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Enter FALStaff.

Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal! Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you.

Enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls.

Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth: * I better brook the loss of brittle life,

Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;

They wound my thoughts, worse than thy sword my flesh :

But thought's the slave of life, and life, time's fool;
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,

5

But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue:

And food for

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No, Percy, thou art dust,

[Dies.

P. Hen. For worms, brave Percy: Fare thee well,

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Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!

4

O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth:] Shakspeare has chosen to make Hotspur fall by the hand of the prince of Wales; but there is, I believe, no authority for the fact. Holinshed says, "The king slew that day with his own hand six and thirty persons of his enemies. The other [i. e. troops] of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and slew the lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur." Speed says Percy was killed by an unknown hand. MALONE.

5 those proud titles thou hast won of me; &c.] Hotspur in his last moments endeavours to console himself. The glory of the prince wounds his thoughts; but thought, being dependent on life, must cease with it, and will soon be at an end. Life, on which thought depends, is itself of no great value, being the fool and sport of time; of time, which with all its dominion over sublunary things, must itself at last be stopped. JOHNSON.

When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now, two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough: - This earth, that bears thee dead
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.

If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

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I should not make so dear a show of zeal :
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;6
And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignomy sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph! —

[He sees FALSTAFF on the ground. What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!

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I could have better spar'd a better man. O, I should have a heavy miss of thee, If I were much in love with vanity. Death hath not struck so fat a deer" to-day, Though many dearer, in this bloody fray: Embowell'd will I see thee by and by; Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie. [Exit. Fal. [rising slowly.] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me, and eat me too, to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit: To die is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of a man: but to coun

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But let my favours hide thy mangled face ;] He covers his face with a scarf, to hide the ghastliness of death.

7 so fat a deer] There is in these lines a very natural mixture of the serious and ludicrous, produced by the view of Percy and Falstaff.

terfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part, I have saved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: How, if he should counterfeit too, and rise? I am afraid, he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure: yea, and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise, as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. Therefore, sirrah, [stabbing him.] with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

[Takes HOTSPUR on his back.

Re-enter Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN.

P. Hen. Come, brother John, full bravely hast thou

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P. Hen. I did; I saw him dead, breathless and

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Art thou alive? or is it phantasy

That plays upon our eyesight? I pr'ythee, speak;
We will not trust our eyes, without our ears:

Thou art not what thou seem'st.

Fal. No, that's certain; I am not a double man3 : but. if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy [throwing the body down.] if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

P. Hen. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.

+"On the ground." - MALONE.

$ a double man:] That is, I am not Falstaff and Percy together, though, having Percy on my back, I seem double.

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FAL. HOW IF HE SHOULD COUNTERFEIT TOO. AND RISE?

I AM AFRAID HE WOULD PROVE THE BETTER COUNTERFEIT.
Act V. Sc.4.

London, Published by F. C. & J. Rivington and Partners Feb: 1823.

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