Host. O Jesu! I have heard the prince tell him, I know not how oft, that that ring was copper. Fal. How! the prince is a Jack, a sneak-cup: 'Sblood. an he were here, I would cudgel him like a dog, if he would say so. Enter Prince HENRY and POINS, marching. FALSTAFF meets the Prince, playing on his truncheon like a fife. Fal. How now, lad is the wind in that door, 'faith? must we all march? Bard. Yea, two and two, Newgate-fashion? Prince. What say'st thou, mistress Quickly? How does thy husband? an honest man. I love him well: he is Host. Good my lord, hear me. Fal. Pr'ythee, let her alone, and list to me. Fal. The other night I fell asleep here behind the arras, and had my pocket pick'd: this house is turn'd bawdy-house; they pick pockets. Prince. What didst thou lose, Jack? Fal. Wilt thou believe me, Hal? three or four bonds of forty pound a-piece, and a seal-ring of my grandfather's. Prince. A trifle; some eightpenny matter. Host. So I told him, my lord; and I said I heard your grace say so: And, my lord, he speaks most vilely of you, like a foul-mouth'd man as he is, aud said he would cudgel you. 10 Mr. Collier suggests that perhaps this should be sneck up, a term of abuse for which see Twelfth Night, Act ii. sc. 3, note 17 But Mr. Dyce says, " sneak cup is plainly one who sneaks from his cup." H. Prince. What! he did not? Host. There's neither faith, truth, nor womanhood in me else. Fal. There's no more faith in thee than in a stew'd prune; 11 nor no more truth in thee than in a drawn fox; and for womanhood, maid Marian 1 may be the deputy's wife of the ward to thee. Go you thing, go. Host. Say, what thing? what thing? Fal. What thing? why, a thing to thank God on. Host. I am no thing to thank God on, I would thou should'st know it: I am an honest man's wife; and, setting thy knighthood aside, thou art a knave to call me so. Fal. Setting thy womanhood aside, thou art a beast to say otherwise. Host. Say, what beast, thou knave thou? Prince. An otter, Sir John? why an otter? Fal. Why, she's neither fish nor flesh; a mai knows not where to have her. Host. Thou art an unjust man in saying so thot. 11 Stewed prunes were a refection particularly common in broth els in Shakespeare's time, perhaps from mistaken notions of their antisyphilitic properties. It is not easy to understand Falstaff's similes; perhaps he means as faithless as a strumpet or a bawd. A drawn fox is a hunted fox, a fox drawn from his cover, whose cunning in doubling and deceiving the hounds makes the simile perfectly appropriate. Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Tamer Tamed, call Moroso, a cunning, avaricious old man, "that drawn fox." 12 Maid Marian was the inward partner of Robin Hood, who, in the words of Drayton, " to his mistress dear, his loved Marian, was ever constant known." As this famous couple afterwards became leading characters in the morris dance, and as Marian's part was generally sustained by a man in woman's clothing, the name grew to be proverbial for a mannish woman. curious old tract bearing date 1609, and entitled Herefordshire for a Mayd Marian.” There is a Old Meg of H. or any man knows where to have me, thou knave thou! Prince. Thou say'st true, hostess; and he slanders thee most grossly. Host. So he doth you, my lord; and said this other day, you ought him a thousand pound. Prince. Sirrah! do I owe you a thousand pound? Fal. A thousand pound, Hal! a million: thy love is worth a million; thou owest me thy love. Host. Nay, my lord, he call'd you Jack, and said he would cudgel you. Fal. Did I, Bardolph ? Bard. Indeed, Sir John, you said so. Fal. Yea; if he said my ring was copper. Prince. I say 'tis copper: dar'st thou be as good as thy word now? Fal. Why, Hal, thou know'st, as thou art but man, I dare: but as thou art prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion's whelp. Prince. And why not as the lion? Fal. The king himself is to be feared as the lion : Dost thou think I'll fear thee as I fear thy father? nay, an I do, I pray God, my girdle break. Prince. O! if it should, how would thy guts fall about thy knees! But, sirrah, there's no room for faith, truth, nor honesty, in this bosom of thine; it is all fill'd up with guts, and midriff. Charge an honest woman with picking thy pocket! Why, thou whoreson, impudent, emboss'd rascal, if there were any thing in thy pocket but tavern-reckonings, memorandums of bawdy-houses, and one poor pennyworth of sugar-candy to make thee long-winded; if thy pocket were enrich'd with any other injuries but these, I am a villain. And yet you will stand to it; you will not pocket up wrong: Art thou not asham'd? Fal. Dost thou hear, Hal? thou know'st, in the state of innocency Adam fell; and what should poor Jack Falstaff do in the days of villainy? Thou seest I have more flesh than another man, and there fore more frailty. You confess, then, you pick'd my pocket? Prince. It appears so by the story. Fal. Hostess, I forgive thee: Go, make ready breakfast; love thy husband, look to thy servants, cherish thy guests: thou shalt find me tractable to any honest reason: thou seest I am pacified.· Still? Now, Nay, pr'ythee, be gone. [Exit Hostess.] Hal, to the news at court: for the robbery, lad, how is that answered? Prince. O my sweet beef, I must still be good angel to thee: - The money is paid back again. Fal. O! I do not like that paying back; 'tis a double labour. Prince. I am good friends with my father, and may do any thing. Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou doest, and do it with unwash'd hands too. Bard. Do, my lord. Prince. I have procured thee, Jack, a charge of foot. Fal. I would it had been of horse. I Where shall I find one that can steal well? O, for a fine thief, of the age of two and twenty, or thereabouts! am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for these rebels; they offend none but the virtuous : [ laud them, I praise them. Prince. Bardolph! Bard. My lord. Prince. Go bear this letter to lord John of Lan caster, My brother John; this to my lord of Westmore land. Go, Poins, to horse, to horse! for thou and I There shalt thou know thy charge; and there receive The land is burning, Percy stands on high, And either they, or we, must lower lie. [Exeunt Prince, POINS, and BARDOLPH. Fal. Rare words! brave world! Hostess, my breakfast; come:— O! I could wish this tavern were my drum. [Exit ACT IV. SCENE I. The Rebel Camp near Shrewsbury. Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, and DOUGLAS. The tongues of soothers; but a braver place |