Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- Drama; Historical drama
PRINCE.
I’ll make it greater ere I part from thee,
And all the budding honours on thy crest
I’ll crop to make a garland for my head.
HOTSPUR.
I can no longer brook thy vanities.
[_They fight._]
Enter Falstaff.
FALSTAFF.
Well said, Hal! To it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy’s play here, I
can tell you.
Enter Douglas. He fights with Falstaff, who falls down as if he were
dead, and exit Douglas. The Prince kills Hotspur.
HOTSPUR.
O Harry, thou hast robb’d me of my youth!
I better brook the loss of brittle life
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword my flesh.
But thoughts, the slaves of life, and life, time’s fool,
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue. No, Percy, thou art dust,
And food for—
[_Dies._]
PRINCE.
For worms, brave Percy. Fare thee well, great heart!
Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough. This earth that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
If thou wert sensible of courtesy,
I should not make so dear a show of zeal.
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;
And even in thy behalf I’ll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember’d in thy epitaph!
[_Sees Falstaff on the ground._]
What, old acquaintance, could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spared a better man.
O, I should have a heavy miss of thee
If I were much in love with vanity.
Death hath not struck so fat a deer today,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Embowell’d will I see thee by and by,
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.
[_Exit._]
Falstaff rises up.
FALSTAFF.
Embowell’d! If thou embowel me today, I’ll give you leave to powder me
and eat me too tomorrow. ’Sblood, ’twas time to counterfeit, or that
hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I
am no counterfeit. To die, is to be a counterfeit, for he is but the
counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit
dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true
and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is
discretion, in the which better part I have saved my life. Zounds, I am
afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead. How if he should
counterfeit too, and rise? By my faith, I am afraid he would prove the
better counterfeit. Therefore I’ll make him sure, yea, and I’ll swear I
killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but
eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah, with a new wound in your
thigh, come you along with me.
[_Takes Hotspur on his back._]
Enter Prince Henry and Lancaster.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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