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Enter Travellers.

1. Trav. Come, neighbour; the boy fhall lead our horfes down the hill: we'll walk afoot a while, and ease our legs.

Thieves. Stand.

Trav. Jefu blefs us!

Fal. Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats: Ah! whorfon caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they hate' us youth: down with them; fleece them.

1.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.

[Exeunt Falstaff &c. driving the travellers out.

Re-enter Prince HENRY, and POINS.

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 week, laughter for a month, and a good jeft for ever.

Poins. Stand close, I hear them coming.

Re-enter Thieves.

Fal. Come, my mafters, let us fhare, and then to horse before day. An the prince and Poins be not two arrant

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- gorbellied-] i. e. fat and corpulent. See the Gloffary to Kennet's Parochial Antiquities. This word is ufed by Sir T. North in his tranflation of Plutarch, by Nash and others. STEEVENS.

3 ye fat chuffs;] This term of contempt is always applied to rich and avaricious people. The derivation of the word is faid to be uncertain. Perhaps it is a corruption of chough, a thievith bird that collects its prey on the fea fhore. STEEVENS.

1

-the true men:] In the old plays a true man is always fet in oppofition to a thief. STEEVENS.

See Vol. II. p. 90, n. 6. MALONE.

1

argument for a week,-] Argument here means the fubject of difcourfe or merriment. So Pedro fays to Benedick in Much ado about Nothing, [Vol. II. p. 217,] "Well, if ever thou doft fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument." MASON. 5

cowards

cowards, there's no equity ftirring: there's no more valour in that Poins, than in a wild duck.

P. Hen. Your money.
Poins. Villains!

[rushing out upon them.

[As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins fet upon them. Falstaff, after a blow or two, and the reft, run away, leaving their booty behind them.] P. Hen. Got with much eafe. Now merrily to horse: The thieves are fcatter'd, and poffefs'd with fear So ftrongly, that they dare not meet each other; Each takes his fellow for an officer.

Away, good Ned. Falstaff fweats to death,
And lards the lean earth as he walks along :
Wer't not for laughing, I fhould pity him.
Poins. How the rogue roar'd!

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[Exeunt.

-But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your boufe. -He could be contented,-Why is he not then? In refpect of the love he bears our houfe:-he fhews in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me fee fome more. The purpose you undertake, is dangerous, Why, that's certain; 'tis dangerous to take a cold, to fleep, 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 friends you bave named, uncertain; the time itself unforted; and your whole plot too light, for the counterpoife of fo great an oppofition. Say you fo, fay you fo? I fay unto you again, you are a fhallow cowardly hind, and you lie. What a ĺack-brain is this? By the lord our plot is a good plot as

2 Enter Hotfpur, reading a letter.] This letter was from George Dunbar, earl of March, in Scotland. Mr. EDWARDS'S MS. Notes.

ever

ever was laid; our friends true and conftant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation: an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frofty-fpirited rogue is this? Why, my lord of York 3 commends the plot, and the general course of the action. 'Zounds, an I were now by this rafcal, I could brain him with his lady's fan 4. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myfelf? lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not, befides, the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not, fome of them, fet forward already? What a pagan rafcal is this? an infidel ? Ha! you shall fee now, in very fincerity 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 fuch a dish of skimm'd milk with fo honourable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king: We are prepared: I will fet forward to night.

Enter Lady PERCY.

How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours.

Lady:

3-my lord of York] Richard Scroop, archbishop of York. STEEV. 4 I could brain bim with bis lady's fan.] Mr. Edwards obferves, in his Canons of Criticism," that the ladies in our author's time wore fans made of feathers. See the wooden cut in a note on a paffage in the Merry Wives of Windfor, Act II. fc. ii. and the figure of Marguerite de France Ducheffe de Savoie, in the fifth Vol. of Montfaucon's Monarchie de France, Plate XI. STEEVENS.

So in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at feveral weapons, A& V. "Were't not better

"Your head were broke with the bandle of a fan." WHALLEY, This paffage ought to be a memento to all commentators, not to be too pofitive about the cuftoms of former ages. Mr Edwards has laughed unmercifully at Dr. Warburton for fuppofing that Hotspur meant to brain the earl of March with the bandle of his lady's fan, inftead of the feathers of it. The lines quoted by Mr. Whalley fhew that the fuppofition was not fo wild a one as Mr. Edwards fuppofed. MALONE.

