drink, to turn true man, and to leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that ever chew'd with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground, is threefcore and ten miles afoot with me; and the ftony-hearted villains know it well enough: A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true one to another! [they whistle.] Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horfe, you rogues; give me my horfe, and be hang'd.

P. Henry. Peace, ye fat-guts! lye down; lay thine ear close to the ground, and lift 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 fo far afoot again, for all the coin in thy father's exchequer. What a plague mean ye, to colt me thus ?

6

P. Henry. Thou lieft, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Fal. I pr'ythee, good prince Hal, help me to my horfe; good king's fon.

P. Henry. Out, you rogue! fhall I be your oftler? Fal. Go, hang thyfelf 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 fung to filthy tunes, let a cup of fack be my poifon : When a jeft is fo forward, and afoot too!-I hate it.

to colt Is to fool, to trick; but the prin ce taking it in another sense, opposes it by uncolt, that is, unhorse.

JOHNSON.

In the first of these fenfes it is used by Nafhe, in Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596: "His mafter fretting and chaffing to be thus colted of both of them, &c." Again, in B. and Fletcher's Loyal Subject: "What, are we bobb'd thus ftill? colted and carted?" STEEVENS.

7

heir-apparent garters!] Alluding to the order of the garter, in which he was enrolled as beir-apparent. JOHNSON. Had this been the allufion, Shakespeare would have writtengarter, not garters: but he must be very ingenious who could hang himself in one of these garters. "He may hang himself in his own garters," is a proverb in Ray's Collection. STEEVENS.

Enter

Gads. Stand.

Enter Gads-hill.

Fal. So I do, against my will.

Poins. O, 'tis our fetter; I know his voice.

Bard. What news?

Gads. Cafe ye, cafe ye; on with your vifors; 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 hang'd.

P. Henry. Sirs, you four fhall 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. But how many be there of them?
Gads. Some eight, or ten.

1

Fal. Zounds! will they not rob us?

P. Hen. What, a coward, fir 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 horfe ftands behind the hedge; when thou need'ft him, there thou shalt find him. Farewel, and ftand faft.

Bardolph. What news?-] In all the copies that I have seen Poins is made to fpeak upon the entrance of Gads-hill thus ; O, 'tis our fetter ;-I know his voice.- - Bardolph, what news? This is abfurd; he knows Gads-hill to be the fetter, and afks Bardolph what news. To countenance this impropriety, the latter ́editions have made Gads-hill and Bardolph enter together, but the old copies bring in Gads-hill alone, and we find that Falstaff, who knew their stations, calls to Bardolph among others for his horfe, but not to Gads-hill, who was pofted at a distance. We fhould therefore read:

Poins. O, 'tis our fetter, &c.
Bard. What news ?

Gads. Cafe ye, &c. JOHNSON.

Fal.

Fal. Now cannot I ftrike him, if I fhould be hang'd.

P. Hen. Ned, where are our disguises?

Poins. Here, hard by; ftand close.

Fal. Now, my mafters, happy man be his dole, fay I; every man to his bufinefs.

Enter Travellers.

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

Thieves. Stand.

Trav. Jefu blefs us!

Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats: Ah! whorfon caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate us youth down with them; fleece them. Trav. O, we are undone, both we and ours, for

ever.

Fal. Hang ye, 'gorbellied knaves; Are ye un

9 dole, -] The portion of alms diftributed at Lambeth palace gate is at this day called the dole. In Jonfon's Alchemift, Subtle charges Face with perverting his master's charitable intentions by felling the dole beer to aqua-vita men. Sir J. HAWKINS. So, in the Coftly Whore, 1633:

66

we came thinking

"We should have some dole at the bishop's funeral.” Again:

"Go to the back gate, and you fhall have dole.” STEEVENS.

* gorbellied i. e. fat and corpulent. -]

See the Gloffary to Kennet's Parochial Antiquities. This word is likewise used by fir Thomas North in his transla tion of Plutarch.

Nafh, in his Have with you to Saffron Walden, 1596, fays:"O'tis an unconscionable gorbellied volume, bigger bulk'd than a Dutch hoy, and far more boisterous and cumbersome than a payre of Swiffers omnipotent galeaze breeches." Again, in the Weakest goes to the Wall, 1618: "What are thefe thick-skinn'd, heavy-purs'd, gorbellied churles mad?" Again, in The longer thou liveft the more Fool thou art, 1570; "Gregory Gorhely the goutie." STEEVENS.

done?

done? No, ye fat chuffs; I would, your flore were here! On, bacons, on! What, ye knaves? young men muft live: You are grand-jurors, are ye? We'll jure ye, i'faith. [Here they rob and bind them. [Exeunt.

Enter prince Henry, and Poins.

P. Henry. The thieves have bound the true men3: Now could thou and I rob the thieves, and go merrily to London, it would be argument for a week, laughter for a month, and a good jeft for ever.. Poins. Stand clofe, I hear them coming.

Enter thieves again.

Fal. Come, my mafters, let us fhare, and then to horfe before day. An the prince and Poins be not two

ye fat chuffs] This term of contempt is always applied to rich and avaricious people. So, in the Mufes Looking Glafs, 1638:

66

the chuff's crowns,

"Imprifon'd in his rufty cheft, &c."

The derivation of the word is faid to be uncertain. Perhaps it is a corruption of chough, a thievith bird that collects its prey on the fea fhore. So, in Chaucer's Affemble of Faules:

"The thief the chough, and eke the chatt'ring pie." Sir W. Davenant, in his Jufi Italian, 1630, has the fame term: "They're rich choughs, they've ftore

"Of villages and plough'd earth."

And fir Epicure Mammon, in the Alchemift, being afked who had robb'd him, anfwers, "a kind of choughs, fir." STEEVENS. 3 the true men:] In the old plays a true man is always fet in oppofition to a thief. So, in the ancient Morality called Hycke Scorner, bl. 1. no date :

And when me lift to hang a true man "Theves I can help out of pryfon."

Again, in the Four Prentices of London, 1632:

"Now true man, try if thou can't rob a thief." Again:

4

"Sweet wench, embrace a true man, scorn a thief.”

argument for a week,

STEEVENS.

-] Argument is fubject matter

for a drama. So, in the fecond part of this play : "For all my part has been but as a scene Acting that argument." STEEVENS.

46

VOL. V.

X

arrant

arrant cowards, there's no equity ftirring: there's no more valour in that Poins, than in a wild duck. P. Henry. Your money.

Poins. Villains!

[As they are faring, the Prince and Poins fet upon them. They all run away; and Falstaff, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty bebind him.]

P. Henry. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horfe :

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

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

[Exeunt

Warkworth. A room in the caftle.

Enter Hotfpur, reading a letter.

But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in refpect of the love I bear your boufe. He could be contented,- Why, is he not then? In refpect of the love he bears our house :-he fhews in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our houfe. Let me fee fome more. The purpofe you undertake, is dangerous,-Why, that's certain; 'tis dangerous to take a cold, to fleep, to drink: but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, fafety. The purpose you undertake, is dangerous; the friends you have named, uncertain; the time it

s Enter Hotspur, reading a letter.] This letter was from George Dunbar, earl of March, in Scotland. Mr. EDWARDS's MS. Notes.

Self