Henry IV, Part 1, Life, time's fool; the better part of valor is discretion; sink or swim

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Henry IV, Part 1

 I have finished reading Henry IV, Part 1.  The main attraction of this play is the introduction of Sir John Falstaff, the lusty, hard drinking companion to the young and irresponsible Prince Hal (the future King Henry V).  
     Here are my favorite quotes from this play, one of Harold Bloom's favorites.  Several on the horrors of war juxtaposed with those describing the beauty of love.

 

“No more the thirsty entrance of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children’s blood

…nor bruise her flow’rets with the armed hoofs

Of hostile paces.” King Henry, 1.1.5-9

“were it not here apparent that thou are heir apparent” Falstaff about Prince Hal, 1.2.59,60

“give the devil his due” Prince Hal, 1.2.123

“God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move and what he hears may be believed”   Falstaff 1.2.155-157

“sink or swim”  Hotspur, 1.3.192

“not pray to her, but prey on her” Gadshill, 2.1.83

“I swear I love thee infinitely,” Falstaff to his Lady

“…the tree may be known by the fruit, and the fruit by the tree.” Falstaff, 2.4.427,428

“She bids you on the wanton rushes lay you down

And rest your gentle head upon her lap,

And she will sing the song that pleaseth you

And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,

Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness,

As is the difference betwixt day and night

The hour before the heavenly-harnessed team

Begins his golden progress in the east.”  Glendower, 3.1.213-221

 

“…dressed myself in such humility

That I did pluck allegiance from men’s hearts,” King Henry, 3.2.51,52

“a little more than a little is by much too much”  King Henry, 3.2.72

“I have not forgotten what the inside of a church is made of,” Falstaff, 3.3.7-8

“As full of spirit as the month of May

And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer,” Vernon, 4.1.100-101

“the fire-eyed maid of smoky war,”   Hotspur, 4.1.113 (Bellona is the goddess of war)

“Will you again unknit

This churlish knot of all-abhorred war

A prodigy of fear, and a portent

Of broached mischief to the unborn times,”  King Henry, 5.1.15-16, 20-21

“life, time’s fool,”  Hotspur, 5.4.80

“The better part of valor is discretion,”  Falstaff, 5.4.119

Moon references:

“for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phoebus.” 1.2.13-15  Falstaff

“Let us be Diana’s foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon, …being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steel.” Falstaff, 1.2.25-29

“…for the fortune of us that are the moon’s men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed as the sea is by the moon.”   Prince Hal, 1.2. 31-34

“To pluck bright honor from the pale-faced moon,” Hotspur  1.3.200

 

Vocabulary:

such sarcenet surety (a fine silk)