King Henry IV, Part 1 | Page 4

smooth and welcome news.
The Earl of Douglas is discomfited:

Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own
blood, did Sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains: of prisoners,
Hotspur took
Mordake the Earl of Fife and eldest son
To beaten
Douglas; and the Earls of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.

And is not this an honourable spoil,
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it
not?
WEST.
Faith, 'tis a conquest for a prince to boast of.
KING.
Yea, there thou makest me sad, and makest 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;
Amongst a grove, the
very straightest plant;
Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride:

Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour
stain the brow
Of my young Harry. O, that it could be proved
That
some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our
children where they lay,
And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!

Then would I have his Harry, and he mine:
But let him from my
thoughts. What think you, coz,
Of this young Percy's pride? the
prisoners,
Which he in this adventure hath surprised,
To his own
use he keeps; and sends me word,

I shall have none but Mordake Earl
of Fife.
WEST.
This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester,
Malevolent

to you in all aspects;
Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up

The crest of youth against your dignity.
KING.
But I have sent for him to answer this;
And for this cause
awhile we must neglect
Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.
Cousin, on
Wednesday next our Council we
Will hold at Windsor; so inform the
lords:
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be
said and to be done
Than out of anger can be uttered.
WEST.
I will, my liege.
[Exeunt.]
Scene II. The same. An Apartment of Prince Henry's.
[Enter Prince Henry and Falstaff.]
FAL.
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 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.
FAL.
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 pr'ythee, sweet wag, when thou art
king,--as, God save thy Grace--Majesty I should say, for grace
thou
wilt have none,--
PRINCE.
What, none?
FAL.
No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue
to

an egg and butter.
PRINCE.
Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.
FAL.
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.
PRINCE.
Thou say'st 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 snatch'd on Monday night, and most dissolutely
spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing Lay by, and spent with
crying Bring in; now ill 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.
FAL.
By the Lord, thou say'st 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?
FAL.
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?
FAL.
Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning many a time and oft.
PRINCE.
Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?
FAL.
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.
FAL.
Yea, and so used it, that, were it not here apparent that
thou
art heir-apparent--But I pr'ythee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows
standing in England when thou art king? and
resolution thus fobb'd as
it is with the rusty curb of old father antic the law? Do not thou, when
thou art king,