me, Hal-God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, I knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the Lord, an I do not, I am a villain; I'll be damned for never a king's son in Christendom.

P. Hen. Where shall we take a purse to-morrow, Jack? Fal. Zounds! where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me.1

P. Hen. I see a good amendment of life in thee; from praying, to purse-taking.

Enter POINS at a distance.

Fal. Why, Hal, 't is my vocation, Hal; 'tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation. Poins !-Now shall we know if Gadshill have set a match.2 O, if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in hell were hot enough for him? This is the most omnipotent villain, that ever cried Stand to a true man.3

P. Hen. Good morrow, Ned.

Poins. Good morrow, sweet Hal.—What says monsieur Remorse? What says Sir John Sack-and-Sugar? 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? 4

1 Baffle me.] To baffle originally meant to punish a recreant knight by hanging him up by the heels and beating him. This was often done only in effigy. See the Editor's Samson Agonistes of Milton, note on 7. 1237.

2 If Gadshill have set a match.] To set a match was to lay a plan for a robbery. Gadshill, near Rochester, was much infested with highwaymen in Shakspeare's time. As the name of a person it was adopted by him from the old play of The Famous Victories, &c. 3 A true man.] An honest man.

For a cup, &c.] The violation of a fasting-day is here referred to.

P. Hen. 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 damned for keeping thy word with the devil.

P. Hen. Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.

Poins. But my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by four o'clock, early at Gadshill: there are pilgrims going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders riding to London with fat purses: I 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 y will not, tarry at home, and be hanged..

you

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?

P. Hen. 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 dar'st not stand for ten shillings.1

P. Hen. Well, then, once in my days I'll be a mad

cap.

Fal. Why, that's well said.

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

P. Hen. I care not.

1 Stand for ten shillings.] royal was worth ten shillings.

Stand for a royal. The coin called a
See p. 56, note 4.

Poins. Sir John, I prithee, 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 want countenance.2 Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap.

P. Hen. Farewell, thou latter spring! Farewell, Allhallown summer! 3 [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, and Gadshill, shall rob those men that we have already way-laid; 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. P. Hen. But 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.

P. Hen. Ay, but 't is like that they will know us by

1 God give thee, &c.] This speech is in ridicule of the usual style of the Puritan preacher's prayer before sermon.

2 The poor abuses, &c.] The Puritans condemned many of the popular recreations as abuses; and Falstaff here calls robbing a

recreation.

8 All-hallown summer.] All-hallows, or All-saints day, is November 1. The Prince likens Falstaff to a latter spring and an All-hallown summer, because of the youthful passions of his old age.

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, I have cases of buckram for the nonce,2 to immask our noted 3 outward garments.

P. Hen. 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 turned back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, 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 of this lies the jest.

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

Poins. Farewell, my lord.

[Exit POINS. P. Hen. I know you all, and will a while uphold The unyoked 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 wondered at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists

1

Appointment.] Equipment. There is here also a quibbling reference to the words of Poins, 'appoint them a place of meeting.' 2 The nonce.] The occasion, literally this once.

Noted.] Known.

4 Reproof.] Refutation, disproof.

5 Unyoked.] Unrestrained.

Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.1
If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wished-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;2
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 3 to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill; 4
Redeeming time, when men think least I will.

[Exit.

SCENE III.-The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING HENRY, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others.

K. Hen. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities,

1 To strangle him.] To smother him. Compare Macbeth, ii. 3, ''Tis day, and yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp;' and Twelfth Night, v. 1, 'It is the baseness of thy fear that makes thee strangle thy propriety.'

2 Hopes.] Expectations.

Foil.] A foil is a piece of gold or silver leaf placed under a transparent gem to set it off.

To make offence, &c.] As to make my offending a piece of skilful conduct. 'This speech,' says Johnson, 'is very artfully introduced to keep the prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience; it prepares them for his future reformation; and what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself, and palliating those follies which it can neither justify nor forsake.'