Poins. How ill it follows, after you have labour'd fo hard, you should talk fo idly? tell me, how many good young Princes would do fo, their fathers lying fo fick as yours at this time is.

P. Henry. Shall I tell thee one thing, Poins?

Poins. Yes, and let it be an excellent good thing. P. Henry. It fhall ferve among wits of no higher breeding than thine.

Poins. Go to; I ftand the push of your one thing, that you'll tell.

P. Henry. Why, I tell thee, it is not meet that I fhould be fad now my father is fick; albeit, I could tell to thee, as to one it pleafes me, for fault of a better, to call my friend, I could be fad, and fad indeed too.

Peins. Very hardly, upon fuch a fubject.

P. Henry. By this hand, thou think'it me as far in the Devil's book, as thou and Falstaff, for obduracy and perfiftency. Let the end try the man. But, I tell thee, my heart bleeds inwardly that my father is fo fick; and keeping fuch vile company, as thou art, hath in reafon taken from me all oftentation of forrow.

Poins. The reafon?

3

P. Henry. What would'ft thou think of me, if I fhould weep.

Poins. I would think thee a moft princely hypocrite. P. Henry. It would be every man's thought; and thou art a bleffed fellow, to think as every man thinks. Never a man's thought in the world keeps the road-way

paffage Mr. Pope restored from the first edition. I think it may as well be omitted, and therefore have degraded it to the margin. It is omitted in the firtt folio, and in all fubfequent editions before Mr. Pope's, and was perhaps expunged by the authour. The editors, unwilling to lose any thing

of Shakespeare's, not only infert what he has added, but recal what he has rejected.

3 All oftentation of forrow. ] Oftentation is here not boaftful hew, but fimply fhew. Merchant of Venice.

-One well fludied in a fad oftent
To pleafe his Grandame.

better

better than thine. Every man would think me an hypocrite, indeed. And what excites your moft worhipful thought to think fo?

Poins. Why, because you have feemed fo lewd, and fo much ingraffed to Falstaff.

P. Lenry. And to thee.

Poins. Nay, by this light, I am well spoken of, I can hear it with mine own ears; the worst they can fay of me is, that I am a fecond brother, and that I am a proper fellow of my hands; and thofe two things, I confefs, I cannot help. Look, look, here comes Bardolph.

4

P. Henry. And the Boy that I gave Falstaff; he had him from me chriftian, and, fee, if the fat villain have not transform'd him ape.

SCENE V.

Enter Bardolph and Page.

Bard. Save your Grace.

5

P. Henry. And yours, most noble Bardolph. Bard. [to the Boy] Come, you virtuous afs, and bafhful fool, muft you be blushing? wherefore blush you now; what a maidenly man at arms are you become? Is it fuch a matter to get a pottle-pot's maiden-head?

Page. He call'd me even now, my lord, through a red lattice, and I could difcern no part of his face from the window; at laft, I fpy'd his eyes, and, methought,

4 Proper fellow of my hands.] A tall or proper man of his hands was a flout fighting man.

$ Poins. Come, you virtuous afs, &c.] Tho' all the Editions give this Speech to Poins, it feems evident by the Page's immediate Reply, that it must be placed to Bardolph. For Bardulph had

call'd to the Boy from an Alehoufe, and, 'tis likely, made him half-drunk and, the Boy being afham'd of it, 'tis natural for Bardolph, a bold unbred Fellow, to banter him on his aukward Bafhfulness.

THEOBALD.

he

he had made two holes in the ale-wive's new petticoat, and peep'd through.

P. Henry. Hath not the boy profited?

Bard. Away, you whorfon upright rabbet, away Page. Away, you rafcally Althea's dream, away! P. Henry. Inftruct us, boy. What dream, boy? Page. Marry, my lord, Althea dream'd, the was deliver'd of a firebrand; and therefore I call him her dream".

P. Henry. A crowns-worth of good interpretation. -There it is, boy. [Gives him money. Poins. O that this good bloffom could be kept from cankers! Well, there is fix pence to preferve thee. Bard. If you do not make him be hang'd among you, the Gallows fhall be wrong'd.

P. Henry. And how doth thy mafter, Bardolph? Bard. Well, my good lord; he heard of your Grace's coming to town. There's a letter for you.

