Page:Henry IV Part 2 (1921) Yale.djvu/96

84

I do sweat, they are the drops of thy lovers,

and they weep for thy death: therefore rouse

up fear and trembling, and do observance to

my mercy.

Cole. I think you are Sir John Falstaff, and

in that thought yield me.

Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this

belly of mine, and not a tongue of them all

speaks any other word but my name. An I had

but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the

most active fellow in Europe: my womb, my

womb, my womb undoes me. Here comes our

general.

Lanc. The heat is past, follow no further now.

Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.

Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?

When everything is ended, then you come:

These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,

One time or other break some gallows' back.

Fal. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should

be thus: I never knew yet but rebuke and check

was the reward of valour. Do you think me a

swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? have I, in my

poor and old motion, the expedition of thought?

I have speeded hither with the very extremest

inch of possibility; I have foundered nine score

and odd posts; and here, travel-tainted as I am,

have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken

Sir John Colevile of the dale, a most furious

 16 observance: homage

23 indifferency: moderate size

27 heat: race, pursuit

34 check: reproof

37 expedition: speed

40 posts: post-horses 