An Apartment in the Palace.
Enter King Henry, Northumberland, Worcester, 30
Hotspur, Sir Walter Blunt, and others.
K. Henry. My blood hath been too cold and
temperate,

Unapt to stir at these indiguities,
And you have found me; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition',
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect,
Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.
Wor.Our house,my sovereign liege, little deserves
The scourge of greatness to be us'd on it;
And that same greatness too which our own hands
Have holp to make so portly.

K.Henry. Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see
Danger and disobedience in thine eye:
O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier' of a servant brow.
You have good leave to leave us; when we need
Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.-
[Exit Worcester.
You were about to speak. [To Northumberland. 55
North. Yea, my good lord.
Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,

1i. e. exceed men's expectations. 2i. e. I will from henceforth rather put on the character that becomes me, and exert the resentment of an injured king, than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my natural disposition. Moody is angry. Frontier was anciently used for forehead. A small box for musk and other perfumes then in fashion; the lid of which, being cut with open work, gave it its name; from po n oner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. Snuff is equivocally used for anger, and a powder taken up the nose. A popinjay is a parrot.

1

Against the great magician, damn'd Glendower;
Whose daughter, as we hear, the earl of March
Hath lately marry'd. Shall our coffers then
Be empty'd, to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears',
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?,
No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man my friend,
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransom home revolted Mortimer.

Hot. Revolted Mortimer!

He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,
But by the chance of war :-to prove that true,
Needs no more but one tongue, for all those wounds,
Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
When, on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
In single opposition, hand to hand,

North. Brother, the king hath made yournephew
[To Worcester.
mad.
Wor. Who struck this heat up after I was gone!
Hot. He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners:
5 And when I urg'd the ransom once again
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale;
And on my face he turn'd an eye of death3,
Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.
Wor. I cannot blame him; Was he not proclaim'd,
10 By Richard that is dead, the next in blood?

North. He was; heard the proclamation:
And then it was, when the unhappy king
(Whose wrongs in us God pardon!) did set forth
Upon his Irish expedition;"

15 From whence he, intercepted, did return
To be depos'd, and, shortly, murdered.

He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower:
Three times they breath'd, and three times did 20
they drink,

Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did bare and rotten policy
Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly:
Then let him not be slander'd with revolt.

K. Henry. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou
dost belie him,

He never did encounter with Glendower;

Wor. And for whose death, we in the world's
wide mouth

[then
Hot. But, soft, I pray you; Did King Richard
Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer
Heir to the crown?

Live scandaliz'd, and foully spoken of.

North. He did; myself did hear it.

Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin king,
25 That wish'd him on the barren mountains starv'd.
But shall it be, that you,-that set the crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man;
And, for his sake, wear the detested blot
Of murd'rous subornation,-shall it be,
30 That you a world of curses undergo;
Being the agents, or base second means,
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?-
O, pardon me, that I descend so low,

To shew the line, and the predicament,

I tell thee,he durst as well have met the devil alone, 35 Wherein you range under this subtle king.

As Owen Glendower for an enemy.

Art not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer:
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you.-My lord Northumberland,
We licence your departure with your son:-
Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

[Exit King Henry.
Hot. And if the devil come and roar for them,
I will not send them:-I will after straight,
And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,
Although it be with hazard of my head.
North. Wheat, drunk with choler? stay, and
pause a while;

Here comes your uncle.

Re-enter Worcester.

Hot. Speak of Mortimer?

Yes, I will speak of him, and let my soul
Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins,
And shed my dear blood drop by drop i' the dust,
But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
As high i' the air as this unthankful king,
As this ingrate and canker'd Bolingbroke.

