It will be thought

By some, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike

Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence;
This absence of your father's, draws a curtain,
That shows the ignorant a kind of fear
Before not dreamt of.

Hot. You strain too far.

I, rather, of his absence make this use:-
It lends a lustre, and more great opinion,
A larger dare to our great enterprise,

Than if the earl were here: for men must think,
If we, without his help, can make a head
To push against the kingdom; with his help,
We shall o'erturn it topsy-turvy down.-
Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.

Doug. As heart can think: there is not such a

word

Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear.

[A Trumpet sounds.

Enter SIR RICHARD VERNON, and Two

GENTLEMEN.

Hot. My cousin Vernon! welcome, by my soul! Ver. 'Pray Heaven, my news be worth a welcome, lord!

The Earl of Westmoreland, seven thousand strong,
Is marching hitherwards; with him, Prince John,
Hot. No harm: What more?

Ver. And further, I have learn'd,-
The king himself in person is set forth,
Or hitherwards intended speedily,

With strong and mighty preparation.

Hot. He shall be welcome too. Where is his son,

The nimble-footed, mad-cap, Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside,
And bid it pass?

'Ver. All furnish'd, all in arms.

All plum'd like estridges, that with the wind
Bated, like eagles having lately bath'd:
Glittering in golden coats, like images;
As full of spirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the sun at midsummer?
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls.
I saw young Harry,—with his beaver on,
His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Rise from the ground, like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,
As if an angel dropt down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

Hot. No more, no more; worse than the sun in
March,

This praise doth nourish agues. Let them come;
They come like sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-ey'd maid of smoky war,
All hot and bleeding, will we offer them :
The mailed Mars shall on his altar sit,
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire,
To hear this rich reprisal is so nigh,
And yet not ours: Come, let me take my horse,
Who is to bear me, like a thunderbolt,

Against the bosom of the Prince of Wales:
Harry to Harry shall,-hot horse to horse-
Meet, and ne'er part, till one drop down a corse.—
O, that Glendower were come!

Ver. There is more news:

I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,
He cannot draw his power this fourteen days.
Doug. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frosty sound.
Hot. What may the king's whole battle reach
unto?

Ver. To thirty thousand.
Hot. Forty let it be ;

My father and Glendower being both away,
The powers of us may serve so great a day.
Come, let us take a muster speedily:
Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.

[Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.-Exeunt.

SCENE II.

The Road near Coventry.

Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOlph.

Fal. Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Sutton-Colfield to-night.

Bard. Wilt you give me money, Captain ?

Fal. Lay out, lay out.

Bard. This bottle makes an angel.

Fal. An it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all; I'll answer the coinage. Bid my lieutenant Peto meet me at the town's end. Bard. I will, Captain: farewell. [Exit. Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a souced gurnet. I have misused the king's press damnably. I have got, in exchange of a hundred and fifty soldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I press me none but good householders, yeoman's sons: inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the bans: such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lief hear the devil as a drum; such as fear the report of a caliver, worse than a struck fowl, or a hurt wild-duck: I press me none but such toasts and butter, with hearts in their bellies no bigger than pins' heads, and they have bought out their services; and now my whole charge consists of an

cients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth; and such as, indeed, were never soldiers; but discarded, unjust, servingmen, younger sons to younger brothers, revolted tapsters, and ostlers trade-fallen; the cankers of a calm world, and a long peace; and such have I to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think, I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals, lately come from swinekeeping, from eating draff and husks. A mad fellow met me on the way, and told me, I had unloaded all the gibbets, and pressed the dead bodies. No eye hath seen such scarecrows. I'll not march through Coventry with them, that's flat:-Nay, and the vil lains march wide betwixt the legs, as if they had gyves on; for, indeed, I had the most of them out of prison. There's but a shirt and a half in all my company; and the half-shirt is two napkins, tacked together, and thrown over the shoulders, like a herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host of Saint Albans, or the red-nose inn-keeper, of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge.

Enter HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES, and the EARL OF WESTMORELAND.

P. Hen. How now, blown Jack? how now, quilt? Fal. What, Hal? How now, mad wag? what a devil dost thou in Warwickshire ?-My good Lord of Westmoreland, I cry you mercy! I thought, your honour had already been at Shrewsbury.

West. 'Faith, Sir John, 'tis more than time that I were there, and you too; but my powers are there already: The king, I can tell you, looks for us all; we must away all night.

Fal. Tut, never fear me; I am as vigilant, as a cat to steal cream.

P. Hen. I think, to steal cream, indeed; for thy

theft hath already made thee butter. But tell me, Jack; Whose fellows are these that come after ?

Fal. Mine, Hal, mine.

P. Hen. I did never see such pitiful rascals.

Fal. Tut, tut; good enough to toss; food for powder, food for powder; they'll fill a pit as well as better: tush, man, mortal men, mortal men.

West. Ay, but, Sir John, methinks, they are exceeding poor and bare; too beggarly.

Fal. 'Faith, for their poverty,—I know not where they had that: and for their bareness,-I am sure, they never learned that of me.

P. Hen. No, I'll be sworn; unless you call three fingers on the ribs, bare. But, sirrah, make haste; Percy is already in the field.

Fal. What, is the king encamped?

West. He is, Sir John; I fear we shall stay too long. [Exeunt the PRINCE and WESTMORELAND. Fal. Well,

To the latter end of a fray, and the beginning of a

feast,

Fits a dull fighter, and a keen guest.

[Exit.

SCENE III.

Another Part of HOTSPUR's Camp.

Flourish of Trumpets and Drums.

Enter HOTSPUR, EARL OF WORCESTER, EARL OF
DOUGLAS, SIR RICHARD VERNON, GENTLEMEN,
SOLDIERS, and STANDARD BEarers.

Hot. We'll fight with him to-night.
Wor. It may not be.