A side-by-side translation of Act 2, Scene 2 of Henry IV Part 2 from the original Shakespeare into modern English.
Original Text |
Translated Text |
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Source: Folger Shakespeare Library | |
Enter the Prince and Poins. PRINCE Before God, I am exceeding weary. POINS Is ’t come to that? I had thought weariness durst PRINCE Faith, it does me, though it discolors the complexion POINS Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied | At the prince's bachelor pad in London, Hal and his buddy, Ned Poins, chill out and shoot the breeze. Hal says that, embarrassingly, he gets tired a lot. Then he asks Poins if he thinks he, Hal, is a chump for craving the taste of "small beer." FYI: "Small beer" (cheap, light beer) is the kind of thing that commoners, not royalty, usually drink. In other words, Hal has developed a taste for his Eastcheap lifestyle and he's worried that he's becoming too much like the commoners. |
PRINCE Belike then my appetite was not princely got, | In fact, says Hal, he shouldn't even be hanging out with Poins because he, Hal, is a prince, whereas Poins is a guy who has spent all his cash in the brothels and has fathered a bunch of illegitimate children. |
POINS How ill it follows, after you have labored so PRINCE Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? POINS Yes, faith, and let it be an excellent good thing. PRINCE It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding POINS Go to. I stand the push of your one thing that PRINCE Marry, I tell thee it is not meet that I should be POINS Very hardly, upon such a subject. PRINCE By this hand, thou thinkest me as far in the POINS The reason? PRINCE What wouldst thou think of me if I should 50 POINS I would think thee a most princely hypocrite. PRINCE It would be every man’s thought, and thou art POINS Why, because you have been so lewd and so PRINCE And to thee. POINS By this light, I am well spoke on. I can hear it | Poins plays along and points out that it's most unbecoming for a Prince to even talk of such things, especially when his father, the king, is so sick right now. Hal confesses that he can't reveal to anyone just how sad he is that his father is ill. He would look like a hypocrite if he wept because he's spent so much of his youth rebelling against his dad and thumbing his nose at authority. |
Enter Bardolph and Page. PRINCE And the boy that I gave Falstaff. He had him BARDOLPH God save your Grace. PRINCE And yours, most noble Bardolph. POINS, to Bardolph Come, you virtuous ass, you bashful | Bardolph and Falstaff's Page enter and the guys immediately fall into a familiar routine of horsing around and volleying insults at each other. Poins, for example, bags on Bardolph's notoriously red face and then accuses him of blushing like a girl. According to Poins, what Bardolph should be doing (instead of blushing) is chugging beer and sleeping with virgins. (Don't get mad at us. This is how they really talk.) |
PAGE He calls me e’en now, my lord, through a red PRINCE Has not the boy profited? BARDOLPH, to Page Away, you whoreson upright rabbit, PAGE Away, you rascally Althea’s dream, away! PRINCE Instruct us, boy. What dream, boy? PAGE Marry, my lord, Althea dreamt she was delivered PRINCE A crown’s worth of good interpretation. There 90 He gives the Page money. POINS O, that this good blossom could be kept from He gives the Page money. | The Page joins in on the fun and cracks a joke about Bardolph's red face and Prince Hal notes that Falstaff has definitely rubbed off on the kid because the Page is quite a smart aleck. Hal gives the Page some money as a reward for being so clever with his insults. Poins gives the Page some money too and jokes that he hopes the extra cash will help prevent the young Page from being corrupted (i.e., by Falstaff's company, venereal disease, etc.). It won't, of course. |
BARDOLPH An you do not make him be hanged among PRINCE And how doth thy master, Bardolph? BARDOLPH Well, my good lord. He heard of your He gives the Prince a paper. POINS Delivered with good respect. And how doth the BARDOLPH In bodily health, sir. POINS Marry, the immortal part needs a physician, but PRINCE I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as POINS reads the superscription John Falstaff, knight. PRINCE Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it 115 POINS Why, this is a certificate. PRINCE Peace! 120 Reads. I will imitate the honorable Romans in POINS He sure means brevity in breath, short-winded. PRINCE reads I commend me to thee, I commend thee, | Bardolph gives Prince Hal a letter. The letter's from Falstaff and it's obnoxious so, the guys take turns passing it around and reading it aloud so they can mock the contents of the letter. Poins bags on the pretentious Falstaff for always referring to himself as a knight and then Hal reads a part of the letter that warns the prince not to hang out with Poins because Poins has been telling everyone that Hal is going to marry his sister. |
POINS My lord, I’ll steep this letter in sack and make PRINCE That’s to make him eat twenty of his words. POINS God send the wench no worse fortune! But I PRINCE Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and BARDOLPH Yea, my lord. PRINCE Where sups he? Doth the old boar feed in the 145 BARDOLPH At the old place, my lord, in Eastcheap. PRINCE What company? PAGE Ephesians, my lord, of the old church. PRINCE Sup any women with him? 150 PAGE None, my lord, but old Mistress Quickly and PRINCE What pagan may that be? PAGE A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of PRINCE Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the | Poins is ticked off – he threatens to dip the letter in wine and then shove it down Falstaff's throat. He never said the prince would marry his sister. Hal says this is all a big waste of time and asks where Falstaff is hanging out that night. When he learns that Falstaff's having dinner at the Boar's Head tavern, with Mistress Quickly and Doll Tearsheet, he decides that he and Poins should pay a surprise visit to Falstaff. |
POINS I am your shadow, my lord. I’ll follow you. PRINCE Sirrah—you, boy—and Bardolph, no word to 160 BARDOLPH I have no tongue, sir. PAGE And for mine, sir, I will govern it. PRINCE Fare you well. Go. Bardolph and Page exit. 165 POINS I warrant you, as common as the way between | Hal gives the Page and Bardolph some money so they'll keep their mouths shut about Hal visiting the tavern – that way, he can spy on Falstaff. Then Hal and Poins crack jokes about Doll Tearsheet, who Hal says, must be "some road." Translation: Doll Tearsheet must be a prostitute. Poins chimes in that Doll Tearsheet is a well-travelled "road" at that. |
PRINCE How might we see Falstaff bestow himself POINS Put on two leathern jerkins and aprons, and PRINCE From a god to a bull: a heavy descension. It They exit. | Poins and Hal decide to go to the Boar's Head Tavern and dress up like waiters so they can spy on Falstaff. It'll be tons of fun to see how the old man acts when he doesn't know they're there. Prince Hal says that when he dresses up like a lowly waiter, it will be like Jove transforming himself into a bull. (Hmm. Jove's the guy who turned himself into a bull right before he raped Europa.) |