William Shakespeare 1564-1616 King Henry IV Part I John Bartlett 1919 Familiar Quotations


1
So shaken as we are, so wan with care.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.
2
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.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 1.
3
Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
4
Old father antic the law.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
5
I would to God thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
6
Thou hast damnable iteration, and art indeed able to corrupt a saint.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
7
And now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
8
’T is my vocation, Hal; ’t is no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
9
He will give the devil his due. 1
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
10
There ’s neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.



11
If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 2.
12
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.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
13
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.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
14
God save the mark.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
15
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.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
16
The blood more stirs To rouse a lion than to start a hare!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
17
By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap To pluck bright honour from the pale-faced 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.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act i. Sc. 3.
18
I know a trick worth two of that.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 1.
19
If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I ’ll be hanged.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.
20
It would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.
21
Falstaff sweats to death, And lards the lean earth as he walks along.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 2.
22
Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 3.
23
Brain him with his lady’s fan.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 3.
24
A Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
25
A plague of all cowards, I say.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
26
There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
27
Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
28
I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
29
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—
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
30
Three misbegotten knaves in Kendal green.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
31
Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
32
Mark now, how a plain tale shall put you down.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
33
I was now a coward on instinct.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
34
No more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
35
What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
36
A plague of sighing and grief! It blows a man up like a bladder.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
37
In King Cambyses’ vein.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
38
That reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
39
Banish plump Jack, and banish all the world.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
40
Play out the play.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
41
O, monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 4.
42
Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
43
I am not in the roll of common men.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
44
Glen. I can call spirits from the vasty deep. Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man; But will they come when you do call for them?
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
45
While you live, tell truth and shame the devil! 2
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
46
I had rather be a kitten and cry mew Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
47
But in the way of bargain, mark ye me, I ’ll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
48
A deal of skimble-skamble stuff.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
49
Exceedingly well read.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
50
A good mouth-filling oath.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 1.
51
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.
52
To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a little More than a little is by much too much.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 2.
53
An I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of, I am a pepper-corn.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
54
Company, villanous company, hath been the spoil of me.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
55
Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
56
Rob me the exchequer.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.
57
This sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprise.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
58
That daffed the world aside, And bid it pass.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
59
All plumed like estridges that with the wind Baited like eagles having lately bathed; Glittering in golden coats, like images; As full of spirit as the month of May, And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
60
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on, His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm’d, Rise from the ground like feather’d Mercury, And vaulted with such ease into his seat As if an angel dropp’d down from the clouds, To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus And witch the world with noble horsemanship.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.
61
The cankers of a calm world and a long peace.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.
62
A mad fellow met me on the way and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I ’ll not march through Coventry with them, that ’s flat: nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for indeed I had the most of them out of prison. There ’s but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins tacked together and thrown over the shoulders like an herald’s coat without sleeves.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.
63
Food for powder, food for powder; they ’ll fill a pit as well as better.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.
64
To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast 3 Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 2.
65
I would ’t were bedtime, Hal, and all well.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 1.
66
Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on,—how then? Can honour set to a leg? no: or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? no. Honour hath no skill in surgery, then? no. What is honour? a word. What is in that word honour; what is that honour? air. A trim reckoning! Who hath it? he that died o’ Wednesday. Doth he feel it? no. Doth he hear it? no. ’T is insensible, then? yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? no. Why? detraction will not suffer it. Therefore I ’ll none of it. Honour is a mere scutcheon. And so ends my catechism.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 1.
67
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
68
This earth that bears thee dead Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
69
Thy ignominy sleep with thee in the grave, But not remember’d in thy epitaph!
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
70
I could have better spared a better man.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
71
The better part of valour is discretion. 4
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
72
Full bravely hast thou fleshed Thy maiden sword.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
73
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying! I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he. But we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.
74
I ’ll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly.
King Henry IV. Part I. Act v. Sc. 4.

Note 1.
Thomas Nash: Have with you to Saffron Walden. John Dryden: Epilogue to the Duke of Guise. [back]

Note 2.
Beaumont and Fletcher: Wit without Money, act iv. sc. 1. Jonathan Swift: Mary the Cookmaid’s Letter. [back]

Note 3.
See Heywood, Quotation 117. [back]

Note 4.
It show’d discretion the best part of valour.—Beaumont and Fletcher: A King and no King, act ii. sc. 3. [back]

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