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Enter a Messenger.

Ch. Juft. Now, mafter Gower; what news?
Gower. The king, my lord, and Henry prince of
Wales

Are near at hand: the rest the paper tells.
Fal. As I am a gentleman.

Hoft. Nay, you faid fo before.

Fal. As I am a gentleman.Come, no more words of it.

Hoft. By this heavenly ground I tread on, I muft be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining-chambers.

Fal. Glaffes, glaffes is the only drinking and for thy walls, a pretty flight drollery, or the ftory of the prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work, is worth a thousand of these bed-hangings, and thefe fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canft. Come, if it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw thy action. Come, thou must not be in this humour with me: do'ft not know me? Come, come, I know thou waft fet on to this.

Hoft. Pray thee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; I am loth to pawn my plate, in good earneft, la. Fal. Let it alone; I'll make another fhift: you'll be a fool ftill.

Hoft. Well, you fhall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope you'll come to fupper. You'll pay me all together?

2 German hunting in water-work,] i. e. In water-colours. WARBURTON. thefe bed-hangings,-] We fhould read dead-hangings, i. e. faded. WARBURTON.

3

I think the prefent reading may well ftand. He recommends painted canvas instead of tapestry, which he calls bed-bangings, in contempt, as fitter to make curtains than to hang walls.

JOHNSON.
Fal.

Fal. Will I live?-Go with her, with her: hook on, hook on. 4 [to the officers. Hoft. Will you have Doll Tear-fheet meet you at fupper?

Fal. No more words: let's have her.

[Exeunt Hoftefs, Bardolph, and Serjeant.

Ch. Juft. I have heard better news.
Fal. What's the news, my good lord?
Ch. Juft. Where lay the king last night?
Gower. 5 At Basingstoke, my lord.

Fal. I hope, my lord, all's well. What is the news, my lord?

Ch. Juft. Come all his forces back ?

Gower. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horse Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,

Against Northumberland and the archbishop.

Fal. Comes the king back from Wales, my noble lord?

Ch. Juft. You fhall have letters of me presently: Come, go along with me, good master Gower. Fal. My lord!

Ch. Juft. What's the matter?

Fal. Mafter Gower, fhall I intreat you with me to dinner?

Gower. I must wait upon my good lord here, I thank you, good Sir John.

Ch. Juft. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take foldiers up in counties as you go. Fal. Will you fup with me, mafter Gower?

Ch. Juft. What foolish mafter taught you these manners, Sir John?

4 [to the officers.] I rather fufpe&t that the words book on, book on, are addreffed to Bardolph, and mean, go you with her, hang upon her, and keep her in the fame humour. In this fenfe the fame expreffion is ufed in The Guardian, by Maffenger,

"Hook on, follow him, harpies." STEEVENS. 5 At Basingstoke,-] The quarto reads, at Billingsgate.

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STEEVENS.

Fal.

Fal. Mafter Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that taught them me. This is the right fencing grace, my lord; tap for tap, and so part fair.

Ch. Juft. Now the Lord lighten thee, thou art a great fool!

SCENE II.

Continues in London.

Enter prince Henry and Poins.

[Exeunt.

P. Henry. Trust me, I am exceeding weary. Poins. Is it come to that? I had thought wearinefs durft not have attach'd one of fo high blood.

P. Henry. It doth me, though it discolours the complexion of my greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not fhew vilely in me to defire small beer?

Poins. Why, a prince should not be fo loosely ftudied, as to remember fo weak a compofition.

P. Henry. Belike then my appetite was not princely got; for, in troth, I do now remember the poor creature, fmall beer. But, indeed, thefe humble confiderations make me out of love with my greatness. What a difgrace is it to me, to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of filk ftockings thou hast? (viz. these, and those that were the peach-colour'd ones) or to bear the inventory of thy fhirts; as, one for fuperfluity, and one other for use? But that the tenniscourt-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou haft not done a great while, because the rest of thy low countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland: 6 and God knows whether those that

and God knows, &c.] This paffage Mr. Pope reflored from the first edition. I think it may as well be omitted. It is omitted in the firft folio, and in all fubfequent editions be

fore

403 that bawl out of the ruins of thy linen fhall inherit his 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 should 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

fore Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the author. The editors, unwilling to lofe any thing of Shakespeare's, not only infert what he has added, but recall what he has rejected. JOHNSON.

I have not met with positive evidence that Shakespeare rejected any paffages at all. Such proof may indeed be inferred from thofe of the quarto's which were published in his life-time, and are declared (in their titles) to have been enlarged and corrected by his own hand. These I would follow, in preference to the folio, and fhould at all times be cautious of oppofing its authority to that of the elder copies. Of the play in queftion, there is no quarto extant but that in 1600, and therefore we have no colour for fuppofing a fingle paffage was omitted by confent of the poet himself. When the folio (as it often does) will fupport me in the omiffion of a facred name, I am happy to avail myself of the choice it offers; but otherwise do not think I have a right to omit what Shakespeare fhould feem to have written, on the bare authority of the player editors. I have therefore restored the paffage in queftion, to the text.

Cc 2

STEEVENS.

the

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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 7 all oftentation of for

row.

Poins. The reason?

P. Henry. What would'st 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 bieffed 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 accites your most worshipful thought to think fo?

Poins. Why, because you have feemed fo lewd, and fo much engraffed to Falstaff.

P. Henry. And to thee.

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

8

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

7

Enter Bardolph and Page.

Bard. Save your grace!

P. Henry. And yours, moft noble Bardolph!

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all oftentation of forrow.] Oftentation is here not boaftful fhew, but fimply fhew. Merchant of Venice, one well ftudied in a fad oftent To pleafe his grandame." JOHNSON. proper fellow of my hands;-] A tall or proper fellow of his hands was a lout fighting man. JOHNSON.

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Bard.

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