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  • Title: Henry IV, Part 2 (Quarto 1, 1600)
  • Editor: Rosemary Gaby

  • Copyright Rosemary Gaby. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Rosemary Gaby
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Henry IV, Part 2 (Quarto 1, 1600)

    Henry the fourth.
    you pray, all you that kisse my lady Peace at home, that our
    armies ioyne not in a hote day, for, by the Lord, I take but two
    465shirts out with me, and I meane not to sweate extraordinarily:
    if it be a hot day, & I brandish any thing but a bottle. I would
    I might neuer spit white again: there is not a dangerous action
    can peepe out his head, but I am thrust vpon it. Wel, I cannot
    last euer, but it was alway yet the tricke of our English nation,
    469.1if they haue a good thing, to make it too common. If yee will
    needs say I am an olde man, you should giue me rest: I would
    to God my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is, I
    were better to be eaten to death with a rust, than to be scoured
    469.5to nothing with perpetuall motion.
    470Lord Well, be honest, be honest, and God blesse your ex-
    pedition.
    Iohn Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to fur-
    nish me forth?
    Lord Not a penny, not a penny, you are too impatient to
    475beare crosses: fare you well: commend mee to my coosine
    Westmerland.
    Iohn If I do, fillip me with a three man beetle: A man can
    no more separate age and couetousnesse, than a can part yong
    limbs and lechery, but the gowt galles the one, and the pox
    480pinches the other, and so both the degrees preuent my curses,(boy.
    Boy Sir.
    Iohn What money is in my purse?
    Boy Seuen groates and two pence.
    485Iohn I can get no remedy against this consumption of the
    purse, borrowing onely lingers and lingers it out, but the dis-
    ease is incurable: Go beare this letter to my lord of Lancaster,
    this to the Prince, this to the Earle of Westmerland, and this to
    olde mistris Vrsula, whome I haue weekely sworne to marry
    490since I perceiud the first white haire of my chin: about it, you
    know where to finde me: a pox of this gowt, or a gowt of this
    pox, for the one or the other playes the rogue with my great
    toe. Tis no matter if I doe hault, I haue the warres for my
    495color, and my pension shal seeme the more reasonable: a good
    wit