P. Hen. And thou a natural coward, without instinct. Fal. I deny your major. If you will deny the sheriff, so; if not, let him enter: if I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up! I hope I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another.

P. Hen. Go, hide thee behind the arras:-the rest walk up above. above. Now, my masters, for a true face, and good conscience.

Fal. Both which I have had; but their date is out, and therefore I'll hide me.

[Exeunt all but the Prince and PETO3.

P. Hen. Call in the sheriff.

Enter Sheriff and Carrier.

Now, master sheriff, what's your will with me?
Sher. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
Hath follow'd certain men unto this house.

P. Hen. What men?

Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord; A gross fat man.

P. Hen. The man, I do assure you, is not here,
For I myself at this time have employ'd him.
And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee,
That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time,
Send him to answer thee, or any man,

For any thing he shall be charg'd withal:

inciting him to deny any guilt: the old copies read “essentially made,” which Rowe altered to "mad." In "The Winter's Tale," Vol. iii. p. 484, we had mad misprinted for "made," and here we have made misprinted for “mad." 3 Exeunt all but the Prince and PETO.] There is no stage-direction here in the quartos, and the folio has only "Exit." The modern editors have retained Poins on the stage with the prince, and it is to be admitted that Poins has generally been his companion; but in this instance it is quite clear that Peto remains; for in the quarto and folio editions, after the sheriff and carrier have retired, the conversation respecting the contents of Falstaff's pockets is entirely between the prince and Peto, whom the prince by name afterwards wishes good morrow, nothing being said about Poins. We therefore without scruple restore the old reading. The other arrangement may seem preferable to some persons, but probably Shakespeare thought otherwise.

And so, let me entreat you, leave the house.

Sher. I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.

P. Hen. It may be so: if he have robb'd these men, He shall be answerable; and so, farewell.

Sher. Good night, my noble lord.

P. Hen. I think it is good morrow, is it not? Sher. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock. [Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier. P. Hen. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go, call him forth.

Peto. Falstaff!-fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a horse.

P. Hen. Hark, how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets. [PETO searches.] What hast thou found? Peto. Nothing but papers, my lord.

P. Hen. Let's see what they be read them.

Peto. Item, A capon,

Item, Sauce,.

Item, Sack, two gallons,

Item, Anchovies, and sack after supper,.
Item, Bread,

P. Hen. O monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack!—What there is else, keep close: we'll read it at more advantage. There let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the morning: we must all to the wars, and thy place shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot; and, I know, his death will be a march of twelve-score". The money shall be paid back again with advantage.

4 Item, Bread, ob.] So all the old copies; and ob. for obolum, was the universal mode, at that time, of writing a half-penny. In the quartos and folios the account is drawn up like a tavern bill, with the separate items and the prices carried out, and in this form it ought to be preserved.

5 - a MARCH of twelve-score.] The folio, after the later quartos, reads match; but the first and second quartos have it correctly, "march." The printer of the quarto, 1608, was possibly misled by the fact, that in archery matches, "twelve-score" yards was the usual distance.

Be with me betimes in the morning; and so good morrow, Peto.

Peto. Good morrow, good my lord.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE I.

Bangor. A Room in the Archdeacon's House.

Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, MORTIMER, and GLEN

DOWER.

Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure, And our induction full of prosperous hope.

6

Hot. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower, will you sit down?-And, uncle Worcester.-A plague upon it! it! I have forgot the map.

Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur;
For by that name as oft as Lancaster

Doth speak of you,

His cheek looks pale, and with a rising sigh

He wisheth you in heaven.

Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen Glen

dower spoke of.

Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity,

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,

Of burning cressets'; and at my birth,

8

The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shak'd like a coward.

Hot. Why, so it would have done at the same season,

6 induction-1 i. e. entrance, commencement, or introduction.

7 Of burning CRESSETS ;] Cressets and cresset-lights are often mentioned : they were used for beacons, and sometimes instead of torches to light processions, &c. They had their name from croissette, Fr., because the fire was placed upon a little cross.

HUGE foundation -] "Huge" is only found in the quarto, 1598..

if your mother's cat had but kitten'd, though yourself had never been born'.

Glend. I say, the earth did shake when I was born. Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind,

If you suppose as fearing you it shook.

Glend. The heavens were all on fire; the earth did tremble.

Hot. O! then the earth shook to see the heavens on

fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth

In strange eruptions: oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd

By the imprisoning of unruly wind

Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldame earth, and topples down
Steeples, and moss-grown towers.

At your birth,

Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,

In passion shook.

Glend.

Cousin, of many men

I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again,-that at my birth,
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes;
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds
Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have mark'd me extraordinary,
And all the courses of my life do show,

I am not in the roll of common men.

Where is he living,-clipp'd in with the sea

That chides the banks of England, Scotland, Wales,—
Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
And bring him out, that is but woman's son,
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art,

And hold me pace in deep experiments.

9

- though yourself had never been born.] This and preceding speeches by Hotspur, are printed as prose in all the old copies, and it is not easy to make any thing like verse of them. The measure is elsewhere irregular.

Hot. I think, there is no man speaks better Welsh. I'll to dinner.

Mort. Peace, cousin Percy! you will make him mad. Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.

Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man;

But will they come, when you do call for them? Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command the devil.

Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil, By telling truth: tell truth, and shame the devil.— If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, And I'll be sworn, I have power to shame him hence. O! while you live, tell truth, and shame the devil. Mort. Come, come;

No more of this unprofitable chat.

Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head

Against my power: thrice from the banks of Wye,
And sandy-bottom'd Severn, have I sent him,
Bootless home, and weather-beaten back.

Hot. Home without boots, and in foul weather too! How 'scapes he agues, in the devil's name?

Glend. Come, here's the map: shall we divide our right,

According to our three-fold order ta'en?

Mort. The archdeacon hath divided it'
Into three limits, very equally.

England, from Trent and Severn hitherto,
By south and east is to my part assign'd:
All westward, Wales, beyond the Severn shore,
And all the fertile land within that bound,
To Owen Glendower :—and, dear coz, to you

1 The ARCHDEACON hath divided it] The Rev. Mr. Barry suggests to me, that for archdeacon we ought to read archbishop, meaning Scroop, because no archdeacon has been mentioned. If so, the scene should also be laid at the archbishop's instead of the archdeacon's. This may be so; but as all the old copies, quarto and folio, agree in reading archdeacon, we do not feel warranted in varying from them.