . He kneels . If I affect it
more
Than as your honor and as your renown ,
Let me no more from this obedience rise ,
Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
Teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending .
God witness with me , when I here came in
And found no course of breath within your Majesty ,
How cold it struck my heart ! If I do feign ,
O , let me in my present wildness die
And never live to show th’ incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposèd .
Coming to look on you , thinking you dead ,
And dead almost , my liege , to think you were ,
[199] ACT 4. SC. 3 I spake unto this crown as having sense ,
And thus upbraided it : ‘The care on thee
depending
Hath fed upon the body of my father ;
Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold .
Other , less fine in carat , is more precious ,
Preserving life in med’cine potable ;
But thou , most fine , most honored , most renowned ,
Hast eat thy bearer up .’ Thus , my most royal liege ,
Accusing it , I put it on my head
To try with it , as with an enemy
That had before my face murdered my father ,
The quarrel of a true inheritor .
But if it did infect my blood with joy
Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride ,
If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
Did with the least affection of a welcome
Give entertainment to the might of it ,
Let God forever keep it from my head
And make me as the poorest vassal is
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it .
God put it in thy mind to take it hence
That thou mightst win the more thy father’s love ,
Pleading so wisely in excuse of it .
Come hither , Harry , sit thou by my bed
And hear , I think , the very latest counsel
That ever I shall breathe .
near the bed .
God knows , my son ,
By what bypaths and indirect crook’d ways
I met this crown , and I myself know well
How troublesome it sat upon my head .
To thee it shall descend with better quiet ,
Better opinion , better confirmation ,
[201] ACT 4. SC. 3 For all the soil of the achievement goes
With me into the earth . It seemed in me
But as an honor snatched with boist’rous hand ,
And I had many living to upbraid
My gain of it by their assistances ,
Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed ,
Wounding supposèd peace . All these bold fears
Thou seest with peril I have answerèd ,
For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument . And now my death
Changes the mood , for what in me was purchased
Falls upon thee in a more fairer sort .
So thou the garland wear’st successively .
Yet though thou stand’st more sure than I could do ,
Thou art not firm enough , since griefs are green ,
And all my friends , which thou must make thy
friends ,
Have but their stings and teeth newly ta’en out ,
By whose fell working I was first advanced
And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
To be again displaced ; which to avoid ,
I cut them off and had a purpose now
To lead out many to the Holy Land ,
Lest rest and lying still might make them look
Too near unto my state . Therefore , my Harry ,
Be it thy course to busy giddy minds
With foreign quarrels , that action , hence borne
out ,
May waste the memory of the former days .
More would I , but my lungs are wasted so
That strength of speech is utterly denied me .
How I came by the crown , O God forgive ,
And grant it may with thee in true peace live .
You won it , wore it , kept it , gave it me .
[203] ACT 4. SC. 3 Then plain and right must my possession be ,
Which I with more than with a common pain
’Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain .
But health , alack , with youthful wings is flown
From this bare withered trunk . Upon thy sight
My worldly business makes a period .
Where is my Lord of Warwick ?
Unto the lodging where I first did swoon ?
It hath been prophesied to me many years ,
I should not die but in Jerusalem ,
Which vainly I supposed the Holy Land .
But bear me to that chamber ; there I’ll lie .
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die .
[207]
ACT 5
Scene 1
tonight . — What , Davy , I say !
excused . Excuses shall not be admitted . There is no
excuse shall serve . You shall not be excused . —
Why , Davy !
me see , Davy , let me see . Yea , marry , William cook ,
bid him come hither . — Sir John , you shall not be
excused .
And again , sir : shall we sow the hade land with
wheat ?
are there no young pigeons ?
and plow irons .
not be excused .
[209] ACT 5. SC. 1 had . And , sir , do you mean to stop any of William’s
wages about the sack he lost the other day at
Hinckley Fair ?
couple of short-legged hens , a joint of mutton , and
any pretty little tiny kickshaws , tell William cook .
court is better than a penny in purse . Use his men
well , Davy , for they are arrant knaves and will
backbite .
have marvelous foul linen .
Davy .
of Woncot against Clement Perkes o’ th’ hill .
Visor . That Visor is an arrant knave , on my
knowledge .
yet , God forbid , sir , but a knave should have some
countenance at his friend’s request . An honest
man , sir , is able to speak for himself when a knave is
not . I have served your Worship truly , sir , this eight
years ; an I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear
out a knave against an honest man , I have but a
very little credit with your Worship . The knave is
mine honest friend , sir ; therefore I beseech you let
him be countenanced .
about , Davy . Davy exits . Where are you , Sir John ?
