I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly

For the only she, and—pauca, there’s enough. Go to.

Enter the Boy ⌈running⌉

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.

BARDOLPH Away, you rogue!

HOSTESS 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. Exit ⌈with Boy⌉

BARDOLPE 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?

PISTOL Let floods o‘erswell, and fiends for food howl on!

NIM You’ll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL Base is the slave that pays.

NIM That now I will have. That’s the humour of it.

PISTOL

As manhood shall compound. Push home.

Pistol and Nim draw their swords

BARDOLPH ⌈drawing his sword⌉ By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I’ll kill him. By this sword, I will.

PISTOL

Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.

⌈He sheathes his sword⌉

BARDOLPH Corporal Nim, an thou wilt be friends, be friends. An thou wilt not, why then be enemies with me too. Prithee, put up.

NIM I shall have my eight shillings?

PISTOL

A noble shalt thou have, and present pay,

And liquor likewise will I give to thee,

And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood.

I’ll live by Nim, and Nim shall live by me.

Is not this just? For I shall sutler be

Unto the camp, and profits will accrue.

Give me thy hand.

NIM I shall have my noble?

PISTOL In cash, most justly paid.

NIM Well then, that’s the humour of’t. ⌈Nim and Bardolph sheathe their swords.⌉ Enter Hostess Quickly

HOSTESS As ever you come 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. ⌈Exit⌉

NIM The King hath run bad humours on the knight, that’s the even of it.

PISTOL Nim, thou hast spoke the right. His heart is fracted and corroborate.

NIM The King is a good king, but it must be as it may. He passes some humours and careers.

PISTOL

Let us condole the knight—for, lambkins, we will live. Exeunt

2.2 Enter the Dukes of Exeter and ⌈Gloucester⌉, and the Earl of Westmorland

⌈GLOUCESTER⌉

Fore God, his grace is bold to trust these traitors.

EXETER

They shall be apprehended by and by.

WESTMORLAND

How smooth and even they do bear themselves,

As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,

Crowned with faith and constant loyalty.

⌈GLOUCESTER⌉

The King hath note of all that they intend,

By interception which they dream not of.

EXETER

Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,

Whom he hath dulled and cloyed with gracious

favours—

That he should for a foreign purse so sell

His sovereign’s life to death and treachery.

Sound trumpets. Enter King Harry, Lord Scrope, the

Earl of Cambridge, and Sir Thomas Grey

KING HARRY

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,

Doing the execution and the act

For which we have in head assembled them?

SCROPE

No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best.

KING HARRY

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,

Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish

Success and conquest to attend on us.

CAMBRIDGE

Never was monarch better feared and loved

Than is your majesty. There’s not, I think, a subject

That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness

Under the sweet shade of your government.

GREY

True. Those that were your father’s enemies

Have steeped their galls in honey, and do serve you

With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

KING HARRY

We therefore have great cause of thankfulness,

And shall forget the office of our hand

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit,

According to their weight and worthiness.

SCROPE

So service shall with steelèd sinews toil,

And labour shall refresh itself with hope,

To do your grace incessant services.

KING HARRY

We judge no less.—Uncle of Exeter,

Enlarge the man committed yesterday

That railed against our person. We consider

It was excess of wine that set him on,

And on his more advice we pardon him.

SCROPE

That’s mercy, but too much security.

Let him be punished, sovereign, lest example

Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind.

KING HARRY

O let us yet be merciful.

CAMBRIDGE

So may your highness, and yet punish too.

GREY

Sir, you show great mercy if you give him life,

After the taste of much correction.

KING HARRY

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 winked at, how shall we stretch our eye

When capital crimes, chewed, swallowed, and digested,

Appear before us? We’ll yet enlarge that man,

Though Cambridge, Scrope, and Grey, in their dear care

And tender preservation of our person,

Would have him punished. And now to our French causes.

Who are the late commissioners?

CAMBRIDGE I one, my lord.

Your highness bade me ask for it today.

SCROPE

So did you me, my liege.

GREY And I, my royal sovereign.

KING HARRY

Then Richard, Earl of Cambridge, there is yours;

There yours, Lord Scrope of Masham, and sir knight,