P. Hen. He is walked up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek him. [Pretends to seek POINS. Fal. I am accursed to rob in that thief's com

pany: : the rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the squire further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly, any time this two-and-twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines 3 to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it could not be else; I have drunk medicines.— Poins!—Hal!—a plague upon you both!—Bardolph!-Peto!-I'll starve, ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man, and leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground, is threescore and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough: A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true to one another! [They whistle.] Whew! -A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged.

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.

Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again, for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?

2 i. e. the square or measure. A carpenter's rule was called a square; from esquierre, Fr.

3 Alluding to the vulgar notion of love-powders.

To colt is to trick, fool, or deceive; perhaps from the wild tricks of a colt.

P. Hen. Thou liest, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Fal. I pr'ythee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse: good king's son.

P. Hen. Out, you rogue! shall I be your ostler! Fal. Go, hang thyself in thy own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made on you all, and sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: When a jest is so forward, and afoot too,-I hate it.

Gads. Stand.

Enter GADSHILL.

Fal. So I do, against my will.

Poins. O, 'tis our setter: I know his voice.

Enter BARDOLPH.

Bard. What news?

Gads. Case ye, case ye; on with your visors; there's money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going to the king's exchequer.

Fal. You lie, you rogue; 'tis going to the king's

tavern.

Gads. There's enough to make us all.

Fal. To be hanged.

P. Hen. Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins, and I will walk lower: if they 'scape from your encounter, then they light

on us.

Peto. How many be there of them?

Gads. Some eight, or ten.

Fal. Zounds! will they not rob us?

P. Hen. What, a coward, Sir John Paunch? Fal. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no coward, Hal.

P. Hen. Well, we leave that to the proof.

Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge; when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him. Farewell, and stand fast.

Fal. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.

P. Hen. Ned, where are our disguises?

Poins. Here, hard by; stand close.

[Exeunt P. HEN. and POINS. Fal. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole5, ; every man to his business.

say I;

Enter Travellers.

1 Trav. Come, neighbour; the boy shall lead our horses down the hill: we'll walk afoot a while, and ease our legs.

Thieves. Stand.

Trav. Jesu bless us!

Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats: Ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth: down with them ; fleece them.

1 Trav. O, we are undone, both we and ours, for ever.

Fal. Hang ye, gorbellied 6 knaves; Are ye undone? No, ye fat chuffs7; I would, your store were here! On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves? young men must live: You are grand-jurors are ye? We'll jure ye, i'faith.

[Exeunt FAL. &c. driving the Travellers out.

5 i. e. be his lot or portion, happiness. This proverbial phrase has been already explained in the notes on The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Taming of the Shrew, and Winter's Tale.

6 Gorbellied is big-paunched, corpulent.

7 A term of reproach usually applied to avaricious old citizens. It is of uncertain derivation. Cotgrave interprets Un gros marroufle, a big cat; also an ouglie luske or clusterfist; also a rich churl or fat chuffe.'

Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS.

P. Hen. The thieves have bound the true men: Now could thou and I rob the thieves, and go merrily to London, it would be argument9 for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever. Poins. Stand close, I hear them coming.

Re-enter Thieves.

Fal. Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse before day. An the prince and Poins be not two arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring : there's no more valour in that Poins, than in a wild duck.

P. Hen. Your money. [Rushing out upon them. Poins. Villains.

[As they are sharing, the Prince and POINS

set upon them. FALSTAFF, after a blow or two, and the rest, run away, leaving the booty behind them.

P. Hen. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse:

The thieves are scatter'd, and possess'd with fear
So strongly, that they dare not meet each other;
Each takes his fellow for an officer.

Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along:
Wer't not for laughing, I should pity him.
Poins. How the rogue roar'd!

[Exeunt.

8 True for honest; thus opposing the true men to the thieves. 9 Argument is subject matter for conversation. Thus in Much Ado about Nothing, Act i. Sc. 1: Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

"

more.

Warkworth.

SCENE III.

A Room in the Castle.

Enter HOTSPUR, reading a Letter1.

But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your house. He could be contented,-Why is he pot then? In respect of the love he bears our house-he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some The purpose you undertake is dangerous;— Why, that's certain; 'tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink! but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. The purpose you undertake is dangerous; the friends you have named, uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and your whole plot too light, for the counterpoise of so great an opposition.-Say you so, say you so I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lack-brain is this? By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation: an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frosty-spirited rogue is this? Why, my lord of York2 commends the plot, and the general course of the action. 'Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan3. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myself? Lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not, besides,

?

This letter was from George Dunbar, earl of March, in Scotland.

2 Richard Scroop, archbishop of York.

3 See note on The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 3, p. 190.