Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/134

122 

First, my fear; then, my curtsy; last my

speech. My fear is, your displeasure, my

curtsy, my duty, and my speech, to beg your

pardon. If you look for a good speech now, you

undo me; for what I have to say is of mine

own making; and what indeed I should say

will, I doubt, prove mine own marring. But to

the purpose, and so to the venture. Be it known

to you,—as it is very well,—I was lately here in

the end of a displeasing play, to pray your

patience for it and to promise you a better. I

did mean indeed to pay you with this; which,

if like an ill venture it come unluckily home, I

break, and you, my gentle creditors, lose. Here,

I promised you I would be, and here I commit

my body to your mercies: bate me some and I

will pay you some; and, as most debtors do,

promise you infinitely.

If my tongue cannot entreat you to acquit me,

will you command me to use my legs? and yet

that were but light payment, to dance out of your

debt. But a good conscience will make any

possible satisfaction, and so will I. All the

gentlewomen here have forgiven me: if the

gentlemen will not, then the gentlemen do not

agree with the gentlewomen, which was never

seen before in such an assembly.

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not

too much cloyed with fat meat, our humble

 Epilogue; cf. n.

7 doubt: fear

14 break: become bankrupt

16 bate: remit

