TPTT The Second Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT II
Introduction
INDUCTION
ACT I
ACT II
SCENE I. London. A street.
SCENE II. London. Another street.
SCENE III. Warkworth. Before the castle.
SCENE IV. London. The Boar's-head Tavern in Eastcheap.
ACT III
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
Feedback
  Search:   
for:

Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
SCENE II. London. Another street.
Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS
PRINCE HENRY
      Before God, I am exceeding weary.
POINS
      Is't come to that? I had thought weariness durst not
      have attached one of so high blood.
PRINCE HENRY
      Faith, it does me; though it discolours the
5     complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth
      it not show vilely in me to desire small beer?
POINS
      Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as
      to remember so weak a composition.
PRINCE HENRY
      Belike then my appetite was not princely got; for,
10    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 to-morrow! or to
15    take note how many pair of silk stockings thou
      hast, viz. these, and those that were thy
      peach-coloured 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
20    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 thy low
      countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland:
      and God knows, whether those that bawl out the ruins
25    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.
POINS
      How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard,
30    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?
PRINCE HENRY
      Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
POINS
      Yes, faith; and let it be an excellent good thing.
PRINCE HENRY
35    It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.
POINS
      Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you
      will tell.
PRINCE HENRY
      Marry, I tell thee, it is not meet that I should be
      sad, now my father is sick: albeit I could tell
40    thee, as to one it pleases me, for fault of a
      better, to call my friend, I could be sad, and sad
      indeed too.
POINS
      Very hardly upon such a subject.
PRINCE HENRY
      By this hand thou thinkest me as far in the devil's
45    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.
POINS
50    The reason?
PRINCE HENRY
      What wouldst thou think of me, if I should weep?
POINS
      I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
PRINCE HENRY
      It would be every man's thought; and thou art a
      blessed fellow to think as every man thinks: never
55    a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way
      better than thine: every man would think me an
      hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most
      worshipful thought to think so?
POINS
      Why, because you have been so lewd and so much
60    engraffed to Falstaff.
PRINCE HENRY
      And to thee.
POINS
      By this light, I am well spoke on; I can hear it
      with my own ears: the worst that they can say of
      me is that I am a second brother and that I am a
65    proper fellow of my hands; and those two things, I
      confess, I cannot help. By the mass, here comes Bardolph.
Enter BARDOLPH and Page
PRINCE HENRY
      And the boy that I gave Falstaff: a' had him from
      me Christian; and look, if the fat villain have not
      transformed him ape.
BARDOLPH
70    God save your grace!
PRINCE HENRY
      And yours, most noble Bardolph!
BARDOLPH
      Come, you virtuous ass, you bashful fool, must you
      be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a
      maidenly man-at-arms are you become! Is't such a
75    matter to get a pottle-pot's maidenhead?
Page
      A' calls me e'en now, my lord, through a red
      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
80    new petticoat and so peeped through.
PRINCE HENRY
      Has not the boy profited?
BARDOLPH
      Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away!
Page
      Away, you rascally Althaea's dream, away!
PRINCE HENRY
      Instruct us, boy; what dream, boy?
Page
85    Marry, my lord, Althaea dreamed she was delivered
      of a fire-brand; and therefore I call him her dream.
PRINCE HENRY
      A crown's worth of good interpretation: there 'tis,
      boy.
POINS
      O, that this good blossom could be kept from
90    cankers! Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.
BARDOLPH
      An you do not make him hanged among you, the
      gallows shall have wrong.
PRINCE HENRY
      And how doth thy master, Bardolph?
BARDOLPH
      Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's coming to
95    town: there's a letter for you.
POINS
      Delivered with good respect. And how doth the
      martlemas, your master?
BARDOLPH
      In bodily health, sir.
POINS
      Marry, the immortal part needs a physician; but
100   that moves not him: though that be sick, it dies
      not.
PRINCE HENRY
      I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my
      dog; and he holds his place; for look you how be writes.
POINS
      (Reads) 'John Falstaff, knight,'--every man must
105   know that, as oft as he has occasion 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
110   conceive. The answer is as ready as a borrower's
      cap, 'I am the king's poor cousin, sir.'
PRINCE HENRY
      Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it
      from Japhet. But to the letter.
POINS
      (Reads) 'Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of
115   the king, nearest his father, Harry Prince of
      Wales, greeting.' Why, this is a certificate.
PRINCE HENRY
      Peace!
POINS
      (Reads) 'I will imitate the honourable Romans in
      brevity:' he sure means brevity in breath,
120   short-winded. 'I commend me to thee, I commend
      thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with
      Poins; for he misuses thy favours so much, that he
      swears thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent
      at idle times as thou mayest; and so, farewell.
125   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.'
      My lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat it.
PRINCE HENRY
130   That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do
      you use me thus, Ned? must I marry your sister?
POINS
      God send the wench no worse fortune! But I never said so.
PRINCE HENRY
      Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the
      spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.
135   Is your master here in London?
BARDOLPH
      Yea, my lord.
PRINCE HENRY
      Where sups he? doth the old boar feed in the old frank?
BARDOLPH
      At the old place, my lord, in Eastcheap.
PRINCE HENRY
      What company?
Page
140   Ephesians, my lord, of the old church.
PRINCE HENRY
      Sup any women with him?
Page
      None, my lord, but old Mistress Quickly and
      Mistress Doll Tearsheet.
PRINCE HENRY
      What pagan may that be?
Page
145   A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's.
PRINCE HENRY
      Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the town
      bull. Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper?
POINS
      I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow you.
PRINCE HENRY
      Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your
150   master that I am yet come to town: there's for
      your silence.
BARDOLPH
      I have no tongue, sir.
Page
      And for mine, sir, I will govern it.
PRINCE HENRY
      Fare you well; go.

Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page

155   This Doll Tearsheet should be some road.
POINS
      I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint
      Alban's and London.
PRINCE HENRY
      How might we see Falstaff bestow himself to-night
      in his true colours, and not ourselves be seen?
POINS
160   Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and wait
      upon him at his table as drawers.
PRINCE HENRY
      From a God to a bull? a heavy decension! it was
      Jove's case. From a prince to a prentice? a low
      transformation! that shall be mine; for in every
165   thing the purpose must weigh with the folly.
      Follow me, Ned.
Exeunt
Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene