Fót moré is to be faid, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered.

Weft. I will, my Liege.

[Exeunt.

SCENE, an Apartment of the Prince's. Enter Henry Prince of Wales, and Sir John Falstaff. Fal. No it?

P. Henry. Thou art so fát-witted with drinking old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches in the afternoon, that thou hast forgotten to demand That truly, which thou would'st truly know.

What a devil halt thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of faclr, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blefied Sun himfelf à fair hot wènch in flame-colour'd taffata; I see no reason why thou should'st be so superfluous, to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal. For we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars, and not by Phabus, he, that wandring knight so fair. And, ! pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art King save thy Grace, (Majesty, I should say; for grace thou wilt have none.)

P. Henry. What! none?

Fal. No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter.

P. Henry. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly

Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art King, (4) let not us that are squires of

the night's body, be call?d thieves of the day's booty. Let us be Diana's fore

(4) Let not Us, that are Squires of the Night's body, be call: Thieves of the Day's Beauty.] This conveys no manner of Idea to me. How could They be call'd Thieves of the Day's Beauty? They robb’d by Moon-shine; they eould not steal the fair Day-light. I have ventur'd to fubftitutė, Booty; and This I take to be the Meaning. Let us not be call’d Thieves, the Purloiners of that Bboty, which, to the Proprie. tors, was the Purchase of honeft Labour and Industry by Day.

sters,

as God

Or 이

sters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the Moon ; and let men say, we be men of good government, being governed as the Sea is, by our noble and chaft mistress the Moon, under whose countenance :we steal.

P. Henry. Thou say'st well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us, that are the Moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the Sea; being govern’d, as the Sea is, by the Moon. As for proof, now: a purse of gold most resolutely snatch'd on Monday night, and most diffolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing, lay by; and spent with crying, bring in: now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

(5) Fal. By the lord, thou say'st true, lad: and is not mine Hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

(6) P. Henry. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle; and is not a buff-jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?

Fal. How now, how now, mad wag; what, in thy quips and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff-jerkin?

P. Henry. Why, what a pox have I to do with my Hostess of the tavern?

Fal. Well, thou hast calld her to a reckoning many a time and oft.

P. Henry. Did I ever call thee to pay thy part?

looks like declining a Point, that had been made an Objection to him.
I'll give a farther Matter in Proof, which seems almost to fix the Charge,
I have read an old Play, callid, The famous Victories of Henry the Vth.
containing the Honourable Battle of Agincourt. The Action of
this Piece commences about the 14th Year of K. Henry IVth's Reign,
and ends with Henry the Vth. marrying Princess Catharine of France.
The Scene opens with Prince Henry's Robberies. Sir John Oldcastle is
one of his Gang, and callid Jockie: and Ned and Gads-hill are two other
Comrades. From this old imperfect Sketch, I have a Suspicion,
Shakespeare might form his two Parts of Henry the IVth, and his History
of K. Henry V : and, consequently, 'tis not improbable, that he might
continue the mention of Sir John Oldcaftle, till some Descendants of
That Family mov'd Q. Elizabeth to command him to change the
Name. When this Change was made, it cannot now be easily determi-
ned. Falsaf is our Man as far back as the Year 1599; (the Date of
my oldest Quarto of 1 Henry IV.) And that this Piece had been play'd,
and was well known before that Year, appears from this Circumstance;
that B. Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour started first into publick in
1599, and in the Close of it there is mention made of the Fat of Sir John
Falstaff. I'll observe but one Thing more in Support of the Tradition,
which will go near to put the Matter out of Question. I have an Editi-
on printed in 1600 of the First Part of the true and honourable History
of the Life of Sir John Oldcaftle, the good Lord Cobham. There is a
Prologue prefix'd, which expresses fome Fears in the Author, left the
doubtful Title upon the Argument in hand should breed some Sufpence
in the Spectators : To Atop which Scruple, says the Prologue, let this Brief
suffice;

It is no pamper'd Glutton we present,

Nor aged Counsellor to youthful Sin. Every Body must agree, that Falstaf's Character is here unquestionably hinted at ; and that there could be no Room for such a palliating Caution in this Prologue, unless Oldcastle's Name had once suffer'd by supporting Falstaff's Vices. That the Change was made some Years before this Piece appear'd on the Stage, seems obvious from one Speech of K. Henry V. in it: Where the Devil are all my old Thieves ? Falftaff, that Villain, is fo.

fat, he cannot get on's Horse; but, methinks, Poins and Peto should be firring bereabouts.

Fal.

Fal. No, I'll give thee ghy due, thou haft paid all there.

P. Henry. Yea and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and where iç would not, I have usd my credit.

Fal. Yes, and so us’d it, that were it not here apparent, that thou art heir apparent But, I pr’ythee, sweet wag, Ihall there be Gallows ftanding in England, when thou art King? and resolution thus fobb'd as it is, with the rufty curb of old father anrick, the law? Do not thou, when thou art a King, hang a thief.

P. Henry. No; thou shalt.

Fal. Shall I? O rare! By the Lord, I'll be a brave judge.

P. Henry. Thou judgest false already: I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of the thieyes, and so become a rare hangman.

Fal. Well, Hal, well, and in fome fort it jumps with my humour, as well as waiting in the Court, I can

P. Henry. For obtaining of suits?

Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits ; whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. Sblood, I am as melan

I choly as a gib-cat, or a lugg'd bear.

P. Henry. Or an old Lion, or a lover's lute.
Fal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.

P. Henry. What say'st thou to a Hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch'?

Fal. Thou hast the most unfavoury fimilies; and art, indeed, the most comparative, rascallieft, sweet young Prince - But, Hal, I pr’ythee, trouble me no more with vanity; I would to God, thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought: an old lord of the Council rated me the other day in the street about you, Sir; but I mark'd him not, and yet he talk'd very wisely, and in the street too.

P. Henry. Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the ftreets, and no man regards it.

Fal. O, thou haft damnable iteration, and art, indeed, able to corrupt a faint. Thou hast done much

tell you.

harm unto me, Hal, God forgive thee for it! Before I knew thee, Hal, i knew nothing; and now am I, if a man should speak truly, little better than one of the wicked. I must give over this life, and I will give it over; by the lord, an I do not, I am a villain. I'll be damn'd for never a King's son in christendom.

P. Henry. Where shall we take a purse to morrow, Jack ?

Fal. Where thou wilt, lad, I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me.

P. Henry. I fee a good amendment of life in thee, from praying to purse-taking.

(7) Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my vocation, Hal. 'Tis no
fin for a man to labour in his vocation. Poins !
Now shall we know, if Gads-bill have set a match. O,
if men were to be saved by merit, what hole in helí
were hot enough for him!

Enter Poins.
This is the most omnipotent Villain, that ever cry’d,
Stand, to a true Man.

P. Henry. Good morrow, Ned.

(7) Fal. Why, Hal, 'tis my Vocation, Hal. 'Tis no Sin for a Man to labour in bis Vocation.

Enter Poins. Poins. Now shall we know, if Gads-hill have set a Match.] Mr. Pope has given us one fignal Observation in his Preface to our Author's Works. Throughout his Plays, says he, had all the Speeches been printed without the very Names of the Persons, I believe, one might have apply'd them with Certainty to every Speaker. But how fallible the most suffici. ent Critick may be, the Passage in Controversy is a main Instance. As fignal a Blunder has escap'd all the Editors here, as any one thro' the whole Set of Plays. Will any one persuade me, Shakespeare could be guilty of such an Inconsistency, as to make Poins at his first Entrance want News of Gads-bill