true cause the false way. It is not a confident! brow, nor the throng of words that come with such more than impudent sauciness from you, can thrust me from a level consideration. I know you have practised upon the easy-yielding spirit of this woman.

Host. Yes, in troth, my lord.

Ch. Just. Prithee, peace:-Pay her the debt you owe her, and unpay the villainy you have done her; the one you may do with sterling money, and the other with current repentance.

Fal. My lord, I will not undergo this sneap without reply. You call honourable boldness, impudent sauciness: if a man will court'sy and say nothing, he is virtuous: No, my lord, my humble duty remembered, I will not be your suitor. I say to you, I do desire deliverance from these officers, being upon hasty employment in the king's affairs.2

Ch. Just. You speak as having power to do wrong: but answer in the effect of your reputation, and satisfy the poor woman.

Fal. Come hither, hostess. [Taking her aside.

I

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

Fal. Glasses, glasses, is the only drinking; and for thy walls,-a pretty slight drollery, or the story of the prodigal, or the German hunting in water-work, is worth a thousand of these bedhangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound if thou canst. 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. Come, I know thou wast set on to this.

Host. Prithee, sir John, let it be but twenty nobles. I loath to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la.

Fal. Let it alone; I'll make other shift: you'll be a fool still.

Host. Well, you shall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope you'll come to supper: You'll pay me all together?

Fal. Will I live?-Go, with her, with her; [lo BARDOLPH.] hook on, hook on. Host. Will you have Doll Tear-sheet meet you at supper?

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

[Exeunt Hostess, BARDOLPH, Officers,
and Page.

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

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

Ch. Just. Come all his forces back? Gow. 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. Just. You shall have letters of me pre

Poins. Why, a prince should not be so loosely studied as to remember so weak a composition.

P. Hen. Belike then my appetite was not princely got; for, in troth, I do now remember the poor creature, small beer. But, indeed, these humble considerations make me out of love with my greatness. What a disgrace is it to me to remember thy name? or to know thy face to-morrow? or to take note how many pair of silk stockings thou hast; viz. these, and those that were thy peach-colour'd ones? or to bear the inventory of thy shirts; as, one for superfluity, and one other for use?- but that, the tennis court-keeper knows better than I; for it is a low ebb of linen with thee, when thou keep'st not racket there; as thou hast not done a great while, because the rest of thy low-countries have made a shift to eat up thy holland.a

Poins. How ill it follows, after you have laboured so hard you should talk so idly? Tell me, how many good young princes would do so, their fathers lying so sick as yours is?

P. Hen. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes; and let it be an excellent good thing.

P. Hen. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

Poins. Go to; I stand the push of your one thing that you will tell.

P. Hen. Why, I tell thee,-it is not meet that I should be sad, now my father is sick: albeit I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend,) I could be sad, and sad indeed too.

Poins. Very hardly upon such a subject.

P. Hen. By this hand, thou think'st me as far in the devil's book, as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and persistency: Let the end try the man. But I tell thee, my heart bleeds inwardly, that my father is so sick and keeping such vile company as thou art hath in reason taken from me all ostentation of sorrow.

Poins. The reason?

P. Hen. What would'st thou think of me if I should weep?

Poins. I would think thee a most princely hypocrite.

P. Hen. 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 road-way better than thine every man would think me an hypocrite indeed. And what accites your most worshipful thought to think so? Poins. Why, because you have been so lewd, and so much engraffed to Falstaff.

P. Hen. And to thee. Poins. Nay, I am well spoken of; I can hear it with my own ears: the worst that they can say of me is, that I am a second brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands; and those two things, I confess, I cannot help. Look, look, here comes Bardolph.

P. Hen. And the boy that I gave Falstaff: he had him from me christian: and see, if the fat villain have not transformed him ape.

Enter BARDOLPH and Page.

Bard, Save your grace!

P. Hen. And yours, most noble Bardolph! Bard. Come, you pernicious ass, [to the Page.] you bashful fool, must you be blushing? wherefore blush you now? What a maidenly man at arms are you become! Is it such a matter to get a pottle-pot's maidenhead ?

Page. He called me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could discern no part of his face from the window: at last, I spied his eyes; and, methought, he had made two holes in the ale-wife's new petticoat, and peeped through.

P. Hen. Hath not the boy profited?

Bard. Away, you whoreson, upright rabbit, away!

Page. Away, you rascally Althea's dream, away!

P. Hen. Instruct us, boy: What dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dreamed she was delivered of a fire-brand; and therefore I call him her dream.b

P. Hen. A crown's worth of good interpretation.-There it is, boy. [Gives him money.

Poins. O, that this good blossom could be kept from cankers!-Well, there is sixpence to preserve thee.

