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Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,
And vaulted with such ease into his seat,

As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

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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-eyed 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 taste 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,

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The powers of us may serve so great a day.
Come, let us take a muster speedily:

Doomsday is near; die all, die merrily.

Doug. Talk not of dying: I am out of fear

Of death or death's hand for this one-half year. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. A public 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 Co'fil' to-night.

Bard. Will you give me money, captain?

Fal. Lay out, lay out.

Bard. This bottle makes an angel.

Fal. An if 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 town's end.

Bard. I will, captain: farewell.

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[Exit.

Fal. If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused 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, yeomen's sons; inquire me out contracted bachelors, such as had been asked twice on the banns; such a commodity of warm slaves, as had as lieve 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 pressed 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 ancients, corporals, lieutenants, gentlemen of companies, slaves as ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth, where the glutton's dogs licked his sores; 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, ten times more dishonourable ragged than an old faced ancient: and such have I, to fill up the rooms of them that have bought out their services, that you would think that I had a hundred and fifty tattered prodigals lately come from swine-keeping, 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

nay, and the villains

Coventry with them, that's flat: 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 an herald's coat without sleeves; and the shirt, to say the truth, stolen from my host at Saint Alban's, or the red-nose innkeeper of Daventry. But that's all one; they'll find linen enough on every hedge.

Enter the PRINCE and WESTMORELAND.

Prince. How now, blown Jack! how now, quilt!

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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.

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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.

Prince. 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.

Prince. I did never see such pitiful rascals.

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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.

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Prince. 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. Fal. Well,

To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The rebel camp near Shrewsbury.

Enter HOTSPUR, WORCESTER, DOUGLAS, and VERNON. Hot. We'll fight with him to-night.

Wor.

Doug. You give him then advantage.
Ver.

It may not be.

Not a whit.

Hot. Why say you so? looks he not for supply?
Ver. So do we.

Hot.

His is certain, ours is doubtful.

Wor. Good cousin, be advised; stir not to-night.

Ver. Do not, my lord.

Doug.

You do not counsel well:

You speak it out of fear and cold heart.

Ver. Do me no slander, Douglas: by my life, And I dare well maintain it with my life,

If well-respected honour bid me on,

I hold as little counsel with weak fear

As you, my lord, or any Scot that this day lives:
Let it be seen to-morrow in the battle

Which of us fears.

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Doug.
Ver.

Yea, or to-night.

Content.

Hot. To-night, say I.

I wonder much,

Ver. Come, come, it may not be.
Being men of such great leading as you are,
That you foresee not what impediments
Drag back our expedition: certain horse
Of my cousin Vernon's are not yet come up:
Your uncle Worcester's horse came but to-day;
And now their pride and mettle is asleep,
Their courage with hard labour tame and dull,
That not a horse is half the half of himself.

Hot. So are the horses of the enemy
In general, journey-bated and brought low:
The better part of ours are full of rest.

Wor. The number of the king exceedeth ours :
For God's sake, cousin, stay till all come in.

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[The trumpet sounds a parley.

Enter SIR WALTER BLUNT.

Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king, 30 If you vouchsafe me hearing and respect.

Hot. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; and would to God You were of our determination!

Some of us love you well; and even those some
Envy your great deservings and good name,

Because you are not of our quality,

But stand against us like an enemy.

Blunt. And God defend but still I should stand sɔ, So long as out of limit and true rule

You stand against anointed majesty.

But to my charge. The king hath sent to know
The nature of your griefs, and whereupon

You conjure from the breast of civil peace
Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
Audacious cruelty. If that the king

Have any way your good deserts forgot,
Which he confesseth to be manifold,

He bids you name your griefs; and with all speed

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