me pread and falt yesterday, look you, and bid me eat my Leek. It was in a place where I could breed no contentions with him; but I will be fo pold as to wear it in my cap, 'till I fee him once again; and then I will tell him a little piece of my defires.

Enter Pistol.

Gow. Why, here he comes fwelling like a Turkycock, Flu. 'Tis no matter for his fwelling, nor his Turkycocks. God pleffe you, aunchient Pistol: you fcurvy lowly knave, God pleffe you.

Pift. Ha! art thou beldam? doft thou thirst, base Trojan,

2 To have me fold up Parca's fatal web? Hence!-I am qualmifh at the fmell of leek.

Flu. I pefeech you heartily, fcurvy lowfy knave, at my defires, and my requests and my petitions, to eat, look you, this leek; because, look you, you do not love it, and your affections, and your appetites, and your digestions, does not agree with it, I would defire you to eat it.

Pift. Not for Cadwallader and all his Goats.
Flu. There is one Goat for you..

[Strikes bim, Will you be fo good, fcauld knave, as eat it? Pift. Bafe Trojan, thou shalt die.

Flu. You fay very true, scauld knave, when God's will is. I defire you to live in the mean time and eat your victuals; come, there is fauce for it—[Strikes him.] You call'd me yesterday Mountain-Squire, but I will make you to day a *Squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to; if you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek. Gow. Enough, captain; you have + aftonifh'd him. Flu. I fay, I will make him eat fome part of my leek, or I will peat his pate four days. Pite, I pray

2 To have me fold up, &c.] Doft thou defire to have me put thee to death.

Squire of low degree.] That

is, I will bring you to the ground.

+ Aftonifh'd him] That is, you have ftunned him with the blow.

you;

you; it is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb.

Pift. Muft I bite?

Flu. Yes, out of doubt, and out of questions too, and ambiguities.

Pift. By this leek, I will moft horribly revenge; I 3 eat and eat I fwear

Flu. Eat, I pray you. Will you have fome more fauce to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by.

Pit. Quiet thy cudgel; thou doft fee, I eat.

Flu. Much good do you, fcauld knave, heartily. Nay, pray you throw none away, the fkin is good for your proken coxcomb. When you take occafions to see leeks hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em. That's

all.

Pift. Good.

Fiu. Ay, leeks is good. Hold you, there is a groat to heal your pate.

Pift. Me a groat!

Flu. Yes, verily, and in truth, you shall take it, or I have another leek in my pocket, which you fhall

eat.

Pift. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge.

Flu. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in cudgels; you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of me but cudgels; God pe wi' you, and keep you, and heal your pate.

Pift. All hell fhall stir for this.

[Exit.

Gow. Go, go, you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. Will you mock at an ancient tradition, began upon an honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of predeceas'd valour, and dare not avouch in your

3 Ieat and eat I fwear ] Thus the first folio, for which the later editors have put, I eat and fwear, We should read, I fup

pofe, in the frigid tumour of Piftol's dialect,

I eat and eke Ifwear.

deeds

deeds any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he could not speak English in the native garb, he could not therefore hanale an English cudgel; you find 'tis otherwife; and henceforth let a Web-correction teach you a good English condition. Fare you well. [Exit. Pift. Doth fortune play the hufwife with me now? News have I, that my Dol is dead i' th' spittle Of malady of France,

4

And there my rendezvous is quite cut off;
Old I do wax, and from my weary limbs
Honour is cudgell'd. Well, bawd will I turn,
And fomething lean to cut-purfe of quick hand,
To England will I fteal, and there I'll fleal;

And patches will I get unto thefe cudgell'd fcars,
And fwear, I got them in the Gallia Wars. [Exit."

dead.] We must read, my Nell is dead. Del Tearsheet was fo little the favourite of Piftol that he offered her in contempt to Nym. Nor would her death have cut off his rendezvous; that is,

deprived him of a home. Perhaps the poet forgot his plan.

5 In the quarto of 1608 thefe lines are read thus,

Doth fortune play the hufwife with me now?

Is honour cud el'd from my warlike loins?

hiftory of Henry the fourth and

6 The comick fcenes of the

fifth are now at an end, and all the comick perfonages are now difmiffed. Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly are dead; Aym and Bardolph are hanged; Gadfbill was loft immediately after the robbery; Poins and Pets have va

Well France farewell. News nifhed fince, one knows not

Lave I certainly,

how; and Piftol is now beaten

That Doll is fick of malady of into obfcurity. I believe every

France.

reader regrets their departure.

SCENE

The French Court, at Trois in Champaigne.

Enter at one door King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Warwick, and other Lords; at another, the French King, Queen Ifabel, Princefs Catharine, the Duke of Burgundy, and other French.

K. Henry.

Eace to this meeting, wherefore we are

PE

met. 7

Unto our brother France, and to our fifter,
Health and fair time of day; joy and good wishes,
To our most fair and princely coufin Catharine;
And as a branch and member of this royalty,
By whom this great affembly is contriv'd,
We do falute you, Duke of Burgundy.

And, Princes French, and Peers, health to you all.
Fr. King. Right joyous are we to behold your face;
Most worthy brother England, fairly met!
So are you, Princes English, every one.

Q. Ifa. So happy be the iffue, brother England,
Of this good day, and of this gracious meeting,
As we are now glad to behold your eyes,
Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them
Against the French, that met them in their bent,
The fatal balls of murdering bafilifks;
The venom of fuch looks we fairly hope
· Have loft their quality, and that this day
Shall change all griefs, and quarrels into love.
K. Henry. To cry Amen to that, thus we appear.
Q. Ifa. You English Princes all, I do falute you.
Burg. My duty to you both on equal love
Great Kings of France, and England.
bour'd

7 Peace to this meeting, where fore we are met.] Peace, for which we are here met, be to

this meeting.

That I've la

Here, after the chorus, the fifth act feems naturally to begin.

With all my wits, my pains, and ftrong endeavours, To bring your most imperial Majefties

8

* Unto this bar and royal interview,

Your Mightineffes on both parts can witness.
Since then my office hath fo far prevail'd,
That, face to face and royal eye to eye,
You have congreeted, let it not difgrace me,
If I demand, before this royal view,
What rub or what impediment there is,
Why that the naked, poor, and mangled peace,
Dear nurse of arts, plenties and joyful births,
Should not in this best garden of the world,
Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage?
Alas! fhe hath from France too long been chas'd;
And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps,
Corrupting in its own fertility.

"Her vine, the merry chearer of the heart,
Unpruned dies; her hedges even pleach'd,
Like prifoners, wildly over-grown with hair,
Put forth diforder'd twigs: her fallow leas
The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory
Doth root upon; while that the coulter rufts,
That fhould deracinate fuch favag'ry:

The even mead, that erft brought fweetly forth
The freckled cowflip, burnet, and green clover,
Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank,
Conceives by idleness; and nothing teems,
But hateful docks, rough thistles, keckfies, burs,
Lofing both beauty and utility;

A

8 Unto this bar.] To this bar rier; to this place of congrefs. 9 Her vint,

right, but poetically the vine may be well enough faid to die

which ceases to bear fruit.

This image of prisoners is oddly introduced. A prifoner may be overgrown with hair, but wildness is contrary to the ftate of a prifoner. A bidge evenpleach'd is more properly impri

Unpruned dyes:] We must read, lyes For neglect of pruning does not kill the vine, but caufes it to ramify immoderately, and grow wild; by which the requifite nourishment is withdrawn from its fruit. WARB. foned. This emendation is phyfically

And