is turned bawdy-house, they pick pockets. P. Hen. A trifle, some eight-penny matter. P. Hen. What! he did not? Host. There's neither faith, truth, nor womannood in me else. a P. Hen. There's no more faith in thee than in stewed prune; nor no more truth in thee, than in a drawn fox; and for womanhood, maid Marian' may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go, you thing, go. Host. Say, what thing? what thing? Fal. What thing? why, a thing to thank God on. Host. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou should'st know it; I am an honest man's wife: and, setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so. Fal. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise. Host. Say, what beast, thou knave thou? P. Hen. An otter, sir John? why an otter? Host. Thou art an unjust man in saying so; thou or any man knows where to have me, thou knave thou! P. Hen. Thou sayest true, hostess; and he slanders thee most grossly. Host. So he doth you, my lord; and said this other day, you ought him a thousand pound. P. Hen. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound? Fal. A thousand pound, Hal? a million: thy love is worth a million; thou owest me thy love. Host. Nay, my lord, he called you Jack, and said, he would cudgel you. Fal. Did I, Bardolph ? Bard. Indeed, sir John, you said so. P. Hen. I say, 'tis copper: Darest thou be as good as thy word now? poor Jack Falstaff do, in the days of villany? Thou scest, I have more flesh than another man; and therefore more frailty.--You confess then, you picked my pocket? P. Hen. It appears so by the story. Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee: Go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason: thou seest, I am pacified.-Still? -Nay, pr'ythee, be gone. [Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad,How is that answered? P. Hen. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee:-The money is paid back again. Fal. O, I do not like that paying back, 'tis a double labour. P. Hen. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing. Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with unwashed hands too. Bard. Do, my lord. P. Hen. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. I Fal. I would, it had been of horse. Where shall find one that can steal well? O for a fine thief, of the age of two and twenty, or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I laud them, I praise them. P. Hen. Bardolph- P. Hen. Go bear this letter to lord John of My brother John; this to my lord of Westmore- Go, Poins, to horse, to horse; for thou, and I, Meet me to morrow i'the Temple hall, Money, and order for their furniture. [Exeunt Prince, Poins, and Bardolph. Fal. Rare words! brave world!--Hostess, my breakfast, come : Fal. Why, Hal, thou knowest, as thou art but 0, I could wish, this tavern were my drum. [Erit. man, I dare: but, as thou art prince, I fear thee, as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp. P. Hen. And why not, as the lion? Fal. The king himself is to be feared as the lion: Dost thou think, I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? nay, an I do, I pray God, my girdle break! ACT IV. Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas. P. Hen. O, if it should, how would thy guts fall SCENE I-The rebel camp, near Shrewsbury. about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty, in this bosom of thine: it Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: If speaking truth, is filled up with guts, and midriff. Charge an In this fine age, were not thought flattery, honest woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou Such attribution should the Douglas' have, whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there As not a soldier of this season's stamp were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, Should go so general current through the world. memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor By heaven, I cannot flatter; 1 defy penny-worth of sugar-candy, to make thee long- The tongues of soothers; but a braver place winded; if thy pocket were enriched with any In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself: other injuries but these, I am a villain. And yet Nay, task me to the word; approve me, lord. you will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong: Doug. Thou art the king of honour: No man so potent breathes upon the ground, But I will beards him. Hot. (3) This expression is applied by way of preeminence to the head of the Douglas family. (4) Disdain. (5) Meet him face to face. Art thou not ashamed? Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou knowest, in the state of innocency, Adam fell; and what should (1) A man dressed like a woman, who attends morris-dancers. (2) Swoln, puffy. Do so, and 'tis well : Enter a Messenger, with letters. self? Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous sick. Hot. Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick, Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. ; Wor. I would, the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited; His health was never better worth than now. The very life-blood of our enterprise ; Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us. Doug. 'Faith, and so we should; A comfort of retirement lives in this. Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. Hot. You strain too far. rather, of his absence make this use ;- Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Ver. And further, I have learn'd,- Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, Ver. This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come; And yet not ours:-Come, let me take my horse, Wor. But yet, I would your father had been Against the bosom of the prince of Wales: here. The quality and hair of our attempt Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence; And stop all sight-holes, every loop, from whence (1) Forces. (2) Languishing. (3) Informed. Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse, There is more news: Doug. Talk not of dying; I am out of fear Falstaff and Bardolph. 'theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack; whose fellows are these that come after ? Fal. Mine, Hal, mine. P. Hen. I did never see such pitiful rascals. Fal. Tut, tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit, as well Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill as better: tush, man, mortal men, mortal men. me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march, through; we'll to Sutton-Colfield to-night. Bard. Will you give me money, captain? Fal. Lay out, lay out. Bard. This bottle makes an angel. Fal. An if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. Bard. I will, captain: farewell. [Exit. West. Ay, but, sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare; too beggarly. Fal. 