Page:Henry IV Part 1 (1917) Yale.djvu/67

King Henry the Fourth, II. iv

years? Wherein is he good but to taste sack and

drink it? wherein neat and cleanly but to carve

a capon and cat it? wherein cunning but in

craft? wherein crafty but in villainy? wherein

villainous but in all things? wherein worthy but

in nothing?

Fal. I would your Grace would take me with

you: whom means your Grace?

Prince. That villainous abominable misleader

of youth, Falstaff, that old white-bearded Satan.

Fal. My lord, the man I know.

Prince. I know thou dost.

Fal. But to say I know more harm in him

than in myself were to say more than I know.

That he is old, the more the pity, his white

hairs do witness it; but that he is, saving your

reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny.

If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the

wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then

many an old host that I know is damned: if to

be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine

are to be loved. No, my good lord; banish Peto,

banish Bardolph, banish Poins; but for sweet

Jack Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Fal-

staff, valiant Jack Falstaff, and therefore more

valiant, being, as he is, old Jack Falstaff, banish

not him thy Harry's company: banish not him

thy Harry's company: banish plump Jack, and

banish all the world.

Prince. I do, I will.

 513 take me with you: let me follow your meaning

522 saving reverence: an apologetic phrase introducing a remark that might offend the hearer

527 Cf. n. 