Eastcheap. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern.
 Enter PRINCE.

Prince Henry	Ned, prithee come out of that fat room, and lend me thy 
	hand to laugh a little.

                               Enter POINS.

Poins	Where hast been, Hal?

Prince Henry	With three or four loggerheads, amongst three or fourscore 
	hogsheads. I have sounded the very base-string of 
	humility. Sirrah, I am sworn brother to a leash of 
	drawers, and can call them all by their christen names, as 
	Tom, Dick, and Francis. They take it already, upon their 
	salvation, that though I be but Prince of Wales, yet I am 
	the king of courtesy, and tell me flatly I am no proud 
	Jack like Falstaff, but a Corinthian, a lad of mettle, a 
	good boy - by the Lord, so they call me! - and when I am 
	king of England I shall command all the good lads in 
	Eastcheap. They call drinking deep 'dyeing scarlet', and 
	when you breathe in your watering they cry 'hem!' and bid 
	you 'Play it off'. To conclude, I am so good a proficient 
	in one quarter of an hour that I can drink with any tinker 
	in his own language during my life. I tell thee, Ned, thou 
	hast lost much honour that thou wert not with me in this 
	action. But, sweet Ned - to sweeten which name of Ned I 
	give thee this pennyworth of sugar, clapped even now into 
	my hand by an under-skinker, one that never spake other 
	English in his life than 'Eight shillings and sixpence', 
	and 'You are welcome', with this shrill addition, 'Anon, 
	anon, sir! Score a pint of bastard in the Half-moon!', or 
	so - but, Ned, to drive away the time till Falstaff come, 
	I prithee do thou stand in some byroom, while I question 
	my puny drawer to what end he gave me the sugar, and do 
	thou never leave calling 'Francis!', that his tale to me 
	may be nothing but 'Anon'. Step aside, and I'll show thee 
	a precedent.
												[POINS stands aside.
Poins	[Within.] Francis!

Prince Henry	Thou art perfect.

Poins	[Within.] Francis!

                         Enter FRANCIS, a Drawer.

Francis	Anon, anon, sir. [Calling.] Look down into the Pomgarnet, 
	Ralph.

Prince Henry	Come hither, Francis.

Francis	My lord?

Prince Henry	How long hast thou to serve, Francis?

Francis	Forsooth, five years, and as much as to-

Poins	[Within.] Francis!

Francis	Anon, anon, sir.

Prince Henry	Five year? Byrlady, a long lease for the clinking of 
	pewter. But, Francis, darest thou be so valiant as to play 
	the coward with thy indenture, and show it a fair pair of 
	heels and run from it?

Francis	O Lord, sir, I'll be sworn upon all the books in England I 
	could find in my heart-

Poins	[Within.] Francis!

Francis	Anon, sir.

Prince Henry	How old art thou, Francis?

Francis	Let me see - about Michaelmas next I shall be-

Poins	[Within.] Francis!

Francis	Anon, sir. Pray, stay a little, my lord.

Prince Henry	Nay, but hark you, Francis. For the sugar thou gavest me, 
	'twas a pennyworth, was't not?

Francis	O Lord, I would it had been two!

Prince Henry	I will give thee for it a thousand pound. Ask me when thou 
	wilt, and thou shalt have it.

Poins	[Within.] Francis!

Francis	Anon, anon.

Prince Henry	Anon, Francis? No, Francis; but tomorrow, Francis; or, 
	Francis, a Thursday; or indeed, Francis, when thou wilt. 
	But, Francis-

Francis	My lord?

Prince Henry	Wilt thou rob this leathern-jerkin, crystal-button, knot-
	pated, agate-ring, puke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-
	tongue, Spanish pouch?

Francis	O Lord, sir, who do you mean?

Prince Henry	Why then, your brown bastard is your only drink; for look 
	you, Francis, your white canvas doublet will sully. In 
	Barbary, sir, it cannot come to so much.

Francis	What, sir?

Poins	[Within.] Francis!

Prince Henry	Away, you rogue! Dost thou not hear them call?
						[Here they both call him; he stands amazed,
												not knowing which way to go.

                              Enter VINTNER.

Vintner	What, stand'st thou still and hear'st such a calling? Look 
	to the guests within.
												[Exit FRANCIS.
	My lord, old Sir John with half a dozen more are at the 
	door. Shall I let them in?

