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Kingdom: but the midwives fay, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increases, and kindreds are mightily ftrengthened.

Poins. How ill it follows, after you have labour'd fo hard, you should talk fo idly? tell me, how many. good young Princes would do fo, their fathers lying fo fick as yours at this time is.

P. Henry. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes, and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Henry. It fhall ferve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

Poins. Go to; I ftand the push of your one thing, that you'll tell.

P. Henry. Why, I tell thee, it is not meet that I fhould be fad now my father is fick; albeit, I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend) I could be fad, and fad indeed too.

Poins. Very hardly, upon fuch a fubject.

P. Henry. By this hand, thou think ft me as far in the Devil's book, as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and perfiftency. Let the end try the man. But, I tell thee, my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is fo fick; and keeping fuch vile company, as thou art, hath in reafon taken from me all oftentation of for

row.

Poins. The reafon?

P. Henry. What would't thou think of me, if I fhould weep.

Poins. I would think thee a moft princely hypocrite. P. Henry. It would be every man's thought; and thou art a blessed fellow, to think as every man thinks; never a man's thought in the world keeps the roadway better than thine; every man would think me an hypocrite, indeed. And what excites your most worshipful thought to think fo?

Poins. Why, because you have seemed fo lewd, and fo much ingraffed to Falstaff.

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P. Henry.

P. Henry. And to thee.

Poins. Nay, by this light, I am well spoken of, I can hear it with mine own ears; the worft they can fay of me is, that I am a fecond brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands and those two things, I confefs, I cannot help. Look, look, here comes Bardolph.

:

P. Henry. And the Boy that I gave Falstaff; he had him from me chriftian, and, fee, if the fat villain have not transform'd him ape.

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Enter Bardolph and Page.

AVE your Grace.

Bard. P. Henry. And yours, most noble Bardolph.

Bard. Come, you virtuous afs, and bashful fool, muft you be blufhing? wherefore blufh you now; what a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it fuch a matter to get a pottle-pot's maiden-head?

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Page. He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could difcern no part of his face from the window; at laft, I fpy'd his eyes, and, methought, he had made two holes in the ale-wive's new petticoat, and peep'd through.

P. Henry. Hath not the boy profited?

Bard. Away, you whorefon upright rabbet, away! Page. Away, you rafcally Althea's dream, away! P. Henry. Inftruct us, boy, what dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dream'd, fhe was deliver'd of a firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream.

P. Henry. A crowns-worth of good interpretation; there it is, boy. [Gives him money.

Poins. O that this good bloffom could be kept from cankers! well, there is fix pence to preferve thee. Bard. If you do not make him be hang'd among you, the Gallows fhall be wrong'd.

P. Henry.

P. Henry. And how doth thy mafter, Bardolph? Bard. Well, my good lord; he heard of your Grace's coming to town. There's a letter for you.

P. Henry. Deliver'd with good refpect?-and how doth the Martlemas, your Mafter?

Bard. In bodily health, Sir.

Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician; but that moves not him; though that be fick, it dies

not.

P. Henry. I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog; and he holds his place: for, look you, how he writes.

Poins reads. John Falstaff, knight,

Every man

must know that, as often as he hath occafion to name himself: even like those that are kin to the King, for they never prick their finger but they fay, there is fome of the King's blood Spilt. How comes that? fays he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap; I am the King's poor" coufin, Sir.

P. Henry. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. But, to the letter:-Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the fon of the King, nearest his father, Harry Prince of Wales, Greeting.

Poins. Why, this is a certificate.

P. Henry. Peace.

I will imitate the honourable Roman in brevity.

Poins. Sure, he means brevity in breath; fhortwinded.

P. Henry. I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins, for he mifufes thy favours fo much, that he fwears, thou art to marry his Sifter Nell. Repent at idle times as thou may'ft, and fo farewel. Thine, by yea and no; which is as much as to Jay, as thou ufeft him. Jack Falftaff with my familiars: John with my brothers and fifters: and Sir John with all Europe.

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Poins.

Poins. My Lord, I will fteep this letter in fack, and make him eat it.

P. Henry. That's to make him eat plenty of his words. But do you use me thus, Ned? muft I marry your Sifter?

Poins. May the wench have no worse fortune! But I never faid fo.

P. Henry. Well, thus we play the fools with the time, and the fpirits of the wife fit in the clouds and mock us: is your mafter here in London?

Bard. Yes, my lord.

P. Henry. Where fups he doth the old Boar feed in the old frank?

Bard. At the old place, my lord, in East-cheap.
P. Henry. What company?

Page. Ephefians, my lord, of the old church.
P. Henry. Sup any women with him?

Page. None, my lord, but old Mrs. Quickly, and Mrs. Doll Tear-Sheet.

P. Henry. What Pagan may that be?

Page. A proper gentlewoman, Sir, and a kinfwoman of my master's.

P. Henry. Even such kin, as the parish heifers are to the town Bull. Shall we fteal upon them, Ned, at fupper?

Poins. I am your fhadow, my lord, I'll follow you. P. Henry. Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your mafter that I am yet come to town. There's your filence.

for

Bard. I have no tongue, Sir.

Page. And for mine, Sir, I will govern it.

P. Henry. Fare ye well: go. This Dol Tear-Sheet

fhould be fome road.

Poins. I warrant you, as common as the

tween St. Albans and London.

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P. Henry. How might we fee Falftaff beftow himself to night in his true colours, and not ourselves be feen? in the old frank?] i. e. Hogfty. Mr. Pope.

Poins. Put on two leather jerkins and aprons, and wait upon him at his lable, as drawers.

P. Henry. From a God to a Bull? a heavy defcenfion. It was Jove's cafe. From a Prince to a prentice? a low transformation; that fhall be mine: for in every thing, the purpose must weigh with the folly. Follow me, Ned. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Changes to Northumberland's Cafile.

Enter Northumberland, Lady Northumberland, and Lady Percy.

North. I

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Pr'ythee, loving wife, and gentle daughter, Give even way unto my rough affairs, Put not you on the vifage of the times, And be like them to Percy, troublesome.

L. North. I have giv'n over, I will speak no more: Do what you will: your wisdom be your guide. North. Alas, fweet wife, my Honour is at pawn, And, but my Going, nothing can redeem it.

L. Percy. Oh, yet, for heav'n's fake, go not to these wars.

The time was, father, that you broke your word,
When you were more endear'd to it than now;
When your own Percy, when my heart-dear Harry,
Threw many a northward look, to fee his father
Bring up his Pow'rs: but he did long in vain !
Who then perfuaded you to ftay at home?
There were two Honours loft! yours and your
For yours, may heav'nly glory brighten it!
For his, it ftuck upon him as the Sun
In the grey vault of heav'n: and by his light
Did all the chivalry of England move

To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass,
Wherein the noble Youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs, that practis'd not his gait:
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fon's.

And

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