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but answer in the effect of your reputation, and fa

tisfy the poor woman.

Fal. Come hither, hoftefs.

SCENE

[Afide.

III.

Enter a Messenger.

Ch. Juft. Mafter Gower, what news?

Gower. The King, my lord, and Henry Prince of Wales

Are near at hand: the reft the paper tells.

Fal. As I am a gentleman

Hoft. Nay, you faid fo before.

Fal. As I am a gentleman;-come, no more words of it.

Hoft. By this heav'nly ground I tread on, I must be fain to pawn both my plate, and the tapestry of my dining chambers.

I

Fal. Glaffes, glaffes, is the only drinking; and for thy walls, a pretty flight drollery, or the ftory of the Prodigal, or the German Hunting in water-work, is worth a thousand of thefe bed-hangings, and these fly-bitten tapestries. Let it be ten pound, if thou canst. Come, if it were not for thy humours, there is not a better wench in England. Go, wash thy face, and draw thy action. Come, thou must not be in this humour with me; do'ft not know me? Come, come, I know, thou waft fet on to this.

Hoft. Pr'ythee, Sir John, let it be but twenty nobles; I am loth to pawn my plate, in good earnest, la.

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Fal. Let it alone, I'll make other shift; you'll be a fool ftill

Hoft. Well, you fhall have it, though I pawn my gown. I hope, you'll come to fupper. You'll pay me all together?

Fal. Will I live? Go with her, with her: hook on, hook on. [to the Officers. Hoft. Will you have

fupper?

Fal. No more words.

Doll Tear-fbeet meet you at

Let's have her.

[Exeunt Hoftefs and Serjeant.

Ch. Juft. I have heard better news.
Fal. What's the news, my good lord?
Ch. Juft. Where lay the King last night?
Gower. At Basingstoke, my lord.
Fal. I hope, my lord, all's well.
my lord?

What is the news,

Ch. Juft. Come all his forces back?

Gower. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horfe Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,

Against Northumberland and the Arch-bishop.

Fal. Comes the King back from Wales, my noble lord?

Ch. Just. You shall have letters of me presently.
Come, go along with me, good Mr. Gower.
Fal. My lord,

Cb. Juft. What's the matter?

Fal. Mafter Gower, fhall I intreat you with me to dinner?

Gower. I must wait upon my good lord here, I thank you, good Sir John.

Ch. Juft. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take foldiers up in the countries as you go.

Fal. Will you fup with me, mafter Gower ?

Ch. Juft. What foolish mafter taught you these manners, Sir John?

Fal. Mafter Gower, if they become me not, he was

S 4

a fool

a fool that taught them me. grace, my lord, tap for tap, Ch. Juft. Now the Lord great fool!

This is the right fencing and fo part fair.

lighten thee, thou art a

SCENE IV.

Continues in LONDON.

Enter Prince Henry and Poins.

TRI

[Exeunt.

P. Henry. TRUST me, I am exceeding weary. Poins. Is it come to that? I had thought, wearinefs durft not have attach'd one of fo high blood.

P. Henry. It doth me, though it difcolours the complexion of my Greatnefs to acknowledge it. Doth it not fhew vilely in me to defire small beer?

Poins. Why, a Prince fhould not be fo loosely ftudied, as to remember fo weak a compofition.

P. Henry. Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, in troth, I do now remember the poor creature, fmall beer. But, indeed, thefe humble confiderations make me out of love with my Greatness. What a difgrace is it to me to remember thy name? or to know thy face to morrow? or to take note how many pair of filk ftockings thou haft? (viz. thefe, and thofe that were the peach-colour'd ones;) or to bear the inventory of thy fhirts, as one for fuperfluity, and one other for ufe; but that the tennis-court-keeper knows better than I, for it is a low ebb of linnen with thee, when thou keepeft not racket there; as thou haft not done a great while, because the rest of thy low Countries have made a fhift to eat up thy holland. 2

2 The quarto of 1600 adds, And God knows, whether thefe, that bawl cut of the ruins of thy linen, fhall inherit his Kingdom;

Poins.

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Poins. How ill it follows, after you have labour'd fo hard, you should talk fo idly? tell me, how many good young Princes would do fo, their fathers lying fo fick as yours at this time is.

P. Henry. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?

Poins. Yes, and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Henry. It shall serve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

Poins. Go to; I ftand the pufh of your one thing, that you'll tell.

P. Henry. Why, I tell thee, it is not meet that I fhould be fad now my father is fick; albeit, I could tell to thee, as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend, I could be fad, and fad indeed too.

Poins. Very hardly, upon fuch a fubject.

P. Henry. By this hand, thou think'ft me as far in the Devil's book, as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and perfiftency. Let the end try the man. But, I tell thee, my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is fo fick; and keeping fuch vile company, as thou art, hath in reafon taken from me all oftentation of for

row.

Poins. The reafon?

P. Henry. What would'ft thou think of me, if I fhould weep.

Poins. I would think thee a moft princely hypocrite. P. Henry. It would be every man's thought; and thou art a bleffed fellow, to think as every man thinks. Never a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way

paffage Mr. Pope reftored from the first edition. I think it may as well be omitted, and therefore have degraded it to the margin. It is omitted in the firft folio, and in all fubfequent editions before Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the authour. The editors, unwilling to lose any thing

of Shakespeare's, not only infert what he has added, but recal what he has rejected.

3 All oftentation of Sorrow.] Oftentation is here not boastful her, but fimply fhew. Merchant of Venice.

-One well fludied in a fad oftent
To please his Grandame.

better

better than thine. Every man would think me an hypocrite, indeed. And what excites your moft worfhipful thought to think fo?

Poins. Why, because you have feemed fo lewd, and fo much ingraffed to Falstaff.

P. Henry. And to thee.

Poins. Nay, by this light, I am well spoken of, I can hear it with mine own ears; the worst they can fay of me is, that I am a fecond brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands; and those two things, I confefs, I cannot help. Look, look, here comes Bardolph.

P. Henry. And the Boy that I gave Falstaff; he had him from me chriftian, and, fee, if the fat villain have not transform'd him ape.

SCENE V.

Enter Bardolph and Page.

Bard. Save your Grace.

P. Henry. And yours, most noble Bardolph.

Bard. [to the Boy] Come, you virtuous ass, and bashful fool, muft you be blushing? wherefore blush you now; what a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it fuch a matter to get a pottle-pot's maiden-head?

Page. He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could difcern no part of his face from the window; at laft, I fpy'd his eyes, and, methought,

Proper fellow of my hands] A tall or proper man of his hands was a flout fighting man.

5 Poins. Come, you virtuous af, &c.] Tho' all the Editions give this Speech to Poins, it feems evident by the Page's immediate Reply, that it must be placed to Bardolph. For Bardolph had

call'd to the Boy from an Alehoufe, and, 'tis likely, made him half-drunk and, the Boy being afham'd of it, 'tis natural for Bardolph, a bold unbred Fellow, to banter him on his aukward Bafhfulness.

THEOBALD.

he

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