Complete Works (Modern Library)

by William Shakespeare

Exeunt all but Prince and Falstaff FALSTAFF Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride122 me, so; ’tis a point of friendship. PRINCE HENRY Nothing but a colossus124 can do thee that friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell. FALSTAFF I would it were bedtime, Hal, and all well. PRINCE HENRY Why, thou ow’st heaven a death.127 [Exit Prince Henry] FALSTAFF ’Tis not due yet. I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward129 with him that calls not on me? Well, ’tis no matter, honour pricks me on. But how if honour prick me off130 when I come on? How then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief131 of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? No. What is honour? A word. What is that word ‘honour’? Air. A trim133 reckoning! Who hath it? He that died o’Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it insensible,134 then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction135 will not suffer it. Therefore I’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon:136 and so ends my catechism. Exit