Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink, Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood; Colour her working with such deadly wounds; He never did encounter with Glendower; He durst as well have met the devil alone, Or you shall hear in such a kind from me We license your departure with your son:- I will not send them:-I will after straight, Re-enter WORCESTER. Hot. Speak of Mortimer? "Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my soul Want mercy, if I do not join with him: Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins, And shed my dear blood drop by drop i'the But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer [dust, As high i'the air as this unthankful king, As this ingratet and canker'd Bolingbroke. North. Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad. [To WORCESTER. Wor. Who struck this heat up, after I was gone? Hot. He will, forsooth, have all my prisonAnd when I urg'd the ransom once again [ers; Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale; That wish'd him on the barren mountains starv'd. But shall it be, that you,-that set the crown broke? And shall it, in more shame, be further spo- Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more: swim: Hot. If he fall in, good night:-or sink Send danger from the east unto the west, So honour cross it from the north to south, And let them grapple ;-O! the blood more [stirs, To rouse a lion, than to start a hare. North. Imagination of some great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. Hot. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap, [moon To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd Or dive unto the bottom of the deep, ground, Where fathom-line could never touch the And pluck up drowned honour by the locks; So he, that doth redeem her thence, might Without corrival, all her dignities: [wear, But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship! Wor. He apprehends a world of figures]] here, But not the form of what he should attend.- Wor. Those same noble Scots, Hot. I'll keep them all; By heaven he shall not have a Scot of them: No, if a Scot would save his soul, he shall not: I'll keep them, by this hand. Wor. You start away, And lend no ear unto my purposes.- Hot. Nay, I will; that's flat:- Cousin; a word. Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy,* Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke: And that same sword-and-bucklert Prince of Wales. But that I think his father loves him not, I'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale. Art thou, to break into this woman's mood ; Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear A plague upon't!-it is in Gloustershire;- Hot. You say true: Why, what a candys deal of courtesy This fawning greyhound then did proffer me! Look,-when his infant fortune came to age, Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done. We'll stay your leisure. Hot. I have done, i'faith. Wor. And 'tis no little reason bids us speed, To save our heads by raising of a head :* For, bear ourselves as even as we can, The king we always think him in our debt; And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, Till he hath found a time to pay us home. And see already, how he doth begin To make us strangers to his looks of love. Hot. He does, he does; we'll be reveng’d on him. Wor. Cousin, farewell :-No further go in this, Than I by letters shall direct your course. When time is ripe, (which will be suddenly,) I'll steal to Glendower, and lord Mortimer; Where you and Douglas, and our powers at SCENE I.-Rochester.-An Inn Yard. Enter a CARRIER, with a Lantern in his hand. 1 Car. Heigh ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hanged: Charles' waint is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not packed. What, ostler! Ost. [Within.] Anon, anon. 1 Car. I pry'thee Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point; the poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.§ Enter another CARRIER. 2 Car. Pease and beans are as dank]] here Wor. Then once more to your Scottish pris-as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor oners. Deliver them up without their ransom straight, And make the Douglas' son your only mean For powers in Scotland; which,-for divers reasons, Which I shall send you written,-be assur'd, Will easily be granted.-You, my lord, [To NORTHUMBERLAND. Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,Shall secretly into the bosom creep Of that same noble prelate, well belov'd, The archbishop. Hot. Of York, is't not? Wor. True; who bears hard His brother's death at Bristol the lord Scroop. As what I think might be, but what I know Hot. Why, it cannot choose but be a noble plot:And then the power of Scotland, and of York,— To join with Mortimer, ha? Wor. And so they shall. Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd. jades the bots: this house is turned upside down, since Robin ostler died. 1 Car. Poor fellow! never joyed since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him. 2 Car. I think, this be the most villanous house in all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench.** Cur. Like a tench? by the mass, there is ne'er a king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the first cock. 2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jor den, and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach.tt 1 Car. What, ostler! come away and be hanged, come away. 2 Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two razes of ginger, to be delivered as far as Charingcross. 1 Car. 'Odsbody! the turkies in my pannier are quite starved.-What, ostler!—A plague on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear? An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.Come, and be hanged:-Hast no faith in thee? Enter GADSHILL. Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock? A body of forces. The constellation Ursa major. Name of his horse. Measure. | Wet. Worms. **Spotted like a tench. + A small fish supposed to breed fleas. 1 Car. I think it be two o'clock. Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lantern, to see my gelding in the stable. 1 Car. Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i'faith. Guds. I pr'ythee, lend me thine. 2 Car. Ay, when? canst tell?-Lend me thy lantern, quoth a?-marry, I'll see thee hanged first. Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London? 2 Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugs, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge. [Exeunt CARRIERS. Gads. What ho! chamberlain ! Cham. [Within.] At hand, quoth pick-purse.* Gads. That's even as fair as-at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou variest no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'st the plot how. Enter CHAMBERLAIN. Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins! P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal; What a brawling dost thou keep? Fal. Where's Poins, Hal? 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 company: 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 Cham. Good morrow, master Gadshill. It shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but holds current, that I told you yesternight: to die a fair death for all this, if I 'scape hangThere's a franklint in the wild of Kent, hathing for killing that rogue. I have forsworn brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: They will away presently. Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with saint Nicholas' clerks, I'll give thee this neck. Cham. No, I'll none of it: I pr'ythee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou worship'st saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falsehood may. Gads. What talkest thou to me of the hangman? if I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows: for, if I hang, old Sir John hangs with me; and, thou knowest, he's no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dreamest not of, the which, for sport sake, are content to do the profession some grace; that would, if matters should be looked into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am joined with no foot land-rakers, no long-staff, sixpenny strikers; none of these mad, mustachio purplehued malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers;||| such as can hold in; such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray: And yet I lie; for they pray continually to their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.¶ Cham. What, the commonwealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way? his company hourly any time this two-andtwenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicinest 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 colts me thus ? 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. Guds. She will, she will; justice. hath li- An I have not ballads made on you all, and quored her.** We steal us in a castle, cock-sung to filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed, we poison: When a jest is so forward, and afoot walk invisible. too, I hate it. Chum. Nay, by my faith? I think you are more beholden to the night, than to fern-seed, for your walking invisible. Gads. Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our purchase,tt as I am a true‡‡ man. Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief. A proverb, from the pick-purse being always ready. + Freeholder. 1 Cant term for highwaymen. Footpads. Public accountants, Booty. In what we acquire. * Oiled, smoothed her over. 400 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. 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? 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. P. Hen. Ned, where are our disguises? [Exeunt P. HENRY and POINS. Ful. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole,* say I; every man to his business. 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 ! Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death, Enter HOTSPUR, reading a Letter. - 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 not 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 more. 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 What a lackso? I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you lie. 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 York commends the plot, and the general course of the action. 'Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain h with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myself? lord Edward Morting, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? l there not, besides, the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not, some of Fal. Hang ye, gorbelliedt knaves; Are ye them, set forward already? What a pagan undone? No, yet fat chuffs; I would, your rascal is this! an infidel! Ha! you shall see store were here! On, bacons, on! What, ye now, in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, knaves? young men must live: You are grand-will he to the king, and lay open all our projurors are ye? We'll jure ye, i'faith. Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the vilains 'throats: Ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth: down with them; fleece them. 1 Trav. Ó, we are undone, both we and ours, for ever. [Exeunt FALSTAFF, &c. driving the TRA VELLERS out. 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 arguments 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. [As they are sharing, the PRINCE and POINS P. Hen. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: The thieves are scatter'd, and possess'd with So strongly, that they dare not meet each other; * Portion. Fat, corpulent. Clowns. A subject. ceedings. O, I could divide myself, and go to Enter Lady PERCY. How now, Kate? I must leave you within Lady. O my good lord, why are you thus For what offence have I, this fortnight, been thee Thy stomach, pleasure, and thy golden sleep? cheeks; And given my treasures, and my rights of thee, And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars: Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed; talk'd Of sallies, and retires; of trenches, tents, * Drops his fat. Hot. That roan shall be my throne. Lady. But hear you, my lord. My love, my horse. Lady. Out, you mad-headed ape! A weasel hath not such a deal of spleen, [me Hot. So far afoot, I shall be weary, love. Away, you trifler!-Love?--I love thee not, crowns, And pass them current too.-Gods me, my horse! What say'st thou, Kate? what would'st thou have with me? Lady. Do you not love me? do you not, indeed? Well, do not then; for, since you love me not, SCENE IV.-Eastcheap.-A Room in the Enter Prince HENRY and POINS. P. Hen. Ned, pr'ythee, come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little. Poins. Where hast been, Hal? P. Hen. With three or four loggerheads, amongst three or four score hogsheads. I have sounded the very base string of humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of draw. ers; and can call them all by their Christian names, as-Tom, Dick, and Francis. They. take it already upon their salvation, that, though I be but prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy; and tell me flatly, I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian,t a lad of mettle, a good boy,--by the Lord, so they call me; and when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call-drinking deep, dying scarlet: and when you breathe in your watering, they cry-hem! and bid you play it off.-To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour, that thou wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned, to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now in my hand by an under-skinker; one that never spake other English in his life, than -Eight shillings and sixpence, and-You are welcome; with this shrill addition;-Anon, anon, Sir! Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon, or so. But, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, I pr'ythee, do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer, to what end he gave me the sugar; and do thou never leave calling-Francis, that his tale to me may be nothing but-anon. Step aside, and I'll show thee a precedent. Poins. Francis! P. Hen. Thou art perfect. Enter FRANCIS. [Exit POINS. Fran. Anon, anon, Sir.-Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph. P. Hen. Come hither, Francis. P. Hen. How long hast thou to serve, Francis? Fran. Forsooth, five year, and as much as to Poins. [Within.] Francis! P. Hen. Five years! by'rlady, a long lease for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant, as to play the coward with thy indenture, and to show it a fair pair of heels, and run from it? Fran. O lord, Sir! I'll be sworn upon all the books in England, I could find in my heartPoins. [Within.] Francis! * Three. |