SCENE III. Another part of the forest. The Second part of King Henry the Fourth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry IV, part 2  | Act 4, Scene 3 

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 Alarum. Excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting  FALSTAFF  What's your name, sir? of what condition are you, 

 and of what place, I pray? 

 COLEVILE  I am a knight, sir, and my name is Colevile of the dale. 

 FALSTAFF  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. 

 COLEVILE  Are not you Sir John Falstaff? 

 FALSTAFF  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. 

 COLEVILE  I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and in that 

 thought yield me. 

 FALSTAFF  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. An I had but a belly of any 

 indifference, 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, WESTMORELAND, BLUNT, and others  LANCASTER  The heat is past; follow no further now: 

 Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland. 



 Exit WESTMORELAND  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  I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus: I 

 never knew yet but rebuke and cheque was the reward 

 of valour. 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 

 foundered nine score and odd posts: and here, 

 travel-tainted as I am, have in my pure and 

 immaculate valour, 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-nosed fellow of Rome, 

 'I came, saw, and overcame.' 

 LANCASTER  It was more of his courtesy than your deserving. 

 FALSTAFF  I know not: here he is, and here I yield him: and 

 I beseech your grace, let it be booked 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 enforced, 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. 

 LANCASTER  Thine's too heavy to mount. 

 FALSTAFF  Let it shine, then. 

 LANCASTER  Thine's too thick to shine. 

 FALSTAFF  Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me 

 good, and call it what you will. 

 LANCASTER  Is thy name Colevile? 

 COLEVILE  It is, my lord. 

 LANCASTER  A famous rebel art thou, Colevile. 

 FALSTAFF  And a famous true subject took him. 

 COLEVILE  I am, my lord, but as my betters are 

 That led me hither: had they been ruled by me, 

 You should have won them dearer than you have. 

 FALSTAFF  I know not how they sold themselves: but thou, like 

 a kind fellow, gavest thyself away gratis; and I 

 thank thee for thee. 



 Re-enter WESTMORELAND  LANCASTER  Now, have you left pursuit? 

 WESTMORELAND  Retreat is made and execution stay'd. 

 LANCASTER  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  My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go 

 Through Gloucestershire: and, when you come to court, 

 Stand my good lord, pray, in your good report. 

 LANCASTER  Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my condition, 

 Shall better speak of you than you deserve. 



 Exeunt all but Falstaff  FALSTAFF  I would you had but 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 two-fold 

 operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; 

 dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy 

 vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive, 

 quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and 

 delectable shapes, which, delivered 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 extreme: 

 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 puffed up with this 

 retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour 

 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, 

 manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent 

 endeavour 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  The army is discharged all and gone. 

 FALSTAFF  Let them go. I'll through Gloucestershire; and 

 there will I visit Master Robert Shallow, esquire: 

 I have him already tempering between my finger and 

 my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come away. 



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