Hot. If he fall in,good night:-or sink or swim: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 rouze 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, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon; Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, 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.Good cousin, give me audience for a while. Hot. I cry you mercy. Wor. Those same noble Scots, That are your prisoners, 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: He said, he would not ransom Mortimer; Wor. Hear you, cousin; a word. Hot. All studies here I solemnly defy2, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke: Wor. And so they shall. Hot. In faith, it is exceedingly well aim'd. Wor. And 'tis not little reason bids us speed, And that same sword-and-buckler prince of 40 To save our heads by raising of a head': Wales', But that I think his father loves him not, . Wor. Farewel, kinsman! I will talk to you, Art thou, to break into this woman's mood; Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear For, bear ourselves as even as we can, Hot. He does, he does; we'll be reveng'd on him. In Richard's time,-What do you call the place?-55 'Warburton thinks, that "this is probably a passage from some bombast play, and afterwards used as a common burlesque phrase for attempting impossibilities." * i. e. refuse. 3 A turbulent fellow, who fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the streets, was called a swash-buchler. Alluding, probably, to a low company (drinkers of ale) with whom the prince spent so much of his time. i. e. conjecture. To let slip, is to loose the greyhound. i. e. a body of forces. 4 АСТ SCENE I. An Inn Yard at Rochester. Enter a Carrier, with a lanthorn in his hand. 1 Car. HE [EIGH ho! An't be not four by the day, I'll be hang'd: Charles' wain is over the new chimney, and yet our horse not pack'd. What, ostler! Ost. [Within.] Anon, anon. 5 1 Car. I pr'ythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a 10 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 as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the 15 bots': this house is turn'd upside down, since Robin ostler dy'd. 1 Car. Poor fellow! never joy'd since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him. 2 Car. I think, this be the most villainous house in all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench. 1 Car. 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. Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thine. 2 Car. Ây, when, canst tell?-Lend me thy lanthorn,quoth a?-marry, I'll see thee hang'd 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 Mugges, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge. [Exeunt Car. Enter Chamberlain. Gads. What, ho! chamberlain ! Cham. 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. Cham. Good niorrow, Master Gad-hill. It holds current, that i told you yesternight: There's a franklin' in the wild of Kent, hath brought 20three 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. 2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jourden, 25 and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach'. 1 Car.What, ostler! come away, and be hang'd, come away. 2 Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two 30 razes of ginger, to be deliver❜d as far as Charing cross. 1 Car. 'Odsbody! the turkies in my pannier are quite starv'd.-What, ostler!—A plaugue on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? canst not hear: 35 An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.-Come, and be hang'd:-Hast no faith in thee? Enter Gadshill. Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lanthorn, to sce my gelding in the stable. 1 Car. Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i' faith. 6 Guds. 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 wor ship'st saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falshood may. Guds. What talk'st 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 know'st, he's no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dream'st not of, the which, or sport sake, are content to do the profession Some grace; that would, if matters should be look'd into, for their own credit sake, make all 40 whole. I am join'd with no foot land-rakers', no long-staff, six-penny strikers; none of these mad, mustachio, purple-hu'd malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers: such as can hold in; such as |45|will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner 7 than 1i. e. out of all measure; the phrase being taken from a cess, tax, or subsidy; which being by regular and moderate rates, when any thing was exorbitant, or out of measure, it was said to be out of all cess. 2i. e. wet, rotten. 3 Bots are worms in the stomach of a horse. • Warburton explains this by a Scotch word loch, a lake; while Mr. Steevens thinks that the carrier means to say-fleas as big as a louch, i. e. resembling the fish so called, in size. "This is a proverbial expression often used in the writings of that time, where the cant of low conversation is preserved. Franklin is a little gentleman: St. Nicholas was the patron saint of scholars: and Nicholas, or Old Nick, is a cant name for the devil. Hence he equivocally calls robbers, St. Nicholas' clerks. Trojan, in this and other passages of our author's plays, has a cant signification, and perhaps was only a more creditable term for a thief. i. e. with no padders, no wanderers on foot. No long-staff, six-penny strikers,—nofellows that infest the roads with long stats, and knock men down for six-pence. None of these mad, mustachio, purple-hu'd malt-worms,-none of those whose faces are red with drinking ale. 10 Mr. Theobald substituted for oneyers, moneyers, which he says might either allude to an officer of the mint, or to bankers, and his emendation was adopted by Warbur ton. Dr. Johnson thinks no change is necessary; "Gadshill tells the chamberlain that he is joined 8 11 9 with than drink, and drink sooner than pray: And] yet I lie; for they pray continually unto 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 common-wealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way? Gads. She will, she will; justice hath liquor'd her. We steal as in a castle, cock-sure; we have the receipt of fern-seed', we walk invisible. Cham. 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, as I am a true man. Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are a false thief. 5 [I am the veriest varlet that ever chew'd 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 one to another! [they whistle.] Whew!-a plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hang'd. P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-guts! lye down; lay 10thine 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 15 exchequer. What a plague mean ye, to colt* me thus? Gads. Go to; Homo is a common name to all men.-Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewel, you muddy knave. [Exeunt. 20 SCENE II, The road by Gads-hill. Enter Prince Henry, Poins, and Peto. Enter Falstaff. Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hang'd; Poins! a brawling dost thou keep! Fal. What, Poins! Hal! P. Henry. He is walk'd up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek him. 30 35 Fal. I am accurst to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath remov'd my horse, and ty'd him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the square' further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death 40 for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty year, and yet I am bewitch'd with the rogue's company. If the rascall have not given me medicines to make me love him, 45 I'll be hang'd; 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 to leave these rogues, 50 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 of 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. Enter Gadshill. Gads. Stand. Fal. So I do, against my will. Poins. O, 'tis our setter; I know his voice. 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. Ful. You lie, you rogue; 'tis going to the king's Itavern. 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. But how many be there of them? Ful. 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. with no mean wretches, but with burgomasters and great ones, or, as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great oneyers, or great-one-eers, as we say privateer, auctioneer, circuiteer." Mr. Malone explains the word thus: "By onyers (for so I believe the word ought to be written) I understand public accountants; men possessed of large sums of money belonging to the state.-It is the course of the Court of Exchequer, when the sheriff makes up his accounts for issues,_amerciaments, and mesne profits, to set upon his head o. ni. which denotes oneratur nisi habeat sufficientem exonerationem: he thereupon becomes the king's debtor, and the parties peraraile (as they are termed in law) for whom he answers, become his debtors, and are discharged as with respect to the king. To settle accounts in this manner, is still called in the Exchequer to ony; and from hence Shakspeare seems to have formed the word onyers. 1 3 Alluding to some strange properties formerly ascribed to this plant. 2 Purchase was anciently the cant term for stolen goods. Four foot by the square is probably no more than four foot by a rule. To colt, is to fool, to trick; but the Prince taking it in another sense, opposes it by ancolt, that is, unhorse. Gg hedge; hedge, when thou need'st him, there thou shalt find him. Farewel, and stand fast. Fal. Now cannot I strike him, if I should b hang'd. P. Hen. Ned, where are our disguises? Enter Travellers. 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 ! 5 your house-He could be contented,-Why, is he not then? In respect of the love he bears our house: -he shews 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 10riends you have named, uncertain; the time itself, unsorted; and your whole plot too light, for the counterpoizeofsogreat 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 Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the vil-15brain is this? By the Lord, our plot is a good plot, lains' throats: Ah! whoreson 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 undone? No, ye fat chuffs; 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. [Here they rob and bind them. [Exeunt. 25 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 20 York' commends the plot, and the general course of the action. By this hand, if I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myself? lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is 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 them, set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this? an infidel? Ha! you shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king, and lay open all our proceedings. O,I could divide myself, and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of skimm'd milk with so honourable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king, we are prepared: Iwill set forward to-night. 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 argument for a 30 week, laughter for a month, and a good jest for ever. Poins. Stand close, I hear them coming. Enter Thieves again. Ful. Come, my masters, let us share, and then 35 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. [As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon them. They all run away; and Falstaff, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty behind him.] P. Hen. Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse: The thieves are scatter'd, and possess'd with fear [Exeunt. Warkworth. A room in the Castle. 40 How now, Enter Lady Percy3. Kate? I must leave you within these Lady. O my good lord, why are you thus alone? Enter Hotspur, reading a letter. But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be wellcontented to be there, inrespect of the love Ibear 60 1 The alms distributed at Lambeth palace gate is at this day called the dole. 2 i. e. fat and corpulent. i. e. honest. i. e. subject matter. Richard Scroop, archbishop of York. "The wife of Hotspur was the lady Elizabeth Mortimer, sister to Roger earl of March, who was declared presumptive heir to the crown by King Richard II. and aunt to Edmund earl of March, who is introduced in this play by the name of lord Mortimer. ? retreats. i. e. forts. 9 A basilisk a cannon of a particular kind. Like Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream : Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, Hot. What, ho! is Gilliams with the packet Enter Servant. Serv. He is, my lord, an hour ago. Serv. One horse, my lord, he brought even now. Hot. That roan shall be my throne. A weazle hath not such a deal of spleen, [will. In sooth, I'll know your business, Harry, that I Hot. So far afoot, I shall be weary, love. Away, you trifler! love? I love thee not, Lady. Do you not love me? do you not, indeed: Hot. Come, wilt thou see me ride? Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know; Hot. Not an inch further. But hark you, Kate: 5 10 15 The Boar's-Head Tavern in East-Cheap. Enter Prince Henry, and Poins. P. Henry. Ned, pr'ythee, come out of that fat room, and lend me thy hand to laugh a little. Poins. Where hast thou been, Hal? P. Henry. 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 drawers; and can calithem 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 201 am the king of courtesy; and tell me flatly, I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian', 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 East-Cheap, 25 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 lan30guage 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 you this pennyworth of sugar, clapt even now into my hand by an under-skrink35er; one that never spake other English in his life, than-eight shillings and sixpence, and-you are welcome; and 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 Fal staff come, I pr'ythee, do thou stand in some byroom, 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 shew 45 thee a precedent. [Poins retires. 40 50 55 Poins. Francis! P. Henry. Thou art perfect. Enter Francis.. P. Henry. Five years! by'r Lady, a long lease for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, dar'st 60 thou be so valiant, as to play the coward with thy indenture, and shew it a fair pair of heels, and run from it? 'Puppets. 2 Meaning, both crack'd money and broken head. under drawer. Gg 2 i. e. a wencher. * i. e. an Fran. |