Page 705 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

POINS

[within]
Anon, anon, sir.

Enter Poins.

PRINCE
Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door. Shall we be merry?

POINS
As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye; what [85] cunning match have you

made with this jest of the drawer? Come, what’s the issue?

PRINCE

I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours since the old
days of goodman Adam to the pupil age of this present twelve o’clock at
midnight. [90]

[Enter Francis.]
What’s o’clock, Francis?

FRANCIS
Anon, anon, sir.
[Exit.]

PRINCE
That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son
of a woman! His industry is upstairs and downstairs, his eloquence the parcel

of a [95] reckoning. I am not yet of Percy’s mind, the Hotspur of the North;
he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his
hands, and says to his wife, ‘Fie upon this quiet life! I want work.’ ‘O my

sweet Harry,’ says she, ‘how many hast thou killed today?’ [100] ‘Give my
roan horse a drench,’ says he, and answers ‘Some fourteen,’ an hour after, ‘a
trifle, a trifle.’ I prithee call in Falstaff. I’ll play Percy, and that damned brawn
shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. ‘Rivo!’ says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call
in tallow. [105]

Enter Falstaff [, Gadshill, Bardolph, and Peto; Francis follows with wine].