Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- Drama; Historical drama
FALSTAFF.
A wassail candle, my lord, all tallow. If I did say of wax, my growth
would approve the truth.
CHIEF JUSTICE.
There is not a white hair in your face but should have his effect of
gravity.
FALSTAFF.
His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.
CHIEF JUSTICE.
You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.
FALSTAFF.
Not so, my lord, your ill angel is light, but I hope he that looks upon
me will take me without weighing. And yet in some respects, I grant, I
cannot go. I cannot tell. Virtue is of so little regard in these
costermongers’ times that true valour is turned bearherd; pregnancy is
made a tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings. All
the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes
them, are not worth a gooseberry. You that are old consider not the
capacities of us that are young; you do measure the heat of our livers
with the bitterness of your galls, and we that are in the vaward of our
youth, I must confess, are wags too.
CHIEF JUSTICE.
Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down
old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye, a dry
hand, a yellow cheek, a white beard, a decreasing leg, an increasing
belly? Is not your voice broken, your wind short, your chin double,
your wit single, and every part about you blasted with antiquity? And
will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fie, fie, Sir John!
FALSTAFF.
My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a
white head and something a round belly. For my voice, I have lost it
with halloing and singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I
will not. The truth is, I am only old in judgement and understanding;
and he that will caper with me for a thousand marks, let him lend me
the money, and have at him! For the box of the ear that the Prince gave
you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible
lord. I have checked him for it, and the young lion repents. Marry, not
in ashes and sackcloth, but in new silk and old sack.
CHIEF JUSTICE.
Well, God send the Prince a better companion!
FALSTAFF.
God send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.
CHIEF JUSTICE.
Well, the King hath severed you and Prince Harry. I hear you are going
with Lord John of Lancaster against the Archbishop and the Earl of
Northumberland.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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