452

Fran, O lord, fir! I'll be fworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heart

Poins. Francis !

Fran. Anon, anon, fir.

P. Henry. How old art thou, Francis?

goodman Adam, to the pupil age of this prefent twelve o'clock at midnight. [Re-enter Francis.] What's o'clock, Francis ?

Fran. Anon, anon, fir.

P. Henry. That ever this fellow fhould have fewer

Fran. Let me fee,--About Michaeimas next I words than a parrot, and yet the fon of a woman! fhall be-

Poins. Francis!

Fran. Anon, fir.-Pray you, ftay a little, my loud.

P. Henry. Noy, but hark you, Francis: For the fugar thou gav'ft me,'twas a pennyworth, was't

not ?

-His industry is--up-ftairs and down-ftairs; his
eloquence, the parcel of a reckoning. I am not
yet of Percy's mind, the Hot-fpur of the north;
The that kills me fome fix or feven dozen of Scots
at a breakfaft, wathes his hands, and fays to his
wife,-Fie upon this quiet life! I want work. 0, my
jweet Harry, fays the, how many baft thou kill'd to-
borfe
day? Give my ran a drench, fays he; and

Fran. O lord, fir! I would it had been two. P. Hency. I will give thee for it a thousand aniwers, Some fourteen, an hour after; a trifle, a pound: atk me when thou wilt, and thou thalt tile. I pr'ythee, call in Falstaff; I'll play Percy, and that damn'd brawn fhall play dame Mortimer his wife. Rivo, fays the drunkard, Call in ribs,

have it.

Poins. Francis!

Fran. Anon, anon.

P. Hears. Anon, Francis? No, Francis: but toFrancis; or, Francis, on Thurday; or, morrow, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But, Francis, Fran. My lord?

call in tallow.

Enter Falfaff, Gads-bill, Bardelph, and Peto. Pains. Welcome, Jack. Where haft thou been? Fal. A plague of all cowards, I fay, and a vengeance too! marry, and amen!-Give me a cup of

A

P. Henry, Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, fack, boy.-Ere I lead this life long, I'll fow nether crystal-button, nott-pated 2, agat-ring, puke-stock-tocks 7, and mend them, and foot them too. ing, caddice-gaiter, smooth-tongue, Spanish-plague of all cowards !-Give me a cup of fack, pouch,— ·

Fran. O lord, fir, who do you mean?

P. Henry. Why then, your brown baftards is your only drink: for, look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will fully in Barbary, fir, it cannot come to fo much.

Fran. What, fir?
Peins. Francis !

P. Henry. Away, you rogue; Doft thou not hear them call?

[Here they both call him; the drawer fiands amazed, not knowing which way to go.

Enter Vintner.

rogue.-Is there no virtue extant? [He drink.

P. Henry. Didit thou never fee Titan kifs a difh of butter pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the fweet tale of the fun if thou didft, then behold that compound.

Fal. You rogue, here's lime in this fack too 8: There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: Yet a coward is worse than a cup of fack with lime in it; a villainous 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 fhotten herring. There live not three good men unhang'd in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old: God help the while! a bad world, I fay I would I were a weaver; I could fing all manner of fongs 9. A plague of all cowards, I fay ftill!

P. Homy. How now, wool-fack? what mutter

P. Henry. I am now of all humours, that have fhew'd themfelves humours, fince the old days of and Poins there?

[To Poins.

2 A perfon was faid

A leather jerkin with cryftal buttons was the habit of a pawn-broker. to be nott-pated, when the hair was cut fhort and round. 3 Black-tocking. 4 Caddis was a fort of coarte ferrat. The garters of Shakspeare's time were worn in fight, and confequently were expenfive. He who would fubmit to wear a coarfer fort, was probably called by this contemptuous ditinction. 5 Baftard was a kind of fweet wine. The prince finding the waiter not able, or not willing, to underfland his inftigation, puzzles him with unconnected prattle, and drives him away. 6 A cant word of the English taverns of thofe times, expreffive of no meaning. 7 Nether flocks are fockings. $ See note 1, p. 49. • Warburton obferves, that in the perfecutions of the protestants in Flanders under Philip II. thofe who came over into England on that occafion brought with them the woollen manufactory. Thefe were Calvinifts, who were always diftinguished for their love of pfalmody. 10 i. e. fuch a dagger as the Vice in the old moralitics was arm'd with.