Prince Henry	Let them alone awhile, and then open the door.
												[Exit VINTNER.
	Poins!

                             Re-enter POINS.

Poins.	Anon, anon, sir.

Prince Henry	Sirrah, Falstaff and the rest of the thieves are at the 
	door. Shall we be merry?

Poins	As merry as crickets, my lad. But hark ye, what cunning 
	match have you made with this jest of the drawer? Come, 
	what's the issue?

Prince Henry	I am now of all humours that have showed themselves 
	humours since the old days of goodman Adam to the pupil 
	age of this present twelve o'clock at midnight.

                            Re-enter FRANCIS.

	What's o'clock, Francis?

Francis	Anon, anon, sir.
												[Exit.

Prince Henry	That ever this fellow should have fewer words than a 
	parrot, and yet the son of a woman! His industry is 
	upstairs and downstairs, his eloquence the parcel of a 
	reckoning. I am not yet of Percy's mind, the Hotspur of 
	the north - he that kills me some six or seven dozen of 
	Scots at a breakfast, washes his hands, and says to his 
	wife "Fie upon this quiet life! I want work". "O my sweet 
	Harry," says she "how many hast thou killed today?" "Give 
	my roan horse a drench," says he, and answers "Some 
	fourteen" an hour after, "a trifle, a trifle". I prithee 
	call in Falstaff; I'll play Percy, and that damned brawn 
	shall play Dame Mortimer his wife. "Rivo!" says the 
	drunkard. Call in Ribs, call in Tallow.

              Enter FALSTAFF, GADSHILL, BARDOLPH, and PETO;
                     followed by FRANCIS, with wine.

Poins	Welcome, Jack, where hast thou been?

Falstaff	A plague of all cowards, I say, and a vengeance too, marry 
	and amen! Give me a cup of sack, boy. Ere I lead this life 
	long, I'll sew netherstocks, and mend them and foot them 
	too. A plague of all cowards! Give me a cup of sack, 
	rogue; is there no virtue extant?
												[He drinketh.

Prince Henry	Didst thou never see Titan kiss a dish of butter - 
	pitiful-hearted Titan! - that melted at the sweet tale of 
	the sun's? If thou didst, then behold that compound.

Falstaff	You rogue, here's lime in this sack too. There is nothing 
	but roguery to be found in villainous man; yet a coward is 
	worse than a cup of sack with lime in it. A villainous 
	coward! Go thy ways, old Jack, die when thou wilt. If 
	manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the 
	earth, then am I a shotten herring. There lives not three 
	good men unhanged in England, and one of them is fat and 
	grows old, God help the while! A bad world, I say. I would 
	I were a weaver: I could sing psalms, or anything. A 
	plague of all cowards, I say still.

Prince Henry	How now, woolsack, what mutter you?

Falstaff	A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom 
	with a dagger of lath, and drive all thy subjects afore 
	thee like a flock of wild geese, I'll never wear hair on 
	my face more. You, Prince of Wales?

Prince Henry	Why, you whoreson round man, what's the matter?

Falstaff	Are not you a coward? Answer me to that - and Poins there?

Poins	Zounds, ye fat paunch! And ye call me coward, by the Lord, 
	I'll stab thee.

Falstaff	I call thee coward? I'll see thee damned ere I call thee 
	coward; but I would give a thousand pound I could run as 
	fast as thou canst. You are straight enough in the 
	shoulders, you care not who sees your back. Call you that 
	backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing, give 
	me them that will face me. Give me a cup of sack: I am a 
	rogue if I drunk today.

Prince Henry	O villain, thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drunk'st 
	last.

Falstaff	All is one for that.
												[He drinketh.
	A plague of all cowards, still say I.

Prince Henry	What's the matter?

Falstaff	What's the matter? There be four of us here have ta'en a 
	thousand pound this day morning.

Prince Henry	Where is it, Jack, where is it?

Falstaff	Where is it? Taken from us it is. A hundred upon poor four 
	of us.

Prince Henry	What, a hundred, man?

Falstaff	I am a rogue if I were not at half-sword with a dozen of 
	them two hours together. I have scaped by miracle. I am 
	eight times thrust through the doublet, four through the 
	hose; my buckler cut through and through, my sword hacked 
	like a handsaw - ecce signum! I never dealt better since I 
	was a man: all would not do. A plague of all cowards! Let 
	them speak. If they speak more or less than truth, they 
	are villains, and the sons of darkness.