Shall it, for shame, be spoken in these days,
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your nobility, and power,
Did 'gage them both in an unjust behalf,—
40 As both of you, God pardon it! have done,—
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose,
And plant this thorn, this canker, Bolingbroke?
And shall it, in more shame, be further spoken,
That you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
45 By him, for whom these shames ye underwent?
No; yet time serves, wherein you may redeem
Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again:
Revenge the jeering, and disdain'd' contempt,
50 Of this proud king; who studies, day and night,
To answer all the debt he owes to you,

Even with the bloody payment of your deaths.
Therefore, I say,-

Wor. Peace, cousin, say no more:
55 And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
I'll read you matter, deep, and dangerous;
As full of peril, and advent'rous spirit,
As to o'er-walk a current, roaring loud,
160lOn the unsteadfast footing of a spear'.

The reason why he says, bargain and article with fears, meaning with Mortimer, is, because he supThe canker-rose is the dogposed Mortimer had wilfully betrayed his own forces to Glendower, out of fear, as appears from his next speech. 2 i. e. curled. 3 i. e. an eye menacing death.

rose. i. e. disdainful,

• i. e. of a spear Laid across.

Hot.

Why, what a candy'd deal of courtesy
This fawning greyhound then did proffer me!
Look, when his infant fortune came to age,—
And,-gentle Harry Percy,-and, kind cousin,--
O, the devil take such cozeners!God forgive
Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done.[me?-
Wor. Nay, if you have not, to't again;
We'll stay your leisure.

Hot. I have done, i' faith.

Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners.
Deliver them up without their ransom straight,
And make the Douglas' son your only mean
15 For powers in Scotland; which, for divers

Which I shall send you written,-be assur'd,
Will easily be granted.--You,my lord,--[ToNorth.
Your son in Scotland being thus employ'd,-
20 Shall secretly into the bosom creep
Of that same noble prelate, well belov'd,
The archbishop.

Hot. Of York, is't not?

Wor. True: who bears hard

25 His brother's death at Bristol, the lord Scroop.
I speak not this in estimation",

As what I think might be, but what I know
Is ruminated, plotted, and set down;
And only stays but to behold the face

30 Of that occasion that shall bring it on.

Hot. I smell it; upon my life, it will do well.
North. Before the game's afoot, thou still let'st

And that same sword-and-buckler prince of 40 To save our heads by raising of a head':

But that I think his father loves him not,

And would be glad he met with some mischance,
I'd have him poison'd with a pot of ale*.

Wor. Farewel, kinsman! I will talk to you,
When you are better temper'd to attend.
North. Why, what a wasp-stung and impa-
tient fool

Art thou, to break into this woman's mood;
Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own?
Hot. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd
with rods,

Nettled, and stung with pismires, when I hear
Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke.

In Richard's time,-What do you call the place?-55
A plague upon't!-it is in Glostershire ;—
'Twas where the mad-cap duke his uncle kept
His uncle York; where I first bow'd my knee
Unto this king of smiles, this Bolingbroke,
When you and he came back from Ravenspurg. 00

2 i. e. refuse. 3A turbu1 Warburton thinks, that "this is probably a passage from some bombast play, and afterwards used as a common burlesque phrase for attempting impossibilities." lent fellow, who fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the streets, was called a swashbuckler. Alluding, probably, to a low company (drinkers of ale) with whom the prince spent so much of his

To let slip, is to loose the greyhound.

2 Car. Pease and beans are as dank2 here as a dog, and that is the next way to give poor jades the 15 bots': this house is turn'd upside down, since Robin ostler dy'd.

1 Car. Poor fellow! never joy'd since the price of oats rose; it was the death of him.

2 Car.I think, this be the most villainous house in 20 all London road for fleas : I am stung like a tench.

1 Car. Like a tench? by the mass, there is ne'er king in Christendom could be better bit than I have been since the first cock.

2 Car. Why, they will allow us ne'er a jourden, 25 and then we leak in your chimney; and your chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach.

1 Car.What, ostler! come away, and be hang'd,

come away.

2 Car. I have a gammon of bacon, and two 30 razes of ginger, to be deliver❜d as far as Charing

cross.

1 Car. 'Odsbody! the turkies in my pannier are quite starv'd.-What, ostler!-A plaugue on thee! hast thou never an eye in thy head? caust not hear? 35 An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to break the pate of thee, I am a very villain.—Come, and be hang'd:-Hast no faith in thee?