P.Hey

P. Henry. Ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckI'll ftab thee. ram let drive at me,

P. Henry. What, four? thou faidft but two, even now.

Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four.
Poins. Ay, ay, he faid four.

Fal. Thefe four came all a-front, and mainly thruft at me. 1 made no more ado, but took all their feven points in my target, thus.

P. Hemy. Seven? why, there were but four, even now.

Fal. In buckram.

Point. Ay, four, in buckram fuits.

Fal. Seven, by thefe hilts, or I am a villain elfe.
P. Honry. Pythee let him alone; we shall have

P. Henry. What's the matter? Fal. What's the matter? Here be four of us more anon. have talen a thousand pound this morning.

P. Heny. Where is it, Jack where is it? Fal. Where is it? taken from us it is; a hundred upon poor four of us.

P. Henry. What, a hundred, man?

Fal. I am a rogue, if I were not at half-fword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have 'cap'd by miracle. I an eight times thrust through the doublet; four through the hofe; my buckler cut through and through; my fword hack'd like a hand-faw, ace fignum. I never dealt better fince I was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards-Let them fpeak: if they fpeak more or lefs than truth, they are villains, and the fons f darkness.

P. Henry. Speak. firs; How was it?
Gad. We four fet upon fome dozen,--
Fal. Steen, at least, my lord.
Gads. And bound them.

Peto. No, no, they were not bound.

Fal. Doft thou hear me, Hal?

P. Henry. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.
Fal. Do fo, for it is worth the lift'ning to.
Thefe nine in buckram, that I told thee of,-
P. Hony. So, two more already.
Fal. Their points being broken,-
Poins. Down fell their hofe 1.

Tal. Began to give me ground: But I follow'd me clofe, came-in foot and hand; and, with a thought, feven of the eleven I pay'd.

P. Henry. O monftrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two!

Ful. But, as the devil would have it, three mifbegotten knaves, in Kendal green 2, came at my back, and let drive at me ;--for it was fo dark, Hal, that thou couldit not fee thy hand.

P. Henry. Thefe lies are like the father that begets them; grofs as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brain'd guts; thou knotty-pated fool; thou whorefon, obfcene, greaty tallow

Fal. You rogue, they were bound, every man of | keech 3,them; or I am a Jew clfe, au Ebrew Jew.

Gads. As we were tharing, fome fix or feven fresh men fet upon us,-

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

P. Henry. What, fought you with them all? Fal. All I know not what you call, all; but if I fought not with fifty of them, I on a bunch of radith: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legg'd

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

P. Henry. Why, how could'st thou know thefe men in Kendal green, when it was fo dark thou could'ft not fee thy hand? Come, tell us your reafon; What day it thou to this?

Poins. Come, your reaton, Jack, your reafon.

Fal. What, upon compulion? No; were I at the ftrappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulfion. Give you a reafon on compulfion! If reafons were as plenty s Poins. Pray heaven, you have not murder'd fome blackberries, I would give no man a reaton upon of them.

creature.

Fal. Nay, that's paft praying for; I have pepper'd two of them: two, I am fure, I have pay'd; two rogues in buckram fuits. I tell thee what, Hal,-if I tell thee a lie, fpit in my face, call me hurie. Thou know'it my old ward;-here I lay,

compulfion, I.

