though I be but prince of Wales, yet I am the king of courtesy: and tell me flatly I am no proud Jack, like Falstaff; but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a good boy (by the Lord, so they call me b), and when I am king of England, I shall command all the good lads in Eastcheap. They call drinking deep, dying scarlet: and when you breathe in your watering, they cry-hem! and bid you play it off. To conclude, I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou hast lost much honour that thou wert not with me in this action. But, sweet Ned, to sweeten which name of Ned, I give thee this pennyworth of sugard, clapped even now into my hand by an under-skinker; one that never spake other English in his life, than-"Eight shillings and sixpence," and "You are welcome;" with this shrill addition,“ Anon, anon, sir! Score a pint of bastard in the Halfmoon," or so. But, Ned, to drive away time till Falstaff come, I prithee do thou stand in some by-room, while I question my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar; and do thou never leave calling Francis, that his tale to me may be nothing but-anon. Step aside and I'll show thee a precedent.

POINS. Francis!

P. HEN. Thou art perfect.

POINS. Francis!

[Exit POINS.

Enter FRANCIS.

FRAN. Anon, anon, sir.-Look down into the Pomegranate, Ralph.

P. HEN. Come hither, Francis.

FRAN. My lord.

P. HEN. How long hast thou to serve, Francis?

FRAN. Forsooth, five years, and as much as to

POINS. [Within] Francis!

FRAN. Anon, anon, sir.

P. HEN. Five years! by'r lady, a long lease for the clinking of pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play the coward with thy indenture, and show it a fair pair of heels, and run from it?

FRAN. O lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in England I could find in

The folio omits this parenthetical expression of the Prince, which is found in the earlier quartos.

• Breathe in your watering. To take breath when you are drinking. To water was a common word for to drink, as we still say to water a horse. Some mechanics have still their watering-time in the afternoon.

• Pennyworth of sugar-to sweeten the wine. (See Illustrations to Act I.)

• Under-skinker—an under-drawer, or waiter-one that supplies skink or drink. Ben Jonson calls the landlord of the Devil Tavern, "Old Sim, the king of skinkers."

P. HEN. How old art thou, Francis?

FRAN. Let me see,-About Michaelmas next I shall be

POINS. [Within] Francis!

FRAN. Anon, sir.-Pray you stay a little, my lord.

P. HEN. Nay, but hark you, Francis: For the sugar thou gavest me,—'t was a pennyworth, was 't not?

FRAN. O lord, sir! I would it had been two.

P. HEN. I will give thee for it a thousand pound: ask me when thou wilt and

thou shalt have it.

POINS. [Within] Francis!

FRAN. Anon, anon.

P. HEN. Anon, Francis?

No, Francis: but to-morrow, Francis; or, Francis,

on Thursday; or, indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. But, Francis,

FRAN. My lord?

P. HEN. Wilt thou rob this leathern jerkin, crystal button, nott-pated, agatering, puke-stocking, caddis-garter", smooth-tongue, Spanish-pouch,—

FRAN. O lord, sir, who do you mean?

P. HEN. Why, then, your brown bastard is your only drink: for, look you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully: in Barbary, sir, it cannot come

to so much.

FRAN. What, sir?

POINS. Within] Francis!

P. HEN. Away, you rogue; Dost thou not hear them call?

[Here they both

call him; the Drawer stands amazed, not knowing which way to go.

Enter Vintner.

VINT. What! stand'st thou still and hear'st such a calling? Look to the guests within. [Exit FRANCIS.] My lord, old sir John, with half a dozen more, are at the door; Shall I let them in?

P. HEN. Let them alone awhile, and then open the door. [Exit Vintner.

Poins!

Re-enter POINS.

POINS. Anon, anon, sir.

P. HEN. Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the door. Shall we be merry?

POINS. As merry as crickets, my lad. But, hark ye; What cunning match have you made with this jest of the drawer? come, what's the issue? P. HEN. I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours, since

• Nott-pated-with the hair cut close. A word of contempt equivalent to the roundhead of the next half-century.

Puke-stocking. Puke, puce, is a sober brown colour. The Prince describes the drawer's master as a person whose dress and appearance were entirely opposite to those of the gay courtiers who frequented his house. The caddis-garter, the garter of ferret, matches the puce-stocking.

the old days of goodman Adam, to the pupil age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight. [Re-enter FRANCIS with wine.] What's o'clock, Francis ?

FRAN. Anon, anon, sir.

P. HEN. That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is-up-stairs, and down-stairs; his eloquence, the parcel of a reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of the north; he that kills me some six or seven dozen of Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his wife,-"Fie upon this quiet life! I want work." "O my sweet Harry," says she, "how many hast thou killed to-day?" "Give my roan horse a drench," says he; and answers, "Some fourteen -an hour after; "a trifle, a trifle." I prithee, call in Falstaff: I'll play Percy, and that damned brawn shall play dame Mortimer his wife. "Rivo" says the drunkard. Call in ribs, call in tallow.

Enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO.

POINS. Welcome, Jack. Where hast thou been?