Come , come , come , off with your boots . — Give me
your hand , Master Bardolph .
[211]ACT 5. SC. 1
Bardolph ,
fellow . — Come , Sir John .
Shallow exits . Bardolph , look to our horses . Bardolph
and Page exit . If I were sawed into quantities ,
I should make four dozen of such bearded hermits’
staves as Master Shallow . It is a wonderful thing to
see the semblable coherence of his men’s spirits
and his . They , by observing of him , do bear
themselves like foolish justices ; he , by conversing
with them , is turned into a justice-like servingman .
Their spirits are so married in conjunction with the
participation of society that they flock together in
consent like so many wild geese . If I had a suit to
Master Shallow , I would humor his men with the
imputation of being near their master ; if to his men ,
I would curry with Master Shallow that no man
could better command his servants . It is certain
that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is
caught , as men take diseases , one of another . Therefore
let men take heed of their company . I will
devise matter enough out of this Shallow to keep
Prince Harry in continual laughter the wearing out
of six fashions , which is four terms , or two actions ,
and he shall laugh without intervallums . O , it is
much that a lie with a slight oath and a jest with a
sad brow will do with a fellow that never had the
ache in his shoulders . O , you shall see him laugh till
his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up .
Shallow .
[213]ACT 5. SC. 2
Scene 2
And to our purposes he lives no more .
The service that I truly did his life
Hath left me open to all injuries .
To welcome the condition of the time ,
Which cannot look more hideously upon me
Than I have drawn it in my fantasy .
O , that the living Harry had the temper
Of he the worst of these three gentlemen !
How many nobles then should hold their places
That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort !
[215]ACT 5. SC. 2
Is all too heavy to admit much talk .
And I dare swear you borrow not that face
Of seeming sorrow ; it is sure your own .
You stand in coldest expectation .
I am the sorrier ; would ’twere otherwise .
Which swims against your stream of quality .
Led by th’ impartial conduct of my soul ;
And never shall you see that I will beg
A ragged and forestalled remission .
If truth and upright innocency fail me ,
I’ll to the king my master that is dead
And tell him who hath sent me after him .
[217]ACT 5. SC. 2
Sits not so easy on me as you think . —
Brothers , you mix your sadness with some fear .
This is the English , not the Turkish court ;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds ,
But Harry Harry . Yet be sad , good brothers ,
For , by my faith , it very well becomes you .
Sorrow so royally in you appears
That I will deeply put the fashion on
And wear it in my heart . Why then , be sad .
But entertain no more of it , good brothers ,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all .
For me , by heaven , I bid you be assured ,
I’ll be your father and your brother too .
Let me but bear your love , I’ll bear your cares .
Yet weep that Harry’s dead , and so will I ,
But Harry lives that shall convert those tears
By number into hours of happiness .
And you most .
You are , I think , assured I love you not .
Your Majesty hath no just cause to hate me .
So great indignities you laid upon me ?
What , rate , rebuke , and roughly send to prison
Th’ immediate heir of England ? Was this easy ?
May this be washed in Lethe and forgotten ?
[219] ACT 5. SC. 2 The image of his power lay then in me .
And in th’ administration of his law ,
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth ,
Your Highness pleasèd to forget my place ,
The majesty and power of law and justice ,
The image of the King whom I presented ,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment ,
Whereon , as an offender to your father ,
I gave bold way to my authority
And did commit you . If the deed were ill ,
Be you contented , wearing now the garland ,
To have a son set your decrees at nought ?
To pluck down justice from your awful bench ?
To trip the course of law and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person ?
Nay more , to spurn at your most royal image
And mock your workings in a second body ?
Question your royal thoughts , make the case yours ;
Be now the father and propose a son ,
Hear your own dignity so much profaned ,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted ,
Behold yourself so by a son disdained ,
And then imagine me taking your part
And in your power soft silencing your son .
After this cold considerance , sentence me ,
And , as you are a king , speak in your state
What I have done that misbecame my place ,
My person , or my liege’s sovereignty .
Therefore still bear the balance and the sword .
And I do wish your honors may increase
Till you do live to see a son of mine
Offend you and obey you as I did .
So shall I live to speak my father’s words :
[221] ACT 5. SC. 2 ‘Happy am I that have a man so bold
That dares do justice on my proper son ;
And not less happy , having such a son
That would deliver up his greatness so
Into the hands of justice .’ You did commit me ,
For which I do commit into your hand
Th’ unstainèd sword that you have used to bear ,
With this remembrance : that you use the same
With the like bold , just , and impartial spirit
As you have done ’gainst me . There is my hand .
