Complete Works (Modern Library)

by William Shakespeare

Enter Prince and John of Lancaster PRINCE HENRY Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou fleshed124 125 Thy maiden125 sword. PRINCE JOHN But, soft! Who have we here? Did you not tell me this fat man was dead? PRINCE HENRY I did. I saw him dead, Breathless and bleeding on the ground.— 130 Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy130 To Falstaff That plays upon our eyesight? I prithee speak. We will not trust our eyes without our ears. Thou art not what thou seem’st. FALSTAFF No, that’s certain: I am not a double man.134 But if I be not Jack135 Falstaff, then am I a jack. There is Percy. Throws the body down If your father will do me any honour, so: if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you. PRINCE HENRY Why, Percy I killed myself and saw thee dead. FALSTAFF Didst thou? Lord, Lord, how the world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath, and so was he. But we rose both at an instant139 and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.140 If I may be believed, so: if not, let them that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I’ll take’t141 on my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive and would deny it, I would make him eat a piece of my sword. PRINCE JOHN This is the strangest tale that e’er I heard. 145 PRINCE HENRY This is the strang...