Henry IV, Part 1

"So shaken as we are, so wan with care."

"In those holy fields, Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail’d For our advantage, on the bitter cross."

"Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know."

"Diana’s foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, Minions of the moon."

"Old father antic the law."

"Thou hast the most unsavory similes; and art, indeed, the most comparative, rascalliest, sweet young prince."

"I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought."

"O, Thou hast damnable iteration; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint."

"And now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked."

"’T is my vocation, Hal; ’t is no sin for a man to labour in his vocation."

"Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs: he will give the devil his due."

"There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou cam'st not of the blood royal, if thou dar'st not stand for ten shillings."

"If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work."

"So, when this loose behaviour I throw off, And pay the debt I never promised, By how much better than my word I am, By so much shall I falsify men's hopes; And, like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes, Than that which hath no foil to set it off."

"Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap’d, Showed like a stubble-land at harvest-home; He was perfumed like a milliner, And ’twixt his finger and his thumb he held A pouncet-box, which ever and anon He gave his nose, and took ’t away again."

"And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by, He called them untaught knaves, unmannerly, To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse Betwixt the wind and his nobility."

"God save the mark!"

"And telling me, the sovereign’st thing on earth Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise; And that it was great pity, so it was, This villanous saltpetre should be digg’d Out of the bowels of the harmless earth, Which many a good tall fellow had destroy’d So cowardly; and but for these vile guns, He would himself have been a soldier."

"O! the blood more stirs, To rouse a lion, than to start a hare."

"By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon, Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks; So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear Without corrival, all her dignities: But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!"

"I know a trick worth two of that."

"If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged."

"It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever."

"Falstaff sweats to death, And lards the lean earth as he walks along."

"Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety."

"I could brain him with his lady’s fan."

"A Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy."

"A plague of all cowards, I say."

"There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old."

"Call you that, backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing!"

"I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew."

"I have peppered two of them: two, I am sure I have paid, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face; call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward: here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me —"

"Three misbegotten knaves, in Kendal green."

"Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I."

"Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down."

"I was now a coward on instinct."

"No more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!"

"What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?"

"A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder."

"I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses’ vein."

"Why dost thou converse with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that swoln parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years?"

"Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world."

"I do; I will."

"Play out the play."

"O, monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack!"

"Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions."

"I am not in the roll of common men."

"Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come, when you do call for them?"

"While you live, tell truth, and shame the devil."

"I had rather be a kitten, and cry mew, Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers."