sir John hangs with me; and, thou knowest, he's no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dreamest not of, the which, for sport sake, are content to do the profession some grace; that would, if matters should be looked into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no longstaff, sixpenny strikers; none of these mad, mustachio purple-hued malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers; such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray: And yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.

Cham. What, the commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way?

Gads. She will, she will; justice hath liquored her.3 We steal as in a castle, cock sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible.

Cham. Nay, by my faith; I think you are more beholden to the night, than to fern-seed, for your walking invisible.

Gads. Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our purchase, as I am a true man.

Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief.

Gads. Go to; Homo is a common name to all men. Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewell, you muddy knave.

[Exeunt.

[9] That is, with no padders, no wanderers on foot. No long-staff, sixpenny strikers, no fellows that infest the roads with long staffs and knock men down for six-pence. None of these mad mustachio purple-hued malt-worms,'-none of those whose faces are red with drinking ale. JOHNSON.

[1] Perhaps Shakespeare wrote onyers, that is, public accountants; men possessed of large sums of money belonging to the state. MALONE.

[2] Such as can hold in,' may mean, such as can curb old father antic the law, or such as will not blab. STEEVENS.

[3] A satire on the chicane in the courts of justice; which supports ill men in their violations of the law, under the very cover of it. WARBURTON.

[4] Fern is one of those plants which have their seed on the back of the leaf so small as to escape the sight. Those who perceived that fern was propagated by semination, and yet could never see the seed, were much at a loss for the solution of the difficuly; and as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed to fern-seed many strange properties, some of which the rustic virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded. JOHNSON.

[5] Purchase is the term used in law for any thing not inherited but acquired. JOHNSON Anciently the cant term for stolen gods. STEEVENS.

13

VOL. V.

I

SCENE II.

Th road by Gadshill. Enter Prince HENRY and POINS BARDOLPH and PETO, at some distance.

Poins. Come, shelter, shelter; I have removed Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet. P. Hen. Stand close.

Enter FALSTAFF.

Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal; What a brawling dost thou keep?

Fal. Where's Poins, Hal?

P. Hen. He is walked up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek him. [Pretends to seek Poins. Fal. I am accursed to rob in that thief's company : the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squire further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it could not be else; I have drunk medicines.-Poins! Hala plague upon you both!-Bardolph !-Peto !—I'll starve, ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man, and leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground, is three-score and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough: A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true to one another! [They whistle.] Whew!-A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged.

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.

Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again, for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus ?

[6] Alluding to the vulgar notion of love-powder.

JOHNSON.

[7] To colt, is to fool, to trick; but the prince taking it in another sense, opposes it by uncult, that is unhorse. JOHNSON.

P. Hen. Thou liest, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Fal. I pr'ythee, good prince Hal, help me to my horse ; good king's son.

P. Hen. Out, you rogue! shall I be your ostler!

Fal. Go, hang thyself in thy own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: When a jest is so forward, and afoot too, I hate it.

Gads. Stand.

Enter GADSHILL.

Fal. So I do, against my will.

Poins. O, 'tis 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; 'tis going to the king's exchequer.

Fal. You lie, you rogue; 'tis going to the king's tav

ern.

Gads. There's enough to make us all.

Fal. To be hanged.

P. Hen. Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins, 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. Well, we leave that to the proof.

Fare

Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge; when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him. well, 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,

[8] Alluding to the order of the garter, in which he was enrolled as heir-apparent. JOHNSON.

1;

Fal. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say every man to his business.

Enter Travellers.

1 Trav. Come, neighbour; the boy shall lead our horses down the hill we'll walk afoot a while, and ease our legs.

Thieves. Stand.

Trav. Jesu bless us !

Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats . Ah! whorson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth down with them; fleece them.

1 Trav. O, we are undone, both we and ours, forever. Fal. Hang ye, gorbellied knaves; are ye undone ? No, ye fat chuffs; 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.

[Exe. FALSTAFF, &c. driving the Travellers out.

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.
Poins. Villains.

[Rushing out upon them.

[As they are sharing, the Prince and POINs set upon them. FALSTAFF, after a blow or two, and the rest, run away, leaving their booty behind them.]

P. Hen. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: The thieves are scatter'd, and possess'd with fear So strongly, that they dare not meet each other; Each takes his fellow for an officer.

Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,

[9] That is, fat and corpulent. STEEVENS.

[1] Chuff, is the same word with cuff, both signifying a clown, and being in all probability derived from a Saxon word of the latter sound.

RITSON.

And lards the lean earth as he walks along :
Wer't not for laughing, I should pity him.
Poins. How the rogue roar'd!

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

Warkworth. A Room in the Castle. 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 to 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; 'tis 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 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? By the Lord, our plot is a good 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. 'Zounds, an 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.

[2] This letter was from George Dunbar, earl of March, in Scotland. Mr. Edwards'e MS. Notes.