Prince. And thou a natural coward, without instinct.

Fal. I deny your major: if you will deny the sheriff, so; if not, let him enter: if I become not a cart as well as another man, a plague on my bringing up! I hope I shall as soon be strangled with a halter as another.

tape Prince. Go, hide thee behind the arras: the rest walk up above. Now, my masters, for a true 550 face and good conscience.

Fal. Both which I have had: but their date is out, and therefore I'll hide me.

Prince. Call in the sheriff.

[Exeunt all except the Prince and Peto.

Enter Sheriff and the Carrier.

Now, master sheriff, what is your will with me?
Sher. First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and

cry

Hath follow'd certain men unto this house.

Prince. What men?

Sher. One of them is well known, my gracious lord,

Prince. The man, I do assure you, is not here;
For I myself at this time have employ'd him.
And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee

544. your major, i.e. the proposition that he is a coward (with a quibble).

546. a cart, i.e. the cart which carried criminals to execution.

556. hue and cry, the pursuit of a felon by horn and voice, a process then recognised in common law.

Hue and cry

560

might be raised either by a precept of a Justice of the Peace, or by a private person who knows of the felony. Such private person was bound to give 'notice to the Constable ; but in the Constable's absence all persons were bound to join in the pursuit (Stephen's Crim. Law, quoted Jahrbuch, xxxii. 145).

That I will, by to-morrow dinner-time,
Send him to answer thee, or any man,
For any thing he shall be charged withal:
And so let me entreat you leave the house.

Sher. I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.
Prince. It may be so: if he have robb'd these men, 570
He shall be answerable; and so farewell.

Sher. Good night, my noble lord.

Prince. I think it is good morrow, is it not? Sher. Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock. [Exeunt Sheriff and Carrier. Prince. This oily rascal is known as well as Paul's. Go, call him forth.

Peto. Falstaff!-Fast asleep behind the arras, and snorting like a horse.

Prince. Hark, how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets. [He searcheth his pockets, 580 and findeth certain papers.] What hast thou found?

Peto. Nothing but papers, my lord.

Prince. Let's see what they be read them.

Peto. [Reads] Item, A capon,

Item, Sauce,

2S. 2d.

4d.

5s. 8d.

2s. 6d.

ob. 590 This is

569. three hundred marks, £200.

577. Peto. Johnson proposed to transfer this and the subsequent speeches to Poins, on the ground that he and not Peto is elsewhere the confidant of the prince, and that it is more natural that Peto should run from the sheriff than Poins, who

VOL. VI

has not robbed.
plausible, but hardly warrants
the wholesale alteration of the
old texts. Even if we suppose
that 'P' was written before the
speeches, there remains the oc-
currence of Peto' in the text
at 1. 601.

་

590. ob, penny.

321

'obolus,' a half

Y

Prince. O monstrous! but one half-pennyworth of bread to this intolerable deal of sack! What there is else, keep close; we'll read it at more advantage: there let him sleep till day. I'll to the court in the morning.

We must all to

the wars, and thy place shall be honourable. I'll procure this fat rogue a charge of foot; and I know his death will be a march of twelve-score. The money shall be paid back again with advantage. Be with me betimes in the morning; and 600 so, good morrow, Peto. [Exeunt.

Peto. Good morrow, good my lord.

ACT III.

SCENE I. Bangor. The Archdeacon's house.

Enter HOTSPUR, Worcester, Mortimer, and
GLENDOWER.

Mort. These promises are fair, the parties sure,
And our induction full of prosperous hope.

Hot. Lord Mortimer, and cousin Glendower,

Will you sit down?

And uncle Worcester: a plague upon it!

I have forgot the map.

Glend.

No, here it is.

Sit, cousin Percy; sit, good cousin Hotspur,

For by that name as oft as Lancaster,

Doth speak of you, his cheek looks pale and with

A rising sigh he wisheth you in heaven.

594. advantage, leisure.

598. twelve-score, i.e. yards.

599. advantage, interest.

ΤΟ

2. our induction, the first steps of our enterprise.

Hot. And you in hell, as oft as he hears Owen Glendower spoke of.

Glend. I cannot blame him: at my nativity
The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
Of burning cressets; and at my birth

The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward.

Hot. Why, so it would have done at the same season, if your mother's cat had but kittened, though yourself had never been born.

Glend. I say the earth did shake when I was born.

Hot. And I say the earth was not of my mind, If you suppose as fearing you it shook.

Glend. The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble.

Hot. O, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire,

And not in fear of your nativity.

Diseased nature oftentimes breaks forth

In strange eruptions; oft the teeming earth
Is with a kind of colic pinch'd and vex'd
By the imprisoning of unruly wind

Within her womb; which, for enlargement striving,
Shakes the old beldam earth and topples down
Steeples and moss-grown towers. At your birth
Our grandam earth, having this distemperature,
In passion shook.

Glend.

Cousin, of many men
I do not bear these crossings. Give me leave
To tell you once again that at my birth

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,
The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds

15. cressets; literally, brilliant lamps, made of pitched rope coiled in open iron cages, and

20

30

used for illuminations as well as in the playhouses.

34. distemperature, disorder.

Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.
These signs have mark'd me extraordinary;
And all the courses of my life do show

I am not in the roll of common men.
Where is he living, clipp'd in with the sea

That chides the banks of England, Scotland,
Wales,

Which calls me pupil, or hath read to me?
And bring him out, that is but woman's son,
Can trace me in the tedious ways of art
And hold me pace in deep experiments.

40

Hot. I think there's no man speaks better 50 Welsh. I'll to dinner.

Mort. Peace, cousin Percy; you will make
him mad.

Glend. I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hot. Why, so can I, or so can any man ;

But will they come when you do call for them?
Glend. Why, I can teach you, cousin, to
command

The devil.

Hot. And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the
devil

By telling truth: tell truth and shame the devil.
If thou have power to raise him, bring him

hither,

And I'll be sworn I have power to shame him

hence.

O, while you live, tell truth and shame the devil! Mort. Come, come, no more of this unprofitable chat.

Glend. Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head

Against my power; thrice from the banks of Wye

48. trace, track, follow. 53. vasty, vast.

60

64. made head against, attacked in force.