William Shakespeare: King Henry IV Part I

ACT III. 3. Scene III. Eastcheap. A Room in the Boar's-Head Tavern. (continued)

HOST.
Say, what thing? what thing? I am an honest man's wife: and,
setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so.

FAL.
Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise.

HOST.
Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?

FAL.
What beast! why, an otter.

PRINCE.
An otter, Sir John, why an otter?

FAL.
Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have
her.

HOST.
Thou art an unjust man in saying so; thou or any man knows where
to have me, thou knave, thou!

PRINCE.
Thou say'st true, hostess; and he slanders thee most grossly.

HOST.
So he doth you, my lord; and said this other day you ought him a
thousand pound.

PRINCE.
Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?

FAL.

A thousand pound, Hal! a million: thy love is worth a million;
thou owest me thy love.

HOST.
Nay, my lord, he call'd you Jack, and said he would cudgel you.

FAL.
Did I, Bardolph?

BARD.
Indeed, Sir John, you said so.

FAL.
Yea, if he said my ring was copper.

PRINCE.
I say 'tis copper: darest thou be as good as thy word now?

FAL.
Why, Hal, thou know'st, as thou art but man, I dare; but as thou
art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp.

PRINCE.
And why not as the lion?