Hoft. Will you fupper?

have Doll Tear-fheet meet you at

[Exeunt Hoft. and Serjeant.

Fal. No more words. Let's have her.

Ch. Juft. I have heard better news.

Fal. What's the news, my good lord?

Ch. Juft. Where lay the King last night?
Gower. At Basingstoke, my lord.

Fal. I hope, my lord, all's well. What is the news, my lord?

Ch. Juft. Come all his forces back?

Gower. No; fifteen hundred foot, five hundred horfe Are march'd up to my lord of Lancaster,

Against Northumberland and the Arch-bishop.

Fal. Comes the King back from Wales, my noble lord?

Ch. Juft. You fhall have letters of me presently. Come, go along with me, good Mr. Gower. Fal. My lord,

Ch. Juft. What's the matter?

Fal. Mafter Gower, fhall I intreat you with me to dinner?

Gower. I must wait upon my good lord here, I thank you, good Sir John.

Ch. Juft. Sir John, you loiter here too long, being you are to take foldiers up in the countreys as you go.

Fal. Will you fup with me, master Gower?

Ch. Juft. What foolish mafter taught you these manners, Sir John ?

Fal. Mafter Gower, if they become me not, he was a fool that taught them me. This is the right fencing grace, my lord, tap for tap, and fo part fair.

Ch. Juft. Now the lord lighten thee, thou art a great fool!

[Exeunt.

SCENE

SCENE IV.

Continues in LONDON.

Enter Prince Henry and Poins.

RUST me, I am exceeding weary.

P. Henry. T
TR

Poins. Is it come to that? I had thought, weariness durft not have attach'd one of fo high blood.

P. Henry. It doth me, though it discolours the complexion of my Greatness to acknowledge it. Doth it not fhew vilely in me to defire small beer?

Poins. Why, a Prince should not be fo loosely ftudied, as to remember fo weak a compofition..

66

66

P. Henry, Belike then, my appetite was not princely got; for, in troth, I do now remember the poor creature, fmall beer. But, indeed, these humble confiderations make me out of love with my Greatness. "What a difgrace is it to me to remember thy name? or to know thy face to morrow? or to take note "how many pair of filk ftockings thou haft? (viz. these, and those that were the peach-colour'd ones;) or to bear the inventory of thy fhirts, as one for fuperfluity, and one other for ufe: but that the tenniscourt-keeper knows better than I, for it is a low ebb of linnen with thee, when thou keepest not racket there; as thou haft not done a great while, because the rest of thy low Countreys have made a fhift to eat up thy holland. And God knows, whether those, that bawl out of the ruins of thy linnen, fhall inherit his Kingdom but the midwives fay, the children are not in the fault; whereupon the world increafes, and kindreds are mightily strengthened.

Poins. How ill it follows, after you have labour'd so hard, you should talk fo idly? tell me, how many

6 And God knows, whether, &c.] This period is fupplied out

of the old Edition.

Mr. Pope.

Q 4

good

good young Princes would do fo, their fathers lying lo fick as yours at this time is.

P. Henry. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins? Poins. Yes, and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Henry. It fhall ferve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

Poins. Go to; I stand the pufh of your one thing, that you'll tell.

P. Henry. Why, I tell thee, it is not meet that I fhould be fad now my father is fick; albeit, I could tell to thee, (as to one it pleases me, for fault of a better, to call my friend) I could be fad, and fad in

deed too.

Poins. Very hardly, upon fuch a fubject.

P. Henry. By this hand, thou think'ft me as far in the Devil's book, as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and perfiftency. Let the end try the man. But, I tell thee, my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is fo fick; and keeping fuch vile company, as thou art, hath in reafon taken from me all oftentation of forrow.

Poins. The reafon?

P. Henry. What would'ft thou think of me, if I fhould weep.

Poins. I would think thee a most princely hypocrite. P. Henry. It would be every man's thought; and thou art a bleffed fellow, to think as every man thinks; never a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way better than thine; every man would think me an hypocrite, indeed. And what excites your moft worshipful thought to think fo?

Poins. Why, because you have feemed fo lewd, and fo much ingraffed to Falfaff.

P. Henry. And to thee.

Poins. Nay, by this light, I am well spoken of, I can hear it with mine own ears; the worft they can fay of me is, that I am a fecond brother, and that I

am

am a proper fellow of my hands: and those two things, I confefs, I cannot help. Look, look, here comes Bardolph.

P. Henry. And the Boy that I gave Falstaff; he had him from me christian, and, fee, if the fat villain have not transform'd him ape.

S CE NE

Enter Bardolph and Page.

Bard. Save your Grace.

V.

P. Henry. And yours, most noble Bardolph. Bard. Come, you virtuous afs, and bashful fool, muft you be blushing? wherefore blush you now; what a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it fuch a matter to get a pottle-pot's maiden-head?

Page. He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could difcern no part of his face from the window; at last, I fpy'd his eyes, and, methought, he had made two holes in the ale-wive's new petticoat, and peep'd through.

P. Henry. Hath not the boy profited?

Bard. Away, you whorfon upright rabbet, away! Page. Away, you rafcally Althea's dream, away! P. Henry. Inftruct us, boy, what dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dream'd, fhe was deliver'd of a firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream.

P. Henry. A crowns-worth of good interpretation; there it is, boy, [Gives him mony. Poins. O that this good bloffom could be kept from cankers! well, there is fix pence to preferve thee. Bard. If you do not make him be hang'd among you, the Gallows fhall be wrong'd.

P. Henry. And how doth thy mafter, Bardolph ? Bard. Well, my good lord; he heard of your Grace's coming to town. There's a letter for you.

P. Henry.

P. Henry. Deliver'd with good refpect?- and how doth the Martlemas, your Mafter?

Bard. In bodily health, Sir.

Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a physician; but that moves not him; though that be fick, it dies

not.

P. Henry. I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog; and he holds his place: for, look you, how he writes.

Every man

Poins reads. John Falstaff, knight, must know that, as often as he hath occafion to name himself: even like those that are kin to the King, for they never prick their finger but they fay, there is fome of the King's blood fpilt. How comes that? fays he, that takes upon him not to conceive: 7 the answer is as ready as a borrower's cap; I am the King's poor coufin, Sir.

P. Henry. Nay, they will be kin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. But, to the letter:-Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the fon of the King, nearest his father, Harry Prince of Wales, Greeting.

Poins. Why, this is a certificate.

P. Henry. Peace.

8 I will imitate the honourable Roman in brevity. Poins. Sure, he means brevity in breath; fhortwinded.

P. Henry. I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins, for he mifufes thy favours fo much, that he fwears, thou art to marry his Sifter Nell. Repent at idle times as thou

7 the answer is as ready as a borrow'd cap.] But how is a borrow'd cap fo ready? read, a borrower's cap: and then there is humour in it; he that goes to borrow mony being of all others the most complaifant.

8 I will imitate the honourable ROMANS in brevity.] I fuppofe it should be ROMAN, meaning M. Brutus who affected great brevity of file.

may'st