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The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare
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Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso
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09
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02_02
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1991-04-10
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237 lines
London. Another Street.
Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS.
Prince Henry Before God, I am exceeding weary.
Poins Is't come to that? I had thought weariness durst not have
attached one of so high blood.
Prince Henry Faith, it does me, though it discolours the complexion of
my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not show vilely in
me to desire small beer?
Poins Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as to
remember so weak a composition.
Prince Henry Belike then my appetite was not princely got, for, by my
troth, I do now remember the poor creature small beer. But
indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love
with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me to remember
thy name! Or to know thy face tomorrow! Or to take note
how many pair of silk stockings thou hast - viz. these,
and those that were thy peach-coloured ones! Or to bear
the inventory of thy shirts - as, one for superfluity, and
another for use! But that the tennis-court keeper knows
better than I, for it is a low ebb of linen with thee when
thou keepest not racket there; as thou hast not done a
great while, because the rest of thy low countries have
made a shift to eat up thy holland. And God knows whether
those that bawl out the ruins of thy linen shall inherit
His kingdom - but the midwives say the children are not in
the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are
mightily strengthened.
Poins How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard, you
should talk so idly! Tell me, how many good young princes
would do so, their fathers being so sick as yours at this
time is.
Prince Henry Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?
Poins Yes, faith, and let it be an excellent good thing.
Prince Henry It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than
thine.
Poins Go to, I stand the push of your one thing that you will
tell.
Prince Henry Marry, I tell thee it is not meet that I should be sad now
my father is sick; albeit I could tell to thee - as to one
it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend -
I could be sad, and sad indeed too.
Poins Very hardly, upon such a subject.
Prince Henry By this hand, thou thinkest me as far in the devil's book
as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency. Let
the end try the man. But I tell thee, my heart bleeds
inwardly that my father is so sick; and keeping such vile
company as thou art hath in reason taken from me all
ostentation of sorrow.
Poins The reason?
Prince Henry What wouldst thou think of me if I should weep?
Poins I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.
Prince Henry It would be every man's thought; and thou art a blessed
fellow to think as every man thinks - never a man's
thought in the world keeps the roadway better than thine.
Every man would think me an hypocrite indeed. And what
accites your most worshipful thought to think so?
Poins Why, because you have been so lewd, and so much engraffed
to Falstaff.
Prince Henry And to thee.
Poins By this light, I am well spoke on; I can hear it with mine
own ears. The worst that they can say of me is that I am a
second brother and that I am a proper fellow of my hands,
and those two things I confess I cannot help. By the mass,
here comes Bardolph.
Enter BARDOLPH and the PAGE.
Prince Henry And the boy that I gave Falstaff: a' had him from me
Christian, and look if the fat villain have not
transformed him ape.
Bardolph God save your grace!
Prince Henry And yours, most noble Bardolph!
Poins [To BARDOLPH.] Come, you virtuous ass, you bashful fool,
must you be blushing? Wherefore blush you now? What a
maidenly man-at-arms are you become! Is't such a matter to
get a pottle-pot's maidenhead?
Page A' calls me e'en now, my lord, through a red lattice, and
I could discern no part of his face from the window. At
last I spied his eyes, and methought he had made two holes
in the alewife's petticoat, and so peeped through.
Prince Henry Has not the boy profited?
Bardolph Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, away!
Page Away, you rascally Althaea's dream, away!
Prince Henry Instruct us, boy - what dream, boy?
Page Marry, my lord, Althaea dreamt she was delivered of a
firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream.
Prince Henry A crown's-worth of good interpretation! There 'tis, boy.
[Giving money.
Poins O, that this blossom could be kept from cankers! Well,
there is sixpence to preserve thee.
Bardolph And you do not make him be hanged among you, the gallows
shall have wrong.
Prince Henry And how doth thy master, Bardolph?
Bardolph Well, my lord. He heard of your grace's coming to town:
there's a letter for you.
Poins Delivered with good respect. And how doth the martlemas
your master?
Bardolph In bodily health, sir.
Poins Marry, the immortal part needs a physician, but that moves
not him; though that be sick, it dies not.
Prince Henry I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog;
and he holds his place, for look you how he writes.
[Gives POINS the letter.
Poins [Reads.] "John Falstaff, knight" - every man must know
that as oft as he has occasion to name himself; even like
those that are kin to the king, for they never prick their
finger but they say "There's some of the king's blood
spilt". "How comes that?" says he that takes upon him not
to conceive. The answer is as ready as a borrower's cap:
"I am the king's poor cousin, sir".
Prince Henry Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from
Japhet. But the letter.
[Takes the letter.
[Reads.] "Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of the
king nearest his father, Harry Prince of Wales, greeting."
Poins Why, this is a certificate.
Prince Henry Peace!
[Reads.] "I will imitate the honourable Romans in
brevity."
Poins He sure means brevity in breath, short-winded.
Prince Henry [Reads.] "I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I
leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins, for he misuses
thy favours so much that he swears thou art to marry his
sister Nell. Repent at idle times as thou mayst, and so
farewell.
Thine by yea and no - which is as much as to say as thou
usest him - Jack Falstaff with my familiars, John with my
brothers and sisters, and Sir John with all Europe."
Poins My lord, I'll steep this letter in sack and make him eat
it.
Prince Henry That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do you use
me thus, Ned? Must I marry your sister?
Poins God send the wench no worse fortune! But I never said so.
Prince Henry Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the
spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. Is your
master here in London?
Bardolph Yea, my lord.
Prince Henry Where sups he? Doth the old boar feed in the old frank?
Bardolph At the old place, my lord, in Eastcheap.
Prince Henry What company?
Page Ephesians, my lord, of the old church.
Prince Henry Sup any women with him?
Page None, my lord, but old Mistress Quickly and Mistress Doll
Tearsheet.
Prince Henry What pagan may that be?
Page A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's.
Prince Henry Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the town bull.
Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper?
Poins I am your shadow, my lord; I'll follow you.
Prince Henry Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your master that
I am yet come to town.
[Giving them money.
There's for your silence.
Bardolph I have no tongue, sir.
Page And for mine, sir, I will govern it.
Prince Henry Fare you well; go.
[Exeunt BARDOLPH and PAGE.
This Doll Tearsheet should be some road.
Poins I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Albans
and London.
Prince Henry How might we see Falstaff bestow himself tonight in his
true colours, and not ourselves be seen?
Poins Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and wait upon him
at his table as drawers.
Prince Henry From a god to a bull? - a heavy descension. It was Jove's
case. From a prince to a prentice? - a low transformation,
that shall be mine; for in everything the purpose must
weigh with the folly. Follow me, Ned.
[Exeunt.