begotten knaves, in Kendal-green, came at my back, and let drive at me ;-for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.

P. Hen. These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts; thou knotty-pated fool; thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-keech; 1.

Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? Is not the truth, the truth?

P. Hen. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal-green, when it was so dark, thou couldst not see thy hand? Come, tell us your reason. What sayest thou to this?

Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.

Fal. What, upon compulsion? No; were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion? If reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I.

P. Hen. I'll be no longer guilty of this sin: this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-backbreaker, this huge hill of flesh;

Fal. Away, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neats-tongue, bull's pizzle, you stock-fish ;-O, for breath to utter what is like thee!-you tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!

Cake of tallow.

P. Hen. Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this.

Poins. Mark, Jack.

P. Hen. We two saw you four set on four; you bound them, and were masters of their wealth. Mark now, how plain a tale shall put you down. Then did we two set on you four, and, with a word, outfaced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house :-and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still ran and roared, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword, as thou hast done, and then say, it was in fight! What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and apparent shame ?

Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack. What trick hast thou now?

Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye, my masters. Was it for me to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest, I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct; the lion

will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself and thee during my life; I for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to the doors; watch to-night, pray

to-morrow. Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold! all the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore ?

P. Hen. Content; and the argument shall be, thy running away.

me.

Fal. Ah! no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest

Enter HOSTESS.

Host. My lord, the prince,

P. Hen. How now, my lady, the hostess? what sayest thou to me?

Host. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door, would speak with comes from your father.

you: he says, he

P. Hen. Give him as much as will make him a royal man,1 and send him back again to my mother. Fal. What manner of man is he?

Host. An old man.

Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?--Shall I give him his answer?

P. Hen. Pr'ythee, do, Jack.

Fal. Faith, and I'll send him packing.

[Exit.

P. Hen. Now, sirs; by 'r lady, you fought fair ;so did you, Peto;-so did you, Bardolph: you are lions too; you ran away upon instinct: you will not touch the true prince; no,-fie!

1 The royal, or real, went for 10s. the noble only for 6s. 8d.

Bar. Faith, I ran when I saw others run. P. Hen. Tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff's sword so hacked?

Peto. Why, he hacked it with his dagger; and said, he would swear truth out of England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and persuaded us to do the like.

Bar. Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass, to make them bleed; and then to beslubber our garments with it, and to swear it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year before; I blushed to hear his monstrous devices.

P. Hen. O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the manner,1 and ever since thou hast blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou ran'st away: what instinct hadst thou for it?

Bar. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations ?

P. Hen. I do.

Bar. What think you they portend?
P. Hen. Hot livers and cold purses.?
Bar. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
P. Hen. No, if rightly taken, halter.

Re-enter FALstaff.

Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How

In the fact.

2 Drunkenness and poverty.

now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long is 't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee?

Fal. My own knee? when I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring. A plague of sighing and grief! it blows a man up like a bladder. There's villanous news abroad: here was sir John Bracy from your father; you must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the north, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave Amaimon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook ;-What, a plague, call you him?

Poins. O, Glendower.

Fal. Owen, Owen; the same;-and his son-inlaw, Mortimer; and old Northumberland; and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o' horseback up a hill perpendicular.

P. Hen. He that rides at high speed, and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying.

Fal. You have hit it.

P. Hen. So did he never the sparrow.

Fal. Well, that rascal hath good metal in him; he will not run.

P. Hen. Why, what a rascal art thou then, to praise him so for running!

1 Bombast is the stuffing of clothes.

2 One of the ruling dæmons.