Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- Drama; Historical drama
FALSTAFF. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?
PAGE. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water;
but
for the party that owed it, he might have moe diseases than
he
knew for.
FALSTAFF. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me. The
brain of
this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent
anything
that intends to laughter, more than I invent or is invented
on
me. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is
in
other men. I do here walk before thee like a sow that hath
overwhelm'd all her litter but one. If the Prince put thee
into
my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then
I
have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to
be
worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd
with
an agate till now; but I will inset you neither in gold nor
silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your
master, for a jewel--the juvenal, the Prince your master,
whose
chin is not yet fledge. I will sooner have a beard grow in
the
palm of my hand than he shall get one off his cheek; and yet
he
will not stick to say his face is a face-royal. God may
finish it
when he will, 'tis not a hair amiss yet. He may keep it still
at
a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of
it;
and yet he'll be crowing as if he had writ man ever since his
father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he's
almost
out of mine, I can assure him. What said Master Dommelton
about
the satin for my short cloak and my slops?
PAGE. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance
than
Bardolph. He would not take his band and yours; he liked not
the
security.
FALSTAFF. Let him be damn'd, like the Glutton; pray God his
tongue
be hotter! A whoreson Achitophel! A rascal-yea-forsooth
knave, to
bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon security! The
whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and
bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is through
with
them in honest taking-up, then they must stand upon security.
I
had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth as offer to
stop
it with security. I look'd 'a should have sent me two and
twenty
yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me
security.
Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of
abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it;
and
yet cannot he see, though he have his own lanthorn to light
him.
Where's Bardolph?
PAGE. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship horse.
FALSTAFF. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in
Smithfield. An I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were
mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.
Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and SERVANT
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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