Henry IV, Part ii: Act IV, Scene ii
Henry IV, Part ii Act IV, Scene ii Falstaff
This speech is used in our interview with John Ahlin.
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89 I would you had but the wit: 'twere better than
90 your dukedom. Good faith, this same young sober-
91 blooded boy doth not love me; nor a man cannot make
92 him laugh; but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine.
93 There's never none of these demure boys come to any
94 proof; for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood,
95 that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness;
96 they are generally fools and cowards;
97 which some of us should be too, but for
98 inflammation. A good sherris sack hath a two-fold
99 operation in it. It ascends me into the brain;
100 dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy
101 vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive,
102 quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and
103 delectable shapes, which, delivered o'er to the
104 voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes
105 excellent wit. The second property of your
106 excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood;
107 which, before cold and settled, left the liver
108 white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity
109 and cowardice; but the sherris warms it and makes
110 it course from the inwards to the parts extreme:
111 it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives
112 warning to all the rest of this little kingdom,
113 man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and
114 inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain,
115 the heart, who, great and puffed up with this
116 retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour
117 comes of sherris. Hereof comes it that Prince Harry is valiant; for
118 the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his
119 father, he hath, like lean, sterile and bare land,
120 manured, husbanded and tilled with excellent
121 endeavour of drinking good fertile sherris, that he is become very hot and valiant. If
122 I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I
123 would teach them should be, to forswear thin
124 potations and to addict themselves to sack.