P. Henry. I'll be no longer guilty of this fin; this fanguine coward, this bed-preffer, this hortc back-breaker, this huge hill of flesh;--

Fal. Away, you ftarveling, you elf-skin 4, you dry'd neats-tongue, bull's pizzle, you stock-fish --

Our Author here plays upon the double meaning of point, which fignifies the sharp end of a weapon, and the lace of a garment. To untrafs a point, is a phrafe till in ute for the operation of caling nature. 2 Kendal green was the livery of Robert earl of Huntingdon and his followers while in a state of outlawry, and their leader affumed the title of Robin Hood. 3 A beach of tallow is the fat of an ox or cow rolled up by the butcher in a round lump, in order to be carried to the chandler. 4 For f Skin Sir Thomas Hanmer and Dr. Warburton read eel-fin; and in our opinion justly ;' as Shak (pear, in this and his enfuing comparisons of the flock-fish and dry'd neat's tongue, alludes to the leannels of the prince, for which he had hiftorical authority; the prince of Wales being reprefented by Stowe to have exceeded the mean itature of men, his neck long, body ilender and lean, and Las bones Ina!], &c."

O, for breath to utter what is like thee-you | taylor's yard, you fheath, you bow-cafe, you vile ftanding tuck ;

P. Hory. Well, breathe a while, and then to it again: and when thou hast tir'd thyfelf in bafe comparifons, hear me fpeak but this.

Poins. Mark, Jack.

P. Henry. We two faw you four fet on four; you bound them, and were matters of their wealth. -Mark now, how a plain tale fhall put you down -Then did we two fet on you four; and, with a word, out-fac'd you from your prize, and have it; yea, an can fhew it you here in the houfe :-and, Falstaff, you carry'd your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roar'd for mercy, and ftill ran and roar'd, as ever I heard bull..calf. What a flave art thou, to hack thy fword as thou haft done; and then fay, it was in fight? What trick, what device, what starting hole, canst thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and apparent thame?

Pains. Come, let's hear, Jack; What trick haft thou now?

Bard. 'Faith, I ran when I faw others run.
P. Henry. Tell me now in earnest, How came
Falitaft's werd to hack'd ?

Peto. Why, he hack'd it with his dagger; and faid, he would fwear truth out of England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and perfuaded us to do the like,

Bard. Yea, and to tickle our nofes with fpeargrafs, to make them bleed; and then to beflubber our garments with it, and fwear it was the blood of true 2 men. I did that I did not these seven years before, I blufh'd to hear his monstrous devices.

P. Henry. O villain, thou ftol'ft a cup of fack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the man¬ ner 3, and ever fince thou haft blush'd extempore: Thou hadst fire and fword on thy fide, and yet thou ran'ft away; What inftinet hadit thou for it? Bard. My lord, do you fee thefe meteors? do you behold thefe exhalations?

P. Henry. I do.

Bard. What think you they portend?
P. Henry. Hot livers, and cold purfes 5.
Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.
P. Henry. No, if rightly taken, halter.

Re-enter Falfaff.

Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye, my mafters: Was it for me, to kill the heir apparent? fhould I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou know'ft, I am as va- Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. How liant as Hercules: but beware inftinct, the lion now, my fweet creature of bombast 7 ? How long will not touch the true prince. Inftinct is a great is't ago, Jack, fince thou faw'ft thine own knee? matter; I was a coward on inftinét. I fhall think Fal. My own knee? When I was about thy the better of myself, and thee, during my life; 1, years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; for a valiant lion, and thou, for a true prince. But, I could have crept into any alderman's thumblads, I am glad you have the money.- -Hoftets, ring: A plague of fighing and grief! it blows a clap to the doors; watch to-night, pray to-mor-man up like a bladder. There's villainous news row.-Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, All the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, fhall we be merry? fhall we have a play extempore? P. Henry. Content ;—and the argument shall be, thy running away. [me. Fal. Ah! no more of that, Hal, an thou lov'ft Enter Hoftefs.

Hof. My lord the prince,-

P. Hory. How now, my lady the hostess? what fay't thou to me?

Hoft. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman 1 of the court at door, would fpeak with you: he fays, he comes from your father.

