King Henry IV. William Hazlitt

Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move, and what he hears may be believed, that the true Prince may, for recreation-sake, prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want countenance. Farewell; you shall find me in Eastcheap.

      PRINCE.

       Farewell, thou latter Spring! farewell, All-hallown Summer!

      [Exit Falstaff.]

      POINTZ. Now, my good sweet honey-lord, ride with us tomorrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill, shall rob those men that we have already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head off from my shoulders.

      PRINCE.

       But how shall we part with them in setting forth?

      POINTZ. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves; which they shall have no sooner achieved but we’ll set upon them.

      PRINCE. Ay, but ‘tis like that they will know us by our horses, by our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.

      POINTZ. Tut! our horses they shall not see,—I’ll tie them in the wood; our visards we will change, after we leave them; and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted outward garments.

      PRINCE.

       But I doubt they will be too hard for us.

      POINTZ. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turn’d back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I’ll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.

      PRINCE. Well, I’ll go with thee: provide us all things necessary and meet me tonight in Eastcheap; there I’ll sup. Farewell.

      POINTZ.

       Farewell, my lord.

      [Exit.]

      PRINCE.

       I know you all, and will awhile uphold

       The unyok’d humour of your idleness:

       Yet herein will I imitate the Sun,

       Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

       To smother-up his beauty from the world,

       That, when he please again to be himself,

       Being wanted, he may be more wonder’d at,

       By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

       Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

       If all the year were playing holidays,

       To sport would be as tedious as to work;

       But, when they seldom come, they wish’d-for come,

       And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

       So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,

       And pay the debt I never promised,

       By how much better than my word I am,

       By so much shall I falsify men’s hopes;

       And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,

       My reformation, glittering o’er my fault,

       Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes

       Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

       I’ll so offend, to make offence a skill;

       Redeeming time, when men think least I will.

      [Exit.]

      SCENE III.

       The Same. A Room in the Palace.

       Table of Contents

      [Enter King Henry, Northumberland, Worcester, Hotspur, Sir Walter

       Blunt, and others.]

      KING.

       My blood hath been too cold and temperate,

       Unapt to stir at these indignities,

       And you have found me; for, accordingly,

       You tread upon my patience: but be sure

       I will from henceforth rather be myself,

       Mighty and to be fear’d, than my condition,

       Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,

       And therefore lost that title of respect

       Which the proud soul ne’er pays but to the proud.

      WOR.

       Our House, my sovereign liege, little deserves

       The scourge of greatness to be used on it;

       And that same greatness too which our own hands

       Have holp to make so portly.

      NORTH.

       My good lord,—

      KING.

       Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see

       Danger and disobedience in thine eye:

       O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,

       And majesty might never yet endure

       The moody frontier of a servant brow.

       You have good leave to leave us: when we need

       Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.

      [Exit Worcester.]

      [To Northumberland.]

      You were about to speak.

      NORTH.

       Yea, my good lord.

       Those prisoners in your Highness’ name demanded,

       Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,

       Were, as he says, not with such strength denied

       As is deliver’d to your Majesty:

       Either envy, therefore, or misprision

       Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.

      HOT.

       My liege, I did deny no prisoners.

       But, I remember, when the fight was done,

       When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,

       Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,

       Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress’d,

       Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin new reap’d

       Show’d like a stubble-land at harvest-home:

       He was perfumed like a milliner;

       And ‘twixt his finger and his thumb he held

       A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

       He gave his nose, and took’t away again;

       Who therewith angry, when it next came there,

       Took it in snuff: and still he smiled and talk’d;

       And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,

       He call’d them untaught knaves, unmannerly,

       To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse

       Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

       With many holiday and lady terms

       He question’d me; amongst the rest, demanded