1

Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours; and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our restored love and amity.

Arch. I take your princely word for these redresses. P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word; And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

Hast. Go, captain, [To an Officer.] and deliver to

the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part; I know it will well please them. Hie thee, captain.

[Exit Officer. Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland. West. I pledge your grace; and, if you knew what

pains

I have bestowed to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely; but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.

Arch. I do not doubt you.

West.

I am glad of it.— Health to my lord, and gentle cousin, Mowbray.

Mowb. You wish me health in very happy season;

For I am, on the sudden, something ill.

Arch. Against ill chances, men are ever merry;

But heaviness foreruns the good event.

West. Therefore be merry, coz; since sudden sorrow Serves to say thus,-Some good thing comes to-morrow. Arch. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit. Mowb. So much the worse, if your own rule be true. [Shouts within.

P. John. The word of peace is rendered. Hark, how they shout!

Mowb. This had been cheerful, after victory.
Arch. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;

1 It was Westmoreland who made this deceitful proposal, as appears from Holinshed:-"The earl of Westmoreland, using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: In the mean time let us drink togither in signe of agreement, that the people on both sides may see it, and know that it is true, that we be light at a point."

For then both parties nobly are subdued,

And neither party loser.

P. John.

Go, my lord,

And let our army be discharged too.—

[Exit WESTMOReland. And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains March by us; that we may peruse the men

We should have coped withal.

Arch.
And, ere they be dismissed, let them march by.

Go, good lord Hastings,

[Exit HASTINGS.

P. John. I trust, my lords, we shall lie to-night together.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
West. The leaders, having charge from you to stand,
Will not go off until they hear you speak.

P. John. They know their duties.

Re-enter HASTINGS.

Hast. My lord, our army is dispersed already Like youthful steers unyoked, they take their courses East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up, Each hurries toward his home, and sporting-place.

West. Good tidings, my lord Hastings; for the which I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason;—

And you, lord archbishop,-and you, lord Mowbray,-
Of capital treason I attach you both.

Mowb. Is this proceeding just and honorable?
West. Is your assembly so?

Arch. Will you thus break

P. John.

your faith?

I pawned thee none. I promised you redress of these same grievances, Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honor, I will perform with a most Christian care. But, for you, rebels,-look to taste the due Meet for rebellion, and such acts as yours.

Most shallowly did you these arms commence,
Fondly brought here, and foolishly sent hence.-
Strike up our drums, pursue the scattered stray;
Heaven, and not we, have safely fought to-day.-
Some guard these traitors to the block of death;
Treason's true bed, and yielder up of breath. [Exeunt.2

SCENE III. Another Part of the Forest. Alarums; Excursions.

Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting.

Fal. What's your name, sir? of what condition are you; and of what place, I pray?

Cole. I am a knight, sir; and my name is-Colevile of the dale.

Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale. Colevile shall still be your name; a traitor your degree; and the dungeon your place, a place deep enough: so shall you still be Colevile of the dale.

Cole. Are not you sir John Falstaff?

Fal. As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am. Do ye yield, sir? or shall I sweat for you? If I do sweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death therefore rouse up fear and trembling, and do observance to my mercy.

Cole. I think you are sir John Falstaff; and in that thought, yield me.

Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe. My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.-Here comes our general.

1 i. e. foolishly.

2 "It cannot but raise some indignation to find this horrid violation of faith passed over thus slightly by the Poet without any note of censure or detestation.”—Johnson.

Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORELAND,

and others.

P. John. The heat is past; follow no further now ;Call in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.[Exit WEST. Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while? When every thing is ended, then you come. These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life, One time or other, break some gallows' back.

Fal. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus; I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valor. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility; I have foundered nine score and odd posts; and here, traveltainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valor, taken sir John Colevile of the dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy. But what of that? He saw me, and yielded; that I may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome, I came, saw, and

overcame.

P. John. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.

Fal. I know not; here he is, and here I yield him; and I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture on the top of it, Colevile kissing my foot. To the which course, if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt two-pences to me; and I, in the clear sky of fame, o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element,' which show like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the noble. Therefore let me have right, and let desert mount.

P. John. Thine's too heavy to mount.
Fal. Let it shine then.

1 A ludicrous term for the stars.

P. John. Thine's too thick to shine.

Fal. Let it do something, my good lord, that may do me good, and call it what you will.

P. John. Is thy name Colevile ?1

Cole.

It is, my lord. P. John. A famous rebel art thou, Colevile. Fal. And a famous true subject took him. Cole. I am, my lord, but as my betters are, That led me hither; had they been ruled by me, You should have won them dearer than you have.

Fal. I know not how they sold themselves; but thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away; and I thank thee for thee.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

P. John. Now, have you left pursuit?
West. Retreat is made, and execution stayed.
P. John. Send Colevile, with his confederates,
To York, to present execution.2—

Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.
[Exeunt some with COLEVILE.
And now despatch we toward the court, my lords;
I hear, the king my father is sore sick.

Our news shall go before us to his majesty,-
Which, cousin, you shall bear,-to comfort him;
And we with sober speed will follow you.

Fal. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go

1 It appears that Colevile was designed to be pronounced as a trisyllable; it is often spelled Colleville in the old copies.

2 "At the king's coming to Durham the lord Hastings, sir John Colevile of the dale, &c. being convicted of the conspiracy, were there beheaded."-Holinshed, p. 530. It is to be observed that there are two accounts of the termination of the archbishop of York's conspiracy, both of which are given by Holinshed. He states that on the archbishop and earl marshal submitting to the king and to his son prince John, there present, "their troopes skaled and fledde ther wayes; but being pursued, many were taken, many slain, &c.; the archbishop and earl marshall were brought to Pomfret to the king, who from thence went to Yorke, whyther the prisoners were also brought, and there beheaded." It is this last account that Shakspeare has followed, but with some variation; for the names of Colevile and Hastings are not mentioned among those who were beheaded at York.