MaximumEdge.com | | Search | | E-Mail | | News | | Weather | | Finance | | Directory | | Music | | Lottery Results | | Horoscopes | | Translation | | Games | | E-Cards | | Maps | | Jobs | | Magazines | | DVDs |

MaximumEdge.com
Shakespeare

Home > King Henry IV Part 1 > ACT II - SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill.

Search: King Henry IV Part 1


< (Previous) ACT II, SCENE IACT II, III (Next) >

ACT II - SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill.
Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS

POINS
1    Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's
2    horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.
PRINCE HENRY
3    Stand close.
Enter FALSTAFF

FALSTAFF
4    Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!
PRINCE HENRY
5    Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost
6    thou keep!
FALSTAFF
7    Where's Poins, Hal?
PRINCE HENRY
8    He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him.
FALSTAFF
9    I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the
10   rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know
11   not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier
12   further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt
13   not but to die a fair death for all this, if I
14   'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have
15   forsworn his company hourly any time this two and
16   twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the
17   rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me
18   medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it
19   could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins!
20   Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto!
21   I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere
22   not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to
23   leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that
24   ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven
25   ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me;
26   and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough:
27   a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!
They whistle
28   Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you
29   rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!
PRINCE HENRY
30   Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close
31   to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread
32   of travellers.
FALSTAFF
33   Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?
34   'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot
35   again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer.
36   What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?
PRINCE HENRY
37   Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.
FALSTAFF
38   I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse,
39   good king's son.
PRINCE HENRY
40   Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?
FALSTAFF
41   Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
42   garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I
43   have not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy
44   tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: when a jest
45   is so forward, and afoot too! I hate it.
Enter GADSHILL, BARDOLPH and PETO

GADSHILL
46   Stand.
FALSTAFF
47   So I do, against my will.
POINS
48   O, 'tis our setter: I know his voice. Bardolph,
49   what news?
BARDOLPH
50   Case ye, case ye; on with your vizards: there 's
51   money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going
52   to the king's exchequer.
FALSTAFF
53   You lie, ye rogue; 'tis going to the king's tavern.
GADSHILL
54   There's enough to make us all.
FALSTAFF
55   To be hanged.
PRINCE HENRY
56   Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane;
57   Ned Poins and I will walk lower: if they 'scape
58   from your encounter, then they light on us.
PETO
59   How many be there of them?
GADSHILL
60   Some eight or ten.
FALSTAFF
61   'Zounds, will they not rob us?
PRINCE HENRY
62   What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?
FALSTAFF
63   Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather;
64   but yet no coward, Hal.
PRINCE HENRY
65   Well, we leave that to the proof.
POINS
66   Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge:
67   when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him.
68   Farewell, and stand fast.
FALSTAFF
69   Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.
PRINCE HENRY
70   Ned, where are our disguises?
POINS
71   Here, hard by: stand close.
Exeunt PRINCE HENRY and POINS

FALSTAFF
72   Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I:
73   every man to his business.
Enter the Travellers

First Traveller
74   Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down
75   the hill; we'll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.
Thieves
76   Stand!
Travellers
77   Jesus bless us!
FALSTAFF
78   Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats:
79   ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they
80   hate us youth: down with them: fleece them.
Travellers
81   O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!
FALSTAFF
82   Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye
83   fat chuffs: I would your store were here! On,
84   bacons, on! What, ye knaves! young men must live.
85   You are Grand-jurors, are ye? we'll jure ye, 'faith.
Here they rob them and bind them. Exeunt

Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS

PRINCE HENRY
86   The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou
87   and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it
88   would be argument for a week, laughter for a month
89   and a good jest for ever.
POINS
90   Stand close; I hear them coming.
Enter the Thieves again

FALSTAFF
91   Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse
92   before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two
93   arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring: there's
94   no more valour in that Poins than in a wild-duck.
PRINCE HENRY
95   Your money!
POINS
96   Villains!
PRINCE HENRY
97   Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse:
98   The thieves are all scatter'd and possess'd with fear
99   So strongly that they dare not meet each other;
100  Each takes his fellow for an officer.
101  Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
102  And lards the lean earth as he walks along:
103  Were 't not for laughing, I should pity him.
POINS
104  How the rogue roar'd!
Exeunt

< (Previous) ACT II, SCENE IACT II, III (Next) >
Scene Index
ACT I
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III


  • ACT II
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV


  • ACT III
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II


  • ACT IV
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV


  • ACT V
  • SCENE I
  • SCENE II
  • SCENE III
  • SCENE IV
  • SCENE V

  • ©1999-. All rights reserved.Contact
    Part of the MaximumEdge.com Network.Add Bookmark