Jack! how agrees the devil and thee about thy soul, 115
that thou soldest him on Good Friday last for a cup
of Madeira and a cold capon's leg?

Prince. Sir John stands to his word, the devil shall have
his bargain; for he was never yet a breaker of pro-
verbs: he will give the devil his due.

Poins. Then art thou damned for keeping thy word with
the devil.

Prince. Else he had been damned for cozening the devil.
Poins. But, my lads, my lads, to-morrow morning, by

120

four o'clock, early at Gadshill! there are pilgrims 125
going to Canterbury with rich offerings, and traders
riding to London with fat purses: I have vizards for
you all; you have horses for yourselves: Gadshill
lies to-night in Rochester: I have bespoke supper
to-morrow night in Eastcheap: we may do it as 130
secure as sleep. If you will go, I will stuff your
purses full of crowns; if you will not, tarry at home
and be hanged.

Fal. Hear ye, Yedward; if I tarry at home and go not,
I'll hang you for going.

135

123. been] omitted F. 130. to-morrow

127. vizards] Highwaymen wore vizards or masks. Earle, Microcosmographie, A Younger Brother: "others take a more croked path, yet the Kings high-way; where at length their vizzard is pluck't off, and they strike faire for Tiborne." Bailey's Dict. (Canting Words): "High-Pads ... have a Vizor-Mask, and two or three Perukes of different Colours and Makes, the better to conceal themselves."

134. Yedward] A dialectal form of Edward. So we find Yead in Merry

Poins. You will, chops?

Fal. Hal, wilt thou make one?

Prince. Who, I rob? I a thief? not I, by my faith.

Fal. There's neither honesty, manhood, nor good fellowship in thee, nor thou camest not of the blood royal, 140 if thou darest not stand for ten shillings.

Prince. Well then, once in my days I'll be a madcap.

Fal. Why, that's well said.

Prince. Well, come what will, I'll tarry at home.

Fal. By the Lord, I'll be a traitor then, when thou art 145

king.

Prince. I care not.

Poins. Sir John, I prithee, leave the prince and me alone: I will lay him down such reasons for this adventure that he shall go. 150 Fal. Well, God give thee the spirit of persuasion and him the ears of profiting, that what thou speakest may move and what he hears may be believed, that the true prince may, for recreation sake, prove a false thief; for the poor abuses of the time want counten- 155 ance. Farewell you shall find me in Eastcheap. Prince. Farewell, the latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer!

138. Who,] Who, I? Anon. conj. (apud Cambridge). 145. By the Lord] omitted Ff. 151. God give thee haue... and he Ff. 154. true] omitted Qq 5-8. the Qq, Ff; Farewell, thou Pope and many editors. 2-4; omitted Qq, F.

Wives of Windsor, 1. i. 160. Dyce quotes an example of Yedward in the Lancashire dialect from Shadwell's Lancashire Witches, I.

136. chops] fat or chubby cheeks. Cotgrave: "Fafelu. Puffed up; fat cheeked; a chops." Cf. Marlowe, Few of Malta, 11: "'tis not a stone of beef a-day will maintain you in these chops. Let me see one that's somewhat leaner."

140, 141. camest . . shillings] The points of this jest are that a royal was a coin of the value of ten shillings and that "stand for" signified (1) to represent, stand in the place of, and (2) to make a fight for. For the latter meaning Brome, Covent-Garden Weeded, III. i: "Nick. 40. sh. and 3.d. you'l bate the 3.d. will you not? Drawer. We'll not much stand for that Sir, though our master sits at a deare rent," and R, Brathwaite, The

[Exit Falstaff.

by my faith] omitted Ff. and him] maist thou 157. Farewell, the] Farewel 158. Exit Falstaff] Ff.

English Gentleman: "as you have received your birth and breeding from your Countrey; so are you to stand for her, even to the sacrifice of your dearest lives." Pope read cry, stand, for stand, and bid stand is the reading in Betterton's acting copy of the play.

