Percy is but my factor, good my lord, To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;And I will call him to so strict account, That he shall render every glory up, Yea, even the slightest worship of his time, Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
This, in the name of God, I promise here:
The which if He be pleased I shall perform, I do beseech your majesty may salve The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:
If not, the end of life cancels all bands;And I will die a hundred thousand deaths Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow. KING HENRY IV A hundred thousand rebels die in this:
Thou shalt have charge and sovereign trust herein.
Enter BLUNT
How now, good Blunt? thy looks are full of speed. SIR WALTER BLUNT So hath the business that I come to speak of.
Lord Mortimer of Scotland hath sent word That Douglas and the English rebels met The eleventh of this month at Shrewsbury A mighty and a fearful head they are, If promises be kept on every hand, As ever offer'd foul play in the state. KING HENRY IV The Earl of Westmoreland set forth to-day;With him my son, Lord John of Lancaster;For this advertisement is five days old:
On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward;On Thursday we ourselves will march: our meeting Is Bridgenorth: and, Harry, you shall march Through Gloucestershire; by which account, Our business valued, some twelve days hence Our general forces at Bridgenorth shall meet.
Our hands are full of business: let's away;Advantage feeds him fat, while men delay.
Exeunt Scene III Eastcheap. The Boar's-Head Tavern.
Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH FALSTAFF Bardolph, am I not fallen away vilely since this last action? do I not bate? do I not dwindle? Why my skin hangs about me like an like an old lady's loose gown; I am withered like an old apple-john. Well, I'll repent, and that suddenly, while I am in some liking; I shall be out of heart shortly, and then Ishall have no strength to repent. An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, Iam a peppercorn, a brewer's horse: the inside of a church! Company, villanous company, hath been the spoil of me. BARDOLPH Sir John, you are so fretful, you cannot live long. FALSTAFF Why, there is it: come sing me a bawdy song; make me merry. I was as virtuously given as a gentleman need to be; virtuous enough; swore little; diced not above seven times a week; went to a bawdy-house once in a quarter--of an hour; paid money that Iborrowed, three of four times; lived well and in good compass: and now I live out of all order, out of all compass. BARDOLPH Why, you are so fat, Sir John, that you must needs be out of all compass, out of all reasonable compass, Sir John. FALSTAFF Do thou amend thy face, and I'll amend my life:
thou art our admiral, thou bearest the lantern in the poop, but 'tis in the nose of thee; thou art the Knight of the Burning Lamp. BARDOLPH Why, Sir John, my face does you no harm. FALSTAFF No, I'll be sworn; I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a Death's-head or a memento mori:
Inever see thy face but I think upon hell-fire and Dives that lived in purple; for there he is in his robes, burning, burning. If thou wert any way given to virtue, I would swear by thy face; my oath should be 'By this fire, that's God's angel:'
but thou art altogether given over; and wert indeed, but for the light in thy face, the son of utter darkness. When thou rannest up Gadshill in the night to catch my horse, if I did not think thou hadst been an ignis fatuus or a ball of wildfire, there's no purchase in money. O, thou art a perpetual triumph, an everlasting bonfire-light!
Thou hast saved me a thousand marks in links and torches, walking with thee in the night betwixt tavern and tavern: but the sack that thou hast drunk me would have bought me lights as good cheap at the dearest chandler's in Europe. I have maintained that salamander of yours with fire any time this two and thirty years; God reward me for it! BARDOLPH 'Sblood, I would my face were in your belly! FALSTAFF God-a-mercy! so should I be sure to be heart-burned.
Enter Hostess How now, Dame Partlet the hen! have you inquired yet who picked my pocket? Hostess Why, Sir John, what do you think, Sir John? do you think I keep thieves in my house? I have searched, I have inquired, so has my husband, man by man, boy by boy, servant by servant: the tithe of a hair was never lost in my house before. FALSTAFF Ye lie, hostess: Bardolph was shaved and lost many a hair; and I'll be sworn my pocket was picked.
Go to, you are a woman, go. Hostess Who, I? no; I defy thee: God's light, I was never called so in mine own house before. FALSTAFF Go to, I know you well enough. Hostess No, Sir John; You do not know me, Sir John. I know you, Sir John: you owe me money, Sir John; and now you pick a quarrel to beguile me of it: I bought you a dozen of shirts to your back. FALSTAFF Dowlas, filthy dowlas: I have given them away to bakers' wives, and they have made bolters of them. Hostess Now, as I am a true woman, holland of eight shillings an ell. You owe money here besides, Sir John, for your diet and by-drinkings, and money lent you, four and twenty pound. FALSTAFF He had his part of it; let him pay. Hostess He? alas, he is poor; he hath nothing. FALSTAFF How! poor? look upon his face; what call you rich?
let them coin his nose, let them coin his cheeks: