King Henry IV, the Second Part

by William Shakespeare

PRINCE.
A crown’s worth of good interpretation. There ’tis, boy.

POINS.
O, that this blossom could be kept from cankers! Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.

BARDOLPH.
An you do not make him be hanged among you, the gallows shall have wrong.

PRINCE.
And how doth thy master, Bardolph?

BARDOLPH.
Well, my lord. He heard of your Grace’s coming to town. There’s a letter for you.

POINS.
Delivered with good respect. And how doth the martlemas, your master?

BARDOLPH.
In bodily health, sir.

POINS.
Marry, the immortal part needs a physician, but that moves not him. Though that be sick, it dies not.

PRINCE.
I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog, and he holds his place, for look you how he writes.

POINS.
[Reads.] “John Falstaff, knight,” Every man must know that, as oft as he has occasion to name himself: even like those that are kin to the King, for they never prick their finger but they say, “There’s some of the King’s blood spilt.” “How comes that?” says he that takes upon him not to conceive. The answer is as ready as a borrower’s cap, “I am the King’s poor cousin, sir.”