P. Henry. Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and fend him back again to my mother.

Fal. What manner of man is he?

Ho?. An old man.

abroad: here was Sir John Braby from your fa ther; you must to the court in the morning. That fame mad fellow of the north, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave Amaimon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and fwore the devil his true liegeman upon the crofs of a Welsh hook ---What, a plague, call you him ?——————

Poins. O, Glendower.

Fal. Owen, Owen; the fame and his fon-inlaw Mortimer i and old Northumberland; and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o' horfeback up a hill perpendicular.

P. Henry. He that rides at high speed, and with his piftol kills a fparrow flying.

Fal. You have hit it.

P. Hen. So did he never the fparrow.

Fal. Well, that raícal hath good mettle in him;

Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at mid- he will not run. night Shall I give him his answer?

P. Henry. Prythee, do, Jack.

F... Faith, and I'll fend him packing. [Exit. P. Henry. Now, firs; by'r-lady, you fought fair; fo did you, Peto ;-fo did you, Bardolph: you are lions too; you ran away upon inftinct, you will not touch the true prince; no,-fie!

P. Hon. Why, what a raícal art thou then, to praife him fo for running?

Fal. O'horfeback, ye cuckow! but, a-foot, he will not budge a foot.

P. Hen. Yes, Jack, upon inftinet.

Fal. I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one Mordake, and a thousand blue

A kind of jeft feems to be intended here. The royal went for 10s.the noble only for 6s. 8d. 2 i. c. honest. 3 This is a law phrafe, fignifying taken in the fall. 4 Alluding to his red face. • That is, drunkenness and poverty. A pun upon the fimilarity of found between collar and choler. 7 Bombaft is the fluffing of cloaths. 8 The cultom of wearing a ring on the thumb is very ancient, 9 A Weijl hook appears to have been fome inftrument of the offenfive kind.

caps

c3ps more: Worcester is stolen away by night; be fon to me, here lies the point-Why, being thy father's beard is turn'd white with the news; fon to me, art thou to pointed at ? Shall the bleifed you may buy land now as cheap as ftinking macke-fun of heaven prove a micher, and eat blackrel.. berries a queftion not to be asked. Shall the fon

P. Hon. Then, 'tis like, if there come a hot of England prove a thief, and take purfes ? a que fJune, and this civil buffeting hold, we fhall buy [tion to be afk'd. There is a thing, Harry, which maidenheads as they buy hob-nails, by the hun-thou haft often heard of, and it is known to many dreds. in our land by the name of pitch this pitch, as Fal. By the mafs, lad, thou fay'ft true; it is ancient writers do report, doth defile; fo doth the Like we shall have good trading that way.-But, tell company thou keepest: for, Harry, now I do not me, Hal, art thou not horribly afeard? Thou being peak to thee in drink, but in tears; not in plea. heir apparent, could the world pick thee out three fure, but in paffion; not in words only, but in fuch enemics again, as that fiend Douglas, that woes alfo:-And yet there is a virtuous man, Spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower ? Art thou whom I have often noted in thy company, but I not horribly afraid? doth not thy blood thrill at it? know not his name. P. Hen. Not a whit, i'faith; I lack fome of thy inftinct.

Fal. Well, thou wilt be horribly chid to-morrow, when thou comeft to thy father: if thou love me, practife an answer.

P. Hen. Do thou ftand for my father, and amine me upon the particulars of my life.

P. Heary. What manner of man, an it like your majefty?

Fal. A goodly portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent; of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a moit noble carriage; and, as I think, his age fome ex-fifty, or, by'r-lady, inclining to threefcore; and now I remember me, his name is Falitart: if that man fhould be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, 1 fee virtue in his looks.. if then the fruit may be known by the tree, as the tree by the fruit, then, peremptorily I fpeak it, there is virtue in that Falttaff: him keep with, the reft banish. And tell me now, thou naughty varlet, tell me, where haft thou been this month?