5 How now, Kate?] Shakspeare either miftook the name of Hotfpur's wife, (which was not Katharine, but Elizabeth,) or elfe defignedly changed it, out of the remarkable fondnefs he feems to have had for the familiar appellation of Kate, which he is never weary of repeating, when he has once introduced it; as in this fcene, the fcene of Katharine

5

Lady P. O my good lord, why are you thus alone? For what offence have I, this fortnight, been

A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed?

Tell me, fweet lord, what is't that takes from thee
Thy ftomach, pleasure, and thy golden fleep?
Why doft thou bend thine eyes upon the earth;
And start so often when thou fit'ft alone?
Why haft thou lost the fresh blood in thy cheeks;
And given my treasures 7, and my rights of thee,
To thick-ey'd mufing, and curs'd melancholy?
In thy faint flumbers, I by thee have watch'd,
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars:
Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed;
Cry, Courage!-to the field! And thou haft talk'd
Of fallies, and retires; of trenches, tents,
Of palifadoes, frontiers, parapets;

Katharine and Petruchio, and the courtship between king Henry V. and
the French Princefs. The wife of Hotfpur was the lady Elizabeth
Mortimer, fifter to Roger earl of March, and aunt to Edmund earl of
March, who is introduced in this play by the name of lord Mortimer.
STEEVENS.

nor:

The fifter of Roger Earl of March, according to Hall, was called Elea"This Edmonde was fonne to Erle Roger, which Edmonde at King Richarde's going into Ireland was proclaimed heire apparent to the crowne and realme; whofe aunt, called Elinor, this lord Henry Percy had married." Chron. fol. 20. So alfo Holinfhed. MALONE.

6-tby golden fleep?] So, in Hall's Chronicle, Richard III: "-he needed now no more once for that caufe eyther to wake, or breake his golden fleep." HENDERSON.

7 And given my treafures,-] So in Othello:

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"To pour our treasures into foreign laps." MALONE.

and retires;] Retires are retreats. So in Holinfhed, p. 960: the Frenchmen's flight, for many fo termed their fudden retire." STEEVENS.

9-frontiers,] Frontiers formerly meant not only the bounds of different territories, but alfo the forts built along, or near thofe limits. In Ives's Practice of Fortification, printed in 1589, p. 1. it is faid, "A forte not placed where it were needful, might fcantly be accounted for frontier." Again, p. 21: "In the frontiers made by the late em. peror Charles the Fifth, divers of their walles having given way," &c. STEEVENS.

So in Notes from Blackfryers, by H. Fitz-geoffery, 1617:
"He'll tell of bafilifks, trenches and retires,
"Of palifadoes, parapets, frontiers." MALONE.

Of

Of bafilifks', of cannon, culverin ;
Of prifoners' ranfom, and of foldiers flain,
And all the 'currents of a heady fight.

2

Thy fpirit within thee hath been fo at war,
And thus hath so beftir'd thee in thy fleep,
That beads of sweat 3 have stood upon thy brow,
Like bubbles in a late-disturbed stream:

And in thy face ftrange motions have appear'd,
Such as we fee when men reftrain their breath
On fome great fudden hafte. O, what portents are these?
Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,

And I must know it, elfe he loves me not.

Hot. What, ho! is Gilliams with the packet gone?
Enter Servant.

Serv. He is, my lord, an hour ago.

Hot. Hath Butler brought thofe horfes from the sheriff?
Serv. One horse, my lord, he brought even now.
Hot. What horfe? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not?
Serv. It is, my lord.

Hot. That roan fhall be my throne.

Well, I will back him ftraight: O efperance* !

Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.
Lady P. But hear you, my lord.
Hot. What fay'ft thou, my lady?
Lady P. What is it carries you away?
Hot. Why, my horse,

My love, my horse.

Lady P. Out, you mad-headed ape! A weazel hath not fuch a deal of spleen,

As you are tofs'd with. In faith,

I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.

I fear, my brother Mortimer doth stir

About his title; and hath fent for you,

[Exit Serv.

Of bafilifks,] A bafilifk is a cannon of a particular kind. STEEV.
And all the currents-] i. e. the occurrences.

current was ufed inftead of occurrence. MALONE.
3 That beads of feat-] So in Julius Cæfar :

*

-mine eyes,

In old language oc◄

"Seeing those beads of forrow ftand in thine,
"Began to water." MALONE.

efperance !] This was the motto of the Percy family, MALONE.

VOL. V.

M

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