'Faith, for their poverty,-I know not where they had that: and for their bareness,-I am sure, they never learned that of me. P. Hen. No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on the ribs, bare. But, sirrah, make haste; Percy is already in the field. Fal. What, is the king encamped? West. He is, sir John; I fear, we shall stay too Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am long. a souced gurnet. I have misused the king's press Fal. Well, damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. feast, SCENE III.-The rebel camp near Shrewsbury. non. Hot. We'll fight with him to-night. It may not be. Hot. Doug. I press me none but good householders, yeomen's Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest. [Exeunt. sons: inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lief hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver,2 worse than a struck fowl, or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pin's heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores: and such as, indeed, were never soldiers; but discarded unjust serving-men, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen; the cankers of a calm world, and a long peace; ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient : and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think, that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals, lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all the gibbets, and pressed the dead bodies. No eve hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat:-Nay, and the villains march wide beCome, come, it may not be. twixt the legs, as if they had gyves' on; for, indeed, wonder much, being men of such great leading," I had the most of them out of prison. There's but That you foresee not what impediments a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half- Drag back our expedition: Certain horse shirt is two napkins, tacked together, and thrown Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up: over the shoulders, like a herald's coat without Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day; sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from And now their pride and mettle is asleep, my host at Saint Alban's, or the red-nose inn- Their courage with hard labour tame and dull, keeper of Daintry. But that's all one; they'll find That not a horse is half the half himself. linen enough on every hedge. Enter Prince Henry and Westmoreland. P. Hen. How now, blown Jack? how now, quilt? Fal. What, Hal? How now, mad wag? what a devil dost thou in Warwickshire ?-My good lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy; I thought your honour had already been at Shrewsbury. You do not counsel well; I I Yea, or to-night. Hot. To-night, say I. Content. Hot. So are the horses of the enemy Wor. The number of the king exceedeth ours: [The trumpet sounds a parley. Enter Sir Walter Blunt. West. 'Faith, sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there, and you too; but my powers are If you vouchsafe me hearing, and respect. there already: The king, I can tell you, looks for us all; we must away all night. Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king, Fal. Tut, never fear me; I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream. P. Hen. I think, to steal cream, indeed; for thy Hot. Welcome, sir Walter Blunt; And 'would to God, You were of our determination! Some of us love you well: and even those some (6) Conduct, experience. (7) Fellowship. But stand against us like an enemy. So long as, out of limit, and true rule, Hot. The king is kind; and, well we know, the Knows at what time to promise, when to pay. (1) Grievances. (2) The delivery of his lands. Too indirect for long continuance. Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king? Hot. And, may be, so we shall. 'Pray heaven, you do! SCENE IV.-York. A room in the archbishop's house. Enter the Archbishop of York, and a Gentleman. Arch. Hie, good sir Michael; bear this sealed With winged haste, to the lord mareshal; I guess their tenor. The king, with mighty and quick-raised power, Gent. Why, good my lord, you need not fear; Arch. Percy, And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head Arch. And so there is: but yet the king hath drawn The special head of all the land together ;- Gent. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear, ACT V. SCENE I.-The king's camp near Shrewsbury. K. Hen. How bloodily the sun begins to peer (5) A strength on which we reckoned. Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale At his distemperature. P. Hen. The southern wind K. Hen. Then with the losers let it sympathize; For nothing can scem foul to those that win. Trumpet. Enter Worcester and Vernon. Of broached mischief to the unborn times? For mine own part, I could be well content K. Hen. You have not sought for it! how comes it then? Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. P. Hen. Peace, chewet, peace. Wor. It pleas'd your majesty, to turn your looks In Richard's time; and posted day and night That all in England did repute him dead,- By unkind usage, dangerous countenance, K. Hen. These things, indeed, you have articulated, Proclaim'd at market-crosses, read in churches; With soxae fine colour, that may please the eye And never yet did insurrection want P. Hen. In both our armies, there is many a soul Shall pay full dearly for this encounter, If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew, K. Hen. And, prince of Wales, so dare we venture thee, Albeit, considerations infinite Do make against it :-No, good Worcester, no, [Exeunt Worcester and Vernon. P. Hen. It will not be accepted, on my life: The Douglas and the Hotspur both together Are confident against the world in arms. K. Hen. Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge; For, on their answer, will we set on them: [Exeunt King, Blunt, and Prince John. Fal. Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and bestride me, so; 'tis a point of friendship. P. Hen. Nothing but a colossus can do thee that friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell. Fal. I would it were bed-time, Hal, and all well. P. Hen. Why, thou owest God a death. [Erit. Fal. 'Tis not due yet; I would be loath to pay him before his day. What need I be so forward with him that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour set to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word, honour? What is (4) Exhibited in articles. |