You shall be as a father to my youth ,
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear ,
And I will stoop and humble my intents
To your well-practiced wise directions . —
And , princes all , believe me , I beseech you :
My father is gone wild into his grave ,
For in his tomb lie my affections ,
And with his spirits sadly I survive
To mock the expectation of the world ,
To frustrate prophecies , and to raze out
Rotten opinion , who hath writ me down
After my seeming . The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flowed in vanity till now .
Now doth it turn and ebb back to the sea ,
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods
And flow henceforth in formal majesty .
Now call we our high court of parliament ,
And let us choose such limbs of noble counsel
That the great body of our state may go
In equal rank with the best-governed nation ;
That war , or peace , or both at once , may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us ,
have foremost hand .
[223] ACT 5. SC. 3 Our coronation done , we will accite ,
As I before remembered , all our state .
And , God consigning to my good intents ,
No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say
God shorten Harry’s happy life one day .
Scene 3
Bardolph , and Page .
arbor , we will eat a last year’s pippin of mine own
graffing , with a dish of caraways , and so forth . —
Come , cousin Silence . — And then to bed .
and a rich .
all , Sir John . Marry , good air . — Spread , Davy ,
spread , Davy . Well said , Davy .
your servingman and your husband .
varlet , Sir John . By the Mass , I have drunk too
much sack at supper . A good varlet . Now sit down ,
now sit down . — Come , cousin .
And praise God for the merry year ,
When flesh is cheap and females dear ,
And lusty lads roam here and there
So merrily ,
And ever among so merrily .
I’ll give you a health for that anon .
[225]ACT 5. SC. 3
anon . Most sweet sir , sit . Master page , good master
page , sit . Proface . What you want in meat , we’ll
have in drink , but you must bear . The heart’s all .
soldier there , be merry .
For women are shrews , both short and tall .
’Tis merry in hall when beards wags all ,
And welcome merry Shrovetide .
Be merry , be merry .
man of this mettle .
now .
you .
of wine , sir .
And drink unto thee , leman mine ,
And a merry heart lives long-a .
sweet o’ th’ night .
I’ll pledge you a mile to th’ bottom .
[227]ACT 5. SC. 3
anything and wilt not call , beshrew thy heart . —
Welcome , my little tiny thief , and welcome indeed
too . I’ll drink to Master Bardolph , and to all the
cabileros about London .
ha , will you not , Master Bardolph ?
will stick by thee , I can assure thee that . He will not
out , he . ’Tis true bred !
merry . ( One knocks at door . ) Look who’s at door
there , ho . Who knocks ?
And dub me knight ,
Samingo .
Is ’t not so ?
somewhat .
come from the court with news .
How now , Pistol ?
[229]ACT 5. SC. 3
Sweet knight , thou art now one of the greatest men
in this realm .
Barson .
Puff in thy teeth , most recreant coward base ! —
Sir John , I am thy Pistol and thy friend ,
And helter-skelter have I rode to thee ,
And tidings do I bring , and lucky joys ,
And golden times , and happy news of price .
this world .
I speak of Africa and golden joys .
Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof .
And shall good news be baffled ?
Then , Pistol , lay thy head in Furies’ lap .
breeding .
news from the court , I take it there’s but two ways ,
either to utter them , or to conceal them . I am , sir ,
under the King in some authority .
[231]ACT 5. SC. 3
Sir John , thy tender lambkin now is king .
Harry the Fifth’s the man . I speak the truth .
When Pistol lies , do this and fig me , like
The bragging Spaniard .
Master Robert Shallow , choose what office thou
wilt in the land , ’tis thine . — Pistol , I will double-charge
thee with dignities .
for my fortune .
my Lord Shallow , be what thou wilt . I am
Fortune’s steward . Get on thy boots . We’ll ride all
night . — O sweet Pistol ! — Away , Bardolph ! — Come ,
Pistol , utter more to me , and withal devise something
to do thyself good . — Boot , boot , Master Shallow .
I know the young king is sick for me . Let us
take any man’s horses . The laws of England are at
my commandment . Blessed are they that have been
my friends , and woe to my Lord Chief Justice !
‘Where is the life that late I led ?’ say they .
Why , here it is . Welcome these pleasant days .
[233]ACT 5. SC. 4
Scene 4
might die , that I might have thee hanged . Thou hast
drawn my shoulder out of joint .
and she shall have whipping cheer enough , I
warrant her . There hath been a man or two lately
killed about her .
thee what , thou damned tripe-visaged rascal : an the
child I now go with do miscarry , thou wert better
thou hadst struck thy mother , thou paper-faced
villain .
make this a bloody day to somebody . But I pray God
the fruit of her womb might miscarry .
again ; you have but eleven now . Come , I charge you
both go with me , for the man is dead that you and
Pistol beat amongst you .
have you as soundly swinged for this , you bluebottle
rogue , you filthy famished correctioner . If you be
not swinged , I’ll forswear half-kirtles .
might ! Well , of sufferance comes ease .
