Henry IV, Pt. 2
Act IV, Scene 3
Yorkshire . Another part of the Forest of Gaultree .
Study for Falstaff
Edwin Austin Abbey
- Alarum . Excursions . Enter Falstaff and Colevile , meeting .
Falstaff
1 - 2- What’s your name , sir ? Of what condition are you , and of
- what place ?
Sir John Colevile
3- I am a knight , sir , and my name is Colevile of the Dale .
Falstaff
4 - 7- Well then , Colevile is your name , a knight is your degree ,
- and your place the Dale . Colevile shall be still your name ,
- a traitor your degree , and the dungeon your place , a place
- deep enough ; so shall you be still Colevile of the Dale .
Sir John Colevile
8- Are not you Sir John Falstaff ?
Falstaff
9 - 12- As good a man as he , sir , whoe’er I am . Do ye yield , sir ? Or
- shall I sweat for you ? If I do sweat , they are the drops of
- thy lovers , and they weep for thy death ; therefore rouse up
- fear and trembling , and do observance to my mercy .
Sir John Colevile
13 - 14- I think you are Sir John Falstaff , and in that thought yield
- me .
Falstaff
15 - 19- I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine , and
- not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name .
- And I had but a belly of any indifferency , I were simply the
- most active fellow in Europe . My womb , my womb , my womb
- undoes me . Here comes our general .
- Enter Prince John of Lancaster , Westmorland , Blunt , and the
- rest .
Prince John of Lancaster
20 - 25- The heat is past , follow no further now ;
- Call in the powers , good cousin Westmorland .
- Exit Westmorland . Retreat .
- Now , Falstaff , where have you been all this while ?
- When every thing is ended , then you come .
- These tardy tricks of yours will , on my life ,
- One time or other break some gallows’ back .
Falstaff
26 - 36- I would be sorry , my lord , but it should be thus . I never
- knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of valor . Do
- you think me a swallow , an arrow , or a bullet ? Have I , in my
- poor and old motion , the expedition of thought ? I have
- speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility ;
- I have found’red ninescore and odd posts , and here ,
- travel - tainted as I am , have , in my pure and immaculate
- valor , taken Sir John Colevile of the Dale , a most furious
- knight and valorous enemy . But what of that ? He saw me , and
- yielded , that I may justly say , with the hook - nos’d fellow
- of Rome , “ There , cousin , I came , saw , and overcame .”
Prince John of Lancaster
37- It was more of his courtesy than your deserving .
Falstaff
38 - 47- I know not : here he is , and here I yield him , and I beseech
- your Grace let it be book’d with the rest of this day’s
- deeds , or by the Lord , I will have it in a particular ballad
- else , with mine own picture on the top on’t ( Colevile
- kissing my foot ), to the which course if I be enforc’d , if
- you do not all show like gilt twopences to me , and I in the
- clear sky of fame o’ershine you as much as the full moon
- doth the cinders of the element ( which show like pins’ heads
- to her ), believe not the word of the noble . Therefore let me
- have right , and let desert mount .
Prince John of Lancaster
48- Thine’s too heavy to mount .
Falstaff
49- Let it shine then .
Prince John of Lancaster
50- Thine’s too thick to shine .
Falstaff
51 - 52- Let it do something , my good lord , that may do me good , and
- call it what you will .
Prince John of Lancaster
53- Is thy name Colevile ?
Sir John Colevile
54- It is , my lord .
Prince John of Lancaster
55- A famous rebel art thou , Colevile .
Falstaff
56- And a famous true subject took him .
Sir John Colevile
57 - 59- I am , my lord , but as my betters are
- That led me hither . Had they been rul’d by me ,
- You should have won them dearer than you have .
Falstaff
60 - 62- I know not how they sold themselves , but thou like a kind
- fellow gavest thyself away gratis , and I thank thee for
- thee .
- Enter Westmorland .
Prince John of Lancaster
63- Now , have you left pursuit ?
Falstaff
Eduard von Grützner, 1896
Earl of Westmorland
64- Retreat is made and execution stay’d .
Prince John of Lancaster
65 - 72- Send Colevile with his confederates
- To York , to present execution .
- Blunt , lead him hence , and see you guard him sure .
- Exeunt Blunt and others with Colevile .
- And now dispatch we toward the court , my lords ,
- I hear the King my father is sore sick .
- Our news shall go before us to his Majesty ,
- Which , cousin , you shall bear to comfort him ,
- And we with sober speed will follow you .
Falstaff
73 - 75- My lord , I beseech you give me leave to go through
- Gloucestershire , and when you come to court stand my good
- lord in your good report .
Prince John of Lancaster
76 - 77- Fare you well , Falstaff . I , in my condition ,
- Shall better speak of you than you deserve .
- Exeunt all but Falstaff .
Falstaff
78 - 113- I would you had the wit , ’twere better than your dukedom .
- Good faith , this same young sober - blooded boy doth not love
- me , nor a man cannot make him laugh , but that’s no marvel ,
- he drinks no wine . There’s never none of these demure boys
- come to any proof , for thin drink doth so over - cool their
- blood , and making many fish - meals , that they fall into a
- kind of male green - sickness , and then when they marry , they
- get wenches . They are generally fools and cowards , which
- some of us should be too , but for inflammation . A good
- sherris - sack hath a twofold operation in it . It ascends me
- into the brain , dries me there all the foolish and dull and
- crudy vapors which environ it , makes it apprehensive , quick ,
- forgetive , full of nimble , fiery , and delectable shapes ,
- which deliver’d o’er to the voice , the tongue , which is the
- birth , becomes excellent wit . The second property of your
- excellent sherris is the warming of the blood , which before
- ( cold and settled ) left the liver white and pale , which is
- the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice ; but the sherris
- warms it , and makes it course from the inwards to the parts’
- extremes . It illumineth the face , which as a beacon gives
- warning to all the rest of this little kingdom , man , to arm ,
- and then the vital commoners and inland petty spirits muster
- me all to their captain , the heart , who great and puff’d up
- with this retinue , doth any deed of courage ; and this valor
- comes of sherris . So that skill in the weapon is nothing
- without sack ( for that sets it a - work ) and learning a mere
- hoard of gold kept by a devil , till sack commences it and
- sets it in act and use . Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is
- valiant , for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his
- father , he hath , like lean , sterile , and bare land , manur’d ,
- husbanded , and till’d with excellent endeavor of drinking
- good and good store of fertile sherris , that he is become
- very hot and valiant . If I had a thousand sons , the first
- humane principle I would teach them should be , to forswear
- thin potations and to addict themselves to sack .
- Enter Bardolph .
- How now , Bardolph ?
Bardolph
114- The army is discharged all and gone .
Falstaff
115 - 118- Let them go . I’ll through Gloucestershire , and there will I
- visit Master Robert Shallow , esquire . I have him already
- temp’ring between my finger and my thumb , and shortly will I
- seal with him . Come away .
- Exeunt .
Self-portrait of Fedor Ignatevitch Stravinski as Falstaff
New York Times, circa 1916