# Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale/Text/Act III

Notes originally placed at the bottom of each page appear below, following Act III. Where these notes gloss a word in the text, the gloss can also be found by hovering over the text.
Where these notes refer to an end note (cf. n. = confer notam; "consult note"), a link to the accompanying end note is provided from the Footnotes section. The end notes accompanying Act III begin on page 132 of the original volume.
Layout 2
ACT THIRD
Scene One
[Westminster. The Palace]
Enter the King in his night-gown, with a Page.
King. Go, call the Earls of Surrey and of Warwick; But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters, And well consider of them. Make good speed.
[Exit Page.]
How many thousand of my poorest subjects 4 Are at this hour asleep! O sleep! O gentle sleep! Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee, That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down And steep my senses in forgetfulness? 8 Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, 12 Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody? O thou dull god! why liest thou with the vile In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch 16 A watch-case or a common 'larum bell? Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seel up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude imperious surge, 20 And in the visitation of the winds, Who take the ruffian billows by the top, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them With deaf'ning clamour in the slippery clouds, 24 ​That with the hurly death itself awakes? Canst thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude, And in the calmest and most stillest night, 28 With all appliances and means to boot, Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.
Enter Warwick and Surrey.
War. Many good morrows to your majesty! 32
King. Is it good morrow, lords?
War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past.
King. Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords. Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? 36
War. We have, my liege.
King. Then you perceive the body of our kingdom, How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, And with what danger, near the heart of it. 40
War. It is but as a body, yet distemper'd, Which to his former strength may be restor'd With good advice and little medicine: My Lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd. 44
King. O God! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent,— Weary of solid firmness,—melt itself 48 Into the sea! and, other times, to see The beachy girdle of the ocean Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, And changes fill the cup of alteration 52 With divers liquors! O! if this were seen, The happiest youth, viewing his progress through, What perils past, what crosses to ensue, ​Would shut the book, and sit him down and die. 56 'Tis not ten years gone Since Richard and Northumberland, great friends, Did feast together, and in two years after Were they at wars: it is but eight years since 60 This Percy was the man nearest my soul, Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs And laid his love and life under my foot; Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard 64 Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,— [To Warwick.] You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember,— When Richard, with his eye brimful of tears, Then check'd and rated by Northumberland, 68 Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy? 'Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne'; Though then, God knows, I had no such intent, 72 But that necessity so bow'd the state That I and greatness were compelled to kiss: 'The time shall come,' thus did he follow it, 'The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head, 76 Shall break into corruption':—so went on, Foretelling this same time's condition And the division of our amity.
War. There is a history in all men's lives, 80 Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd; The which observ'd, a man may prophesy, With a near aim, of the main chance of things As yet not come to life, which in their seeds 84 And weak beginnings lie intreasured. Such things become the hatch and brood of time; And by the necessary form of this ​King Richard might create a perfect guess 88 That great Northumberland, then false to him, Would of that seed grow to a greater falseness, Which should not find a ground to root upon, Unless on you.
King. Are these things then necessities? 92 Then let us meet them like necessities; And that same word even now cries out on us. They say the bishop and Northumberland Are fifty thousand strong.
War. It cannot be, my lord! 96 Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the fear'd. Please it your Grace To go to bed: upon my soul, my lord, The powers that you already have sent forth 100 Shall bring this prize in very easily. To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd A certain instance that Glendower is dead. Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill, 104 And these unseason'd hours perforce must add Unto your sickness.
King.I will take your counsel: And were these inward wars once out of hand, We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land. 108
Exeunt.
Scene Two
[Before Justice Shallow's House in Gloucestershire]
Enter Shallow and Silence, with Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, Bullcalf [and Servants].
Shal. Come on, come on, come on, sir; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an ​early stirrer, by the rood! And how doth my good cousin Silence? 4
Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.
Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bed- fellow? and your fairest daughter and mine, my god-daughter Ellen? 8
Sil. Alas! a black ousel, cousin Shallow!
Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say my cousin William is become a good scholar. He is at Oxford still, is he not? 12
Sil. Indeed, sir, to my cost.
Shal. A' must, then, to the inns o' court shortly. I was once of Clement's Inn; where I think they will talk of mad Shallow yet. 16
Sil. You were called lusty Shallow' then, cousin.
Shal. By the mass, I was called anything; and I would have done anything indeed too, 20 and roundly too. There was I, and Little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Barnes, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cots- wold man; you had not four such swinge-buck- 24 lers in all the inns o' court again: and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas were, and had the best of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and 28 page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.
Sil. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?
Shal. The same Sir John, the very same. I 32 see him break Skogan's head at the court gate, when a' was a crack not thus high: and the very ​same day did I fight with one Sampson Stock- fish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. Jesu! Jesu! 36 the mad days that I have spent; and to see how many of my old acquaintance are dead!
Sil. We shall all follow, cousin.
Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very 40 sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?
Sil. By my troth, I was not there. 44
Shal. Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet?
Sil. Dead, sir.
Shal. Jesu! Jesu! dead! a' drew a good 48 bow; and dead! a' shot a fine shoot: John a Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead! a' would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score; and carried you a fore- 52 hand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see. How a score of ewes now?
Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good 56 ewes may be worth ten pounds.
Shal. And is old Double dead?
Sil. Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think. 60
Enter Bardolph, and his Boy.
Shal. Good morrow, honest gentlemen.
Bard. I beseech you, which is Justice Shallow?
Shal. I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, and one of the king's 64 ​justices of the peace: what is your good pleasure with me?
Bard. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, Sir John Falstaff: a tall gentleman, 68 by heaven, and a most gallant leader.
Shal. He greets me well, sir. I knew him a good backsword man. How doth the good knight? may I ask how my lady his wife doth? 72
Bard. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accom- modated than with a wife.
Shal. It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said indeed too. 'Better accommodated!' 76 it is good; yea indeed, is it: good phrases are surely and ever were, very commendable. Ac- commodated! it comes of accommodo: very good; a good phrase. 80
Bard. Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. 'Phrase' call you it? By this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word with my sword to be a soldier-like word, 84 and a word of exceeding good command, by heaven. Accommodated; that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is, being, whereby, a' may be thought to be 88 accommodated, which is an excellent thing.
Enter Falstaff.
Shal. It is very just. Look, here comes good Sir John. Give me your good hand, give me your worship's good hand. By my troth, you 92 look well and bear your years very well: wel- come, good Sir John.
​Fal. I am glad to see you well, good Master Robert Shallow. Master Surecard, as I think. 96
Shal. No, Sir John; it is my cousin, Silence, in commission with me.
Fal. Good Master Silence, it well befits you should be of the peace. 100
Sil. Your good worship is welcome.
Fal. Fie! this is hot weather, gentlemen. Have you provided me here half a dozen sufficient men? 104
Shal. Marry, have we, sir. Will you sit?
Fal. Let me see them, I beseech you.
Shal. Where's the roll? where's the roll? where's the roll? Let me see, let me see, 108 So, so, so, so, so, so, so: yea, marry, sir: Ralph Mouldy! let them appear as I call; let them do so, let them do so. Let me see; where is Mouldy?
Moul. Here, an 't please you. 112
Shal. What think you, Sir John? a good- limbed fellow; young, strong, and of good friends.
Fal. Is thy name Mouldy? 116
Moul. Yea, an 't please you.
Fal. 'Tis the more time thou wert used.
Shal. Ha, ha, ha! most excellent, i' faith! things that are mouldy lack use: very singular 120 good. In faith, well said, Sir John; very well said.
Fal. Prick him.