P. Henry. Deliver'd with good refpect;-and how doth the Martlemas, your Mafter?

Bard. In bodily health, Sir.

Poins. Marry, the immortal part needs a phyfician; but that moves not him; though that be fick, it dies

not.

P. Henry. I do allow this wen to be as familiar with me as my dog; and he holds his place; for, look you, how he writes.

Poins reads. John Falstaff, knight,

Every man

must know that, as often as he hath occafion to name himfelf: even like thofe that are kin to the King, for

Shakespeare is here miftaken in his Mythology, and has confounded Althea's firebrand with Hecuba's. The firebrand of Althea was real: but Hecuba, when fhe was big with Paris, dreamed that fhe was delivered of a fire

brand that confumed the kingdom.

7 The Martlemas, your Mafter,] That is, the autumn, or rather the latter fpring. The old fellow with juvenile paffions.

This wen.] The fwoln excrefcence of a man.

they

they never prick their finger but they fay, there is fome of the King's blood Spilt. How comes that? fays he that takes upon him not to conceive: the anfwer is as ready as a borrower's cap; I am the King's poor coufin, Sir.

P. Henry. Nay, they will be akin to us, or they will fetch it from Japhet. But, to the letter.

Poins. Sir John Falstaff, knight, to the Son of the King, nearest his father, Harry Prince of Wales, Greeting. Why, this is a certificate.

P. Henry. Peace.

Poins. I will imitate the honourable Romans in brevity. Sure, he means brevity in breath; fhortwinded., I commend me to thee, I commend thee, and I leave thee. Be not too familiar with Poins, for he mifufes thy favours fo much, that he fwears, thou art to marry his Sifter Nell. Repent at idle times as thou may'ft, and fo farewel. Thine, by yea and no; which is as much as to fay, as thou ufeft him. Jack Falstaff with my familiars: John with my brothers and fifiers: and Sir John with all Europe.

Poins. My Lord, I will fteep this letter in fack, and make him eat it.

2

P. Henry. That's to make him eat twenty of his words. But do you ufe me thus, Ned? muft I marry your Sifter?

Poins. May the wench have no worfe fortune! But I never faid fo.

P. Henry. Well, thus we play the fools with the

9 The Anfwer is as ready as a borrow'd Cap.] But how is a borrow'd Cap fo ready? Read, a Borrower's Cap: and then there is fome Humour in it. For a Man, that goes to borrow Mony, is of all Others the moft complai fant: His Cap is always at hand. WARBURTON.

1 Prince Henry.] All the editors, except Sir Thomas Hanmer,

have left this letter in confufion, making the Prince read part, and Poins part. I have followed his correction.

2 That's to make him cat TWENTY of his words.] Why juft twenty, when the letter contain'd above eight times twenty? we fhould read PLENTY; and in this word the joke, as flender as it is, confifts. WARBURTON.

time, and the fpirits of the wife fit in the clouds and mock us. Is your mafter here in London?

Bard. Yes, my lord.

P. Henry. Where fups he? doth the old Boar feed in the old frank * ?

Bard. At the old place, my lord, in Eaft-cheap.
P. Henry. What company?

3

Page. Ephefians, my lord, of the old church.
P. Henry. Sup any women with him?

Page. None, my lord, but old Mrs. Quickly, and Mrs. Doll Tear-fheet.

P. Henry. What Pagan may that be?

Page. A proper gentlewoman, Sir, and a kinfwoman of my mafter's.

P. Henry. Even fuch kin, as the parish heifers are to the town Bull. Shall we fteal upon them, Ned, at fupper?

Poins. I am your fhadow, my lord, I'll follow you.

P. Henry. Sirrah, you boy, and Bardolph, no word to your mafter that I am yet come to town. There's for your filence.

Bard. I have no tongue, Sir.

Page. And for mine, Sir, I will govern it.

P. Henry. Fare ye well: go. This Del Tear-fheet fhould be fome road.

Poins. I warrant you, as common as the way between St. Albans and London.

P. Henry. How might we fee Falstaff beftow himself to-night in his true colours, and not ourfelves be feen? Poins. Put on two leather jerkins and aprons, and wait upon him at his table, as drawers.