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Fal. Why, that's well faid.

P. Henry. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home. Fal. By the lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art king.

P. Henry. 1 care not.

Poins. Sir John, I pr'ythee, leave the prince and me alone; I will lay him down fuch reafons for this adventure, that he fhall go.

Fal. Well, may'st thou have the spirit of perfuafion, and he the ears of profiting, that what thou fpeakeft may move, and what he hears may be believed; that the true prince may (for recreation-fake) prove a falfe thief; for the poor abuses of the time want countenance. Farewell, you shall find me in Eaft-cheap.

P. Henry. Farewell, thou latter fpring! Farewell, all-hallown fummer! [Exit Falstaff.

I

Poins. Now, my good fweet hony lord, ride with us to-morrow. I have a jeft to execute, that I cannot manage alone. Falftaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadhill, fhall rob thofe men that we have already way-laid; yourfelf and I will not be there: and when

In former editions:

Falstaff, Harvey, Roffil, and Gadhill, fhall rob these men that we have already ray-laid;] Thus we have two persons named, as characters in this play, that never were among the dramatis perfona. But let us fee who they were that committed this robbery. In the fecond act we come to a scene of the highway. Falstaff, wanting his horfe, calls out on Hal, Poins, Bardolph, and Peto. Prefently Gadfhill joins them, with intelligence of travellers being at hand; upon which the prince fays, You four fball front 'em in a narrow lane, Ned Poins and I will walk lower. So that the four to be concerned are Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto, and Gadfill. Accordingly, the robbery is committed; and the prince and Poins afterwards rob thefe four. In the Boar'shead tavern, the prince rallies Peto and Bardolph for their running away; who confefs the charge. Is it not plain that Bardolph and Peto were two of the four robbers? And who then can doubt, but Harvey and Roffil were the names of the actors. THEOBALD.

they

they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head from off my fhoulders.

P. Henry. But how fhall we part with them in fetting forth?

Poins. Why, we will fet 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 fooner atchieved, but we'll fet upon them.

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

Poins. Tut! our horfes they fhall not fee; I'll tie them in the wood; our vifors we will change after we leave them; and, firrah, I have cafes of buckram 2 for the nonce, to immafk our noted outward gar

ments.

us.

P. Henry. 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 turn'd back; and for the third, if he fights longer than he fees reafon, I'll forfwear arms. The virtue of this jeft will be, the incomprehenfible lies that this fame fat rogue will tell us when we meet at fupper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and, in the 3 reproof of this, lies the jest.

P. Henry. Well, I'll go with thee; provide us all things neceffary, and meet me to-morrow night in Eaft-cheap; there I'll fup. Farewell.

2 for the nonce, ] That is, as I conceive, for the occafion. This phrafe, which was very frequently, though not always very precifely, ufed by our old writers, I fuppofe to have been originally a corruption of corrupt Latin. From pro-nunc, I fuppofe, came for the nunc, and fo for the nonce; juft as from ad-n -nunc came a-non. The Spanish entonces has been formed in the fame manner from in-tunc. T. T.

- reproof] Reproof is confutation. JOHNSON.

Poins. Farewell, my lord.

[Exit Poins.
P. Henry. I know you all, and will a while uphold
The unyok'd humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the fun;

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To fmother 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 ftrangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To fport would be as tedious as to work;
But, when they feldom 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 fo much 4 fhall I falfify mens' hopes;
And, like bright metal on a fullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall fhew more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to fet it off.
I'll fo offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time, when men think leaft I will. [Exit.

fhall I falfify mens' hopes ;] Juft the contrary. We fhould read fears. WARBURTON.

To falfify hope is to exceed hope, to give much where men hoped for little.

This fpeech 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 excufes to itself, and palliating those follies which it can neither juftify nor forfake. JOHNSON.

SCENE

SCENE III.

An apartment in the palace.

Enter King Henry, Northumberland, Worcester, HotSpur, Sir Walter Blunt, and others.

K. Henry. My blood hath been too cold and temperate,

Unapt to ftir at thefe indignities;

And you have found me; for, accordingly
You tread upon my patience: but, be fure,
5 I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition;
Which hath been fmooth as oil, foft as young down,
And therefore loft that title of respect,

Which the proud foul ne'er pays, but to the proud.
Wor. Our houfe, my fovereign liege, little deferves
The fcourge of greatness to be used on it;

I will from henceforth rather be myself,

Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition ;] i. e. I will from henceforth rather put on the character that becomes me, and exert the refentment of an injured king, than ftill continue in the inactivity and mildnefs of my natural difpofition. And this fentiment he has well expreffed, fave that by his ufual licence, he puts the word condition for difpofition; which ufe of terms dif pleafing our Oxford Editor, as it frequently does, he, in a loss for the meaning, fubftitutes in for than,

Mighty and to be fear'd in my condition.

So that by condition, in this reading, must be meant station, office. But it cannot be predicated of station and office," that "it is fmooth as oil, foft as young down ;" which fhews that condition muft needs be licentiously ufed for difpofition, as we faid before. WARBURTON.

The commentator has well explained the fenfe which was not very difficult, but is miftaken in fuppofing the ufe of condition licentious. Shakespeare ufes it very frequently for temper of mind, and in this fenfe the vulgar ftili fay a good or ill-con.litioned man. JOHNSON.

Ben Jonfon ufes it in the fame fenfe, in The New Inn, a&t 1. fc. 6.

"You cannot think me of that coarfe condition
"To envy you any thing." STEEVENS.

VOL. V.

Q

And

And that fame greatnefs too, which our own hands Have holp to make fo portly.

North. My lord,

K. Henry, Worcester, get thee gone, for I do fee Danger and difobedience in thine

eye:

O Sir, your prefence is too bold and peremptory;
And majefty might never yet endure
"The moody frontier of a fervant brow.
You have good leave to leave us.

Your ufe and counfel, we fhall fend for you.-

You were about to fpeak.

North. Yes, my good lord.

When we need

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Thofe prifoners in your highness' name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he fays, not with fuch ftrength deny'd
As was deliver'd to your majefty:

Either envy, therefore, or mifprifion,
Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
Hot. My liege, I did deny no prifoners:
But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,
Breathlefs and faint, leaning upon my fword;
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drefs'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,
Shew'd like a ftubble-land 7 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

The moody frontier- -] This is nonfenfe. We fhould read frontlet, i. c. forehead. WARBURTON.

Frontlet does not fignify forehead, but a bandage round the head. Frontier was anciently ufed for forehead. So Stubbs, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595. "Then on the edges of their bolfter d hair, which itandeth crefted round their frontiers, "and harging over their faces," &c. STEEVENS.

7

at harveft-home.] That is, at a time of feftivity. JOHNSON.

A pouncet-box,

-] A fmall box for mufk or other perfumes

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