Moul. I was pricked well enough before, an 124 you could have let me alone: my old dame will be undone now for one to do her husbandry and ​her drudgery: you need not to have pricked me; there are other men fitter to go out than I. 128
Fal. Go to: peace, Mouldy! you shall go. Mouldy, it is time you were spent.
Moul. Spent!
Shal. Peace, fellow, peace! stand aside: know 132 you where you are? For the other, Sir John: let me see. Simon Shadow!
Fal. Yea, marry, let me have him to sit under: he's like to be a cold soldier. 136
Shal. Where's Shadow?
Shad. Here, sir.
Fal. Shadow, whose son art thou?
Shad. My mother's son, sir. 140
Fal. Thy mother's son! like enough, and thy father's shadow: so the son of the female is the shadow of the male: it is often so, indeed; but not of the father's substance. 144
Shal. Do you like him, Sir John?
Fal. Shadow will serve for summer; prick him, for we have a number of shadows to fill up the muster-book. 148
Shal. Thomas Wart?
Fal. Where's he?
Wart. Here, sir.
Fal. Is thy name Wart? 152
Wart. Yea, sir.
Fal. Thou art a very ragged wart.
Shal. Shall I prick him, Sir John?
Fal. It were superfluous; for his apparel is 156 built upon his back, and the whole frame stands upon pins: prick him no more.
​Shal. Ha, ha, ha! you can do it, sir; you can do it: I commend you well. Francis Feeble! 160
Fee. Here, sir.
Fal. What trade art thou, Feeble?
Fee. A woman's tailor, sir.
Shal. Shall I prick him, sir? 164
Fal. You may; but if he had been a man's tailor he'd have pricked you. Wilt thou make as many holes in an enemy's battle as thou hast done in a woman's petticoat? 168
Fee. I will do my good will, sir: you can have no more.
Fal. Well said, good woman's tailor! well said, courageous Feeble! Thou wilt be as valiant 172 as the wrathful dove or most magnanimous mouse. Prick the woman's tailor; well, Master Shallow; deep, Master Shallow.
Fee. I would Wart might have gone, sir. 176
Fal. I would thou wert a man's tailor, that thou mightst mend him, and make him fit to go. I cannot put him to a private soldier that is the leader of so many thousands: let that 180 suffice, most forcible Feeble.
Fee. It shall suffice, sir.
Fal. I am bound to thee, reverend Feeble. Who is next? 184
Shal. Peter Bullcalf o' the green!
Fal. Yea, marry, let's see Bullcalf.
Bull. Here, sir.
Fal. 'Fore God, a likely fellow! Come, prick 188 me Bullcalf till he roar again.
Bull. O Lord! good my lord captain,—
Fal. What! dost thou roar before thou art pricked? 192
​Bull. O Lord, sir! I am a diseased man.
Fal. What disease hast thou?
Bull. A whoreson cold, sir; a cough, sir, which I caught with ringing in the king's affairs 196 upon his coronation day, sir.
Fal. Come, thou shalt go to the wars in a gown; we will have away thy cold; and I will take such order that thy friends shall ring for 200 thee. Is here all?
Shal. Here is two more called than your number; you must have but four here, sir: and so, I pray you, go in with me to dinner. 204
Fal. Come, I will go drink with you, but I cannot tarry dinner. I am glad to see you, by my troth, Master Shallow.
Shal. O, Sir John, do you remember since we 208 lay all night in the windmill in Saint George's field?
Fal. No more of that, good Master Shallow, no more of that. 212
Shal. Ha! 'twas a merry night. And is Jane Nightwork alive?
Fal. She lives, Master Shallow.
Shal. She never could away with me. 216
Fal. Never, never; she would always say she could not abide Master Shallow.
Shal. By the mass, I could anger her to the heart. She was then a bona-roba. Doth she 220 hold her own well?
Fal. Old, old, Master Shallow.
Shal. Nay, she must be old; she cannot choose but be old; certain she's old; and had Robin 224 ​Nightwork by old Nightwork before I came to Clement's Inn.
