Henry IV, Part 1

By William Shakespeare

QUOTATION: Play out the play!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 484.

He and Prince Hal are interrupted in their improvised play in which each in turned played King Henry and the Prince.

QUOTATION: There lives not three good men unhanged in England, and one of
them is fat and grows old.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 130-2.

The fat one is himself.

QUOTATION: I am bewitched with the rogue’s company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I’ll be hanged. It could not be else, I have drunk medicines.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 2, l. 18-20.

Speaking of Poins, who has taken his horse.

QUOTATION: Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with
unwashed hands too.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, sc. 3, l. 183-4.

To Prince Hal now that he is reconciled with the king.

QUOTATION: Thou knowest in the state of innocency Adam fell, and what
should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days in villainy?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, sc. 3, l. 164-6.

To Prince Hal, who has exposed Falstaff’s lies about what was stolen from his pocket.

QUOTATION: When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle’s talon in the waist, I could have crept into any alderman’s thumb-ring.
A plague of sighing and grief, it blows a man up like a
bladder.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 329-33.

QUOTATION: I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 4, sc. 2, l. 58-9.

QUOTATION: The King himself is to be feared as the lion.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, sc. 3, l. 149.

As the lion is king of the beasts.

QUOTATION: If I do grow great, I’ll grow less, for I’ll purge and leave
sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 4, l. 163-5.

Imagining he may be rewarded for his claim to have killed Hotspur.

QUOTATION: Give you a reason on compulsion? if reasons were as plentiful
as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 238-40.

Evading a direct answer to Poins and Hal; “reasons” would have sounded like “raisins.”

QUOTATION: Watch tonight, pray tomorrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good fellowship come to you!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 277-9.

Happy in the prospect of a night’s festivity; “watch” means stay awake.

QUOTATION: What time of day is it, lad?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 1, sc. 2, l. 1.

Addressing Prince Hal as “lad” shows the close relationship between them.

QUOTATION: I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, sc. 3, l. 31.

To Bardolph, whose nose is red.

QUOTATION: Well, ‘tis no matter, honor pricks me on. Yea, but how if
honor prick me off when I come on? how then?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 1, l. 129-31.

Quibbling on meanings of “honor” means moral obligation and fame; and “prick” means spur on and mark down as dead.

QUOTATION: O for breath to utter what is like thee! you tailor’s yard,
you sheath, you bowcase, you vile standing tuck.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 246-8.

Insulting Hal; “tuck” means rapier.

QUOTATION: Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, sc. 3, l. 80-1.

QUOTATION: Do I not bate? do I not dwindle? Why, my skin hangs about me like an old lady’s loose gown; I am withered like an old
apple-john.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 3, sc. 3, l. 2-4.

“Bate” means abate, grow thin; “apple-john” means kind of apple which was kept until the skin shrivelled.

QUOTATION: What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 294.

On an old nobleman arriving with a message for Hal.

QUOTATION: If sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be
old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is
damned.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 4, l. 470-2.

Defending himself against Prince Henry’s denunciation.

QUOTATION: I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 1, sc. 2, l. 82-3.

To Prince Henry, implying they both have a bad reputation; “commodity” means goods for sale, supply.

QUOTATION: Hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent garters!
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, sc. 2, 43-4.

A friendly insult to Prince Hal, heir to the throne.

QUOTATION: I would ‘twere bed-time, Hal, and all well.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 1, l. 125.

Showing his fear of dying in battle.

QUOTATION: What is honor? A word. What is in that word honor? What is
that honor? Air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? He that died
o’ Wednesday.
ATTRIBUTION: William Shakespeare (1564–1616), British dramatist, poet. Falstaff, in Henry IV, Part 1, act 5, sc. 1, l. 133-5.

Reducing fame and moral obligation to mere noise.