Bard. If you do not make him be hanged among you, the gallows shall be wronged.

P. Hen. And how doth thy master, Bardolph ? Bard. Well, my good lord. He heard of your grace's coming to town; there's a letter for you.

a (col 1.) In this speech of Prince Henry there is a passage in the quarto which is omitted in the folio. We have not restored it, as it appears to us more profane than witty.

b Althea dreamed, &c. Dr. Johnson says, "Shakspere is here mistaken in his mythology, and has confounded Althea's firebrand with Hecuba's." In the second part of Henry VI. we have mention of

"The fatal brand Althea burned

Unto the prince's heart of Calydon." Shakspere, then, was acquainted with the right story of Althea. Might he not, of purpose, make the precocious, impudent page, who had been drinking at the house with the red lattice window, a'tempt a joke out of his half knowledge? Or did the poet here make a slip?

Poins. Delivered with good respect. And how doth the martlemas, your master?

Bard. In bodily health, sir?

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

P. Hen. 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.

Poias. [Reads.] John Falstaff, knight, Every man must know that, as oft as he has occasion to name himself. Even like those that are kin to the king; for they never prick their finger, but they say, 'There is some of the king's blood spilt:' 'How comes that?' says he, that takes upon him not to conceive: the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap; 'I am the king's poor cousin, sir.'

P. Hen. Nay, they will be kin to us, but they will fetch it from Japhet. But to the letter:

Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the son of the king, nearest his father, Harry prince of Wales, greeting.'-Why, this is a certificate.

P. Hen. Peace!

Poins. I will imitate the honourable Romans in brevity:'-sure he means brevity in breath; short-winded. I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins; for he misuses thy favours so much, that he swears thou art to marry his sister Nell. Repent at idle times as thou may'st, and so farewell.

Thine, by yea and no, (which is as much as to say, as thou usest him,) Jack Falstaff, with my familiars; John, with my brothers and sisters; and sir John with all Europe.' My lord, I will steep this letter in sack, and make him eat it.

P. Hen. That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do you use me thus, Ned? must I marry your sister?

Poins. May the wench have no worse fortune! but I never said so.

P. Hen. Well, thus we play the fools with the time; and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us. Is your master here in London ?

* Marti mas. The feast of St. Martin, the 11th of November. Poins calls Falstaff the martlemas, because his year of life is running out.

Borrower's cap. The old copies read borrowed cap. Warburton suggested the emendation. A borrower's cap is always at hand, ready to be doff'd to the lender.

Bard. Yes, my lord.

P. Hen. Where sups he? doth the old boar feed in the old frank a

Bard. At the old place, my lord; in Eastcheap.

P. Hen. What company?

Page. Ephesians, my lord; of the old church. P. Hen. Sup any women with him? Page, None, my lord, but old mistress Quickly, and mistress Doll Tear-sheet.

P. Hen. What pagan may that be? Page. A proper gentlewoman, sir, and a kinswoman of my master's.

P. Hen. Even such kin as the parish heifers are to the town bull. Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at supper?

Poins. I am your shadow, my

you.

lord;

I'll follow

P. Hen. Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph ;no word to your master that I am yet in town: There's for your silence.

Bard. I have no tongue, sir.

Page. And for mine, sir,-I will govern it. P. Hen. Fare ye well; go. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.]-This Doll Tear-sheet should be some road.

Poins. I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Alban's and London.

P. Hen. How might we see Falstaff bestow himself to-night in his true colours, and not ourselves be seen?

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

P. Hen. From a god to a bull? a heavy declension b it was Jove's case. From a prince to a prentice? a low transformation! that shall be mine: for, in every thing, the purpose must weigh with the folly. Follow me, Ned.

[Exeunt.

Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide. North. Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn;

And, but my going, nothing can redeem it. Lady. P. O, yet, for Heaven's sake, go not to these wars!

The time was, father, that you broke your word, When you were more endeared to it than now; When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry,

Threw many a northward look, to see his father
Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours lost; yours, and your
son's.

For yours, may heavenly glory brighten it!
For his, it stuck upon him, as the sun
In the grey vault of heaven: 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 :
And speaking thick, which Nature made his
blemish,

Became the accents of the valiant;

For those that could speak low, and tardily,
Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
To seem like him: So that, in speech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,

In military rules, humours of blood,

He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashion'd others. And him,-O wondrous
him!

O miracle of men !-him did you leave,
(Second to none, unseconded by you,)
To look upon the hideous god of war
In disadvantage; to abide a field,

Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
Did seem defensible :-
:- so you left him:

Never, O never, do his ghost the

wrong,

To hold your honour more precise and nice
With others, than with him; let them alone;
The marshal and the archbishop are strong:
Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck,
Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.

Till that the nobles, and the armed commons,
Have of their puissance made a little taste.
Lady. P. If they get ground and vantage of
the king,

Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,
To make strength stronger; but, for all our
loves,

First let them try themselves: So did your

son;

He was so suffer'd; so came I a widow;
And never shall have length of life enough,
To rain upon remembrance with mine eyes,
That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven,
For recordation to my noble husband.

North. Come, come, go in with me: 't is with my mind,

As with the tide swell'd up unto his height,
That makes a still-stand, running neither way.
Fain would I go to meet the archbishop,
But many thousand reasons hold me back:
I will resolve for Scotland; there am I,
Till time and vantage crave my company.

SCENE IV.-London.

[Exeunt

A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern, in Eastcheap.

Enter Two Drawers.

1 Draw. What hast thou brought there? apple-Johns? thou know'st sir John cannot endure an apple-John.

2 Draw. Thou sayest true: The prince once set a dish of apple-Johns before him, and told him, there were five more sir Johns: and, putting off his hat, said, 'I will now take my leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights.' It angered him to the heart: but he hath forgot that.

1 Draw. Why then, cover, and set them down: And see if thou canst find out Sneak's noise;" mistress Tear-sheet would fain have some music. Dispatch:-The room where they supped is too hot; they'll come in straight.

2 Draw. Sirrah, here will be the prince, and master Poins anon: and they will put on two of our jerkins and aprons; and sir John must not know of it: Bardolph hath brought word.

1 Draw. By the mass, here will be old utis: It will be an excellent stratagem.

Lady. N.

O, fly to Scotland,

Monmouth's grave. The twenty-two lines here ending were first printed in the folio.

Sneak's noise. A noise of musicians is a band.

b Old utis. Utis is the octave of a festival; and so the word passed into the meaning of merriment generally. Old does not here mean ancient, but extreme, very good-a sense in which it is often used by Shakspere, and the writers of his time.

Enter Hostess and DOLL TEAR-SHEET. Host. I' faith, sweet heart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temperality: your pulsidge beats as extraordinarily as heart would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose: But you have drunk too much canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere we can say, -What's this? How do you now?

Doll. Better than I was. Hem.

Host. Why, that was well said; a good heart's worth gold. Look, here comes sir John.

Fal.

Enter FALSTAFF, singing.

When Arthur first in court

Empty the jordan.

And was a worthy king: a

[Exit Drawer.] How now, mistress Doll?

b

Host. Sick of a calm; yea, good sooth. Fal. So is all her sect; if they be once in a calm, they are sick.

Doll. You muddy rascal, is that all the comfort you give me?

Fal. You make fat rascals, mistress Doll. Doll. I make them! gluttony and diseases make them; I make them not.

Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll: we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue, grant that.

Doll. Ay, marry; our chains and our jewels. Fal.

Your brooches, pearls, and owches c

-for to serve bravely is to come halting off, you know: To come off the breech with his pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged chambers bravely :

:

[Doll. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself!]

Host. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to some dis

cord: you are both, in good troth, as rheumatic as two dry toasts; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be you: [to DOLL.] you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the emptier vessel.

Doll. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk better stuffed in the hold.Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack-thou art going to the wars: and whether I shall ever see thee again, or no, there is nobody cares."

Re-enter Drawer.

Draw. Sir, ancient Pistol 's below, and would speak with you.

Doll. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come hither: it is the foul mouth'dst rogue in England.

Host. If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live amongst my neighbours; I'll no swaggerers: I am in good name and fame with the very best :-Shut the door;there comes no swaggerers here; I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now:shut the door, I pray you.

Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess ?

Host. Pray you, pacify yourself, sir John; there comes no swaggerers here.

C

Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient. Host. Tilly-fally, sir John, never tell me; your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before master Tisick, the deputy, the other day; and, as he said to me,-it was no longer ago than Wednesday last,-Neighbour Quickly,' says he;-master Dumb, our minister, was by then ;- Neighbour Quickly,' says he, 'receive those that are civil; for,' saith he, 'you are in an ill name;'—now he said so, I can tell whereupon; 'for,' says he, 'you are an honest woman, and well thought on; therefore take heed what guests you receive: Receive,' says he, 'no swaggering companions.' -There comes none here;—you