Great Britain -- History -- Henry IV, 1399-1413 -- Drama; Henry IV, King of England, 1367-1413 -- Drama; Historical drama
PRINCE JOHN. Now, have you left pursuit?
WESTMORELAND. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd.
PRINCE JOHN. Send Colville, with his confederates,
To York, to present execution.
Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.
Exeunt BLUNT and others
And now dispatch we toward the court, my lords.
I hear the King my father is sore sick.
Our news shall go before us to his Majesty,
Which, cousin, you shall bear to comfort him
And we with sober speed will follow you.
FALSTAFF. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through
Gloucestershire; and, when you come to court, stand my good
lord,
pray, in your good report.
PRINCE JOHN. Fare you well, Falstaff. I, in my condition,
Shall better speak of you than you deserve.
Exeunt all but FALSTAFF
FALSTAFF. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your
dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth
not
love me; nor a man cannot make him laugh--but that's no
marvel;
he drinks no wine. There's never none of these demure boys
come
to any proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood,
and
making many fish-meals, that they fall into a kind of male
green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches.
They
are generally fools and cowards-which some of us should be
too,
but for inflammation. A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold
operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there
all
the foolish and dull and crudy vapours which environ it;
makes it
apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and
delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice, the
tongue,
which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second
property of
your excellent sherris is the warming of the blood; which
before,
cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the
badge of pusillanimity and cowardice; but the sherris warms
it,
and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extremes.
It
illumineth the face, which, as a beacon, gives warning to all
the
rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm; and then the vital
commoners and inland petty spirits muster me all to their
captain, the heart, who, great and puff'd up with this
retinue,
doth any deed of courage--and this valour comes of sherris.
So
that skill in the weapon is nothing without sack, for that
sets
it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil
till sack commences it and sets it in act and use. Hereof
comes
it that Prince Harry is valiant; for the cold blood he did
naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, sterile,
and
bare land, manured, husbanded, and till'd, with excellent
endeavour of drinking good and good store of fertile sherris,
that he is become very hot and valiant. If I had a thousand
sons,
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