151-153. God move] Again Falstaff ridicules the language of the Puritans. See Nashe, Anatomie of Absurditie (Grosart, i. 32): "Might the boast of the Spirit pind to their sleeues make them elect before all other, they will make men beleeue, they doe nothing whereto the Spirit doth not perswade them." Cf. also Marlowe, Few of Malta, 1 (Dyce, p. 152); and Jonson, Alchemist, III. i: "Ananias. The motion's good And of the spirit." 154. for sake] See note on II. i. 70 post.

157. the latter spring] Pope, followed by many editors, substituted thou for

1

Poins. Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us to-
morrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot 160
manage alone. Falstaff, Bardolph, Peto and Gadshill
shall rob those men that we have already waylaid;
yourself and I will not be there; and when they have
the booty, if you and I do not rob them, cut this head
off from my shoulders.
165

Prince. How shall we part with them in setting forth?
Poins. Why, we will set forth before or after them, and
appoint them a place of meeting, wherein it is at our
pleasure to fail, and then will they adventure upon
the exploit themselves; which they shall have no 170
sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.

Prince. Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our

161. Bardolph, Peto] Theobald; Haruey, Rossill Qq, Ff. omitted Qq 3-8, Ff. 166. How] But how Ff.

the, but the change is unnecessary. The vocative of the definite article was in general use in O.E. and is not uncommon in the sixteenth century. Cf. N. Udall, Roister Doister, v. iv, where Gawyn Goodlucke is addressing C. Custance: "Come nowe, kisse me, the pearle of perfect honestie," and ibid. v. vi: "Oh the moste honeste gentleman that ere I wist. I beseeche your mashyp. to suppe with us." For other examples cf. Spenser, Shepheards Calendar, viii. 190; 3 Henry VI. v. v. 38; King Lear, 1. i. 271; and Julius Cæsar, v. iii. 99: "The last of all the Romans, fare thee well!" The expression "latter spring" was used figuratively of the autumn of life or the youth of old age. See Webster, The Devil's Law-Case, 1. i:—

172. Yea] I Ff.

165. off]

old age." Cf. 2 Henry IV. II. ii. 110:
"the martlemas, your master."
159. honey] A common term of en-
dearment, as in Love's Labour's Lost,
v. ii. 530.

161. Bardolph, Peto] The Haruey
and Rossill of Qq and Ff were per-
haps the names of dramatis persona in
the play as originally produced, after-
wards altered to Bardolph and Peto;
or, as Theobald suggested, the names
of the actors who performed the parts
of Bardolph and Peto. As in ii. iv.
176, 178, 182, the Qq have Ross. for
Gad. i.e. Gadshill, Wright suggests
that the minor parts may have been
taken sometimes by one actor and some-
times by another. The names Harvey
and Rossill are not found in any list of
actors of the period. It is perhaps
worth noting that in 2 Henry IV. 11.
ii., Q has a stage-direction: "Enter
the Prince, Poynes, sir Iohn Russel,
with other," where F gives: "Enter
Prince Henry, Pointz, Bardolfe, and
Page."

162. that . . . waylaid] for whom we have set an ambush, for whom the ways are "laid" or watched. Cf. R. Brome, A Jovial Crew, III: "The Search is every way; the Country all laid for you."

168, 169. wherein . fail] an appointment we can fail to keep if we please.

horses, by our habits, and by every other appoint-
ment, to be ourselves.

Poins. Tut! our horses they shall not see; I'll tie them 175
in the wood; our vizards we will change after we
leave them and, sirrah, I have cases of buckram
for the nonce, to immask our noted outward gar-

ments.

180

Prince. Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us. Poins. Well, for two of them, I know them to be as truebred cowards as ever turned back; and for the third, if he fight longer than he sees reason, I'll forswear arms. The virtue of this jest will be, the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us 185 when we meet at supper: how thirty, at least, he fought with; what wards, what blows, what extremities he endured; and in the reproof of this lives the jest.

