The very list, the very utmost bound

Of all our fortunes.

Doug.

'Faith, and so we should;

Where now remains a sweet reversion:

We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
Is to come in:

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. 60 The quality and hair of our attempt

Brooks no division: it will be thought
By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty and mere dislike
Of our proceedings kept the earl from hence:
And think how such an apprehension

May turn the tide of fearful faction

And breed a kind of question in our cause;
For well you know we of the offering side
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement,
And stop all sight-holes, every loop from whence
The eye of reason may pry in upon us :
This absence of your father's draws a curtain,
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear

Before not dreamt of.

Hot.

You strain too far.

I rather of his absence make this use:

It lends a lustre and more great opinion,

A larger dare to our great enterprise,

Than if the earl were here; for men must think,

If we without his help can make a head
To push against a kingdom, with his help

70

80

61. hair, complexion, charac

78. dare, daring.

We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.

Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole. Doug. As heart can think: there is not such a word

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, 90

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 madcap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Ver.
All furnish'd, all in arms;
All plumed like estridges, that with the wind
Bated, like eagles having lately bathed ;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;

85. this term of fear, this word 'fear.'

96. daff'd . aside, tossed aside, put by.

98. like estridges, that with the wind bated, like ostriches with their plumes fluttering in the wind, like eagles after bathing. (L.) Their plumes are first

100

illustrated by the comparison with the ostrich, then the specific trait of fluttering in the wind' is illustrated by the further comparison to eagles after bathing.

99. Bated, flapped the wings as birds do after dipping. 100. images, saints' images.

Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

And witch the world with noble horsemanship. Hot. No more, no more: worse than the sun in March,

This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come;
They come like sacrifices in their trim,

And to the fire-eyed maid of smoky war
All hot and bleeding will we offer them:
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh

And yet not ours. Come, let me taste my horse,

Who is to bear me like a thunderbolt

Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to horse,

Meet and ne'er part till one drop down a corse.
O that Glendower were come !

Ver.

There is more news :

I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,

He cannot draw his power this fourteen days. Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.

Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach

unto?

Ver. To thirty thousand.

105. cuisses, thigh-pieces (of armour).

107. And vaulted; for the construction cf. note on ii. 4. 279.

110

120

113. in their trim, adorned, like beasts led to the altar.

114. maid of smoky war, the goddess Bellona.

119. taste, test, try.

Hot.

Forty let it be: My father and Glendower being both away, The powers of us may serve so great a day. Come, let us take a muster speedily: Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.

Doug. Talk not of dying: I am out of fear Of death or death's hand for this one-half year. [Exeunt.

130

SCENE II. A public road near Coventry.

Enter FALStaff and BARDOLPH.

Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Sutton Co'fil' to-night.

Bard. Will you give me money, captain?

Fal. Lay out, lay out.

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 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 banns; such a

3. Sutton Co'fil'; the colloquial pronunciation of Sutton Coldfield, restored by the Camb. edd. from Qq Ff Sutton cophill' or 'Cop-hill.'

VOL. VI

1Ο

Fal

6. makes, makes up. staff quibbles on the word.

The

value of the 'angel' varied from 6s. 8d. to IOS.

13. soused, pickled.

20

commodity of warm slaves, as had as lieve hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a calíver worse than a struck fowl or a hurt wildduck. I pressed me none but such toasts-andbutter, 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 serving-men, younger sons 30 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 40 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;

19. warm, well-to-do.

21. caliver, musket.

22. toasts-and-butter, effeminately pampered fellows, cockneys'; like this last, a common term of contempt for Londoners.

26. ancients, ensigns.

27. in the painted cloth, i.e. the painted hangings of rooms, of which biblical stories were a

common subject.

30. younger sons to younger brothers, i.e. men of desperate fortune, and ready for adventure.

32. trade-fallen, out of service.

33. more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient, more ragged, though less honourably ragged, than an old patched standard (Johnson).