William Shakespeare: The Life of King Henry V

ACT SECOND. 1. SCENE I. London. A street. (continued)

PISTOL.
"Couple a gorge!"
That is the word. I thee defy again.
O hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get?
No! to the spital go,
And from the powdering tub of infamy
Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind,
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse.
I have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly
For the only she; and--pauca, there's enough.
Go to.

[Enter the Boy.]

BOY.
Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, and you,
hostess. He is very sick, and would to bed. Good Bardolph, put
thy face between his sheets, and do the office of a warming-pan.
Faith, he's very ill.

BARDOLPH.
Away, you rogue!

HOSTESS.
By my troth, he'll yield the crow a pudding one of these days.
The King has kill'd his heart.
Good husband, come home presently.

[Exeunt Hostess and Boy.]

BARDOLPH.
Come, shall I make you two friends? We must to France
together; why the devil should we keep knives to cut one
another's throats?

PISTOL.
Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on!

NYM.
You'll pay me the eight shillings I won of you at betting?

PISTOL.
Base is the slave that pays.

NYM.
That now I will have: that's the humour of it.

PISTOL.
As manhood shall compound. Push home.

[They draw.]

BARDOLPH.
By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, I'll kill
him; by this sword, I will.

PISTOL.
Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their course.

BARDOLPH.
Corporal Nym, and thou wilt be friends, be friends; an
thou wilt not, why, then, be enemies with me too. Prithee,
put up.