Complete Plays, The
Page 185
The unstained 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-practised 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 spirit 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 flow’d 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 govern’d nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.
Our coronation done, we will accite,
As I before remember’d, 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!
Exeunt
SCENE III. GLOUCESTERSHIRE. SHALLOW’S ORCHARD.
Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Silence, Davy, Bardolph, and the Page
Shallow
Nay, you shall see my orchard, where, in an arbour, we will eat a last year’s pippin of my own graffing, with a dish of caraways, and so forth: come, cousin Silence: and then to bed.
Falstaff
’Fore God, you have here a goodly dwelling and a rich.
Shallow
Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beggars all,
Sir John: marry, good air. Spread, Davy; spread,
Davy; well said, Davy.
Falstaff
This Davy serves you for good uses; he is your serving-man and your husband.
Shallow
A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good 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.
Silence
Ah, sirrah! quoth-a, we shall
Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer,
Singing
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.
Falstaff
There’s a merry heart! Good Master Silence, I’ll give you a health for that anon.
Shallow
Give Master Bardolph some wine, Davy.
Davy
Sweet sir, sit; I’ll be with you 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.
Exit
Shallow
Be merry, Master Bardolph; and, my little soldier there, be merry.
Silence
Be merry, be merry, my wife has all;
Singing
For women are shrews, both short and tall:
’Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,
And welcome merry Shrove-tide.
Be merry, be merry.
Falstaff
I did not think Master Silence had been a man of this mettle.
Silence
Who, I? I have been merry twice and once ere now.
Re-enter Davy
Davy
There’s a dish of leather-coats for you.
To Bardolph
Shallow
Davy!
Davy
Your worship! I’ll be with you straight.
To Bardolph
A cup of wine, sir?
Silence
A cup of wine that’s brisk and fine,
Singing
And drink unto the leman mine;
And a merry heart lives long-a.
Falstaff
Well said, Master Silence.
Silence
An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet o’ the night.
Falstaff
Health and long life to you, Master Silence.
Silence
Fill the cup, and let it come;
Singing
I’ll pledge you a mile to the bottom.
Shallow
Honest Bardolph, welcome: if thou wantest any thing, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart. Welcome, my little tiny thief.
To the Page
And welcome indeed too. I’ll drink to Master
Bardolph, and to all the cavaleros about London.
Davy
I hove to see London once ere I die.
Bardolph
An I might see you there, Davy,—
Shallow
By the mass, you’ll crack a quart together, ha!
Will you not, Master Bardolph?
Bardolph
Yea, sir, in a pottle-pot.
Shallow
By God’s liggens, I thank thee: the knave will stick by thee, I can assure thee that. A’ will not out; he is true bred.
Bardolph
And I’ll stick by him, sir.
Shallow
Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry.
Knocking within
Look who’s at door there, ho! who knocks?
Exit Davy
Falstaff
Why, now you have done me right.
To Silence, seeing him take off a bumper
Silence
[Singing]
Do me right,
And dub me knight: Samingo.
Is’t not so?
Falstaff
’Tis so.
Silence
Is’t so? Why then, say an old man can do somewhat.
Re-enter Davy
Davy
An’t please your worship, there’s one Pistol come from the court with news.
Falstaff
From the court! let him come in.
Enter Pistol
How now, Pistol!
Pistol
Sir John, God save you!
Falstaff
What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
Pistol
Not the ill wind which blows no man to good. Sweet knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in this realm.
Silence
By’r lady, I think a’ be, but goodman Puff of Barson.
Pistol
Puff!
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.
Falstaff
I pray thee now, deliver them like a man of this world.
Pistol
A foutre for the world and worldlings base!
I speak of Africa and golden joys.
Falstaff
O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news?
Let King Cophetua know the truth thereof.
Silence
And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.
Singing
Pistol
Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons?
And shall good news be baffled?
Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies’ lap.
Silence
Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding.
Pistol
Why then, lament therefore.
Shallow
Give me pardon, sir: if, sir, you come with 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.
Pistol
Under which king, Besonian? speak, or die.
Shallow
Under King Harry.
Pistol
Harry the Fourth? or Fifth?
Shallow
Harry the Fourth.
Pistol
A foutre for thine office!
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.
Falstaff
What, is the old king dead?
Pistol
As nail in door: the things I speak are just.
Falstaff
Away, Bardolph! saddle my horse. Master Robert
Shallow, choose what office thou wilt in the land,
’tis thine. Pistol, I will double-charge thee with dignities.
Bardolph
O joyful day!
I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.
Pistol
What! I do bring good news.
Falstaff
Carry Master Silence to bed. Master Shallow, 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!
Exit 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!
Pistol
Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also!