Enter Gadshill.

Gads. Good morrow, carriers. What's o'clock:
Car. I think, it be two o'clock.

Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thy lanthorn, to see my gelding in the stable.

1 Car. Nay, soft, I pray ye; I know a trick worth two of that, i' faith.

Gads. I pr'ythee, lend me thine.

2 Car. Ay, when, canst tell?-Lend me thy lanthorn,quoth a-marry, I'll see thee hang'd first. Gads. Sirrah carrier, what time do you mean to come to London?

2 Car. Time enough to go to bed with a candle, I warrant thee.-Come, neighbour Mugges, we'll call up the gentlemen; they will along with company, for they have great charge. [Exeunt Car. Enter Chamberlain.

Gads. What, ho! chamberlain !
Cham. At hand, quoth pick-purse'.

Gads. That's even as fair as-at hand, quoth the chamberlain: for thou variest no more from picking of purses, than giving direction doth from labouring; thou lay'st the plot how.

Cham. Good morrow, Master Gad-bill. It holds current, that I told you yesternight: There's a franklin' in the wild of Kent, hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold; I heard him tell it to one of his company, last night at supper; a kind of auditor; one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what. They are up already, and call for eggs and butter: They will away presently.

Gads. Sirrah, if they meet not with saint Nicholas' clerks', I'll give thee this neck.

Cham. No, I'H none of it: I pr'ythee, keep that for the hangman; for, I know, thou wor ship'st saint Nicholas as truly as a man of falshood

mav.

Gads. What talk'st thou to me of the hangman? If I hang, I'll make a fat pair of gallows: for, if I hang, old sir John hangs with me; and, thou know'st, he's no starveling. Tut! there are other Trojans that thou dream'st not of, the which, for sport-sake, are content to do the profession Some grace; that would, if matters should be look'd into, for their own credit sake, make all whole. I am join'd with no foot land-rakers”, no long-staff, six-penny strikers; none of these mad, mustachio, purple-hu'd malt-worms: but with nobility, and tranquillity; burgomasters, and great oneyers: such as can hold in; such as 45 will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than

40

1i. e. out of all measure; the phrase being taken from a cess, tax, or subsidy; which being by regular and moderate rates, when any thing was exorbitant, or out of measure, it was said to be out of all cess. 3 2i. e. wet, rotten. Bots are worms in the stomach of a horse. • Warburton explains this by a Scotch word loch, a lake; while Mr. Steevens thinks that the carrier means to say-fleas as big as a loach, i. e. resembling the fish so called, in size. This is a pro

8

verbial expression often used in the writings of that time, where the cant of low conversation is preserved. • Franklin is a little gentleman. 7 St. Nicholas was the patron saint of scholars: and Nicholas, or Old Nick, is a cant name for the devil. Hence he equivocally calls robbers, St. Nicholas' clerks. Trojan, in this and other passages of our author's plays, has a cant signification, and perhaps was only a more creditable term for a thief. 'i. e. with no padders, no wanderers on foot. No long-staff, six-penny strikers,-no fellows that infest the roads with long staffs, and knock men down for six-pence. None of these mad, mustachio, purple-hu'd malt-worms,-none of those whose faces are red with drinking ale. 10 Mr. Theobald substituted for oneyers, moneyers, which he says might either allude to an officer of the mint, or to bankers, and his emendation was adopted by Warbur ton. Dr. Johnson thinks no change is necessary; "Gadshill tells the chamberlain that he is joined

11

with

than drink, and drink sooner than pray: And] yet I lie; for they pray continually unto their saint, the commonwealth; or, rather, not pray to her, but prey on her; for they ride up and down on her, and make her their boots.

Cham. What, the common-wealth their boots? will she hold out water in foul way?

Gads. She will, she will; justice hath liquor'd her. We steal as in a castle, cock-sure; we have| the receipt of fern-seed', we walk invisible.

Cham. Nay, by my faith; I think, you are more beholden to the night, than to fern-seed, for your walking invisible.

