For more 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.

Ο

Fal. NOW, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

P. Henry. Thou art fo fat-witted with drinking old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches in the afternoon, that thou haft forgotten to demand That truly, which thou would't truly know. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houses, and the bleffed Sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata; İ fee no reason why thou fhould't be fo fuperfluous, 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 feven ftars, and not by Phabus, he, that wandring knight fo fair. And, I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art King

as God fave thy Grace, (Majefty, I fhould fay; for grace thou wilt have none.) —

P. Henry. What! none?

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

P. Henry, Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly— Fal. Marry, then, fweet wag, when thou art King, (4) let not us that are fquires 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'd 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-fhine; they could not steal the fair Day-light. I have ventur'd to fubftitute, Booty: and This I take to be the Meaning. Let us not be call'd Thieves, the Purloiners of that Booty, which, to the Proprietors, was the Purchase of honeft Labour and Induftry by Day.

fters,

fters, gentlemen of the fhade, minions of the Moon; and let men fay, we be men of good government, being governed as the Sea is, by our noble and chaft mistress the Moon, under whofe countenance we

fteal.

P. Henry. Thou fay'ft 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 purfe of gold moft refolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and moft diffolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing, 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 fay'ft true, lad: and is not mine Hoftefs of the tavern a moft fweet 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?

(5) Fal.

Wench?

-

Fal.

and is not mine Hoftefs of the Tavern a most fweet

P. Henry. and is not a Buff-jerkin a moft fweet Robe of Durance? Fal. what a Plague have I to do with a Buff-jerkin? P. Henry. Why, what a Pox have I to do with my Hoftefs of the Tavern?] This manner of Cross-queftioning is not unlike feveral Paffages in Plautus; particularly This in Moftellaria, Ac. 1. Sc. 3. Fampridem ecaftor frigidâ non lavi magis lubenter;

Nec quum me melius, mea Scapha, rear effe defecatam.

S. Eventus rebus omnibus, velut horno Meffis magna

Fuit. P. Quid ea Meffis attinet ad meam Lavationem? S. Nihilo plus, quàm Lavatio tua ad Meffim.

(6) As the Honey of Hybla, my Old Lad of the Caftle.] Mr. Rowe, (as I have obferv'd in a Note on the Merry Wives of Windfor,) took Notice of a Tradition, that this Part of Falstaff was faid to have been written originally under the Name of Oldcastle. An ingenious Correfpondent (whom I only know by his figning himself L. H.) hints to me, that the Paffage above quoted from our Author proves, what Mr. Rowe tells us was a Tradition. Old Lad of the Castle feems to have a Reference to Oldcastle. Befides, if this had not been the Fact, (before the Change was made to Falstaff) why, in the Epilogue to the Second Part of Henry IV. where our Author promises to continue his Story with Sir John in it, fhould he fay, Where, for any Thing I know, Falftaff ball dye of a Sweat, unless already he be kill'd with your hard Opinions: for Oldçaftle dy'd a Martyr, and This is not the Man? This

looks

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 haft call'd 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 almoft to fix the Charge, I have read an old Play, call'd, 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 call'd Jockie: and Ned and Gads-bill are two other Comrades. From this old imperfect Sketch, I have a Sufpicion, Shakespeare might form his two Parts of Henry the IVth, and his History of K. Henry V and, confequently, 'tis not improbable, that he might continue the mention of Sir John Oldcastle, till fome Defcendants of That Family mov'd Q. Elizabeth to command him to change the Name. When this Change was made, it cannot now be easily determined. Falftaff 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. Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour started firft into publick in 1599, and in the Close of it there is mention made of the Fat of Sir John Falstaff. I'll obferve but one Thing more in Support of the Tradition, which will go near to put the Matter out of Queition. I have an Edition printed in 1600 of the First Part of the true and honourable History of the Life of Sir John Oldcastle, the good Lord Cobham. There is a Prologue prefix'd, which expreffes fome Fears in the Author, left the doubtful Title upon the Argument in hand fhould breed fome Sufpence in the Spectators: To ftop which Scruple, fays the Prologue, let this Brief fuffice;

It is no pamper'd Glutton we present,

Nor aged Counsellor to youthful Sin.

Every Body muft agree, that Falstaff's Character is here unquestionably hinted at; and that there could be no Room for fuch a palliating Caution in this Prologue, unless Oldcastle's Name had once fuffer'd by fupporting Falstaff's Vices. That the Change was made fome 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? Falstaff, that Villain, is fo fat, he cannot get on's Horfe; but, methinks, Poins and Peto fhould be firring hereabouts.

Fal

Fal. No, I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all

there.

P. Henry. Yea and elsewhere, fo far as my coin would stretch; and where it would not, I have us'd my credit.

Fal. Yea, and fo us'd it, that were it not here apparent, that thou art heir apparent But, I pr'ythee, fweet wag, fhall 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 antick, the law? Do not thou, when thou art a King, hang a thief.

P. Henry. No; thou fhalt.

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

P. Henry. Thou judgeft falfe already: I mean, thou fhalt have the hanging of the thieves, and fo 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 tell you.

P. Henry. For obtaining of fuits?

Fal. Yea, for obtaining of fuits; whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe. 'Sblood, I am as melancholy 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 fay'ft thou to a Hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch?

Fal. Thou haft the most unfavoury fimilies; and art, indeed, the most comparative, rafcallieft, fweet 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 ftrcet about you, Sir; but I mark'd him not, and yet he talk'd very wifely, and in the street too.

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

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

harm

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 muft 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 fon in christendom.

P. Henry. Where fhall 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 purfe-taking.

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

Enter Poins.

This is the moft 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 his Vocation.

Enter Poins.

Poins. Now hall we know, if Gads-hill have fet a Match.] Mr. Pope has given us one fignal Obfervation in his Preface to our Author's Works. Throughout his Plays, fays he, had all the Speeches been printed without the very Names of the Perfons, I believe, one might have apply'd them with Certainty to every Speaker. But how fallible the most fufficient Critick may be, the Paffage in Controversy is a main Inftance. As fignal a Blunder has escap'd all the Editors here, as any one thro' the whole Set of Plays. Will any one perfuade me, Shakespeare could be guilty of fuch an Inconfiftency, as to make Poins at his first Entrance want News of Gads-bill, and immediately after to be able to give a full Account of him?. No; Falstaff, feeing Poins at hand, turns the Stream of his Difcourfe from the Prince, and fays, Now fhall we know whether Gads-bill has fet a Match for Us; and then immediately falls into Railing and Invectives against Poins. How admirably is This in Character for Falstaff! And Poins, who knew well his abufive manner, feems in Part to overhear him: and fo foon as he has return'd the Prince's Salutation, cries, by way of Anfwer, What fays Monfieur Remorfe? What fays Sir John Sack and Sugar?