PIST. An oath of mickle might; and fury shall abate. Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give : Thy spirits are most tall. 70 NYM. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair terms that is the humour of it. PIST. 'Couple a gorge!' That is the word. I thee defy again. O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? Enter the Boy. 80 Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you hostess he is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan. Faith, he's very ill. BARD. Away, you rogue! 90 HOST. By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days; the king has killed his heart. Good husband, come home presently. [Exeunt Hostess and Boy. BARD. Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France together: why the devil should we keep knives to cut one another's throats? PIST. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on! NYM. You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting? PIST. Base is the slave that pays. 100 NYM. That now I will have that's the humour of it. PIST. As manhood shall compound : push home. [They draw. BARD. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill him; by this sword, I will. PIST. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course. BARD. Corporal Nym, an thou wilt be friends, be friends: an thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too. Prithee, put up. NYM. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at betting? PIST. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay; And liquor likewise will I give to thee, And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood: III Is not this just? for I shall sutler be Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. NYM. I shall have my noble? PIST. In cash most justly paid. NYM. Well, then, that's the humour of't. Re-enter Hostess. 120 HOST. As ever you came of women, come in quickly to Sir John. Ah, poor heart! he is so shaked of a burning quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. Sweet men, come to him. NYM. The king hath run bad humours on the knight; that's the even of it. PIST. Nym, thou hast spoke the right; His heart is fracted and corroborate. 130 NYM. The king is a good king: but it must be as it may; he passes some humours and careers. PIST. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins we will live. SCENE II. Southampton. A council-chamber. Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND. BED. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors. EXE. They shall be apprehended by and by. WEST. How smooth and even they do bear themselves! As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. BED. The king hath note of all that they intend, By interception which they dream not of. EXE. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours, That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell His sovereign's life to death and treachery. Trumpets sound. Enter KING HENRY, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, and Attendants. K. HEN. Now sits the wind fair, and we will aboard. My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham, And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts : Think you not that the powers we bear with us Will cut their passage through the force of France, IO Doing the execution and the act For which we have in head assembled them? SCROOP. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. K. HEN. I doubt not that; since we are well persuaded We carry not a heart with us from hence That grows not in a fair consent with ours, CAM. Never was monarch better fear'd and loved Under the sweet shade of your government. 20 GREY. True: those that were your father's enemies Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you 30 With hearts create of duty and of zeal. K. HEN. We therefore have great cause of thankfulness; And shall forget the office of our hand, Sooner than quittance of desert and merit SCROOP. So service shall with steeled sinews toil, To do your grace incessant services. K. HEN. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter, SCROOP. That's mercy, but too much security : CAM. So may your highness, and yet punish too. You show great mercy, if you give him life, After the taste of much correction. K. HEN. Alas, your too much love and care of me Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch! If little faults, proceeding on distemper, Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye 40 50 Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care And tender preservation of our person, C Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes : Who are the late commissioners? CAM. I one, my lord: Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. GREY. And I, my royal sovereign. 61 K. HEN. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there is yours; There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham; and, sir knight, So much complexion? Look ye, how they change! CAM. And do submit me to your highness' mercy. GREY. I do confess my fault; To which we all appeal. K. HEN. The mercy that was quick in us but late, You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy; As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. 70 80 These English monsters! My Lord of Cambridge here, You know how apt our love was to accord To furnish him with all appertinents Belonging to his honour; and this man Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspired, And sworn unto the practices of France, 90 To kill us here in Hampton: to the which Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O, What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thau cruel, May it be possible, that foreign hire Could out of thee extract one spark of evil With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up, The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful? Their faults are open : |