thou whoreson, impudent, embossed rascal, if there were any thing in thy pocket but tavern reckonings, memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor penny-worth of sugar-candy to make thee long winded; if thy pocket were enriched with any other injuries but these, I am a villain: and yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong. Art thou not ashamed? Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou knowest in the state of innocency, Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do, in the days of villainy? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and therefore more frailty. You confess, then, you picked my pocket? P. Hen. It appears so by the story. Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee. Go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason: thou seest, I am pacified. Still?-Nay, pr'ythee, begone.-[Exit Hostess.] Now, Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad,-how is that answered? P. Hen. O! my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee.-The money is paid back again. Fal. O! I do not like that paying back; 'tis a double labour. P. Hen. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing. 36 Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou dost, and do it with unwashed hands too. Bard. Do, my lord. P. Hen. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. Fal. I would, it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well! O! for a fine thief, of the age of two-and-twenty, or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels; they offend none but the virtuous : I laud them, I praise them. P. Hen. Bardolph! Bard. My lord. P. Hen. Go bear this letter to lord John of Lancaster, to my brother John; this to my lord of Westmoreland.-Go, Peto, to horse, to horse! for thou, and I, have thirty miles to ride yet ere dinnertime.-Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Templehall at two o'clock in the afternoon : There shalt thou know thy charge; and there receive Money, and order for their furniture. [Exeunt PRINCE, POINS, and BARDOLPH. Fal. Rare words! brave world!-Hostess, my breakfast; come. O! I could wish, this tavern were my drum. [Exit. SCENE I.-The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. The tongues of soothers; but a braver place Mess. He cannot come, my lord: he's grievous sick. Hot. 'Zounds! how has he the leisure to be sick, In such a justling time? Who leads his power? Under whose government come they along? Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth; And at the time of my departure thence, He was much fear'd by his physicians. Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited :` His health was never better worth than now. Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect The very life-blood of our enterprize : Wor. Your father's sickness is a maim to us. On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?- Doug. A comfort of retirement lives in this. Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mischance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs. Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here. By some, that know not why he is away, Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence. And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence Hot. Spoke of in Scotland as this term of fear. Enter Sir RICHARD VERNON. Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul. Ver. Pray God my news be worth a welcome, lord. The earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong, Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John. Hot. No harm: what more? Ver. And further, I have learn'd, The king himself in person is set forth, Or hitherwards intended speedily, With strong and mighty preparation. Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son, The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales, And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside, And bid it pass? Ver. All furnish'd, all in arms, All plum'd; like estridges that with the wind And witch the world with noble horsemanship. Hot. No more, no more: worse than the sun in This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come; Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound. Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach unto? Ver. To thirty thousand. Forty let it be: Doug. Talk not of dying: I am out of fear Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year. [Exeunt. SCENE II.-A public Road near Enter FALSTAFF, and BARDOLPH. Bard. Will you give me money, captain? Bard. This bottle makes an angel. Fal. An if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. Bard. I will, captain: farewell. [Exit. Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeomen's sons: inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the bans; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lief hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver, worse than a struck fowl, or a hurt wild-duck. I pressed me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; and such as, indeed, were never soldiers, but discarded unjust servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen; the cankers of a calm world, and a long peace; ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient: and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals, lately come from swine-keeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me I had unloaded all the gibbets, and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat:-nay, and the villains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for, indeed, I had the|| most of them out of prison. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company: and the half-shirt is two napkins, tacked together, and thrown over the shoulders like a herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at St. Albans, or the red-nose inn-keeper of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge. Enter Prince HENRY, and WESTMORELAND. P. Hen. How now, blown Jack! how now, quilt! Fal. What, Hal! How now, mad wag! what a devil dost thou in Warwickshire?-My good lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy: I thought your honour had already been at Shrewsbury. West. 'Faith, sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there and you too; but my powers are there already. The king, I can tell you, looks for us all we must away all night. Fal. Tut, never fear me: I am as vigilant as a cat to steal cream. P. Hen. I think, to steal cream indeed; for thy theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack; whose fellows are these that come after? Fal. Mine, Hal, mine. P. Hen. I did never see such pitiful rascals. Fal. Tut, tut! good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit, as well as better: tush, man, mortal men, mortal men. West. Ay, but, sir John, methinks they are exceeding poor and bare; too beggarly. Fal. 'Faith, for their poverty, I know not where they had that: and for their bareness, I am sure, they never learned that of me. P. Hen. No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on the ribs, bare. But, sirrah, make baste: Percy is already in the field. Fal. What, is the king encamped.? West. He is, sir John: I fear we shall stay too long. Fal. Well, To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast, Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, DOUGLAS, and VERNON. Hot. We'll fight with him to-night. Wor. It may not be. Doug. You give him, then, advantage. Hot. You do not counsel well. You speak it out of fear, and cold heart. Ver. Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life, And I dare well maintain it with my life, If well-respected honour bid me on, I hold as little counsel with weak fear, As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives: Being men of such great leading as you are, Wor. The number of the king exceedeth ours: For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in. [The trumpet sounds a parley. Enter Sir WALTER BLUNT. Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king, If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect. Hot. Welcome, sir Walter Blunt; and would to God You were of our determination! Some of us love you well; and even those some Envy your great deservings, and good name, Because you are not of our quality, But stand against us like an enemy. Blunt. And God defend but still I should stand so, He bids you name your griefs, and with all speed, Hot. The king is kind; and, well we know, the king And, when he heard him swear, and vow to God, That lie too heavy on the commonwealth; This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest I guess their tenor. Arch. Like enough, you do. To-morrow, good sir Michael, is a day, Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men Then, to the point. The king, with mighty and quick-raised power, In short time after he depos'd the king; Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king? Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love. Meets with lord Harry: and, I fear, sir Michael, And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence. I fear, the power of Percy is too weak Sir M. Why, my good lord, you need not fear: There is Douglas, and lord Mortimer. Arch. No, Mortimer is not there. Sir M. But there is Mordake, Vernon, lord Harry Percy, And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen. Arch. And so there is; but yet the king hath drawn The special head of all the land together: Sir M. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well oppos'd. Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear, And, to prevent the worst, sir Michael, speed; For, if lord Percy thrive not, ere the king Dismiss his power, he means to visit us, For he hath heard of our confederacy, And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him: Therefore, make haste. I must go write again To other friends; and so farewell, sir Michael. [Exeunt. |