Prince. Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things 190 necessary and meet me to-morrow night in East

Prince. I know you all, and will a while uphold

The unyoked humour of your idleness:

180. Yea, but] But Ff.

185. same] omitted Qq 5-8, Ff.

[Exit.

195

188. this]

these Qq 6-8. 189. lives] Q I; lies the rest. 194. a while] a-while Ff 1, 2.

180. too hard for us] more than a match for us. Cf. Henry VIII. v. i. 57: "I will play no more to-night; "" you are too hard for me. 184-185. incomprehensible] illimit able. An English Expositor, 1684 (7th edit.): Incomprehensible. Which cannot be comprehended, or contained." New Eng. Dict. quotes Nashe, Have with you: "He is asham'd of the incomprehensible corpulencie thereof" [i.e. of his book].

66

187. wards] guards, positions on guard. The words "he lay at" may be supplied after "wards." 187-188. extremities]

danger.

extremes of

188. reproof] disproof, confutation. 189. lives] The reading of Q I receives support from Much Ado About Nothing, iv. i. 190; and King John, IV. ii. 72. See also Coriolanus, IV. iii. 26; and iv. i. 56 post.

191. to-morrow night] Capell reads to-night, but change is unnecessary. The Prince's appointment with Poins is made for the evening following the robbery. So Poins in lines 129-130 ante: "I have bespoke supper to-morrow night in Eastcheap." Knight removes any ambiguity by pointing meet me. To-morrow night in Eastcheap,

195. unyoked] unrestrained, whether the metaphor be that of an animal disporting itself when relieved of the yoke (cf. "unyoke," to leave off work, in Hamlet, v. i. 59), or of a steed un

Yet herein will I imitate the sun,

Who doth permit the base contagious clouds on 33
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,

200

To sport would be as tedious as to work;

But when they seldom come, they wish'd for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off
And pay the debt I never promised,

205

By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;
And like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

214. foil] foile Qq 1-3; soile, soyle or soyl the rest.

tamed, that has never submitted to the
yoke, as in 2 Henry IV. IV. ii. 103:
"Like youthful steers unyoked." Cot-
grave:
"Desaccouplé... Uncoupled,
unyoaked."

195. humour] inclination.
196-202. the sun... him] Malone
compares Sonnets, xxxiii. Cf. also
Nashe, Preface to Sidney's Astrophel
and Stella (1591): "The Sunne for a
time may maske his golden head in a
cloud, yet in the end the thicke vaile
doth vanish, and his embellished blan-
dishment appeares"; Spenser, Faerie
Queene, 1. vi. 6; and Dekker, If this be
not a good Play (Pearson, iii. 279) :—
"Thou art a sunne,

And let no base cloudes muffle thee."

202. strangle] stifle, extinguish. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, IV. iii. 35, and Macbeth, II. iv. 7.

210

216. Exit.] omitted Ff.

Then those, which come by sweet contingences";

and Sonnets, cii. 12. For "accidents," incidents, cf. Tempest, v. i. 250.

...

210. falsify hopes] prove men's anticipations to have been without foundation. Malone quotes 2 Henry IV. v. ii. 126-129. Hopes, expectations, as in Othello, I. iii. 203. So "to hope" was sometimes used in a neutral sense (cf. Gk. λríšew and L. sperare).

211. sullen ground] dark background. Steevens compares Richard II. 1. iii. 265.

214. foil] a leaf of dull metal that "sets off" a brighter metal or a precious stone in a jewel. Massinger, The Guardian, II. v:—

"all these are

But foils and settings off."
The soile (soyle or soyl) of Qq 4-8 and
Ff is certainly a misprint.

215. a skill] an art. See in J. Dennys, Secrets of Angling, 1613, the lines by J. Davies entitled In due praise of this praise-worthy Skill and Worke. The verses open with: "In skils that all doe seeke, but few doe finde," and conclude with:

"Who thinke this skill's too low than, for the high,