Prince Henry	Speak, sirs, how was it?

Gadshill	We four set upon some dozen-

Falstaff	Sixteen at least, my lord.

Gadshill	And bound them.

Peto	No, no, they were not bound.

Falstaff	You rogue, they were bound, every man of them, or I am a 
	Jew else - an Ebrew Jew.

Gadshill	As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men set upon 
	us-

Falstaff	And unbound the rest, and then come in the other.

Prince Henry	What, fought you with them all?

Falstaff	All? I know not what you call all, but if I fought not 
	with fifty of them I am a bunch of radish. If there were 
	not two- or three-and-fifty upon poor old Jack, then am I 
	no two-legged creature.

Prince Henry	Pray God you have not murdered some of them.

Falstaff	Nay, that's past praying for: I have peppered two of them. 
	Two I am sure I have paid - two rogues in buckram suits. I 
	tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my 
	face, call me horse. Thou knowest my old ward - here I 
	lay, and thus I bore my point. Four rogues in buckram let 
	drive at me.

Prince Henry	What, four? Thou said'st but two even now.

Falstaff	Four, Hal, I told thee four.

Poins	Ay, ay, he said four.

Falstaff	These four came all affront, and mainly thrust at me. I 
	made me no more ado, but took all their seven points in my 
	target, thus.

Prince Henry	Seven? Why, there were but four even now.

Falstaff	In buckram?

Poins	Ay, four, in buckram suits.

Falstaff	Seven, by these hilts, or I am a villain else.

Prince Henry	[Aside to POINS.] Prithee let him alone, we shall have 
	more anon.

Falstaff	Dost thou hear me, Hal?

Prince Henry	Ay, and mark thee too, Jack.

Falstaff	Do so, for it is worth the listening to. These nine in 
	buckram that I told thee of-

Prince Henry	[Aside to POINS.] So, two more already.

Falstaff	Their points being broken-

Poins	Down fell their hose.

Falstaff	Began to give me ground; but I followed me close, came in 
	foot and hand, and, with a thought, seven of the eleven I 
	paid.

Prince Henry	[Aside to POINS.] O monstrous! Eleven buckram men grown 
	out of two!

Falstaff	But, as the devil would have it, three misbegotten knaves 
	in Kendal green came at my back and let drive at me; for 
	it was so dark, Hal, that thou couldst not see thy hand.

Prince Henry	These lies are like their father that begets them - gross 
	as a mountain, open, palpable. Why, thou clay-brained 
	guts, thou knotty-pated fool, thou whoreson obscene greasy 
	tallow-catch-

Falstaff	What, art thou mad, art thou mad? Is not the truth the 
	truth?

Prince Henry	Why, how couldst thou know these men in Kendal green when 
	it was so dark thou couldst not see thy hand? Come, tell 
	us your reason. What sayst thou to this?

Poins	Come, your reason, Jack, your reason.

Falstaff	What, upon compulsion? Zounds, and I were at the strappado 
	or all the racks in the world, I would not tell you on 
	compulsion. Give you a reason on compulsion! If reasons 
	were as plentiful as blackberries, I would give no man a 
	reason upon compulsion, I.

Prince Henry	I'll be no longer guilty of this sin. This sanguine 
	coward, this bed-presser, this horse-back-breaker, this 
	huge hill of flesh-

Falstaff	'Sblood, you starveling, you eel-skin, you dried neat's-
	tongue, you bull's-pizzle, you stockfish! - O for breath 
	to utter what is like thee! - you tailor's-yard, you 
	sheath, you bow-case, you vile standing tuck!

Prince Henry	Well, breathe awhile, and then to it again; and when thou 
	hast tired thyself in base comparisons, hear me speak but 
	this.

Poins	Mark, Jack.

Prince Henry	We two saw you four set on four, and bound them, and were 
	masters of their wealth. Mark now how a plain tale shall 
	put you down. Then did we two set on you four, and, with a 
	word, outfaced you from your prize, and have it, yea, and 
	can show it you here in the house. And, Falstaff, you 
	carried your guts away as nimbly, with as quick dexterity, 
	and roared for mercy, and still run and roared, as ever I 
	heard bull-calf. What a slave art thou to hack thy sword 
	as thou hast done, and then say it was in fight! What 
	trick, what device, what starting-hole canst thou now find 
	out to hide thee from this open and apparent shame?

