I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers : Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn? This sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise. Act iv. Scene 1. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat. Act IV. Scene 2. Food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit, as well as better. Ibid. To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast, Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest. Ibid. Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? surgery, then? No No. Honour hath no skill in What is honour? A word. What is that word, honour? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it insensible, then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not suffer it :-therefore I'll none of it; honour is a mere scutcheon, and so ends my catechism.* Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere. Lord, lord, how this world is given to lying! 1 grant you I was down, and out of breath, and so was he; but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock, Ibid. KING HENRY IV.-PART Il. The first bringer of unwelcome news Hath but a losing office; and his tongue *The reading of Falstaff's catechism here used is from the text of Mr. Knight. Some editions have it in a trifling degree different from the text here quoted. Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departing friend.* the cause that Act 1. Scene 2. I am not only witty in myself, but wit is in other men. He hath eaten me out of house and home, Act II. Scene 1. How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep. O sleep, O gentle sleep, Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? O! thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile, * Not "departed friend," as erroneously printed in some copies. In cradle of the rude imperious surge; Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them And, in the calmest and most stillest night, Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down !+ Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought. Ibid. Then get thee gone; and dig my grave thyself; And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear, That thou art crowned, not that I am dead. Hurly, noise, tumult, confusion. 66 Ibid. In some copies printed happy low-lie-down." Much discussion has occurred on the passage. Warburton and others read it, "Then happy lowly clown !" FALSTAFF. What wind blew you hither, Pistol? PISTOL. Not the ill wind which blows none to good. Under which king, Bezonian ? speak, or die. Ibid. KING HENRY V. Consideration like an angel came, And whipp'd the offending Adam out of him. Act 1. Scene 1. For after I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and a' babbled of green fields.† Act II. Scene 3. * Bezonian; a term of reproach from the Italiar. bisogno. + Babbled of green fields. Though this is the generally recognised text, it is by no means a settled point as to the |