Epilogue

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1. First my fear , then my cur’sy , last my speech .
2. My fear , is your displeasure , my cur’sy , my
3. duty , and my speech , to beg your pardons . If
4. you look for a good speech now , you undo me ,
5. for what I have to say is of mine own making ,
6. and what indeed ( I should say ) will ( I doubt )
7. prove mine own marring . But to the purpose ,
8. and so to the venture . Be it known to you , as it
9. is very well , I was lately here in the end of a
10. displeasing play , to pray your patience for it and
11. to promise you a better . I meant indeed to pay
12. you with this , which if like an ill venture it come
13. unluckily home , I break , and you , my gentle
14. creditors , lose . Here I promis’d you I would be ,
15. and here I commit my body to your mercies .
16. Bate me some , and I will pay you some ,
17. and ( as most debtors do ) promise you infinitely ;
18. and so I kneel down before you — but , indeed , to
19. pray for the Queen .
20. If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me ,
21. will you command me to use my legs ? And yet
22. that were but light payment , to dance out of
23. your debt . But a good conscience will make any
24. possible satisfaction , and so would I . All the
25. gentlewomen here have forgiven me ; if the
26. gentlemen will not , then the gentlemen do not
27. agree with the gentlewomen , which was never
28. seen in such an assembly .
29. One word more , I beseech you . If you be not
30. too much cloy’d with fat meat , our humble
31. author will continue the story , with Sir John in it ,
32. and make you merry with fair Katherine of
33. France , where ( for any thing I know ) Falstaff
34. shall die of a sweat , unless already ’a be kill’d
35. with your hard opinions ; for Oldcastle died a
36. martyr , and this is not the man . My tongue is
37. weary , when my legs are too , I will bid you
38. good night .