Sugar? 11 Jack, how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, that thou soldest him on Good-Friday last, for a cup of Madeira, and a cold capon's leg?

Prince. Sir John stands to his word; the devil shall have his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of proverbs: he will give the devil his due.

Poins. Then art thou damn'd for keeping thy word with the devil.

Prince. Else he had been damn'd for cozening the devil.

Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gads-hill. There are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses; have visors for you all, you have horses for yourselves: Gadshill lies to-night in Rochester; I have bespoke supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it as secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home, and be hang'd.

14 A deal of learned ink has been shed in discussing what Sir: John's favourite beverage might be. The very learned archdeacon Nares has pretty much proved it to have been the Spanish wine now called Sherry. Thus in Blount's Glossographia: "Sherry sack, so called from Xeres, a town of Corduba in Spain, where that kind of sack is made." And in Gervase Markham's English Housewife: "Your best sacke are of Seres in Spaine." And indeed Falstaff expressly calls it sherris-sack. The latter part of the name, sack, is thought to have come from its being a dry wine, vin sec; and it was formerly written seck. It appears, however, that there were divers sacks. Thus in Howell's Londinopolis: "I read in the reign of Henry VII. that no sweet wines were brought into this reign but Malmseys." And again: "Moreover no sacks were sold but Rumney, and that for medicine more than drink, but now many kinds of sacks are known and used." And still more conclusively in Venners's Via Recta ad Vitam Longam, 1637: "But what I have spoken of mixing sugar with sack, must be understood of Sherrie sack, for to mix sugar with other wines, that in a common appellation are called sack, and are sweeter in taste, makes it unpleasant to the pallat, and fulsome to the taste."

H.

Fal. Hear ye, Yedward: if I tarry at home, and go not, I'll hang you for going. Poins. You will, chops?

Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one?

Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my

faith.

Fal. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou cam'st not of the blood royal, if thou darʼst not stand for ten shillings.15 Prince. Well, then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.

Fal. Why, that's well said.

Prince. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home. Fal. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor, then, when thou art king.

Prince. I care not.

Poins. Sir John, I pr'ythee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure, that he shall go.

Fal. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion, and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move, and what he hears may be believed, that the true prince may (for recreation sake) prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time Farewell you shall find me in

want countenance.

Eastcheap.

Prince. Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, All-hallown summer! 16 [Exit FALSTAFF. Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-morrow: I have a jest to execute, that I cannot manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto,"

15 Falstaff is quibbling on the word royal. The real or royal was of the value of ten shillings.

16 That is, late summer; All-hallown meaning All-saints, which festival is the first of November.

17 All the old copies have Harvey and Rossill here instead of

and Gadshill, shall rob those men that we have already waylaid: yourself and I will not be there; and when they have the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head from my shoulders.

Prince. How shall we part with them in setting forth?

Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our pleasure to fail; and then will they adventure upon the exploit themselves, which they shall have no sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them. Prince. Ay, but 'tis like that they will know us, by our horses, by our habits, and by every other appointment, to be ourselves.

Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see; I'll tie them in the wood: our visors we will change, after we leave them; and, sirrah,18 I have cases of buckram for the nonce,19 to immask our noted outward garments.

Prince. Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.

Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as true-bred cowards as ever turn'd back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason,

Bardolph and Peto. Whether Harvey and Rossill were names of actors that somehow got inserted into the text, or the original names of the persons, inadvertently left unchanged in this place, we have no means of deciding. There can be no doubt, however, that the names should be Bardolph and Peto, since these are the persons engaged with Falstaff and Gadshill in the robbery. H.

18 This passage shows that sirrah was sometimes used merely in a playful, familiar way, without implying any lack of respect.

H.

19 For the nonce signified for the occasion, for the once. Junius and Tooke, in their Etymology of Anon, led the way; and Mr. Gifford has since clearly explained its meaning. The editor of the new edition of Warton's History of English Poetry has shown that it is nothing more than a slight variation of "for then anes -"for then anis " -" for then ones, or once."

I'll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us, when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and, in the reproof 20 of this, lies the jest.

21

Prince. Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things necessary, and meet me to-morrow night in Eastcheap; there I'll sup. Farewell.

Poins. Farewell, my lord.

[Exit POINS.
Prince. I know you all, and will a while uphold
The unyok'd humour of your idleness:
Yet herein will I imitate the sun;

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists.
Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;

22

20 Reproof is confutation. To refute, to refell, to disallow, were ancient synonymes of to reprove. Thus in Cooper's Dictionary, 1584, Testes refutare is rendered to "reproove witnesses."

21 Editors generally have thought this should be to-night, as referring to the time when the robbery is to be committed; whereas it plainly refers to the night after, when the prince is to enjoy "the virtue of the jest," which is the matter that most interests him and invites him onward.

H.

22 Hopes is used simply for expectations, no uncommon use of the word even at the present day.

And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,

Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill,
Redeeming time, when men think least I will.

Enter the KING, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR, BLUNT, and Others.

King. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at the indignities,

And you have found me; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition,'
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect,

Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves
The scourge of greatness to be used on it;

And that same greatness, too, which our own hands Have holp to make so portly.

North. My lord,—

King. Worcester, get thee gone; for I do see Danger and disobedience in thine eye:

O, sir! your presence is too bold and peremptory,

1 Condition is used for nature, disposition, as well as estate or fortune. It is so interpreted by Philips, in his World of Words. And we find it most frequently used in this sense by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. See The Merchant of Venice, Act i. sc. 2, note 9.