The Life Of King Henry The Fifth

1 Enter Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Boy and Hostess.
2 HOSTESS.
3 Prithee, honey, sweet husband, let me bring thee to Staines.
4 PISTOL.
5 No; for my manly heart doth yearn.
6 Bardolph, be blithe; Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins;
7 Boy, bristle thy courage up; for Falstaff he is dead,
8 And we must yearn therefore.
9 BARDOLPH.
10 Would I were with him, wheresome’er he is, either in heaven or in hell!
11 HOSTESS.
12 Nay, sure, he’s not in hell. He’s in Arthur’s bosom, if ever man went
13 to Arthur’s bosom. ’A made a finer end and went away an it had been any
14 christom child. ’A parted even just between twelve and one, even at the
15 turning o’ the tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and
16 play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers’ ends, I knew there was
17 but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and ’a babbled of
18 green fields. “How now, Sir John!” quoth I; “what, man! be o’ good
19 cheer.” So ’a cried out, “God, God, God!” three or four times. Now I,
20 to comfort him, bid him ’a should not think of God; I hop’d there was
21 no need to trouble himself with any such thoughts yet. So ’a bade me
22 lay more clothes on his feet. I put my hand into the bed and felt them,
23 and they were as cold as any stone. Then I felt to his knees, and so
24 upward and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.
25 NYM.
26 They say he cried out of sack.
27 HOSTESS.
28 Ay, that ’a did.
29 BARDOLPH.
30 And of women.
31 HOSTESS.
32 Nay, that ’a did not.
33 BOY.
34 Yes, that ’a did; and said they were devils incarnate.
35 HOSTESS.
36 ’A could never abide carnation; ’twas a colour he never liked.
37 BOY.
38 ’A said once, the devil would have him about women.
39 HOSTESS.
40 ’A did in some sort, indeed, handle women; but then he was rheumatic,
41 and talk’d of the whore of Babylon.
42 BOY.
43 Do you not remember, ’a saw a flea stick upon Bardolph’s nose, and ’a
44 said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire?
45 BARDOLPH.
46 Well, the fuel is gone that maintain’d that fire. That’s all the riches
47 I got in his service.
48 NYM.
49 Shall we shog? The King will be gone from Southampton.
50 PISTOL.
51 Come, let’s away. My love, give me thy lips.
52 Look to my chattels and my movables.
53 Let senses rule; the word is “Pitch and Pay.”
54 Trust none;
55 For oaths are straws, men’s faiths are wafer-cakes
56 And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck;
57 Therefore, _Caveto_ be thy counsellor.
58 Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms,
59 Let us to France; like horse-leeches, my boys,
60 To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck!
61 BOY.
62 And that’s but unwholesome food, they say.
63 PISTOL.
64 Touch her soft mouth, and march.
65 BARDOLPH.
66 Farewell, hostess.
67 [_Kissing her._]
68 NYM.
69 I cannot kiss; that is the humour of it; but, adieu.
70 PISTOL.
71 Let housewifery appear. Keep close, I thee command.
72 HOSTESS.
73 Farewell; adieu.
74 [_Exeunt._]