Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- Drama; Historical drama
Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?
Prince. Thou art so fat-witted with drinking of old sack, and
unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches
after
noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which
thou
wouldest truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the
time
of the day, Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes
capons,
and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of
leaping
houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in
flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be
so
superfluous to demand the time of the day.
Fal. Indeed you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses
go
by the moon And the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, that
wand'ring knight so fair. And I prithee, sweet wag, when thou
art
king, as, God save thy Grace-Majesty I should say, for grace
thou
wilt have none-
Prince. What, none?
Fal. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue
to
an egg and butter.
Prince. Well, how then? Come, roundly, roundly.
Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us
that
are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the
day's
beauty. Let us be Diana's Foresters, Gentlemen of the Shade,
Minions of the Moon; and let men say we be men of good
government, being governed as the sea is, by our noble and
chaste
mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal.
Prince. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the
fortune of
us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea,
being
governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof now: a
purse
of gold most resolutely snatch'd on Monday night and most
dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing 'Lay
by,'
and spent with crying 'Bring in'; now ill as low an ebb as
the
foot of the ladder, and by-and-by in as high a flow as the
ridge
of the gallows.
Fal. By the Lord, thou say'st true, lad- and is not my hostess
of
the tavern a most sweet wench?
Prince. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle- and is
not
a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?
Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? What, in thy quips and thy
quiddities? What a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?
Prince. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the
tavern?
Fal. Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning many a time and
oft.
Prince. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.
Prince. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch;
and
where it would not, I have used my credit.
Fal. Yea, and so us'd it that, were it not here apparent that
thou
art heir apparent- But I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be
gallows standing in England when thou art king? and
resolution
thus fubb'd as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic
the
law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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