Fal. Four, Hal; I told thee four. Poins. Ay, ay, he said four. Fal. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made me no more ado, but took all their seven points in my target, thus. P. Hen. Seven? why, there were but four, even now. Fal. In buckram. Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits. Fal. Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else. P. Hen. Pr'ythee, let him alone; we shall have more anon. Fal. Dost thou hear me, Hal? P. Hen. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack, Fal. Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in buckram, that I told thee of, P. Hen. So, two more already. Fal. Began to give me ground: But I followed me close, came in foot and hand; and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I paid. P. Hen. O monstrous! eleven buckram men grown out of two! Fal. But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves, in Kendal9 green, came at my back, and let drive at me; for it was so dark, Hal, that thou could'st not see thy hand. P. Hen. These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, Poins. Down fell their hose.] To understand Poins's joke, the double meaning of point must be remembered, which signifies the sharp end of a weapon, and the lace of a garment. 9 Kendal-] Kendal, in Westmoreland, is a place famous for making cloths, and dying them with several bright colours. Kendal green was the livery of Robert earl of Huntington and his followers, while they remained in a state of outlawry, and their leader assumed the title of Robin Hood. thou clay-brained guts; thou knotty-pated fool: thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-keech1, ————— Fal. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth, the truth? P. Hen. Why, how could'st thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was so dark thou could'st not see thy hand? come tell us your reason; What sayest thou to this? Poins. Come, your reason, Jack, your reason. Fal. What, upon compulsion? No; were I at the strappado, or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion! if reasons were as plenty as blackberries, I would give no man a reason upon compulsion, I. P. Hen. I'll be no longer guilty of this sin; this sanguine coward, this bed-presser, this horse-backbreaker, this huge hill of flesh; Fal. Away, you starveling, you elf-skin, you dried neat's-tongue, bull's pizzle, you stock-fish,-O, for breath to utter what is like thee!—you tailor's yard, you sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck ; ——— P. Hen. Well, breathe a while, and then to it again and when thou hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but this. Poins. Mark, Jack. bound Mark now, P. Hen. We two saw you four set on four; you them, and were masters of their wealth. how plain a tale shall put you down. Then did we two set on you four: and, with a word, out-faced you from your prize, and have it; yea, and can show it you here in the house:-and, Falstaff, you carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, and roared for mercy, and still ran and roared, as ever I heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou, to hack thy sword as tallow-keech,] A keech of tallow is the fat of an ox or cow rolled up by the butcher in a round lump, in order to be carried to the chandler. It is the proper word in use now. thou hast done; and then say, it was in fight? What trick, what device, what starting-hole, canst thou now find out, to hide thee from this open and apparent shame? Poins. Come, let's hear, Jack; What trick hast thou now? Fal. By the Lord, I knew ye, as well as he that made ye. Why, hear ye, my masters: Was it for me, to kill the heir apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou knowest, I am as valiant as Hercules: but beware instinct; the lion will not touch the true prince. Instinct is a great matter; I was a coward on instinct. I shall think the better of myself, and thee, during my life; I, for a valiant lion, and thou, for a true prince. But, by the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, clap to the doors; watch tonight, pray to-morrow. - Gallants, lads, boys, hearts of gold, All the titles of good fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry? shall we have a play extempore? - P. Hen. Content; and the argument shall be, thy running away. Fal. Ah! no more of that, Hal, an thou lovest me. Enter Hostess. Host. My lord the prince, P. Hen. How now, my lady the hostess? what say'st thou to me? Host. Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door, would speak with you: he says, he comes from your father. P. Hen. Give him as much as will make him a royal man2, and send him back again to my mother. 2 there is a nobleman Give him as much as will make him a royal man,] Perhaps here is a kind of jest intended. He that received a noble was, in cant language, called a nobleman: in this sense the prince catches the word, and bids the landlady give him Fal. What manner of man is he? Host. An old man. Fal. What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight?- Shall I give him his answer? did P. Hen. Pr'ythee, do, Jack. Fal. 'Faith, and I'll send him packing. Peto; you, so did [Exit. P. Hen. Now, sirs; by'r lady, you fought fair; - so you, Bardolph: you are lions too, you ran away upon instinct, you will not touch the true prince; no, — fye! Bard. 'Faith, I ran when I saw others run. P. Hen. Tell me now in earnest, How came Falstaff's sword so hacked? Peto. Why, he hacked it with his dagger; and said, he would swear truth out of England, but he would make you believe it was done in fight; and persuaded us to do the like. Bard. Yea, and to tickle our noses with spear-grass, to make them bleed; and then to beslubber our garments with it, and to swear it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not this seven year before, I blushed to hear his monstrous devices. P. Hen. O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, and wert taken with the manner3, and ever since thou hast blush'd extempore: Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, and yet thou ran'st away; What instinct hadst thou for it? Bard. My lord, do you see these meteors? do you behold these exhalations? P. Hen. I do. Bard. What think you they portend? as much as will make him a royal man, that is, a real, or royal man, and send him away. The royal went for 10s. 6s. and 8d. 3 the noble only for taken with the manner,] Taken with the manner is a law phrase, and then in common use, to signify taken in the fact. P. Hen. Hot livers, and cold purses. 4 Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken. Re-enter FALSTAFF. How Here comes lean Jack, here comes bare-bone. now, my sweet creature of bombast? How long is't ago, Jack, since thou sawest thine own knee? Fal. My own knee? when I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an eagle's talon in the waist; I could have crept into any alderman's thumb-ring: A plague of sighing and grief! it blows a man up like a bladder. There's villainous news abroad: here was sir John Bracy from your father; you must to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the North, Percy; and he of Wales, that gave Amaimon the bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook', — What, a plague, call you him? Poins. O, Glendower. Fal. Owen, Owen; the same; and his son-in-law, Mortimer; and old Northumberland; and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, that runs o'horseback up a hill perpendicular. P. Hen. He that rides at high speed, and with his pistol kills a sparrow flying. 4 Hot livers, and cold purses.] That is, drunkenness and poverty. To drink was, in the language of those times, to heat the liver. 5 Bard. Choler, my lord, if rightly taken. P. Hen. No, if rightly taken, halter.] The reader who would enter into the spirit of this repartee, must recollect the similarity of sound between collar and choler. 6 7 bombast? Is the stuffing of clothes. upon the cross of a Welsh hook,] A Welsh hook appears to have been some instrument of the offensive kind. 8 — pistol — ] Shakspeare never has any care to preserve the manners of the time. Pistols were not known in the age of Henry. Pistols were, about our author's time, eminently used by the Scots. |