Poins	Come, let's hear, Jack. What trick hast thou now?

Falstaff	By the Lord, I knew ye as well as he that made ye. Why, 
	hear you, my masters, was it for me to kill the heir-
	apparent? Should I turn upon the true prince? Why, thou 
	knowest I am as valiant as Hercules; but beware instinct. 
	The lion will not touch the true prince - instinct is a 
	great matter. I was now a coward on instinct. I shall 
	think the better of myself, and thee, during my life: I 
	for a valiant lion, and thou for a true prince. But, by 
	the Lord, lads, I am glad you have the money. Hostess, 
	clap to the doors! Watch tonight, pray tomorrow. Gallants, 
	lads, boys, hearts of gold, all the titles of good 
	fellowship come to you! What, shall we be merry, shall we 
	have a play extempore?

Prince Henry	Content, and the argument shall be thy running away.

Falstaff	Ah, no more of that, Hal, and thou lovest me.

                              Enter HOSTESS.

Hostess	O Jesu, my lord the Prince!

Prince Henry	How now, my lady the hostess, what sayst thou to me?

Hostess	Marry, my lord, there is a nobleman of the court at door 
	would speak with you. He says he comes from your father.

Prince Henry	Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send 
	him back again to my mother.

Falstaff	What manner of man is he?

Hostess	An old man.

Falstaff	What doth gravity out of his bed at midnight? Shall I give 
	him his answer?

Prince Henry	Prithee do, Jack.

Falstaff	Faith, and I'll send him packing.
												[Exit.

Prince Henry	Now, sirs; byrlady, you fought fair. So did you, Peto; so 
	did you, Bardolph. You are lions too: you ran away upon 
	instinct, you will not touch the true prince; no, fie!

Bardolph	Faith, I ran when I saw others run.

Prince Henry	Faith, tell me now in earnest, how came Falstaff's sword 
	so hacked?

Peto	Why, he hacked it with his dagger, and said he would swear 
	truth out of England but he would make you believe it was 
	done in fight, and persuaded us to do the like.

Bardolph	Yea, and to tickle our noses with speargrass to make them 
	bleed, and then to beslubber our garments with it and 
	swear it was the blood of true men. I did that I did not 
	this seven year before - I blushed to hear his monstrous 
	devices.

Prince Henry	O villain, thou stolest a cup of sack eighteen years ago, 
	and wert taken with the manner, and ever since thou hast 
	blushed extempore. Thou hadst fire and sword on thy side, 
	and yet thou rann'st away. What instinct hadst thou for 
	it?

Bardolph	My lord, do you see these meteors, do you behold these 
	exhalations?

Prince Henry	I do.

Bardolph	What think you they portend?

Prince Henry	Hot livers and cold purses.

Bardolph	Choler, my lord, if rightly taken.

Prince Henry	No, if rightly taken, halter.

                            Re-enter FALSTAFF.

	Here comes lean Jack, here comes barebone. How now, my 
	sweet creature of bombast! How long is't ago, Jack, since 
	thou sawest thine own knee?

Falstaff	My own knee? When I was about thy years, Hal, I was not an 
	eagle's talon in the waist; I could have crept into any 
	alderman's thumb-ring. A plague of sighing and grief - it 
	blows a man up like a bladder. There's villainous news 
	abroad. Here was Sir John Bracy from your father: you must 
	to the court in the morning. That same mad fellow of the 
	north, Percy, and he of Wales that gave Amamon the 
	bastinado, and made Lucifer cuckold, and swore the devil 
	his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook - what a 
	plague call you him?

Poins	Owen Glendower.

Falstaff	Owen, Owen, the same; and his son-in-law Mortimer, and old 
	Northumberland, and that sprightly Scot of Scots, Douglas, 
	that runs a-horseback up a hill perpendicular-

Prince Henry	He that rides at high speed and with his pistol kills a 
	sparrow flying.

Falstaff	You have hit it.

Prince Henry	So did he never the sparrow.

Falstaff	Well, that rascal hath good mettle in him; he will not 
	run.

Prince Henry	Why, what a rascal art thou then to praise him so for 
	running!

Falstaff	A-horseback, ye cuckoo; but afoot he will not budge a 
	foot.

Prince Henry	Yes, Jack, upon instinct.

