Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of
mine, and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word
but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I20
were simply the most active fellow in Europe: my womb,
my womb, my womb, undoes me. Here comes our general.
Enter Prince John of Lancaster, Westmoreland, Blunt, and others.[4111]
Lan. The heat is past; follow no further now:[4112]
Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland. [Exit Westmoreland.
Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?25
When every thing is ended, then you come:[4113]
These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
One time or other break some gallows' back.
Fal. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus:
I never knew yet but rebuke and check was the reward of30
valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet?
have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of
thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremest[4114]
inch of possibility; I have foundered nine score and odd[4115]
posts: and here, travel-tainted as I am, have, in my pure35
and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the
dale, a most furious knight and valorous enemy. But
what of that? he saw me, and yielded; that I may justly
say, with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, 'I came, saw, and[4116]
overcame.'40
Lan. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.
Fal. I know not: here he is, and here I yield him: and
I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this
day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular[4117]45
ballad else, with mine own picture on the top on't, Colevile[4118]
kissing my foot: to the which course if I be enforced, if you
do not all show like gilt two-pences to me, and I in the
clear sky of fame o'ershine you as much as the full moon
doth the cinders of the element, which show like pins' heads50
to her, believe not the word of the noble: therefore let me
have right, and let desert mount.
Lan. Thine's too heavy to mount.
Lan. Thine's too thick to shine.55