No Fear Shakespeare
Henry IV Part 1
Get this No Fear to go!
Act 1, Scene 2, Page 8
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POINS
Tut, our horses they shall not see; I’ll tie them in the wood.
Our vizards we will change after we leave them. And, sirrah,
I have cases of buckram for the nonce, to immask our noted
outward garments.
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POINS
Psh! They won’t see our horses, because I’ll tie them in the forest. We’ll put on new masks after we leave them. And, just for this occasion, I’ve made cloaks out of rough buckram cloth, to cover our regular clothes.
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PRINCE HENRY
Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.
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PRINCE HENRY
Okay. But I’m afraid they’ll be too tough for us.
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POINS
Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred
cowards as ever turned back; and for the third, if he fight
longer than he sees reason, I’ll forswear arms. The virtue of
this jest will be the incomprehensible lies that this same fat
rogue will tell us when we meet at supper: how thirty at least
he fought with, what wards, what blows, what extremities he
endured; and in the reproof of this lies the jest.
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POINS
Well, I know that two of them are the biggest cowards who ever turned and ran. As for the third, if he fights even a second longer than is absolutely necessary, I promise to never fight again. The best part about this joke will be listening to the outlandish lies this fat clown will tell when we meet for dinner—how he fought at least thirty men, how he defended himself, how he got hit, what he endured. The funniest part will be when we call him on it.
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PRINCE HENRY
Well, I’ll go with thee. Provide us all things necessary and
meet me tomorrow night in Eastcheap. There I’ll sup.
Farewell.
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PRINCE HENRY
Okay. I’ll go. Get everything together and meet me in Eastcheap tomorrow. I’ll eat there. Farewell.
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POINS
Farewell, my lord.
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POINS
Farewell, my lord.
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Exit POINS
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POINS exits. |
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PRINCE HENRY
I know you all, and will awhile uphold
The unyoked humor of your idleness.
Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wondered at
By breaking through the foul and ugly mist
Of vapors that did seem to strangle him.
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PRINCE HENRY
I understand all of you. For now, I’ll put on the rowdy behavior of your good-for-nothing ways. But in this way, I’ll be like the sun, who allows the vulgar, corrupting clouds to hide his beauty from the world. Then, when the sun wants to be himself again, he breaks through the foul mists and vapors that seemed to be strangling him.
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