Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/39

King Henry the Fourth, II. i

Host. It is more than for some, my lord; it

is for all I have. He hath eaten me out of

house and home; he hath put all my substance

into that fat belly of his: but I will have some of

it out again, or I will ride thee o' nights like the

mare.

Fal. I think I am as like to ride the mare if

I have any vantage of ground to get up.

''Ch. Just.'' How comes this, Sir John? Fie!

what man of good temper would endure this

tempest of exclamation? Are you not ashamed

to enforce a poor widow to so rough a course to

come by her own?

Fal. What is the gross sum that I owe thee?

Host. Marry, if thou wert an honest man,

thyself and the money too. Thou didst swear

to me upon a parcel-gilt goblet, sitting in my

Dolphin-chamber, at the round table, by a sea-

coal fire, upon Wednesday in Wheeson week,

when the prince broke thy head for liking his

father to a singing-man of Windsor, thou didst

swear to me then, as I was washing thy wound,

to marry me and make me my lady thy wife.

Canst thou deny it? Did not goodwife Keech,

the butcher's wife, come in then and call me

gossip Quickly? coming in to borrow a mess of

vinegar; telling us she had a good dish of

prawns; whereby thou didst desire to eat some,

whereby I told thee they were ill for a green

wound? And didst thou not, when she was gone

down stairs, desire me to be no more so famili-

 86 mare: nightmare

90 temper: character

97 parcel-gilt: partly gilded

98 sea-coal: mineral coal (brought by boat from Newcastle)

99 Wheeson: Whitsun

104 Keech: literally 'a lump of fat'

109 green: fresh 