‘Where is the life that late I led?’ say they:
Why, here it is; welcome these pleasant days!
Exeunt
SCENE IV. LONDON. A STREET.
Enter Beadles, dragging in Hostess Quickly and Doll Tearsheet
Mistress Quickly
No, thou arrant knave; I would to God that I might die, that I might have thee hanged: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.
First Beadle
The constables have delivered her over to me; and she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: there hath been a man or two lately killed about her.
Doll Tearsheet
Nut-hook, nut-hook, you lie. Come on; I ’ll tell 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.
Mistress Quickly
O the Lord, that Sir John were come! he would make this a bloody day to somebody. But I pray God the fruit of her womb miscarry!
First Beadle
If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions 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.
Doll Tearsheet
I’ll tell you what, you thin man in a censer, I will have you as soundly swinged for this,— you blue-bottle rogue, you filthy famished correctioner, if you be not swinged, I’ll forswear half-kirtles.
First Beadle
Come, come, you she knight-errant, come.
Mistress Quickly
O God, that right should thus overcome might!
Well, of sufferance comes ease.
Doll Tearsheet
Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.
Mistress Quickly
Ay, come, you starved blood-hound.
Doll Tearsheet
Goodman death, goodman bones!
Mistress Quickly
Thou atomy, thou!
Doll Tearsheet
Come, you thin thing; come you rascal.
First Beadle
Very well.
Exeunt
SCENE V. A PUBLIC PLACE NEAR WESTMINSTER ABBEY.
Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes
First Groom
More rushes, more rushes.
Second Groom
The trumpets have sounded twice.
First Groom
’Twill be two o’clock ere they come from the coronation: dispatch, dispatch.
Exeunt
Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Pistol, Bardolph, and Page
Falstaff
Stand here by me, Master Robert Shallow; I will make the king do you grace: I will leer upon him as a’ comes by; and do but mark the countenance that he will give me.
Pistol
God bless thy lungs, good knight.
Falstaff
Come here, Pistol; stand behind me. O, if I 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.
Shallow
It doth so.
Falstaff
It shows my earnestness of affection,—
Shallow
It doth so.
Falstaff
My devotion,—
Shallow
It doth, it doth, it doth.
Falstaff
As it were, to ride day and night; and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me,—
Shallow
It is best, certain.
Falstaff
But to stand stained with travel, and sweating 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.
Pistol
’Tis ‘semper idem,’ for ‘obsque hoc nihil est:’
’tis all in every part.
Shallow
’Tis so, indeed.
Pistol
My knight, I will inflame thy noble liver,
And 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.
Falstaff
I will deliver her.
Shouts within, and the trumpets sound
Pistol
There roar’d the sea, and trumpet-clangor sounds.
Enter King Henry V and his train, the Lord Chief- Justice among them
Falstaff
God save thy grace, King Hal! my royal Hal!
Pistol
The heavens thee guard and keep, most royal imp of fame!
Falstaff
God save thee, my sweet boy!
King Henry IV
My lord chief-justice, speak to that vain man.
Lord Chief-Justice
Have you your wits? know you what ’tis to speak?
Falstaff
My king! my Jove! I speak to thee, my heart!
King Henry IV
I know thee not, old man: fall to thy prayers;
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
I have long dream’d of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell’d, so old and so profane;
But, being awaked, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
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 turn’d 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 evil:
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 perform’d the tenor of our word. Set on.
Exeunt King Henry V, & c
Falstaff
Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand pound.
Shallow
Yea, marry, Sir John; which I beseech you to let me have home with me.
Falstaff
That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do not 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.
Shallow
I cannot well perceive how, unless you 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.
Falstaff
Sir, I will be as good as my word: this that you heard was but a colour.
Shallow
A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir John.
Falstaff
Fear no colours: go with me to dinner: come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph: I shall be sent for soon at night.
Re-enter Prince John of Lancaster, the Lord Chief-Justice; Officers with them
Lord Chief-Justice
Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the Fleet:
Take all his company along with him.
Falstaff
My lord, my lord,—
Lord Chief-Justice
I cannot now speak: I will hear you soon.
Take them away.
Pistol
Si fortune me tormenta, spero contenta.
Exeunt all but Prince John and the Lord Chief-Justice
Lancaster
I like this fair proceeding of the king’s:
He hath intent his wonted followers
Shall all be very well provided for;
But all are banish’d till their conversations
Appear more wise and modest to the world.
Lord Chief-Justice
And so they are.
Lancaster
The king hath call’d his parliament, my lord.
Lord Chief-Justice
He hath.
Lancaster
I will lay odds that, ere this year expire,
We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France: I beard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the king.
Come, will you hence?
Exeunt
EPILOGUE
Spoken by a Dancer