Falstaff	I grant ye, upon instinct. Well, he is there too, and one 
	Mordake, and a thousand bluecaps more. Worcester is stolen 
	away tonight; thy father's beard is turned white with the 
	news. You may buy land now as cheap as stinking mackerel.

Prince Henry	Why then, it is like if there come a hot June and this 
	civil buffeting hold, we shall buy maidenheads as they buy 
	hobnails - by the hundreds.

Falstaff	By the mass, lad, thou sayst true; it is like we shall 
	have good trading that way. But tell me, Hal, art not thou 
	horrible afeard? Thou being heir apparent, could the world 
	pick thee out three such enemies again as that fiend 
	Douglas, that spirit Percy, and that devil Glendower? Art 
	thou not horribly afraid? Doth not thy blood thrill at it?

Prince Henry	Not a whit, i'faith. I lack some of thy instinct.

Falstaff	Well, thou wilt be horribly chid tomorrow when thou comest 
	to thy father. If thou love me, practise an answer.

Prince Henry	Do thou stand for my father, and examine me upon the 
	particulars of my life.

Falstaff	Shall I? Content. This chair shall be my state, this 
	dagger my sceptre, and this cushion my crown.

Prince Henry	Thy state is taken for a joint-stool, thy golden sceptre 
	for a leaden dagger, and thy precious rich crown for a 
	pitiful bald crown.

Falstaff	Well, and the fire of grace be not quite out of thee, now 
	shalt thou be moved. Give me a cup of sack to make my eyes 
	look red, that it may be thought I have wept, for I must 
	speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein.

Prince Henry	Well, here is my leg.

Falstaff	And here is my speech. Stand aside, nobility.

Hostess	O Jesu, this is excellent sport, i'faith.

Falstaff	Weep not, sweet queen, for trickling tears are vain.

Hostess	O the Father, how he holds his countenance!

Falstaff	For God's sake, lords, convey my tristful queen;
	For tears do stop the floodgates of her eyes.

Hostess	O Jesu, he doth it as like one of these harlotry players 
	as ever I see!

Falstaff	Peace, good pint-pot! Peace, good tickle-brain! Harry, I 
	do not only marvel where thou spendest thy time, but also 
	how thou art accompanied: for though the camomile, the 
	more it is trodden on the faster it grows, yet youth, the 
	more it is wasted the sooner it wears. That thou art my 
	son I have partly thy mother's word, partly my own 
	opinion, but chiefly a villainous trick of thine eye and a 
	foolish hanging of thy nether lip, that doth warrant me. 
	If then thou be son to me, here lies the point: why, being 
	son to me, art thou so pointed at? Shall the blessed sun 
	of heaven prove a micher and eat blackberries? A question 
	not to be asked. Shall the son of England prove a thief 
	and take purses? A question to be asked. There is a thing, 
	Harry, which thou hast often heard of, and it is known to 
	many in our land by the name of pitch. This pitch, as 
	ancient writers do report, doth defile; so doth the 
	company thou keepest; for, Harry, now I do not speak to 
	thee in drink, but in tears; not in pleasure, but in 
	passion; not in words only, but in woes also. And yet 
	there is a virtuous man whom I have often noted in thy 
	company, but I know not his name.

Prince Henry	What manner of man, and it like your majesty?

Falstaff	A goodly portly man, i'faith, and a corpulent; of a 
	cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage; 
	and, as I think, his age some fifty, or byrlady, inclining 
	to threescore; and now I remember me, his name is 
	Falstaff. If that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth 
	me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. If then the 
	tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, 
	then, peremptorily I speak it, there is virtue in that 
	Falstaff: him keep with, the rest banish. And tell me now, 
	thou naughty varlet, tell me where hast thou been this 
	month?

Prince Henry	Dost thou speak like a king? Do thou stand for me, and 
	I'll play my father.

Falstaff	Depose me? If thou dost it half so gravely, so 
	majestically, both in word and matter, hang me up by the 
	heels for a rabbit-sucker or a poulter's hare.

Prince Henry	Well, here I am set.

Falstaff	And here I stand. Judge, my masters.

Prince Henry	Now, Harry, whence come you?

Falstaff	My noble lord, from Eastcheap.

Prince Henry	The complaints I hear of thee are grievous.

Falstaff	'Sblood, my lord, they are false. Nay, I'll tickle ye for 
	a young prince, i'faith.

