Did lately meet in the intestine shock Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb Therefore we meet not now.-Then let me hear In forwarding this dear expedience. Westmoreland. My liege, this haste was hot in question, And many limits of the charge set down But yesternight: when all athwart there came 20 30 40 King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy Land. Westmoreland. This match'd with other did, my gracious lord; For more uneven and unwelcome news Came from the north, and thus it did import: Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour, And shape of likelihood, the news was told; King. Here is a dear, a true-industrious friend, Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took To beaten Douglas, and the Earl of Athol, Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith; And is not this an honourable spoil? Westmoreland. In faith, It is a conquest for a prince to boast of. King. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad and mak'st me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland Should be the father to so blest a son, A son who is the theme of honour's tongue. Then would I have his Harry, and he mine. To his own use he keeps, and sends me word, I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife. 90 Westmoreland. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all aspects; Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up King. But I have sent for him to answer this; Westmoreland. I will, my liege. 100 [Exeunt. SCENE II. London. An Apartment of the Prince's. Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF. Falstaff. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? Prince. Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. II Falstaff. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, that wandering knight so fair.' And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God save thy grace,—majesty I should say, for grace thou wilt have none,— Prince. What, none? Falstaff. No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter. 20 Prince. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. Falstaff. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal. 27 Prince. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing 'Lay by,' and spent with crying 'Bring in ;' now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder, and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows. Falstaff. By the Lord, thou sayest true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench? Prince. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance? 39 Falstaff. How now, how now, mad wag! what, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin? Prince. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern? Falstaff. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning many a time and oft. Prince. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part? Falstaff. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there. Prince. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not, I have used my credit. 50 Falstaff. Yea, and so used it that, were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent,- but, I prithee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief. Prince. No; thou shalt. Falstaff. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I 'll be a brave judge! 59 Prince. Thou judgest false already; I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves, and so become a rare hang man. Falstaff. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you. Prince. For obtaining of suits? Falstaff. Yea, for obtaining of suits, whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat or a lugged bear. Prince. Or an old lion, or a lover's lute. Falstaff. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. 70 Prince. What say'st thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch? |