Toolbox



Textual Analysis

[ Go ]

Shakespeare on Stage
American Shakespeare Center, Twelfth Night. To Jun. 16, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, Return to the Forbidden Planet. To Dec. 1, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, The Duchess of Malfi. To Jun. 15, 2013.
Folger Shakespeare Library, Twelfth Night. To Jun. 9, 2013.
American Shakespeare Center, Love's Labour's Lost. To Jun. 15, 2013.
More Performances…
‌

Henry IV, Part 1 (Quarto 1, 1598)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Rosemary Gaby
Not Peer Reviewed
The history
Prin. Faith tell me now in earnest, how came Falstalffs sword
1260so hackt?
Peto. Why, he hackt it with his dagger, and said hee woulde
sweare truth out of England, but hee would make you beleeue
it was done in fight, and perswaded vs to do the like.
1265Bar. Yea, and to tickle our noses with spearegrasse, to make
them bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it, and
sweare it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this se-
uen yeare before, I blusht to heare his monstrous deuices.
1270Prin. O villaine, thou stolest a cup of Sacke eighteene yeares
ago, and wert taken with the maner, and euer since thou hast
blusht extempore, thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet
thou ranst away, what instinct hadst thou for it?
1275Bar. My Lord do you see these meteors? do you behold these
exhalations?
Prin. I do.
Bar. What thinke you they portend?
Prin. Hot liuers, and cold purses.
1280Bar. Choler, my Lord, if rightly taken.
Enter Falstalffe.
Prin. No if rightly taken halter. Here commes leane iacke, here
commes bare bone: how now my sweete creature of bumbast,
how long ist ago iacke since thou sawest thine owne knee?
Fal. My owne knee, when I was about thy yeares (Hall) I was
not an Eagles talent in the waste, I could haue crept into anie
Aldermans thumbe ring: a plague of sighing and grief, it blowes
a man vp like a bladder. Thers villainous newes abroade, heere
1290was sir Iohn Bracy, from your father: you must to the court in
the morning. That same mad fellow of the North Percie, and
he of Wales that gaue Amamon the bastinado, and made Luci-
fer cuckold, and swore the diuel his true liegeman vp|~o| the crosse
1295of a Welsh hooke: what a plague call you him?
Poynes. O Glendower.
Falst. Owen, Owen, the same, and his sonne in lawe Morti-
mer, and olde Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of
1300Scottes, Dowglas, that runnes a horsebacke vp a hill perpendi-
cular.
Prin. He that rides at high speede, and with his pistoll killes a
sparrow flying.
Falst.