FAL. A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too! marry, and amen! -Give me a cup of sack, boy.-Ere I lead this life long, I'll sew netherstocks, and mend them, and foot them too. A plague of all cowards!— Give me a cup of sack, rogue.-Is there no virtue extant? [He drinks. P. HEN. Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter (pitiful-hearted Titan) that melted at the sweet tale of the sun? If thou didst, then behold that compounds.

FAL. You rogue, here's lime in this sack, too. There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: Yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it: a villainous coward. Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth, then am I a shotten herring. There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat, and grows old: God help the while! a bad world, I say! I would I were a weaver; I could sing psalms or anything: A plague of all cowards, I say still.

P. HEN. How now, woolsack? what mutter you?

FAL. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of

• Pupil age-the young time of this present midnight, contrasted with the old days of goodman Adam. Bacon, on the contrary, makes the present time the old days, and the days of Adam the pupil age, of the world.

And foot them is omitted in the folio.

• Didst thou never see Titan, &c. We have three mortal pages of commentary on this passage in the variorum editions. We adopt Warburton's reading, which appears to present no difficulty: "Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter that melted at the sweet tale of the sun?" "Pitiful-hearted Titan" is parenthetical. The first quarto reads "at the sweet tale of the son's" -the quarto of 1604 and the folio, "of the sun." Falstaff is the "compound" that looks like a dish of butter in the sun.

This is the reading of the early quartos. The corrections in the folio make a large concession to a more decorous system of morals, which some deemed puritanical. For example, in this passage we have "all manner of songs."

HISTORIES.-VOL. I.

S

lath, and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on my face more. You prince of Wales!

P. HEN. Why, you whoreson round man! what's the matter?

FAL. Are you not a coward? answer me to that; and Poins there?
POINS. 'Zounds, ye fat paunch, an ye call me coward, I'll stab thee .

FAL. I call thee coward! I'll see thee damned ere I call thee coward: but I would give a thousand pound I could run as fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the shoulders, you care not who sees your back: Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack:-I am a rogue if I drunk

to-day.

P. HEN. O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk'st last.
FAL. All 's one for that. A plague of all cowards, still say I.
P. HEN. What 's the matter?

[He drinks.

FAL. What's the matter? there be four of us here have ta'en a thousand pound this day morning c.

P. HEN. Where is it, Jack? where is it?

FAL. Where is it? taken from us it is: a hundred upon poor four us.

P. HEN. What, a hundred, man?

FAL. I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of them two hours together. I have 'scaped by miracle. I am eight times thrust through the doublet; four through the hose; my buckler cut through and through; my sword hacked like a hand-saw, ecce signum. I never dealt better since I was a man all would not do. A plague of all cowards!-Let them speak: if they speak more or less than truth they are villains, and the sons of darkness.

P. HEN. Speak, sirs; how was it?

GADS. We four set upon some dozen,―
FAL. Sixteen, at least, my lord.

GADS. And bound them.

PETO. No, no, they were not bound.

FAL. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them; or I am a Jew else, an Ebrew Jew.

GADS. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon us,—

FAL. And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.

P. HEN. What, fought ye with them all?

Dagger of lath. The Vice in the old moralities was thus armed, as described in 'Twelfth Night:'

"In a trice, like to the old Vice,

Your need to sustain:
Who with dagger of lath,

In his rage, and his wrath."

The modern Harlequin, who is the lineal descendant of the Vice, retains the lath.

In the folio of 1623 this speech is assigned to the Prince. It belongs to Poins in the first quarto.

• This day morning. An expression which has still local use. It is found in the first two quartos; and we agree with Mr. Collier in its restoration.

FAL. All? I know not what ye call all; but if I fought not with fifty of them I am a bunch of radish: if there were not two or three and fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I no two-legged creature.

P. HEN. Pray Heaven you have not murthered some of them a.

FAL. Nay, that's past praying for: I have peppered two of them: two, I am sure, I have paid: two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal,if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward;-here I lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let

drive at me,

P. HEN. What, four? thou said'st but two, even now.
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.

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. Prithee, let him alone; we shall have more anon.

FAL. Dost thou hear me, Hal?

P. HEN. Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

I made no more

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. Their points being broken,—

POINS. Down fell their hose.

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 Kendal green b came at my back, and let drive at me;-for it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.

P. HEN. These lies are like the father that begets them; gross as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained guts; thou knotty-pated fool: thou whoreson, obscene, greasy tallow-ketch,

FAL. What, art thou mad? art thou mad? is not the truth the truth?

P. HEN. Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green, when it was

• This line belongs to the Prince in the early quartos; Poins was substituted in the folio. It seems more correct that Poins should not interpose.

• Kendal green was the livery of Robin Hood and his merry archers.

• Ketch. All the old copies read catch. A ketch is a tub-a cask; a tallow-cask is no unapt comparison for Falstaff. Modern editions read keech, and Dr. Percy says that a keech of tallow is the fat of an ox rolled up in a lump. Catch and ketch appear to have been formerly spelt the same. Our musical catch is ketch in Beaumont and Fletcher. Ketch and cask are each derived from the French caisse.