Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- Drama; Historical drama
PRINCE.
O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! But, sirrah,
there’s no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine;
it is all filled up with midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking
thy pocket! Why, thou whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there
were anything in thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of bawdy
houses, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-candy to make thee
long-winded, if thy pocket were enriched with any other injuries but
these, I am a villain. And yet you will stand to it, you will not
pocket up wrong. Art thou not ashamed!
FALSTAFF.
Dost thou hear, Hal? Thou knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell,
and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou
seest I have more flesh than another man and therefore more frailty.
You confess, then, you picked my pocket?
PRINCE.
It appears so by the story.
FALSTAFF.
Hostess, I forgive thee. Go make ready breakfast, love thy husband,
look to thy servants, cherish thy guests. Thou shalt find me tractable
to any honest reason. Thou seest I am pacified still. Nay, prithee, be
gone.
[_Exit Hostess._]
Now, Hal, to the news at court. For the robbery, lad, how is that
answered?
PRINCE.
O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee. The money is paid
back again.
FALSTAFF.
O, I do not like that paying back, ’tis a double labour.
PRINCE.
I am good friends with my father, and may do anything.
FALSTAFF.
Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed
hands too.
BARDOLPH.
Do, my lord.
PRINCE.
I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot.
FALSTAFF.
I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal
well? O, for a fine thief, of the age of two-and-twenty or thereabouts!
I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels; they
offend none but the virtuous. I laud them, I praise them.
PRINCE.
Bardolph!
BARDOLPH.
My lord?
PRINCE.
Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster,
To my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland.
[_Exit Bardolph._]
Go, Peto, to horse, to horse, for thou and I
Have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner-time.
[_Exit Peto._]
Jack, meet me tomorrow in the Temple hall
At two o’clock in the afternoon;
There shalt thou know thy charge, and there receive
Money and order for their furniture.
The land is burning, Percy stands on high,
And either we or they must lower lie.
[_Exit._]
FALSTAFF.
Rare words! Brave world!—Hostess, my breakfast, come.—
O, I could wish this tavern were my drum.
[_Exit._]
ACT IV
SCENE I. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.
Enter Hotspur, Worcester and Douglas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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