Sil. That's fifty-five years ago.
Shal. Ha! cousin Silence, that thou hadst 228 seen that that this knight and I have seen. Ha! Sir John, said I well?
Fal. We have heard the chimes at midnight, Master Shallow. 232
Shal. That we have, that we have, that we have; in faith, Sir John, we have. Our watch- word was, 'Hem boys!' Come, let's to dinner; come, let's to dinner. Jesus, the days that we 236 have seen! Come, come.
Exeunt [Falstaff, Shallow, and Silence].
Bull. Good Master Corporate Bardolph, stand my friend, and here's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you. In very truth, sir, I had 240 as lief be hanged, sir, as go: and yet, for mine own part, sir, I do not care; but rather, because I am unwilling, and, for mine own part, have a desire to stay with my friends: else, sir, I did 244 not care, for mine own part, so much.
Bard. Go to; stand aside.
Moul. And, good Master corporal captain, for my old dame's sake, stand my friend: she has 248 nobody to do anything about her, when I am gone; and she is old, and cannot help herself. You shall have forty, sir.
Bard. Go to; stand aside. 252
Fee. By my troth, I care not; a man can die but once; we owe God a death. I'll ne'er bear a base mind: an 't be my destiny, so; an 't be not, so. No man's too good to serve's prince; 256 ​and let it go which way it will, he that dies this year is quit for the next.
Bard. Well said; thou'rt a good fellow.
Fee. Faith, I'll bear no base mind. 260
Enter Falstaff and the Justices.
Fal. Come, sir, which men shall I have?
Shal. Four, of which you please.
Bard. [To Falstaff.] Sir, a word with you. I have three pound to free Mouldy and Bullcalf. 264
Fal. [Aside to Bardolph.] Go to; well.
Shal. Come, Sir John, which four will you have?
Fal. Do you choose for me. 268
Shal. Marry, then, Mouldy, Bullcalf, Feeble, and Shadow.
Fal. Mouldy, and Bullcalf: for you, Mouldy, stay at home till you are past service: and for 272 your part, Bullcalf, grow till you come unto it: I will none of you.
Shal. Sir John, Sir John, do not yourself wrong: they are your likeliest men, and I would 276 have you served with the best.
Fal. Will you tell me, Master Shallow, how to choose a man? Care I for the limb, the thewes, the stature, bulk, and big assemblance of a man! 280 Give me the spirit, Master Shallow. Here's Wart; you see what a ragged appearance it is: a' shall charge you and discharge you with the motion of a pewterer's hammer, come off and on 284 swifter than he that gibbets on the brewer's bucket. And this same half-faced fellow, Shadow, give me this man: he presents no mark to the ​enemy; the foeman may with as great aim level 288 at the edge of a penknife. And, for a retreat; how swiftly will this Feeble the woman's tailor run off! O! give me the spare men, and spare me the great ones. Put me a caliver into Wart's 292 hand, Bardolph.
Bard. Hold, Wart, traverse; thus, thus, thus.
Fal. Come, manage me your caliver. So: very well: go to: very good: exceeding good. 296 O, give me always a little, lean, old, chopp'd, bald shot. Well said, i' faith, Wart; thou'rt a good scab: hold, there's a tester for thee.
Shal. He is not his craft's master, he doth 300 not do it right. I remember at Mile-end Green, when I lay at Clement's Inn,—I was then Sir Dagonet in Arthur's show,—there was a little quiver fellow, and a' would manage you his 304 piece thus: and a' would about and about, and come you in, and come you in; 'rah, tah, tah,' would a' say; 'bounce,' would a' say; and away again would a' go, and again would a' come: I 308 shall never see such a fellow.
Fal. These fellows will do well, Master Shal- low. God keep you, Master Silence: I will not use many words with you. Fare you well, gentle- 312 men both: I thank you: I must a dozen mile to-night. Bardolph, give the soldiers coats.
