I

Enter Sheriff and the Carrier.

Now, master sheriff, what is your will with me? Sher. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry Hath follow'd certain men unto this house.

Prince. What men?

580

Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious

Car.

lord,

A gross fat man.

As fat as butter.

590

Prince. The man, I do assure you, is not here;
For I myself at this time have employ'd him.
And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time,
Send him to answer thee, or any man,
For any thing he shall be charged withal:
And so let me entreat you leave the house.
Sher. I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
Prince. It may be so: if he have robb'd these men,
He shall be answerable; and so farewell.

578. "hue and cry"; might be raised "either by a precept of a Justice of the Peace, or by a private person who knows of the felony. Such private person was bound to give notice to the Constable; but in the Constable's absence all persons were bound to join in the pursuit" (Stephen's Crim. Law, quoted Jahrbuch, xxxii. 145).-C. H. H. 585. Shakespeare has been blamed for making the prince utter this falsehood. Surely the blame were more justly visited on the prince than on the Poet. Shakespeare did not mean to set forth the connection with Falstaff as altogether harmless; and if he had done so, he would have been untrue to nature. The prince is indeed censurable; yet not so much for telling the falsehood as for letting himself into a necessity either to do so, or to betray his accomplice. What he does is bad enough; but were it not still worse to expose Falstaff in an act which himself has countenanced?-H. N. H. 593. "three hundred marks"; one thousand dollars.-C. H. H.

I

Sher. Good night, my noble lord.

Prince. I think it is good morrow, is it not? Sher. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock. [Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier.

600

Prince. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's.
Go, call him forth.
Peto. Falstaff!-Fast asleep behind the arras,
and snorting like a horse.

Prince. Hark, how hard he fetches breath.
Search his pockets. [He searcheth his pock-
ets and findeth certain papers.] What hast
thou found?

Peto. Nothing but papers, my lord.

Prince. Let's see what they be: read them.
Peto. [reads] Item, A capon,

2s. 2d.

4d. 610

Prince. O monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack! What there is else, keep close; we 'll read it at more advantage: there let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the morning. We must all to the wars, and thy place shall be 620 honorable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot; and I know his death will be

601. "Peto"; probably "Poins," according to Johnson; perhaps, the prefix in the MS. was simply "P." The Cambridge editors, however, remark that the formal address is appropriate to Peto rather than to Poins.-I. G.

I

a march of twelve-score. The money shall
be paid back again with advantage. Be
with me betimes in the morning; and so,
good morrow, Peto.

Peto. Good morrow, good my lord.

622. "his death will be," etc.; that is, “a march of twelve-score will be his death." A score, as here used, was twenty yards. So that "twelve-score" was two hundred and forty yards.-H. N. H.

ACT THIRD

SCENE I

Bangor. The Archdeacon's house.

Enter Hotspur, Worcester, Mortimer, and Glendower.

Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure,
And our induction full of prosperous hope.
Hot. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,
Will you sit down?

And uncle Worcester: a plague upon it!
I have forgot the map.

Glend.

No, here it is.

Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,
For by that name as oft as Lancaster

Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale, and

with

A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven
Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen
Glendower spoke of.

Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity

10

13. "at my nativity," etc.; the singular behavior of nature at the birth of Glendower is thus mentioned by Holinshed: "Strange wonders happened (as men reported) at the nativitie of this man; for the same night he was borne all his fathers horsses in the stable were found to stand in blood up to the bellies." And in 1402 a blazing star appeared, which the Welch bards construed as foretokening success to Glendower.-H. N. H.

I

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and at my birth

The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.

20

Hot. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but kittened, though yourself had never been born. Glend. I say the earth did shake when I was born. Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind, If you suppose as fearing you it shook.

Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.

Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth
In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd
By the imprisoning of unruly wind
Within her womb; which, for enlargement striv-
ing,

30

Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,
In passion shook.

Glend.

Cousin, of many men

I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again that at my birth

18-20. This and the preceding speeches of Hotspur, which are commonly printed as verse, are here given in their proper order. Mr. Verplanck justly observes,-"The contrast between Glendower's selfdeceiving enthusiasm and Hotspur's impatient bluntness is stronger by the meter of the one and the prose of the other."-H. N. H.