Host. Say, what thing? what thing? I am an honest man's wife and, setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so.

Fal. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise.

Host. Say, what beast, thou knave, thou?

Fal. What beast! why, an otter.

Prince. An otter, Sir John, why an otter?

Fal. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a man knows not where to have her.

Host. Thou art an unjust man in saying so: thou or any man knows where to have me, thou knave, thou!

Prince. Thou say'st true, hostess; and he slanders thee most grossly.

Host. So he doth you, my lord; and said this other day you ought 21 him a thousand pound.

Prince. Sirrah, do I owe you a thousand pound?

Fal. A thousand pound, Hal! a million: thy love is worth a million; thou owest me thy love.

Host. Nay, my lord, he call'd you Jack, and said he would cudgel you.

Fal. Did I, Bardolph ?

Bard. Indeed, Sir John, you said so.

Fal. Yea, if he said my ring was copper.

Prince. I say 'tis copper: darest thou be as good as thy word now?

Fal. Why, Hal, thou know'st, as thou art but man, I dare ; but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp.

Mayor, I think, or some other magistrate of the city, had a deputy, or substitute, in each ward. Of course it was an office of considerable dignity. 21 Ought and owed are but different forms of the same word.

Prince. And why not as the lion?

Fal. The King himself is to be feared as the lion: dost thou think I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? nay, an I do, I pray God my girdle break.22

Prince. Sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty in this bosom of thine; it is all fill'd up with midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! why, thou whoreson, impudent, embossed 23 rascal, if there were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-candy to make thee long-winded, — if thy pocket were enrich'd with any other injuries but these, I am a villain: and yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket-up wrong.24 Art thou not ashamed!

Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou know'st, in the state of innocency Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou see'st I have more flesh than another man; and therefore more frailty. You confess, then, you pick'd my pocket?

Prince. It appears so by the story.

22 "Ungirt, unblest" was an old proverb. And in the language of the Old Testament, the girdle is emblematic of authority, and of the qualities that inspire respect and reverence. So in Job xii. 18: "He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a girdle." Also in Isaiah xi. 5: "And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." So that Falstaff's meaning seems to be, "May I in my old age cease to be reverenced, if I be guilty of such a misplacement of reverence."

23 Emboss'd was often used of certain sores, such as boils and carbuncles, when grown to a head. In this sense it might aptly refer to Falstaff's rotundity of person. See As You Like It, page 71, note 12.

24 Pocketing-up wrongs or injuries is an old phrase for tamely putting up with affronts, instead of resenting them with manly spirit. Of course the Prince has a punning reference to the forecited contents of Sir John's pocket.

Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee: 25 go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason; thou see'st I am pacified. Still? Nay, pr'ythee, be gone. [Exit Hostess.]-Now, Hal, to the news at Court: for the robbery, lad, how is that answered?

Prince. O, my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee the money is paid back again.

Fal. O, I do not like that paying back; 'tis a double labour. Prince. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing.

Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with unwash'd hands too.26

Bard. Do, my lord.

Prince. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of Foot.

Fal. I would it had been of Horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well? O, for a fine thief, of the age of two-and-twenty or thereabouts! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels; they offend none but the virtuous: I laud them, I praise them.

Prince. Bardolph,

Bard. My lord?

Prince. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, My brother John; this to my Lord of Westmoreland.

[Exit BARDOLPH.

Go, Pointz, to horse, to horse; for thou and I
Have thirty miles to ride ere dinner-time.
Meet me to-morrow, Jack, i' the Temple-hall

[Exit POINTZ.

25 A characteristic stroke of humorous impudence; Falstaff making believe that he is the one sinned against, and not the sinner.

26 Doing a thing with unwashed hands appears to be much the same as doing it without gloves; that is, thoroughly or unscrupulously.

At two o'clock in th' afternoon :

There shalt thou know thy charge; and there receive
Money and order for their furniture.

The land is burning; Percy stands on high;

And either they or we must lower lie.

[Exit.

Fal. Rare words! brave world! - Hostess, my breakfast;

come:

O, I could wish this tavern were my drum !27

[Exit.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury.

Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS.

Hot. Well said, my noble Scot: if speaking truth
In this fine age were not thought flattery,

Such attribution should the Douglas have,
As1 not a soldier of this season's stamp
Should go so general-current through the world.
By God, I cannot flatter; I defy 2

The tongues of soothers; but a braver place
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:

27 Sir John prefers the leading of his gastric apparatus in the tavern to that of the military ensign, or of the drum, which was wont to be decorated with the colours of the regiment or battalion: so, as Mr. Joseph Crosby observes, "when he has heard the Prince giving orders to get ready for march. ing, he gives his orders to the Hostess to get ready for breakfast."

1 As and that were used indiscriminately,

2 Defy, again, for refuse or abjure, See page 79, note 22,- - Soothers is flatterers; a frequent usage.

Nay, task me to my word; approve me,3 lord.
Doug. Thou art the king of honour :
No man so potent breathes upon the ground
But I will beard him.

Hot.

Do so, and 'tis well.

Enter a Messenger with letters.

What letters hast thou there? I can but thank you.

Mess. These letters come from your father.

Hot. Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous sick.
Hot. Zwounds! how has he the leisure to be sick
In such a justling time? Who leads his power?
Under whose government come they along?

Mess. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord.
Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed?
Mess. He did, my lord, four days ere I set forth;
And at the time of my departure thence

He was much fear'd by his physicians.4

Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole

Ere he by sickness had been visited:

His health was never better worth than now.

Hot. Sick now! droop now! this sickness doth infect

The very life-blood of our enterprise ;
'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
He writes me here, that inward sickness,

And that his friends by deputation could not
So soon be drawn; nor did he think it meet
To lay so dangerous and dear a trust

8 "Approve me" is make trial of me, or put me to the proof.

4 This way of using fear was not uncommon. See King Richard the Third, page 51, note 21.