The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT IV
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV SCENE I. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. SCENE II. A public road near Coventry. SCENE III. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. SCENE IV. York. The ARCHBISHOP'S palace. ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE II. A public road near Coventry. Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH FALSTAFF       Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a       bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through;       we'll to Sutton Co'fil' tonight. BARDOLPH       Will you give me money, captain? FALSTAFF 5     Lay out, lay out. BARDOLPH       This bottle makes an angel. FALSTAFF       An if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make       twenty, take them all; I'll answer the coinage. Bid       my lieutenant Peto meet me at town's end. BARDOLPH 10    I will, captain: farewell. Exit FALSTAFF       If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused       gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably.       I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty       soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me 15    none but good house-holders, yeoman's sons; inquire       me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked       twice on the banns; such a commodity of warm slaves,       as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum; such as       fear the report of a caliver worse than a struck 20    fowl or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but such       toasts-and-butter, with hearts in their bellies no       bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out       their services; and now my whole charge consists of       ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of 25    companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the       painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his       sores; and such as indeed were never soldiers, but       discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to       younger brothers, revolted tapsters and ostlers 30    trade-fallen, the cankers of a calm world and a       long peace, ten times more dishonourable ragged than       an old faced ancient: and such have I, to fill up       the rooms of them that have bought out their       services, that you would think that I had a hundred 35    and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from       swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad       fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded       all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye       hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through 40    Coventry with them, that's flat: nay, and the       villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had       gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of       prison. There's but a shirt and a half in all my       company; and the half shirt is two napkins tacked 45    together and thrown over the shoulders like an       herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say       the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban's, or       the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all       one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge. Enter the PRINCE and WESTMORELAND PRINCE HENRY 50    How now, blown Jack! how now, quilt! FALSTAFF       What, Hal! how now, mad wag! what a devil dost thou       in Warwickshire? My good Lord of Westmoreland, I       cry you mercy: I thought your honour had already been       at Shrewsbury. WESTMORELAND 55    Faith, Sir John,'tis more than time that I were       there, and you too; but my powers are there already.       The king, I can tell you, looks for us all: we must       away all night. FALSTAFF       Tut, never fear me: I am as vigilant as a cat to 60    steal cream. PRINCE HENRY       I think, to steal cream indeed, for thy theft hath       already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack, whose       fellows are these that come after? FALSTAFF       Mine, Hal, mine. PRINCE HENRY 65    I did never see such pitiful rascals. FALSTAFF       Tut, tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food       for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better:       tush, man, mortal men, mortal men. WESTMORELAND       Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor 70    and bare, too beggarly. FALSTAFF       'Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had       that; and for their bareness, I am sure they never       learned that of me. PRINCE HENRY       No I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on 75    the ribs bare. But, sirrah, make haste: Percy is       already in the field. FALSTAFF       What, is the king encamped? WESTMORELAND       He is, Sir John: I fear we shall stay too long. FALSTAFF       Well, 80    To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast       Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest. Exeunt Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene