I Know You All

Tom Hiddleston as Prince Hal in The Hollow Crown (2012)

Listen to:

I Know You All (1:46)

from Henry IV, Part I

by William Shakespeare

performed by Bob Gonzalez, rhapsode

Henry IV, Part I – Act I, scene ii – Prince Hal

Prince Henry, or Hal, the wayward son of Henry IV, 

wastes his afternoon bandying wits with Falstaff 

and his crew of low-lifes, 

even agreeing to accompany them 

in their plans for robbery. 

But when they leave the stage, 

Hal reveals his darker purpose – 

to cast them all aside when the time is ripe:

PRINCE HENRY 

I know you all, and will awhile uphold

The unyoked humour 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 wonder'd at,

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.

If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,

And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.

So, when this loose behavior I throw off

And pay the debt I never promised,

By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;

And like bright metal on a sullen ground,

My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,

Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes

Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time when men think least I will.