Prince Henry	Swearest thou, ungracious boy? Henceforth ne'er look on 
	me. Thou art violently carried away from grace. There is a 
	devil haunts thee in the likeness of an old fat man; a tun 
	of man is thy companion. Why dost thou converse with that 
	trunk of humours, that bolting-hutch of beastliness, that 
	swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, 
	that stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree 
	ox with the pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that 
	grey iniquity, that father ruffian, that vanity in years? 
	Wherein is he good but to taste sack and drink it? Wherein 
	neat and cleanly but to carve a capon and eat it? Wherein 
	cunning but in craft? Wherein crafty but in villainy? 
	Wherein villainous but in all things? Wherein worthy but 
	in nothing?

Falstaff	I would your grace would take me with you. Whom means your 
	grace?

Prince Henry	That villainous abominable misleader of youth, Falstaff, 
	that old white-bearded Satan.

Falstaff	My lord, the man I know.

Prince Henry	I know thou dost.

Falstaff	But to say I know more harm in him than in myself were to 
	say more than I know. That he is old, the more the pity, 
	his white hairs do witness it; but that he is, saving your 
	reverence, a whoremaster, that I utterly deny. If sack and 
	sugar be a fault, God help the wicked! If to be old and 
	merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is 
	damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean 
	kine are to be loved. No, my good lord, banish Peto, 
	banish Bardolph, banish Poins, but for sweet Jack 
	Falstaff, kind Jack Falstaff, true Jack Falstaff, valiant 
	Jack Falstaff, and therefore more valiant being, as he is, 
	old Jack Falstaff, banish not him thy Harry's company, 
	banish not him thy Harry's company - Banish plump Jack, 
	and banish all the world.

Prince Henry	I do, I will.
												[A knocking heard.
							  [Exeunt HOSTESS, FRANCIS and BARDOLPH.

                       Re-enter BARDOLPH, running.

Bardolph	O my lord, my lord! The sheriff with a most monstrous 
	watch is at the door.

Falstaff	Out, ye rogue! Play out the play: I have much to say in 
	the behalf of that Falstaff.

                            Re-enter HOSTESS.

Hostess	O Jesu, my lord, my lord!

Prince Henry	Heigh, heigh, the devil rides upon a fiddlestick! What's 
	the matter?

Hostess	The sheriff and all the watch are at the door; they are 
	come to search the house. Shall I let them in?

Falstaff	Dost thou hear, Hal? Never call a true piece of gold a 
	counterfeit: thou art essentially made without seeming so.

Prince Henry	And thou a natural coward without instinct.

Falstaff	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.

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

Falstaff	Both which I have had; but their date is out, and 
	therefore I'll hide me.
								 [Exeunt all but the PRINCE and PETO.

Prince Henry	Call in the sheriff.

                      Enter SHERIFF and the CARRIER.

	Now, master sheriff, what is your will with me?

Sheriff	First, pardon me, my lord. A hue and cry
	Hath followed certain men unto this house.

Prince Henry	What men?

Sheriff	One of them is well known, my gracious lord,
	A gross fat man.

Carrier							As fat as butter.

Prince Henry	The man, I do assure you, is not here,
	For I myself at this time have employed him.
	And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee
	That I will by tomorrow dinner-time
	Send him to answer thee, or any man,
	For anything he shall be charged withal.
	And so let me entreat you leave the house.

Sheriff	I will, my lord. There are two gentlemen
	Have in this robbery lost three hundred marks.

Prince Henry	It may be so. If he have robbed these men
	He shall be answerable. And so, farewell.

Sheriff	Good night, my noble lord.

Prince Henry	I think it is good morrow, is it not?

Sheriff	Indeed, my lord, I think it be two o'clock.
												[Exeunt SHERIFF and CARRIER.

Prince Henry	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 Henry	Hark how hard he fetches breath. Search his pockets.
												[He searcheth his pockets
												and findeth certain papers.

	What hast thou found?

Peto							Nothing but papers, my lord.

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

Peto	[Reads.]
	"Item,	a capon:				2s.2d.
	Item,	sauce:						  4d.
	Item,	sack, two gallons:	5s.8d.
	Item,	anchovies and sack
			after supper:			2s.6d.
	Item,	bread:						  ob."

Prince Henry	O monstrous! But one halfpennyworth 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 so 
	good morrow, Peto.
Peto	Good morrow, good my lord.
												[Exeunt.
