William Shakespeare's King Henry the Fourth, Part II in the complete original text.
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HOME > Plays > The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth > Act V. Scene V.

The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth

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Act V. Scene V.

Scene V.—A public Place near Westminster

Enter two Grooms, strewing rushes.

First Groom. More rushes, more rushes.
Sec. Groom. The trumpets have sounded
twice.
First Groom. It will be two o'clock ere they
come from the coronation. Dispatch, dispatch.
[Exeunt.

Enter FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL,
BARDOLPH,
and the Page.
Fal. Stand here by me, Master Robert Shal-
low; I will make the king do you grace. I will
leer upon him, as a' comes by; and do but mark
the countenance he will give me.
Pist. God bless thy lungs, good knight.
Fal. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.
O! if I had had time to have made new liveries. I
would have bestowed the thousand pound I
borrowed of you. But 'tis no matter; this poor
show doth better: this doth infer the zeal I had
to see him.
Shal. It doth so.
Fal. It shows my earnestness of affection.
Shal. It doth so.
Fal. My devotion.
Shal. It doth, it doth, it doth.
Fal. As it were, to ride day and night; and
not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have
patience to shift me.
Shal. It is most certain.
Fal. But to stand stained with travel, and
sweating with desire to see him; thinking of
nothing else; putting all affairs else in oblivion,
as if there were nothing else to be done but to
see him.
Pist. Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil
est:
'Tis all in every part.
Shal. 'Tis so, indeed.
Pist. My knight, I will inflame thy noble
liver,
And make thee rage.
Thy Doll, and Helen of thy noble thoughts,
Is in base durance and contagious prison;
Hal'd thither
By most mechanical and dirty hand:
Rouse up revenge from ebon den with fell
Alecto's snake,
For Doll is in: Pistol speaks nought but truth.
Fal. I will deliver her.
[Shouts within and trumpets sound.
Pist. There roar'd the sea, and trumpet-
danger sounds.

Enter KING HENRY THE FIFTH and his
Train, the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE among them.
Fal. God save thy grace, King Hal! my royal
Hal!
Pist. The heavens thee guard and keep, most
royal imp of fame!
Fal. God save thee, my sweet boy!
K. Hen. V. My lord chief justice, speak to that
vain man.
Ch. Just. Have you your wits? know you what
'tis you speak?
Fal. My king; my Jove! I speak to thee, my
heart!
K. Hen. V. I know thee not, old man: fall to
thy prayers;
How ill white hairs become a fool and jester!
I have long dream'd of such a kind of man,
So surfeit-swell'd, so old, and so profane;
But, being awak'd, I do despise my dream.
Make less thy body hence, and more thy grace;
Leave gormandising; know the grave doth gape
For thee thrice wider than for other men.
Reply not to me with a fool-born jest:
Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know, so shall the world perceive,
That I have turn'd away my former self;
So will I those that kept me company.
When thou dost hear I am as I have been,
Approach me, and thou shalt be as thou wast,
The tutor and the feeder of my riots:
Till then, I banish thee, on pain of death,
As I have done the rest of my misleaders,
Not to come near our person by ten mile.
For competence of life I will allow you,
That lack of means enforce you not to evil:
And, as we hear you do reform yourselves,
We will, according to your strength and quali-
ties,
Give you advancement. Be it your charge, my
lord,
To see perform'd the tenour of our word.
Set on. [Exeunt KING HENRY V. and his Train.
Fal. Master Shallow, I owe you a thousand
pound.
Shal. Ay, marry, Sir John; which I beseech
you to let me have home with me.
Fal. That can hardly be, Master Shallow. Do
not you grieve at this: I shall be sent for in
private to him. Look you, he must seem thus
to the world. Fear not your advancements; I
will be the man yet that shall make you great.
Shal. I cannot perceive how, unless you
should give me your doublet and stuff me out
with straw. I beseech you, good Sir John, let
me have five hundred of my thousand.
Fal. Sir, I will be as good as my word: this
that you heard was but a colour.
Shal. A colour that I fear you will die in, Sir
John.
Fal. Fear no colours: go with me to din-
ner. Come, Lieutenant Pistol; come, Bardolph:
I shall be sent for soon at night.

Re-enter JOHN OF LANCASTER, the
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE; Officers with them.
Ch. Just. Go, carry Sir John Falstaff to the
Fleet;
Take all his company along with him.
Fal. My lord, my lord!
Ch. Just. I cannot now speak: I will hear you
soon.
Take them away.
Pist. Si fortuna me tormenta, spero con-
tenta.
[Exeunt FALSTAFF, SHALLOW, PISTOL,
BARDOLPH, Page, and Officers.
Lanc. I like this fair proceeding of the
king's.
He hath intent his wonted followers
Shall all be very well provided for;
But all are banish'd till their conversations
Appear more wise and modest to the world.
Ch. Just. And so they are.
Lanc. The king hath call'd his parliament,
my lord.
Ch. Just. He hath.
Lanc. I will lay odds, that, ere this year
expire,
We bear our civil swords and native fire
As far as France. I heard a bird so sing,
Whose music, to my thinking, pleas'd the king.
Come, will you hence? [Exeunt.
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