The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT I , SCENE II. London. An apartment of the Prince's.

The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT I


	Introduction

	ACT I

		SCENE I. London. The palace.

		SCENE II. London. An apartment of the Prince's.

		SCENE III. London. The palace.

	ACT II

	ACT III

	ACT IV

	ACT V

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SCENE II. London. An apartment of the Prince's.

Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF

FALSTAFF

Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

PRINCE HENRY

      Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack
      and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon
      benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to
5     demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.
      What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the
      day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes
      capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the
      signs of leaping-houses and the blessed sun himself
10    a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no
      reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand
      the time of the day.

FALSTAFF

      Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take
      purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not
15    by Phoebus, he,'that wandering knight so fair.' And,
      I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God
      save thy grace,--majesty I should say, for grace
      thou wilt have none,--

PRINCE HENRY

What, none?

FALSTAFF

20 No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to
prologue to an egg and butter.

PRINCE HENRY

Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.

FALSTAFF

      Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not
      us that are squires of the night's body be called
25    thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's
      foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the
      moon; and let men say we be men of good government,
      being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and
      chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.

PRINCE HENRY

30    Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the
      fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and
      flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is,
      by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold
      most resolutely snatched on Monday night and most
35    dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with
      swearing 'Lay by' and spent with crying 'Bring in;'
      now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder
      and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

FALSTAFF

By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my
40 hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

PRINCE HENRY

As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And
is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?

FALSTAFF

      How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and
      thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a
45    buff jerkin?

PRINCE HENRY

Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?

FALSTAFF

Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a
time and oft.

PRINCE HENRY

Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?

FALSTAFF

50 No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.

PRINCE HENRY

Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch;
and where it would not, I have used my credit.

FALSTAFF

      Yea, and so used it that were it not here apparent
      that thou art heir apparent--But, I prithee, sweet
55    wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when
      thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is
      with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do
      not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

PRINCE HENRY

No; thou shalt.

FALSTAFF

60 Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.

PRINCE HENRY

Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have
the hanging of the thieves and so become a rare hangman.

FALSTAFF

      Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my
      humour as well as waiting in the court, I can tell
65    you.

PRINCE HENRY

For obtaining of suits?

FALSTAFF

      Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman
      hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy
      as a gib cat or a lugged bear.

PRINCE HENRY

70 Or an old lion, or a lover's lute.

FALSTAFF

Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.

PRINCE HENRY

What sayest thou to a hare, or the melancholy of
Moor-ditch?

FALSTAFF

      Thou hast the most unsavoury similes and art indeed
75    the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young
      prince. But, Hal, I prithee, trouble me no more
      with vanity. I would to God thou and I knew where a
      commodity of good names were to be bought. An old
      lord of the council rated me the other day in the
80    street about you, sir, but I marked him not; and yet
      he talked very wisely, but I regarded him not; and
      yet he talked wisely, and in the street too.

PRINCE HENRY

Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the
streets, and no man regards it.

FALSTAFF

85    O, thou hast damnable iteration and art indeed able
      to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon
      me, Hal; God forgive thee for it! Before I knew
      thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man
      should speak truly, little better than one of the
90    wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give
      it over: by the Lord, and I do not, I am a villain:
      I'll be damned for never a king's son in
      Christendom.

PRINCE HENRY

Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?

FALSTAFF

95 'Zounds, where thou wilt, lad; I'll make one; an I
do not, call me villain and baffle me.

PRINCE HENRY

I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying
to purse-taking.

FALSTAFF

Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a
100 man to labour in his vocation.

Enter POINS

      Poins! Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a
      match. O, if men were to be saved by merit, what
      hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the
      most omnipotent villain that ever cried 'Stand' to
105   a true man.

PRINCE HENRY

Good morrow, Ned.

POINS

      Good morrow, sweet Hal. What says Monsieur Remorse?
      what says Sir John Sack and Sugar? Jack! how
      agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou
110   soldest him on Good-Friday last for a cup of Madeira
      and a cold capon's leg?

PRINCE HENRY

      Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have
      his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of
      proverbs: he will give the devil his due.

POINS

115 Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.

PRINCE HENRY

Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.

POINS

      But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four
      o'clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims going
      to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders
120   riding to London with fat purses: I have vizards
      for you all; you have horses for yourselves:
      Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester: I have bespoke
      supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it
      as secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff
125   your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry
      at home and be hanged.

FALSTAFF

Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not,
I'll hang you for going.

POINS

You will, chops?

FALSTAFF

130 Hal, wilt thou make one?

PRINCE HENRY

Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.

FALSTAFF

      There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good
      fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood
      royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.

PRINCE HENRY

135 Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.

FALSTAFF

Why, that's well said.

PRINCE HENRY

Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.

FALSTAFF

By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.

PRINCE HENRY

I care not.

POINS

140   Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone:
      I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure
      that he shall go.

FALSTAFF

      Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him
      the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may
145   move and what he hears may be believed, that the
      true prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false
      thief; for the poor abuses of the time want
      countenance. Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap.

PRINCE HENRY

Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer!

Exit Falstaff

POINS

150   Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us
      to-morrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot
      manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto and Gadshill
      shall rob those men that we have already waylaid:
      yourself and I will not be there; and when they
155   have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut
      this head off from my shoulders.

PRINCE HENRY

How shall we part with them in setting forth?

POINS

      Why, we will set forth before or after them, and
      appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at
160   our pleasure to fail, and then will they adventure
      upon the exploit themselves; which they shall have
      no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.

PRINCE HENRY

      Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our
      horses, by our habits and by every other
165   appointment, to be ourselves.

POINS

      Tut! our horses they shall not see: I'll tie them
      in the wood; our vizards we will change after we
      leave them: and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram
      for the nonce, to immask our noted outward garments.

PRINCE HENRY

170 Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.

POINS

      Well, for two of them, I know them to be as
      true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the
      third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll
      forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the
175   incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will
      tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at
      least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what
      extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this
      lies the jest.

PRINCE HENRY

180   Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things
      necessary and meet me to-morrow night in Eastcheap;
      there I'll sup. Farewell.

POINS

Farewell, my lord.

Exit Poins

PRINCE HENRY

      I know you all, and will awhile uphold
185   The unyoked humour of your idleness:
      Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
      Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
      To smother up his beauty from the world,
      That, when he please again to be himself,
190   Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
      By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
      Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
      If all the year were playing holidays,
      To sport would be as tedious as to work;
195   But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
      And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
      So, when this loose behavior I throw off
      And pay the debt I never promised,
      By how much better than my word I am,
200   By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
      And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
      My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
      Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
      Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
205   I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
      Redeeming time when men think least I will.

Exit

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