Ful. Shall I content :-This chair thall be my ftate, this dagger my icepter, and this cuthion my

crown.

P. fen. Thy ftate is taken for a joint-tool, thy golden fcepter for a leaden dagger, and thy pre cious rich crown for a pitiful bald crown '

Fal. Well, an the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now fhalt thou be moved.--Give me a cup of fack, to make mine eyes look red, that it may be thought I have wept; for I must speak in paí fion, and I will do it in king Cambytes' vein. P. Henry. Well, here is my leg 3.

2

P. Henry. Doit thou fpeak like a king? Do thou ftand for me, and I'll play my father.

Fal. Depote me ? if thou doft it half fo gravely, fo majettically, both in word and matter, hang Ime up by the heels for a 7 rabbet-fucker, or a

Ho. O the father, how he holds his countenance !

Fal. For God's fake, lords, convev my triftful
queen,

For tears do ftop the flood-gates of her eyes.
Hi. O rare! he doth it as like one of thefe
harlotry players, as I ever ice.

P. Henry. Well, here I am fet.

Fal. And here I stand :-judge, my masters.
P. Henry. Now, Harry? whence come you?
Fal. My noble lord, from Eaft-cheap.

P. Henry. The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.

Fa. 'Sblood, my lord, they are falfe:-nay, I'll tickle ye for a young prince, i'faith.

P. Henry. Sweareft thou, ungracious boy? henceforth ne'er look on me. Thou art violently carried away from grace: there is a devil haunts Fal. Peace, good pint-pot; peace, good tickle-thee, in the likeness of a fat old man; a tun of brain *.——---Harry ›, I do not only marvel where man is thy companion. Why doft thou converse thou fpcadeft thy time, but also how thou art ac-with that trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch companied: for though the camomile, the more of beastliness, that swoln parcel of dropfies, that it is trodden on, the fafter it grows, yet youth, huge bombard of fack, that ftuft cloak-bag of the more it is wafted, the fooner it wears. That guts, that roafted Manningtree ox with the pudthou art my fon, I have partly thy mother's word, ding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey inipartly my own opinion; but chicly, a villainous quity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? trick of thine eye, and a foolith hanging of thy Wherein is he good, but to tafte fack and drink it ? nether lip, that doth warrant me. If then thouWherein neat and cleanly, but to carve a capon

1 Meaning Scots, who wore blue bonnets. 2 Alluding to the tragedy of Cambyfes king of Perfia, written by Thomas Prefton. 3 That is, my obcitance to my father. 4 Probably the nick-name of fome trong liquor.

public oratory of that time.

5 This fpeech was perhaps intended by our author as a ridicule on the 6. e. truant. To mich (pronounced mike), is to lurk out of fight, a hedge-creeper. 7 i. e. a fucking robbet. A poulterer's hare means, a hare hung up by the hind legs without a fkin, and which is long and flender. A bolting-hutch is the wooden receptacle into which the meal is bolted.

and eat it? Wherein cunning, but in craft?| Fal. Both which I have had: but their date is Wherein crafty, but in villainy Wherein villain-out, and therefore I'll hide me.

P. Henry. O monftrous! but one halfpennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of fack!-What there is elfe, keep cloíe; we'll read it at more advantage; there let him fleep tillday. to the court in the morning: we must all to the wars, and thy piace shall be honourable. I'il procure this fat rogue a charge of foot; and, I know, his death will be a march of twelve-fcore". money fhall be paid back again, with advantage, ;-Be with me betimes in the morning; and fo good for morrow, Poins.

Cunning here means knowing, or hilful. 2 i. e. let me know your meaning. 3 Sack with Jugar was a favourite liquor in Shakipeare's time. 4 A proverbial phrafe. 5 In old houfes there were always large fpaces left between the arras and the walls. . . it will kill him to march to far as twelvelcore yards.