Sir John Oldcastle

by Shakespeare

SIR JOHN.
Wilt thou do so much for me, when I shall have occasion?

KING.
Yes, faith will I, so it be for no murther.

SIR JOHN. Nay, I am a pitiful thief; all the hurt I do a man, I take but his purse; I’ll kill no man.

KING.
Then, of my word, I’ll do it.

SIR JOHN.
Give me thy hand of the same.

KING.
There tis.

SIR JOHN. Me thinks the King should be good to thieves, because he has been a thief himself, though I think now he be turned true-man.

KING. Faith, I have heard indeed he has had an ill name that way in his youth; but how canst thou tell he has been a thief?

SIR JOHN. How? Because he once robbed me before I fell to the trade my self; when that foul villainous guts, that led him to all that rogery, was in’s company there, that Falstaff.

KING. [Aside.] Well, if he did rob thee then, thou art but even with him now, I’ll be sworn.—Thou knowest not the king now, I think, if thou sawest him?