Rend'ring faint quittance', wearied and out[down

breath'd,

To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
You cast the event of war, my noble lord,
And summ'dthe accountof chance, before you said,-
Let us make head. It was your pre-surmise,
5 That, in the dole of blows' your son might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:
You were advis'd his flesh was capable

Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit 10 Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd; Yet did you say,-Go forth; and none of this, Though strongly apprehended, could restrain The stiff-born action: What hath then befallen, Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth 15 More than that being which was like to be?

To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
From whence with life he never more sprung up.
In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated', all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: then was that noble Worcester
Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword,
Had three times slain the appearance of the king.
'Gan vail his stomach3, and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,|
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is,-that the king hath won; and hath sent out
A speedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.
North. For this Ishall have time enough to mourn. 30
In poison there is physick; and these news
Having been well, that would have made me sick,
Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice
crutch;

20

35

Bard. We all, that are engaged to this loss,
Knew that we ventur'd on such dangerous seas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Choak'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And, since we are o'erset, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods.
Mort. "Tis more than time: And, my most
noble lord,

251 hear for certain, and do speak the truth,-
The gentle archbishop of York is up,
With well appointed powers; he is a man,
Who with a double surety binds his followers.
My lord your son had only but the corps,
But shadows, and the shews of men, to night;
For that same word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls;
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Turns insurrection to religion:
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
40 He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood.
Of fair king Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his cause;
Tells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land,
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
And more and less' do flock to follow him.

45

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif;
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flush'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron: And approach
The rugged'st hour that time and spight dare bring,
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand]
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead! [my lord: 55
Bard. This strained passion doth you wrong,
Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.]
Mort. The lives of all your loving complices

North. I knew of this before; but, to speak
truth,

This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
50 Go in with me; and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety, and revenge:
Get posts, and letters, and make friends with speed;
Never so few, and never yet more need.
SCENE

II.

[Exe.

A street in London.
Enter Sir John Falstaff, with his page bearing

his sword and buckler.

Ful. Sirrah, you giant! what says the doctor

Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er to my water?

1 Quittance is return. By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. 2 i. e. reduced to a Jower temper, or, as it is usually called, let down. 'i. e. began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under his fortune. i. e. bend, yield to pressure. The dole of blows is the distribution of blows; dole originally signifying the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) given away at the door of a nobleman. That is, stands over his country to defend her as she lies bleeding on the ground. 11. c. greater and less.

Page

Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for.

Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird' at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, 5 man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter 16 but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason then to set me off, why then i have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd' with an agate 15 'till now: but I will neither set you in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fiedg'd. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; yet lie will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal. Heaven may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it'; and 25 yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a batchelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can assure him. -What said master Dombledon about the sattin for my short cloak, and slops?

Page. He said, sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he lik'd not the security.

20

30

ja horse in Smithfield: If I could get me but a wife
in the stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.
Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and Sercants.
Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that com-
mitted the prince for striking him about Bar-
dolph.

Fal. Wait close, I will not see him.
Ch. Just. What's he that goes there?
Serv. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
Ch. Just. He that was in question for the rob
bery?

Serv. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with some charge to the lord John of Lancaster.

Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again.

Fal. What a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels want soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is a worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.

Serv. You mistake me, sir.

Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest 35 man? Setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so.

Fal. Let him be damn'd like the glutton: may his tongue be hotter!--A whoreson Achitophel a rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentlenian in hand, and then stand upon security!-The whoreson smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough with them' in honest 40 taking up, then they must stand upon-security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. Hook'd he should have sent me two-and-twenty yards of sattin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security. Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot he see, though he have s own lanthorn to light him.- Where's 2sardolph?

Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horse.

Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me

Sere. I pray you, sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! Ilay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou tak'st leave, thou wert better be hang'd: You hunt-counter', hence! 45avaunt!

Serv. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Just. Sir John Falstail, a word with you. Ful. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship 50 abroad: I heard say your lordship was sick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish of the

3

1i. e. to gibe. 2 Mandrake is a root supposed to have the shape of a man. * That is, I never before had an agate for my man. Our author alludes to the little figures cut in agales and other hard stones, for seals; and therefore Falstaff says, Iwill set you neither in gold nor silver. i. e. the young man. Mr. Steevens thinks, "this quibbling allusion is to the English real, riál, or royal; and that the poet seems to mean, that a barber can no more earn sixpence by his face-royal, than by the face stamped on the coin called a royal; the one requiring as little shaving as the other." That is, to keep a gentleman in expectation. To be thorough seems to be the same with the present phrase to be in with (in debt) a tradesman. At that time the resort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the post. This judge was Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the king's-bench. He died December, 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church, in Yorkshire. 10 That is, blunderer. saltness

7

10

15

20

Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled withal. 25

Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not if I do become your physician.

Ful. I am as poor as Job, my lord; but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of 30 imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself.

Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were mat-35 ters against you for your life, to come speak with

Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did not come. Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live 40 in great infumy.

Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, cannot live in less.

Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste great.

Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and my waist slenderer.

Ch. Just. You have mis-led the youthful prince. Fal. The young prince hath mis-led me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog'. 50 Ch. Just. Well, I am loth to gall a new-heal'd wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting that action.

Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf.

1 Dr. Johnson says, he does not understand this joke; that dogs lead the blind, but why does a dog lead the fat? To which Dr. Farmerrjeplies, "If the Fellow's great Belly prevented him from seeing his A wassel candle is a large candle lighted up at way, he would want a dog, as well as a blind man." 4 That is, in these times, when the prevalence of a feast. trade has produced that meanness that rates the merit of every thing by money. A coster monger is a costard-monger, a dealer in apples, called by that name, because they are shaped like a costard, i. e. a

cannot pass current. ' Meaning,

peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot
day; for, by the Lord, I take but two shirts out
with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily :|
if it be a hot day, an I brandish any thing but my
bottle, I would I might never spit white again. 5
There is not a dangerous action can peep out his
head, but I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot
Last ever: But it was always yet the trick of our
English nation, if they have a good thing, to make
it too common. If you will needs say, I am an 10
old man, you should give me rest. I would to God,
my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it
is. I were better to be eaten to death with a rust,
than to be scour'd to nothing with perpetual
motion.

Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; And heaven bless your expedition!

Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound to furnish me forth?

[Upon the power and puissance of the king,
Hast. Our present musters grow upon the file
To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard. The question then, lord Hastings, stand-
eth thus ;-

Whether our present five and twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland.
Hast. With him, we may.

Bard. Ay, marry, there's the point;
But if without him we be thought too feeble,
My judgment is, we should not step too far
15Till we had his assistance by the hand:
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and surmise
Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted.
York. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed,
It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury.
Bard. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with
hope,

Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are 20 too impatient to bear crosses'. Fare you well: Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland. [Exit.

Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle'.-A man can no more separate age and covetousness, than he can part young limbs and le-25 chery: but the gout galls the one, and the pos pinches the other; and so both the degrees prevent my curses.-Boy!

Page. Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse?
Page. Seven groats and two-pence.

Fal. I can get no remedy against this consump-
tion of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lin-
gers it out, but the disease is incurable.-Go bear
this letter to my lord of Lancaster; this to the 35
prince; this to the earl of Westmoreland; and
this to old mistress Ursula, whom I have weekly
sworn to marry since I perceiv'd the first white
hair on my chin: About it; you know where to
find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a 40
gout to this pox! for the one, or the other, plays
the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if
I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my
pension shall seem the more reasonable: A good
wit will make use of any thing; I will turn dis-45
eases to commodity.
[Exit.

SCENE III.
The Archbishop of York's Palace.
Enter the Archbishop of York, Lord Hastings, Thomas
Mowbray, (Earl Marshal) and Lord Bardolph.
York. Thus have you heard our cause, and know

our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our liopes:-
And first, lord marshal, what say you to it?

Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms;
But gladly would be better satisfied,

How, in our means, we should advance ourselves
To look with forehead bold and big enough

Eating the air on promise of supply,
Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
And so, with great imagination,
Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

Hust. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
30 To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.
Bard. Yes, in this present quality of war,
Indeed of instant action: A cause on foot
Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist
To build at all? Much more in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation;
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
50 To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men instead of men:
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
55 Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.
Hast. Grant, that our hopes (yetlikely of fair birth)
Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
30lThe very utmost man of expectation:

'i. e. May I never have my stomach inflamed again with liquor; to spit white, being the consequence of inward heat. 2 A quibble was probably here intended on the word cross, which meant a coin so called, because stamped with a cross, as well as a disappointment or trouble. A beetle wielded by three men. i. e. anticipate my curses. i. e. profit, self-interest.

3

I think,

Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hi-
Hast. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland:
Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth: 20
But who is substituted 'gainst the French,
I have no certain notice.

ACT II.

master Phang, hold him sure;-good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continually to Pye35 corner, (saving your manhoods) to buy a saddle; and he's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbart-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is enter'd, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought

Host. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lusty yeo 40 in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loan

Host. Alas the day! take heed of him: he stabb'd 50 me in mine own house, and that most beastly: he cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither man, woman, nor child.

Phang. If I can close with him, I care not for 55 his thrust.

Host. No, nor I neither; I'll be at your elbow. Phung. An I but fist him once; an he come but within my vice';

Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, 60 Host. Throw me in the kennel? I'll throw thee he's an infinitive thing upon my score:-Good in the kennel. Wilt thou? wilt thou? thou baş

'Vice or grasp; a metaphor taken from a smith's vice. Perhaps a corruption of the Libbard'sbead. A lone woman is a desolate unfriended woman. That is, red nose, from the effect of Malmsey wine.