FAL. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?

P. HEN. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?

FAL. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning, many a time and oft.

P. HEN. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?

FAL. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all there.

P. HEN. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and, where it would not, I have used my credit.

FAL. Yea, and so used it, that were it not* here apparent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is, with the rusty curb

(*) First folio omits, not.

a I'll be a brave judge.] Shakespeare had probably in his mind a passage from the old play of "The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth,"

"Henry V. But Ned, so soone as I am king, the first thing I will doo, shal be to put my Lord chiefe Justice out of office, and thou shalt be my Lord chiefe Justice of England." "Ned. Shall I be Lorde chiefe Justice?

By gog's wounds ile be the bravest Lorde chiefe Justice
That ever was in England."

b A gib cat,-] Gilbert and Tibert, contracted into Gib and Tib, were the common names for cats in former times, Gib being usually applied to an old cat. Why this animal or "an old lion," or a "lugged bear," should be accounted melancholy, unless from the gravity of its carriage, has never been shown, but the simile "as

of old father antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

[brave judge.

P. HEN. No; thou shalt. FAL. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord,† I'll be a P. HEN. Thou judgest false already; I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieves, and so become a rare hangman.

FAL. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour, as well as waiting in the court, I can tell you.

P. HEN. For obtaining of suits?

FAL. Yea, for obtaining of suits: whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy as a gib cat," or a lugged bear. P. HEN. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute.

FAL. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.(2)

P. HEN. What say'st thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch? (3)

(*) First folio inserts, a. (t) First folio omits, By the Lord. (1) First folio omits, S'blood.

melancholy as a cat," was in frequent use:-thus in Lilly's "Midas,"

"Pet. How now, Motto, all amort?
Mot. I am as melancholy as a cat."

A hare,-] The following extract, from Turberville's Book on Hunting and Falconry, is a better explanation of this passage than any given by the commentators :-"The Hare first taught us the use of the hearbe called wyld Succory, which is very excellent for those which are disposed to be melancholicke: Shee herselfe is one of the most melancholicke beasts that is, and to heale her own infirmitie she goeth commonly to sit under that hearbe."

FAL. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes ;* and art, indeed, the most comparative," rascalliest,† -sweet young prince,-But Hal, I pr'ythee, trouble me no more with vanity. I would to God,‡ thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought: an old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir; but I marked him not: and yet he talked very wisely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talked wisely, and in the street too.

P. HEN. Thou did'st well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.(4)

FAL. O, thou hast damnable iteration; and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint. Thou hast done much harm upon § me, Hal,-God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord,¶ an I do not, I am a villain; I'll be damn'd for never a king's son in Christendom.

P. HEN. Where shall we take a purse tomorrow, Jack?

FAL. Zounds!** where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me. P. HEN. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying, to purse-taking.

Enter POINS at a distance.

FAL. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation. Poins!Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match." O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain, that ever cried, Stand, to a true

man.

P. HEN. Good morrow, Ned.

POINS. Good morrow, sweet Hal.—What says monsieur Remorse? What says sir John Sackand-Sugar? Jack, how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on GoodFriday last, for a cup of Madeira, and a cold capon's leg?

(*) First folio, smiles. (1) First folio omits, to God. (First folio, I am.

(+) First folio, rascallest.
(§) First folio, unto.

() First folio omits, by the Lord. (**) First folio omits, Zounds.

a Most comparative,] This may mean, that is readiest in comparisons or similes.

b Have set a match.] The first folio has "set a watch." Setting a match was occasionally used for making an appointment; thus, in Ben Jonson's "Bartholomew Fair;"-" Peace, Sir, they'll be angry if they hear you eves-dropping, now they are setting their match." But it was also employed in rogues' language to mean planning a robbery; as in "Ratsey's Ghost," a black letter quarto, quoted by Farmer, supposed to be about 1606. "I have "been many times beholding to Tapsters and Chamberlaines for directions and setting of matches."

Hear ye, Yedward;] Yedward is a popular corruption of "Edward," still used in some parts of England.

P. HEN. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs, he will give the devil his due. POINS. Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with the devil.

P. HEN. Else he had been* damned for cozening the devil.

POINS. But my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gadshill:(5) there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: I have visors for you all, you have horses for yourselves; Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester; I have bespoke supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap; we may do it as secure as sleep: if you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns if you will not, tarry at home, and be hanged.

FAL. Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home, and go not, I'll hang you for going. POINS. You will, chops?

[faith.

FAL. Hal, wilt thou make one? P. HEN. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my FAL. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou cam'st not of the blood royal, if thou dar'st not stand for ten shillings,

P. HEN. Well, then, once in my days I'll be a mad-cap.

FAL. Why, that's well said.

