Hostess. My lord, I pray you, hear me. Prince. What sayest thou, Mistress Quickly? How doth thy husband? I love him well; he is an honest man. Hostess. Good my lord, hear me. Falstaff. Prithee, let her alone, and list to me. Prince. What sayest thou, Jack? Falstaff. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras and had my pocket picked: this house is turned bawdyhouse; they pick pockets. Prince. What didst thou lose, Jack? Falstaff. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound a-piece, and a seal-ring of my grandfather's. Prince. A trifle, some eight-penny matter. ΠΟΙ Hostess. So I told him, my lord; and I said I heard your grace say so and, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouthed man as he is, and said he would cudgel you. Prince. What! he did not? Hostess. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else. 109 Falstaff. There's no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune; nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for womanhood, Maid Marian may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go. Hostess. Say, what thing? what thing? Falstaff. What thing! why, a thing to thank God on. Hostess. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou shouldst know it; I am an honest man's wife: and, setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so. Falstaff. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast. to say otherwise. Hostess. Say, what beast, thou knave, thou? Falstaff. What beast! why, an otter. Prince. An otter, Sir John! why an otter? 120 99 Falstaff. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her. Hostess. Thou art an unjust man in saying so; thou or any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou! Prince. Thou sayest true, hostess; and he slanders thee most grossly. 129 Hostess. So he doth you, my lord; and said the other day you ought him a thousand pound. Prince. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound? Falstaff. A thousand pound, Hal! a million: thy love is worth a million; thou owest me thy love. Hostess. Nay, my lord, he called you Jack, and said he would cudgel you. Falstaff. Did I, Bardolph ? Bardolph. Indeed, Sir John, you said so. Falstaff. Yea, if he said my ring was copper. 139 Prince. I say 't is copper; darest thou be as good as thy word now? Falstaff. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but man, I dare ; but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp. Prince. And why not as the lion? Falstaff. The king himself is to be feared as the lion; dost thou think I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? nay, an I do, I pray God my girdle break. 148 Prince. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine; it is all filled up with guts and midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! why, thou whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there were anything in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, and one poor penny-worth of sugar-candy to make thee long-winded, if thy pocket were enriched with any other injuries but these, I am a villain and yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong. Art thou not ashamed? : 158 Falstaff. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villany? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty. You confess, then, you picked my pocket? Prince. It appears so by the story. Falstaff. Hostess, I forgive thee: go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason; thou seest I am pacified.-Still? Nay, prithee, be gone.[Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the news at court; for the robbery, lad, how is that answered? 170 Prince. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee; the money is paid back again. Falstaff. O, I do not like that paying back; 't is a double labour. Prince. I am good friends with my father and may do any thing. Falstaff. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with unwashed hands too. Bardolph. Do, my lord. 180 Prince. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. Falstaff. I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well? O for a fine thief, of the age of two and twenty or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I laud them, I praise them. Prince. Bardolph! Prince. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, to my brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland.—[Exit Bardolph.] Go, Peto, to horse, to horse; for thou and I have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinner time.- [Exit Peto.] Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Temple Hall at two o'clock in the afternoon. 193 There shalt thou know thy charge; and there receive The land is burning; Percy stands on high; And either they or we must lower lie. [Exit. Falstaff. Rare words! brave world!-Hostess, my break fast, come! O, I could wish this tavern were my drum! [Exit. ESPERANCE SCENE I. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. Hotspur. Well said, my noble Scot; if speaking truth Such attribution should the Douglas have, As not a soldier of this season's stamp Should go so general current through the world. The tongues of soothers; but a braver place Hotspur. Do so, and 't is well. Enter a Messenger with letters. What letters hast thou there?—I can but thank you. |