Gads. Give me thy hand: thou shalt have a share in our purchase', as I am a true man.

Cham. Nay, rather let me have it, as you are

a false thief.

Gads. Go to; Homo is a common name to all men.-Bid the ostler bring my gelding out of the stable. Farewel, you muddy knave.

SCENE II.

The road by Gads-hill.

5

10

(I am the veriest varlet that ever chew'd with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough: A plague upon't, when thieves cannot be true one to another! [they whistle.] Whew!—a plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hang'd.

P. Hen. Peace, ye fat-guts! lye down; lay thine ear close to the ground, and list if thou canst hear the tread of travellers.

Fal. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down? 'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot again, for all the coin in thy father's 15 exchequer. What a plague mean ye, to colt* me thus?

[Exeunt. 20

Enter Prince Henry, Poins, and Peto. Poins. Come, shelter, shelter; I have remov'd Falstaff's horse, and he frets like a gumm'd velvet. P. Henry. Stand close.

Enter Falstaff.

Fal. Poins! Poins, and be hang'd; Poins!
P. Henry. Peace, ye fat-kidney'd rascal; What

a brawling dost thou keep!

Fal. What, Poins! Hal!

P. Henry. He is walk'd up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek him.

P. Hen. Thou liest, thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

Fal. I pr'ythee, good prince Hal, help me to my horse; good king's son.

P. Hen. Out, you rogue! shall I be your ostler? Ful. Go hang thyself in thy own heir-apparent garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I have not ballads made of you all, and sung to 25 filthy tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: When a jest is so forward, and afoot too!-I hate it. Enter Gadshill.

30

35

Fal. I am accurst to rob in that thief's company: the rascal hath remov'd my horse, and ty'd him I know not where. If I travel but four foot by the square further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt not but to die a fair death 40 for all this, if I 'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have forsworn his company hourly any time this two-and-twenty year, and yet I am bewitch'd with the rogue's company. If the rascal have not given me medicines to make me love him, 45 I'll be hang'd; it could not be else; I have drunk medicines.-Poins!-Hal!-a plague upon you both;-Bardolph !-Peto!-I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man, and to leave these rogues,[50]

Gads. Stand.

Fal. So I do, against my will.

Poins. O, 'tis our setter; I know his voice.
Burd. What news?-

Gads. Case ye, case ye ; on with your visors; there's money of the king's coming down the hill, tis going to the king's exchequer.

Fal. You lie, you rogue; 'tis going to the king's

tavern.

Gads. There's enough to make us all.
Fal. To be hang'd.

P. Hen. Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane; Ned Poins, and I, will walk lower: if they'scape from your encounter, then they light

on us.

Peto. But how many be there of them?
Gads. Some eight, or ten.

Fal. Zounds! will they not rob us?

P. Hen. What, a coward, Sir John Paunch! Fal. Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather; but yet no coward, Hal.

P. Hen. Well, we leave that to the proof.
Poins. Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the

with no mean wretches, but with burgomasters and great ones, or, as he terms them in merriment by a cant termination, great oneyers, or great-one-eers, as we say privateer, auctioneer, circuiteer." Mr. Malone explains the word thus: By onyers (for so I believe the word ought to be written) I understand pubic accountants; men possessed of large sums of money belonging to the state. It is the course of the Court of Exchequer, when the sherif makes up his accounts for issues, amerciaments, and mesne profits, to set upon his head o. ni. which denotes oneratur nisi habeat sufficientem exonerationem: he thereupon becomes the king's debtor, and the parties peracaile (as they are termed in law) for whom he answers, become his debtors, and are discharged as with respect to the king. To settle accounts in this manner, is still called in the Exchequer to ony; and from hence Shakspeare seems to have formed the word onyers.

2

'Alluding to some strange properties formerly ascribed to this plant. Purchase was anciently the cant term for stolen goods. Four foot by the square is probably no more than four foot by a rule. To colt, is to fool, to trick; but the Prince taking it in another sense, opposes it by uncolt, that is, unhorse.