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Henry the Fourth, Part Two (Folio 1 1623)

Author: William Shakespeare
Not Peer Reviewed
80
The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth.
Fal. Glasses, glasses, is the onely drinking: and for
740thy walles a pretty slight Drollery, or the Storie of the
Prodigall, or the Germane hunting in Waterworke, is
worth a thousand of these Bed-hangings, and these Fly-
bitten Tapistries. Let it be tenne pound (if thou canst.)
Come, if it were not for thy humors, there is not a better
745Wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw thy
Action: Come, thou must not bee in this humour with
me, come, I know thou was't set on to this.
Host. Prethee (Sir Iohn) let it be but twenty Nobles,
I loath to pawne my Plate, in good earnest la.
750Fal. Let it alone, Ile make other shift: you'l be a fool
still.
Host. Well, you shall haue it although I pawne my
Gowne. I hope you'l come to Supper: You'l pay me al-
together?
755Fal. Will I liue? Go with her, with her: hooke-on,
hooke-on.
Host. Will you haue Doll Teare-sheet meet you at sup-
per?
Fal. No more words. Let's haue her.
760Ch. Iust. I haue heard bitter newes.
Fal. What's the newes (my good Lord?)
Ch. Iu. Where lay the King last night?
Mes. At Basingstoke my Lord.
Fal. I hope (my Lord) all's well. What is the newes
765my Lord?
Ch. Iust. Come all his Forces backe?
Mes. No: Fifteene hundred Foot, fiue hundred Horse
Are march'd vp to my Lord of Lancaster,
Against Northumberland, and the Archbishop.
770Fal. Comes the King backe from Wales, my noble L?
Ch. Iust. You shall haue Letters of me presently.
Come, go along with me, good M. Gowre.
Fal. My Lord.
Ch. Iust. What's the matter?
775Fal. Master Gowre, shall I entreate you with mee to
dinner?
Gow. I must waite vpon my good Lord heere.
I thanke you, good Sir Iohn.
Ch. Iust. Sir Iohn, you loyter heere too long being you
780are to take Souldiers vp, in Countries as you go.
Fal. Will you sup with me, Master Gowre?
Ch. Iust. What foolish Master taught you these man-
ners, Sir Iohn?
Fal. Master Gower, if they become mee not, hee was a
785Foole that taught them mee. This is the right Fencing
grace (my Lord) tap for tap, and so part faire.
Ch. Iust. Now the Lord lighten thee, thou art a great
Foole.
Exeunt


Scena Secunda.


790
Enter Prince Henry, Pointz, Bardolfe,
and Page.
Prin. Trust me, I am exceeding weary.
Poin. Is it come to that? I had thought wearines durst
not haue attach'd one of so high blood.
795Prin. It doth me: though it discolours the complexion
of my Greatnesse to acknowledge it. Doth it not shew
vildely in me, to desire small Beere?
Poin. Why, a Prince should not be so loosely studied,
as to remember so weake a Composition.
800Prince. Belike then, my Appetite was not Princely
got: for (in troth) I do now remember the poore Crea-
ture, Small Beere. But indeede these humble considera-
tions make me out of loue with my Greatnesse. What a
disgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? Or to know
805thy face to morrow? Or to take note how many paire of
Silk stockings yu hast? (Viz. these, and those that were thy
peach-colour'd ones:) Or to beare the Inuentorie of thy
shirts, as one for superfluity, and one other, for vse. But
that the Tennis-Court-keeper knowes better then I, for
810it is a low ebbe of Linnen with thee, when thou kept'st
not Racket there, as thou hast not done a great while, be-
cause the rest of thy Low Countries, haue made a shift to
eate vp thy Holland.
Poin. How ill it followes, after you haue labour'd so
815hard, you should talke so idlely? Tell me how many good
yong Princes would do so, their Fathers lying so sicke, as
yours is?
Prin. Shall I tell thee one thing, Pointz?
Poin. Yes: and let it be an excellent good thing.
820Prin. It shall serue among wittes of no higher breed-
ing then thine.
Poin. Go to: I stand the push of your one thing, that
you'l tell.
Prin. Why, I tell thee, it is not meet, that I should be
825sad now my Father is sicke: albeit I could tell to thee (as
to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend)
I could be sad, and sad indeed too.
Poin. Very hardly, vpon such a subiect.
Prin. Thou think'st me as farre in the Diuels Booke, as
830thou, and Falstaffe, for obduracie and persistencie. Let the
end try the man. But I tell thee, my hart bleeds inward-
ly, that my Father is so sicke: and keeping such vild com-
pany as thou art, hath in reason taken from me, all osten-
tation of sorrow.
835Poin. The reason?
Prin. What would'st thou think of me, if I shold weep?
Poin. I would thinke thee a most Princely hypocrite.
Prin. It would be euery mans thought: and thou art
a blessed Fellow, to thinke as euery man thinkes: neuer a
840mans thought in the world, keepes the Rode-way better
then thine: euery man would thinke me an Hypocrite in-
deede. And what accites your most worshipful thought
to thinke so?
Poin. Why, because you haue beene so lewde, and so
845much ingraffed to Falstaffe.
Prin. And to thee.
Pointz. Nay, I am well spoken of, I can heare it with
mine owne eares: the worst that they can say of me is, that
I am a second Brother, and that I am a proper Fellowe of
850my hands: and those two things I confesse I canot helpe.
Looke, looke, here comes Bardolfe.
Prince. And the Boy that I gaue Falstaffe, he had him
from me Christian, and see if the fat villain haue not trans
form'd him Ape.

855
Enter Bardolfe.
Bar. Saue your Grace.
Prin. And yours, most Noble Bardolfe.
Poin. Come you pernitious Asse, you bashfull Foole,
must you be blushing? Wherefore blush you now? what
860a Maidenly man at Armes are you become? Is it such a
matter to get a Pottle-pots Maiden-head?
Page. He call'd me euen now (my Lord) through a red
Lattice, and I could discerne no part of his face from the
window: