calling?-Look to the guests within. [Exit FRANCIS.] My lord, old Sir John, with half a dozen more, are at the door; shall I let them in?

P. Hen. Let them alone awhile, and then open the door. [Exit HOSTESS.] Poins,

Enter POINS.

Poins. Anon, anon, sir.

P. Hen. Sirrah! Falstaff, and the rest of the thieves are at the door; shall we be merry ?

Poins. As merry as crickets, my lad. But harkye; what cunning match have you made with this jest of the drawer? come, what's the issue?

P. Hen. I am now of all humours, that have showed themselves humours, since the old days of goodman Adam, to the pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight.-What's o'clock, Francis? Fran. [Within.] Anon, anon, sir.

P. Hen. That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman!— His industry is-up stairs, and down stairs; his eloquence, the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the north; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots, at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife" Fie upon this quiet life!-I want work."-" O my sweet Harry," says she, "how many hast thou killed today?""Give my roan horse a drench," says he; and answers, "Some fourteen," an hour after;" a trifle, a trifle!" I pr'ythee, call in Falstaff; I'll play Percy, and that damned brawn shall play Dame Mortimer, his wife. Rivo, says the drunkard.-Call in ribs, call in tallow!

Enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, PETO, and FRANCIS.

Poins. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been?
Fal. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a ven-

geance, too! marry, and amen!-Give me a cup of sack, boy.-Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew netherstocks, and mend them, and foot them too. A plague of all cowards!-Give me a cup of sack, rogue.-Is there no virtue extant? [He drinks.

P. Hen. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter-pitiful-hearted Titan!-that melted at the sweet tale of the sun? if thou didst, then behold that compound.

Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this sack too: there is nothing but roguery to be found in villanous man: Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it: a villanous coward.-Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. Thère live not three good men unhanged in England, and one of them is fat, and grows old: Heaven help the while! a bad world, I say!A plague of all cowards, I say still!

P. Hen. How now, wool-sack? what mutter you ? Fal. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects before thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more.— -You. Prince of Wales!

P. Hen. Why, you whoreson round man! what's the matter?

Fal. Are you not a coward? -answer me to that; and Poins there?

P. Hen. Ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, I'll

stab thee.

Fal. I call thee coward! I'll see thee damned ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. straight enough in the shoulders, you care

You are

not who

sees your back: call you that, backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing!

E

give me

them that will face me.-Give me a cup of sack:I am a rogue, if I drunk to-day.

P. Hen. O villain! thy lips are scarce wip'd since thou drunk'st last.

Fal. All's one for that. A plague of all cowards,

P. Hen. What's the matter?

[He drinks.

Fal. What's the matter? here be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this morning.

P. Hen. Where is it, Jack? where is it?

Fal. Where is it? taken from us, it is: a hundred upon poor four of us. [Exit FRANCIS.

P. Hen. What, a hundred, man?

Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet; four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through: my sword hacked like a handsaw, ecce signum. I never dealt better since I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let them speak; if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains, and the sons of darkness. P. Hen. Speak, sirs; how was it?

Gads. We four set upon some dozen,—
Fal. Sixteen, at least, my lord.

Gads. And bound them.

Peto. No, no, they were not bound.

Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.

Gads. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us,

Fal. And unbound the rest, and then came in the other.

P. Hen. What, fought ye with them all?

Fal. Alt! I know not what ye call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I am a bunch of radish : if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature.

Pains. 'Pray, Heaven, you have not murdered some of them.

Fal. Nay, that's past praying for; I have peppered two of them: two, I am sure, I have pay'd; two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, -if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou know'st my old ward; here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let drive at

'me,-

P. Hen. What, four! thou saidst but two, even

now.

Fal. Four, Hal! I told thee four.

Poins. Ay, ay, he said four.

Fal. These four came all afront, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus.

P. Hen. Seven? why, there were but four, even

now.

Fal. In buckram?

Poins. Ay, four in buckram suits.

Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I'm a villain else.
P. Hen. Pr'ythee, let him alone; we shall have

more, anon.

Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal?

P. Hen. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

Fal. Do so, for it is worth the listening to.-These nine in buckram, that I told thee of,

P. Hen. So, two more already!

Fal. Their points being broken,
Poins. Down fell their hose.

Fal. Began to give me ground; but I followed me close, came in foot and hand, and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I pay'd.

P. Hen, O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!

Fal. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten 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,

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 say'st 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 on 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 eel skin, you dry'd neat's tongue, 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

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, out-faced 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