Act V, Scene 1 — Falstaff's Catechism on Honour
from Henry IV, Part 1
Written by William Shakespeare
On the eve of battle, Falstaff interrogates the concept of military honor, weighing its abstract glory against the physical reality of death and injury. He ultimately rejects the pursuit of honor as a useless 'scutcheon' that offers nothing to the living and cannot be felt by the dead.
FALSTAFF: 'Tis not due yet: I would be loath to pay him before his day — what need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; 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 grie
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