[home.

P. HEN. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at FAL. By the Lord,§ I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.

P. HEN. I care not.

POINS. Sir John, I pr'ythee, leave the prince and me alone; I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure, that he shall go.

FAL. Well, 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, that the true prince may (for recreation sake,) prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want countenance. Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap.

P. HEN. Farewell, thou || latter spring! Farewell, All-hallown summer! [Exit FALSTAFF.

d Thon cam'st not of the blood royal, if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.] We should perhaps read, as many of the modern editors do, "cry, stand," since a quibble is evidently intended on the word royal. The coin called real or royal was of ten shillings value.

e Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, and him the ears of profiting.-] The folio reads, Well, may'st thou have the spirit of persuasion, and he the ears, &c.

f All-hallown summer!] All-hallown tide, or All Saints' day, is the first of November. Nothing could be more happy than the likening Falstaff, with his old age and young passions, to this November summer.

POINS. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-morrow; I have a jest to execute, that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill, shall rob those men that we have already way-laid; yourself, and I, will not be there and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head from my shoulders.

P. HEN. But how shall we part with them in setting forth?

POINS. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves which they shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.

P. HEN. Ay, but, 'tis like, that they will know us, by our horses, by our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.

POINS. Tut! our horses they shall not see, I'll tie them in the wood; our visors we will change after we leave them; and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram for the nonce," to immask our noted outward garments.

us.

P. HEN. But I doubt, they will be too hard for

POINS. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turned back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us, when we meet at supper how thirty at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and, in the reproof of this, liest the jest.

P. HEN. Well, I'll go with thee; provide us all things necessary, and meet me to-night in Eastcheap, there I'll sup. Farewell.

POINS. Farewell, my lord.

[Exit POINS.

a Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadshill,-] The old copies read, Falstaff, Harvey, Rossil, and Gadshill. Harvey and Rossil being, no doubt, the names of the actors who personated Bardolph and Peto.

b For the nonce,] For the occasion. See note (a), p. 128.

c Meet me to-night-] The old copies have to-morrow night," which is an obvious mistake.

d Shall I falsif men's hopes;] Hopes here means expectations, a use of the word not at all uncommon formerly, and hardly

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 behaviour 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;a
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.(6)
[Exit.

WOR. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves

The scourge of greatness to be used on it;
And that same greatness too which our own hands
Have holp to make so portly.

NORTH. My lord,

K. HEN. Worcester, get thee gone, for I do

see

Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure

(*) First folio, soil.

obsolete even now in some counties.

"This speech is very artfully introduced to keep the Prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience; it prepares them for his future reformation; and what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself, and palliating those follies which it can neither justify nor forsake." JOHNSON.

e Tha, my condition.] Condition in this place means, natural disposition. See note (d), p. 397.

The moody frontier of a servant brow.
You have good leave to leave us; when we need
Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.—
[Exit WORCESTER.

You were about to speak.

[To NORTH. NORTH. Yea, my good lord. Those prisoners in your highness' name* demanded,

Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied
As is deliver'd to your majesty :
Either envy, therefore, or misprision
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son."

HOT. My liege, I did deny no prisoners.
But, I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, and trimly
dress'd,

Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,
Show'd like a stubble land at harvest-home :
He was perfumed like a milliner,

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He
gave
his nose, and took 't away again;-
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff: -and still he smil'd, and talk'd;
And, as the soldiers bore* dead bodies by,
He call'd them-untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms †

He question'd me: among the rest, demanded

My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold,-
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,-

Out of my grief and my impatience,
Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what,-

(*) First folio, bare. (t) First folio, term.

b A pouncet box ] A box with the lid pierced, containing

scents.

e Took it in snuff.-] See note (e), p. 84.

He should, or he should not ;-for he made me mad,

To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds, (God save the mark!)

And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti," for an inward bruise;
And that it was great pity, so it was,
That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and, but for thesé vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd, indirectly, as I said;
And, I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation,

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

[lord,

BLUNT. The circumstance consider'd, good my

Whatever Harry Percy then had said,
To such a person, and in such a place,

At such a time, with all the rest re-told,
May reasonably die, and never rise

To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he unsay it now.

K. HEN. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners; But with proviso, and exception,

That we, at our own charge, shall ransom straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer; (7)
Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those, that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damn'd Glendower;
Whose daughter, as we hear, the earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
Be emptied, to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason? and indent with feers,"
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man my friend,
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.

HOT. Revolted Mortimer!

He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
But by the chance of war. To prove that true,
Needs no more but one tongue for all those
wounds,

Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,