The Oxford Shakespeare: Henry IV, Part 2 (Oxford World's Classics)

by William Shakespeare

  Bardolph, and welcome, my tall fellow.-- Come, Sir John.

  FALSTAFF I'll follow you, good Master Robert Shallow.

  [Exit Shallow]

  Bardolph, look to our horses.

  [Exeunt Bardolph and Page]

  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 humour 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 with

  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 Sir John!

  Within

  FALSTAFF I come, Master Shallow, I come, Master Shallow.

  Exit

  Act 5 Scene 2

  running scene 13

  Location: the royal court

  Enter the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Chief Justice

  WARWICK How now, my Lord Chief Justice whither away?

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE How doth the king?

  WARWICK Exceeding well, his cares are now all ended.

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE I hope, not dead.

  WARWICK He's walked the way of nature,

  And to our purposes he lives no more.

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE I would his majesty had called me with him.

  The service that I truly did his life

  Hath left me open to all injuries.

  WARWICK Indeed I think the young king loves you not.

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE I know he doth not, and do arm myself

  To welcome the condition of the time,

  Which cannot look more hideously upon me

  Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

  Enter John of Lancaster [Prince John], Gloucester and Clarence,

  [Westmorland and others]

  WARWICK Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry.

  O, that the living Harry had the temper

  Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!

  How many nobles then should hold their places

  That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Alas, I fear all will be overturned.

  PRINCE JOHN Good morrow, cousin Warwick, good morrow.

  GLOUCESTER and CLARENCE Good morrow, cousin.

  PRINCE JOHN We meet like men that had forgot to speak.

  WARWICK We do remember, but our argument

  Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

  PRINCE JOHN Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy.

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Peace be with us, lest we be heavier!

  GLOUCESTER O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed,

  And I dare swear you borrow not that face

  Of seeming sorrow, it is sure your own.

  PRINCE JOHN Though no man be assured what grace to find,

  You stand in coldest expectation

  I am the sorrier, would 'twere otherwise.

  CLARENCE Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair,

  Which swims against your stream of quality.

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,

  Led by th'impartial conduct of my soul,

  And never shall you see that I will beg

  A ragged and forestalled remission.

  If troth and upright innocency fail me,

  I'll to the king my master that is dead,

  And tell him who hath sent me after him.

  WARWICK Here comes the prince.

  Enter Prince Henry [now King Henry V]

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE Good morrow, and heaven save your majesty!

  KING HENRY V This new and gorgeous garment majesty

  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 Amurah an Amurah succeeds,

  But Harry Harry. Yet be sad, good brothers,

  For, to speak truth, 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;

  But weep that Harry's dead, and so will I;

  But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears

  By number into hours of happiness.

  PRINCE JOHN, GLOUCESTER and CLARENCE We hope no other from

  your majesty.

  KING HENRY V You all look strangely on me.-- And

  To Lord Chief Justice

  you most:

  You are, I think, assured I love you not.

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE I am assured, if I be measured rightly,

  Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.

  KING HENRY V No?

  How might a prince of my great hopes forget

  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?

  LORD CHIEF JUSTICE I then did use the person of your father,

  The image of his power lay then in me,

  x And in th'administration of his law,

  Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,

  Your highness pleased 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 judgement,

  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.
/>   KING HENRY V You are right, Justice, and you weigh this well:

  Therefore still bear the balance and the sword.

  And I do wish your honours 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:

  'Happy am I, that have a man so bold,

  That dares do justice on my proper son;

  And no 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'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.

  Offers his 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 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,--

  In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.

  To Lord Chief Justice

  Our coronation done, we will accite,

  As I before remembered) consigning to, all our state.

  And, heaven my good intents,

  No prince nor peer shall have just cause to say,

  Heaven shorten Harry's happy life one day!

  Exeunt

  Act 5 Scene 3

  running scene 14

  Location: Shallow's garden, Gloucestershire

  Enter Falstaff, Shallow, Silence, Bardolph, [Davy]and Page

  SHALLOW Nay, you shall see mine 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 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

  servingman and your husband.

  SHALLOW A good varlet, a good varlet, a very good varlet, Sir

  John. 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,

  Sings

  And praise heaven 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 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,

  Sings

  For women are shrews, both short and tall.

  'Tis merry in hall when beards wag all,

  And welcome merry Shrovetide

  Be merry, be merry.

  sFALSTAFF 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.

  [Enter Davy with apples]

  DAVY There is a dish of leather-coats for you.

  To Bardolph?

  SHALLOW Davy!

  DAVY Your worship! I'll be with you straight.-- A cup of

  wine, sir?

  SILENCE A cup of wine that's brisk and fine,

  Sings

  And drink unto the leman mine,

  And a merry heart lives long-a.

  FALSTAFF Well said, Master Silence.

  SILENCE If we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet of the

  night.

  FALSTAFF Health and long life to you, Master Silence.

  SILENCE Fill the cup, and let it come,

  Sings

  I'll pledge you a mile to the bottom.

  SHALLOW Honest Bardolph, welcome. If thou want'st

  anything, and wilt not call, beshrew thy heart.-- Welcome, my little

  tiny thief.-- And welcome indeed too. I'll drink to

  To Page

  Master Bardolph, and to all the cavalieros about London.

  DAVY I hope to see London once ere I die.

  BARDOLPH If I might see you there, Davy.

  SHALLOW You'll crack a quart together, ha! Will you not,

  Master Bardolph?

  BARDOLPH Yes, sir, in a pottle-pot.

  SHALLOW I thank thee. The knave will stick by thee, I can

  assure thee that. He will not out true bred i.e. made of the right stuff : he is true bred.

  BARDOLPH And I'll stick by him, sir.

  SHALLOW Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry.

  Look who's at door there, ho! Who knocks?

  Knocking within

  FALSTAFF Why, now you have done me right.

  Davy goes to the door

  SILENCE Do me right,

  Sings

  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.

  DAVY If it 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, save you, sir!

  FALSTAFF What wind blew you hither, Pistol?

  PISTOL Not the ill wind which blows none to good, sweet

  knight. Thou art now one of the greatest men in the realm.

  SILENCE Indeed, I think he 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,

  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 prithee 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.

  Sings

  PISTOL Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons?

  And shall good n
ews be baffled?

  Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap.

  SILENCE Honest gentleman, I know not your breeding.

  PISTOL Why then, lament therefore.

  |Silence falls asleep|

  SHALLOW Give me pardon, sir. If, sir, you come with news from

  the court, I take it there is 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. Happy are they

  which have been my friends, and woe unto 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 those pleasant days.

  Exeunt

  Act 5 Scene 4

  running scene 15

  Location: London, but unspecified--almost certainly a street

  Enter Hostess Quickly, Doll Tearsheet and Beadles

  HOSTESS QUICKLY No, thou arrant knave. I would 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. If the child I

  now go with do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst

  struck thy mother, thou paper-faced villain.