Page:Henry IV Part 1 (1917) Yale.djvu/28

14

Were, as he says, not with such strength denied

As is deliver'd to your majesty:

Either envy, therefore, or misprision

Is guilty of this fault and not my son.

Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners:

But I remember, when the fight was done,

When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,

Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,

Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly dress'd,

Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,

Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home:

He was perfumed like a milliner,

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held

A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He gave his nose and took't away again;

Who therewith angry, when it next came there,

Took it in snuff: and still he smil'd and talk'd;

And as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,

He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,

To bring a slovenly unhandsome corpse

Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me; among the rest, demanded

My prisoners in your majesty's behalf.

I then all smarting with my wounds being cold,

To be so pester'd with a popinjay,

Out of my grief and my impatience

Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what,

He should, or he should not; for he made me mad

To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet

And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman

 26 deliver'd: reported

27 misprision: misapprehension

36 milliner; cf. n.

38 pouncet-box: a perforated box for perfumes

41 in snuff: as an offence (with play on the word snuff)

46 holiday and lady terms: choice and ladylike expressions

50 popinjay: parrot

51 grief: pain 