[235]ACT 5. SC. 5
Scene 5
from the coronation . Dispatch , dispatch .
the stage .
Bardolph , and the Page .
will make the King do you grace . I will leer upon
him as he comes by , and do but mark the countenance
that he will give me .
had had time to have made new liveries , I would
have bestowed the thousand pound I borrowed of
you . But ’tis no matter . This poor show doth better .
This doth infer the zeal I had to see him .
deliberate , not to remember , not to have patience
to shift me —
with desire to see him , thinking of nothing else ,
putting all affairs else in oblivion , as if there were
nothing else to be done but to see him .
[237]ACT 5. SC. 5
all in every part .
make thee rage . Thy Doll and Helen of thy noble
thoughts is in base durance and contagious prison ,
haled thither by most mechanical and dirty hand .
Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell Alecto’s
snake , for Doll is in . Pistol speaks nought but truth .
imp of fame !
speak ?
How ill white hairs becomes a fool and jester .
I have long dreamt of such a kind of man ,
So surfeit-swelled , so old , and so profane ;
But being awaked , I do despise my dream .
Make less thy body hence , and more thy grace ;
[239] ACT 5. SC. 5 Leave gormandizing . Know the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men .
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest .
Presume not that I am the thing I was ,
For God doth know — so shall the world perceive —
That I have turned away my former self .
So will I those that kept me company .
When thou dost hear I am as I have been ,
Approach me , and thou shalt be as thou wast ,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots .
Till then I banish thee , on pain of death ,
As I have done the rest of my misleaders ,
Not to come near our person by ten mile .
For competence of life I will allow you ,
That lack of means enforce you not to evils .
And , as we hear you do reform yourselves ,
We will , according to your strengths and qualities ,
Give you advancement .
Be it your charge , my lord ,
To see performed the tenor of my word . —
Set on .
let me have home with me .
you grieve at this . I shall be sent for in private to
him . Look you , he must seem thus to the world .
Fear not your advancements . I will be the man yet
that shall make you great .
should give me your doublet and stuff me out with
straw . I beseech you , good Sir John , let me have five
hundred of my thousand .
you heard was but a color .
[241]ACT 5. SC. 5
Come , lieutenant Pistol . — Come , Bardolph . — I
shall be sent for soon at night .
Officers .
Take all his company along with him .
Take them away .
Chief Justice exit .
He hath intent his wonted followers
Shall all be very well provided for ,
But all are banished till their conversations
Appear more wise and modest to the world .
We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France . I heard a bird so sing ,
Whose music , to my thinking , pleased the King .
Come , will you hence ?
[243]
EPILOGUE
First my fear , then my curtsy , last my speech . My
fear is your displeasure , my curtsy my duty , and my
speech , to beg your pardons . If you look for a good
speech now , you undo me , for what I have to say is
of mine own making , and what indeed I should say
will , I doubt , prove mine own marring .
But to the purpose , and so to the venture . Be it
known to you , as it is very well , I was lately here in
the end of a displeasing play to pray your patience
for it and to promise you a better . I meant indeed to
pay you with this , which , if like an ill venture it
come unluckily home , I break , and you , my gentle
creditors , lose . Here I promised you I would be ,
and here I commit my body to your mercies . Bate
me some , and I will pay you some , and , as most
debtors do , promise you infinitely . And so I kneel
down before you , but , indeed , to pray for the
Queen .
If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me ,
will you command me to use my legs ? And yet that
were but light payment , to dance out of your debt .
But a good conscience will make any possible
satisfaction , and so would I . All the gentlewomen
here have forgiven me ; if the gentlemen will not ,
then the gentlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen ,
[245] EPILOGUE which was never seen before in such an
assembly .
One word more , I beseech you : if you be not too
much cloyed with fat meat , our humble author will
continue the story , with Sir John in it , and make
you merry with fair Katherine of France , where , for
anything I know , Falstaff shall die of a sweat , unless
already he be killed with your hard opinions ; for
Oldcastle died a martyr , and this is not the man .
My tongue is weary ; when my legs are too , I will bid
you good night .
Appendix A
- Lizenz
-
CC BY 4.0
Link zur Lizenz
- Zitationsvorschlag für diese Edition
- TextGrid Repository (2025). Shakespeare, William. Henry IV, Part 2. The Folger Digital Texts in TextGrid. https://hdl.handle.net/21.11113/0000-0016-8453-5