Shal. Sir John, the Lord bless you! God pros- per your affairs! God send us peace! At your 316 return visit our house; let our old acquaintance be renewed: peradventure I will with ye to the court.
​Fal. 'Fore God I would you would, Master 320 Shallow.
Shal. Go to; I have spoke at a word. God keep you.
Fal. Fare you well, gentle gentlemen. 324 Exit [Shallow, with Silence]. On, Bardolph; lead the men away. [Exit Bardolph, with recruits.] As I return, I will fetch off these justices: I do see the bottom of Justice Shallow. Lord, Lord! how subject we old men are to this 328 vice of lying. This same starved justice hath done nothing but prate to me of the wildness of his youth and the feats he hath done about Turnbull Street; and every third word a lie, duer 332 paid to the hearer than the Turk's tribute. I do remember him at Clement's Inn like a man made after supper of a cheese-paring: when a' was naked he was for all the world like a forked 336 radish, with a head fantastically carved upon it with a knife: a' was so forlorn that his dimen- sions to any thick sight were invisible: a' was the very genius of famine; yet lecherous as a 340 monkey, and the whores called him mandrake: a' came ever in the rearward of the fashion and sung those tunes to the over-scutched huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware 344 they were his fancies or his good-nights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a squire, and talks as familiarly of John a Gaunt as if he had ​been sworn brother to him; and I'll be sworn a' 348 never saw him but once in the Tilt-yard, and then he burst his head for crowding among the marshal's men. I saw it and told John a Gaunt he beat his own name; for you might have thrust 352 him and all his apparel into an eel-skin; the case of a treble hautboy was a mansion for him, a court; and now has he land and beefs. Well, I'll be acquainted with him, if I return; and 356 it shall go hard but I'll make him a philoso- pher's two stones to me. If the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap at him. Let time 360 shape, and there an end. Exit.
Footnotes to Act III
Scene One
​S. d. night-gown: dressing gown 17 watch-case: sentry-box 19 Seel: sew together (a hawking term) ​25 hurly: tumult ​68 check'd: rebuked 81 Figuring: symbolizing 87 necessary form: logical necessity ​
Scene Two
​103 instance: proof 105 unseason'd: unseasonable ​3 rood: cross 9 ousel: blackbird 14 inns o' court: colleges of law 21 roundly: thoroughly 24 swinge-bucklers: roisterers 26 bona-robas: showy harlots 28, 29 Cf. n. 33 Skogan; cf. n. 34 crack: lively youngster ​42 How: what price 51 clapped i' the clout: hit the white mark in the target 52 at twelve score: at twelve score yards 52, 53 forehand shaft: arrow made for shooting straight forward 53 a fourteen, etc.: fourteen score yards ​68 tall: doughty 71 backsword man: fighter at single-sticks 73 accommodated; cf. n. ​96 Surecard: the name signifies 'boon companion' 98 commission: office 104 sufficient: fit 123 Prick: mark down ​147 shadows: names, for which we receive pay, though we have not the men ​167 battle: army 180 thousands: i.e., vermin ​200 such order: such measures 216 away with: endure ​238 Corporate: blunder for 'Corporal' 239 Harry ten shillings; cf. n. ​264 three pound; cf. n. 280 assemblance: appearance 285 gibbets; cf. n. ​292 caliver: light musket 294 traverse: march 297 chopp'd: chapped 299 tester: sixpence 301-303 Cf. n. 304 quiver: nimble 306 come you in: make a home thrust 307 bounce: bang ​322 at a word: briefly but sincerely 326 fetch off: get the better of, 'take in' 332 duer: more duly 343 over-scutched huswives: cant term for 'harlots' 344 carmen: teamsters 345 fancies . . . good-nights: common names for little poems 346 Vice's dagger; cf. n. ​354 hautboy: slender reed instrument, oboe 357 philosopher's two stones; cf. n.