The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him, Prince John.
Hotspur. No harm: What more?

Vernon.

And further, I have learn'd,-
The King himself in person is set forth.
Or hitherwards intended speedily,
With strong and mighty preparation.
Hotspur. He shall be welcome, too. Where is his son,
The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?

Vernon.
All furnish'd, all in arms,
All plum'd: like estridges that with the wind
Bated, like eagles having lately bath'd;
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirits as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,-
Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.-Act 4. Sc. 1. Falstaff. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a souced gurnet. (Enter PRINCE HENRY and WESTMORELAND.) Prince Henry. . . . But tell me, Jack, whose fellows are these that come after?

Falstaff Mine, Hal; mine.

Prince Henry. I did never see such pitiful rascals.

Falstaff. Tut, tut; good enough to toss: food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit, as well as better; tush, man, mortal men, mortal men,

Westmoreland. Ay, but, Sir John, methinks they are but exceeding poor and bare; too beggarly.

Falstaff. 'Faith, for their poverty,-I know not where they had that: and for their bareness,-I am sure they never learn'd that of me.

Prince Henry. No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on the ribs, bare. But sirrah, make haste; Percy is already in the field.

Falstaff. What, is the king encamped ?

Westmoreland. He is, Sir John: I fear we shall stay too

Falstaff. Well,

long.

To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a feast,
Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest.

[Exeunt.-Sc. 2.

Treason is but trusted like

Who ne'er so tame, so cherish'd, and lock'd up,

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.-Act 5. Sc. 2.

Prince Henry. Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;

Nor can one England brook a double reign

Of Harry Percy and the Prince of Wales.-Sc. 4.

Prince Henry. What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh

Keep in a little life? Poor Jack! farewell!·

I could have better spar'd a better man.—Id.

Falstaff. The better part of valour is discretion.-Id.

KING HENRY IV-PART II.

Morton. Douglas is living, and your brother yet: But, for my lord your son,

Northumberland. Why, he is dead.

See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!

He that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes,

That what he fear'd is chanc'd. Yet speak, Morton;
Tell thou thy earl his divination lies;

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

Morton. You are too great to be by me gainsaid;

Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.

Northumberland. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.

I see a strange confession in thine eye :

Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear or sin,
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so:
The tongue offends not that reports his death:
And he doth sin that doth belie the dead;
Not he which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue

Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remembered knolling a departed friend.

Lord Bardolph. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.
Morton. I am sorry I should force you to believe

That which I would to heaven I had not seen :
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd,
To Harry Monmouth: whose swift wrath beat down
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.-Act 1. Sc. 1. (Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, with his Page bearing his sword) and buckler.

The

Falstaff. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to vent anything 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 overwhelm'd all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou art fitter to be worn in my cap than to wait at my heels. I was never manned with an agate till now: but I will set you neither in gold nor in 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 fledged. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheeks; and yet he will not stick to say, his face is a face royal: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can assure him.-What said master Dumbleton about the satin 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 liked not the security.

Falstaff. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth,

as offer to stop it with security. I looked he should have sent me two-and-twenty yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security.

(Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and an Attendant.)

Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph.

Falstaff. Wait close, I will not see him.
Chief Justice. What's he that goes there?
Attendant. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.

Chief Justice. He that was in question for the robbery? Attendant. 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.

Chief Justice. What, to York? Call him back again.
Attendant. Sir John Falstaff!

Falstaff Boy, tell him I am deaf.

Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf.

Chief Justice. I am sure he is, to the hearing of anything good.-Go, pluck him by the elbow: I must speak with him. Attendant. Sir John,

Falstaff What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is 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.

Attendant. You mistake me, sir.

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

Attendant. 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.

Falstaff. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me; if thou takest leave, thou wert better be hanged: you huntcounter, hence! avaunt!

Attendant. Sir, my lord would speak with you.

Chief Justice. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.

Falstaff My good lord !-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship 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 saltness of time; and I most humbly beseech your lordship, to have a reverend care of your health.

Chief Justice. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury.

Falstaff. An't please your lordship, I hear his majesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales.

Chief Justice. I talk not of his majesty:-You would not come when I sent for you. I sent for you, when there were matters against you for your life, to come speak with me.

Falstaff. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did not come.

Chief Justice. Well, the truth is, Sir John, you live in great infamy.

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

Chief Justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

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

Chief Justice. You have misled the youthful prince.

Falstaff. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog.

Chief Justice. Well, I am loath to gall a new-healed wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploits on Gadshill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'erposting that action.

Falstaff. My lord?

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

Falstaff. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox.-You, that are old, consider not the capacities of us that are young: you measure the heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

Chief Justice. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind short? your chin double ? your wit single? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and you will yet call yourself young? Fye, fye, fye, Sir John!