Enter GADSHILL. GADS. Stand. FAL. So I do, against my will. POINS. O, 't is our setter: I know his voice. Enter BARDOLPH. BARD. What news? GADS. Case ye, case ye; on with your visors; there's money of the king's coming down the hill; 't is going to the king's exchequer. FAL. You lie, you rogue; 't is going to the king's tavern. GADS. There's enough to make us all. FAL. To be hanged. P. HEN. You four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned and I will walk lower: if they 'scape from your encounter, then they light on us. PETO. How many be there of them? GADS. Some eight, or ten. FAL. Zounds! will they not rob us? P. HEN. What, a coward, sir John Paunch? FAL. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather: but yet no coward, Hal. P. HEN. We'll leave that to the proof. POINS. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge; when thou need'st him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast. FAL. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged. P. HEN. Ned, where are our disguises? POINS. Here, hard by; stand close. [Exeunt P. HENRY and POINS. FAL. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I; every man to his business. Enter Travellers. 1 TRAV. Come, neighbour; the boy shall lead our horses down the hill: we'll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs. THIEVES. Stand. TRAV. Jesu bless us! FAL. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats: Ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth: down with them; fleece them. 1 TRAV. O, we are undone, both we and ours, for ever. FAL. Hang ye, gorbellied knaves; Are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs,a; I would your store were here! On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves, young men must live: You are grand-jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, i' faith. [Exeunt FALS., &c., driving the Travellers out. Chuffs. The word chuff seems to mean a swollen pampered glutton. Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS. P. HEN. The thieves have bound the true men*: Now could thou and I rob the thieves, and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever. POINS. Stand close, I hear them coming. Re-enter Thieves. FAL. Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. An the prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring: there's no more valour in that Poins than in a wild duck. P. HEN. Your money. [Rushing out upon them. [As they are sharing, the PRINCE and POINS set upon them. They all run away; and FALSTAFF, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty behind. P. HEN. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: The thieves are scatter'd, and possess'd with fear Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death, [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Warkworth. A Room in the Castle12. ་་ Enter HOTSPUR, reading a letter. 'But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your house."-He could be contented,-Why is he not then? In respect of the love he bears our house :-he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some more. "The purpose you undertake is dangerous; "-Why, that's certain; 't is dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink: but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. "The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you have named uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and your whole plot too light for the counterpoise of so great ⚫ True men. The narrative of robberies at Gadshill (see Illustrations to Act I.) gives us an example of the peculiar meaning of " true men.” The robbers "got to the east end of Gadeshill, and there turned about all their horses on the faces of the true men." ⚫ The original stage-direction has been inconsiderately deviated from in the modern editions, which read, "Falstaff, after a blow or two, and the rest, run away;" whereas Falstaff, staying behind, after the rest have run away, and giving "a blow or two," is clearly not the coward which it has been the fashion to consider him. an opposition."-Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this! I protest, our plot is as good a plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation: an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this! Why, my lord of York commends the plot and the general course of the action. By this hand, if I were now by this rascal I could brain him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myself? lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not, besides, the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not, some of them, set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this! an infidel! Ha! you shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king and lay open all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of skimmed milk with so honourable an action! hang him! Let him tell the king: We are prepared: I will set forward to-night. Enter Lady PERCY. How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours. LADY. O, my good lord, why are you thus alone? For what offence have I, this fortnight, been A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed? Tell me, sweet lord, what is 't that takes from thee Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep? Of sallies and retires; of trenches, tents; Of palisadoes, frontiers, parapets; Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin 13; And thus hath so bestirr'd thee in thy sleep, • Retires-retreats. Frontiers. A frontier is something standing in front Thus the frontier of a territory is the part opposed to, fronting, another territory; and in this way a fort is a frontier, as in this passage. • Current. So the folio. Some editions read 'currents, for occurrents, occurrences. But surely "the current of a heady fight"-the course, the rush-presents no difficulty. That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow, And in thy face strange motions have appear'd, Such as we see when men restrain their breath On some great sudden hesta. O, what portents are these? And I must know it, else he loves me not. HOT. What, ho! is Gilliams with the packet gone? Enter Servant. SERV. He is, my lord, an hour ago . HOT. Hath Butler brought those horses from the sheriff? HOT. What horse? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not? SERV. It is, my lord. HOT. That roan shall be my throne. Well, I will back him straight: Esperancés ! Bid Butler lead him forth into the park. LADY. But hear you, my lord. Hor. What say'st thou, my lady? LADY. What is it carries you away? Hor. Why, my horse, my love, my horse. A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen Directly to this question that I shall askd. [Exit Servant. • Hest. So the first quarto. Subsequent editions haste. We restore the original word hestbehest-commend-in accordance with Mr. Collier's reading. b Ago. So the quartos. The folio agone, which makes an unpleasant jingle with the gone of the preceding line. • Esperance. This is the motto of the Percy family. Hotspur pictures himself on his roan,— his throne, and leading on his men with the family war-cry. The passage is generally printed O Esperance; but not so in all the old editions. The passage is printed as prose in the early copies. But it is evidently metrical; and, omitting the O, Esperancé must be read as four syllables, as in Act V., scene 2, according to the rule of French metre, that e final always forms a syllable. Shall ask. So the folio. Modern editions omit shall. This, and the previous speech of the lady, are also printed as prose in the early copies. Нот. Away, Away, you trifler!-Love?—I love thee not, I care not for thee, Kate: this is no world To play with mammets and to tilt with lips: We must have bloody noses and crack'd crowns, And pass them current too.-Gods me, my horse !— What say'st thou, Kate? what wouldst thou have with me? And when I am a'horseback, I will swear No lady closer; for I will believe Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know; LADY. HOW! so far? Hor. Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate: LADY. It must of force. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-Eastcheap. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern 1. Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS. P. HEN. Ned, prithee come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little. POINS. Where hast been, Hal? P. HEN. With three or four loggerheads, amongst three or four score hogsheads. I have sounded the very base string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers; and can call them all by their christian names, as— Tom, Dick, and Francis 15. They take it already upon their salvation, that, • Mammets-puppets. |