Scene 2

It is moonlight.

[Prolog.] The highway, near Gadshill, the scene of the proposed robbery. The first to arrive are the Prince and Poins.

[Exit.]

[Enter Prince and Poins, R., laughing and running.] Poins. Come, shelter, shelter! I have moved Falstaff's horse. [Hides L.]

Prince. [C.] Stand close.

Falstaff appears [R.].

Falstaff. Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Where's Poins,
Hal?
Prince. He walked up to the top of the hill; I'll go seek
him.

He goes, but only to reënter behind, [R.].

Falstaff. I am accursed to rob in that thief's company. The rascal hath moved my horse and tied him I know not where. If I travel but four feet further afoot, I shall break my wind. I doubt not but to die a fair death for all this, if I escape hanging for killing that rogue. Poins! Hal!I'll starve before I'll rob a foot further. Eight yards of uneven ground is three score and ten miles afoot with me; and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough. [They whistle, from opposite ends of the stage.] Whew! - Give me my horse, you rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged! Enter Gadshill and Bardolph.

Gadshill. Peace, you fat-paunch! lie down. Lay thine ear close to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread of travelers.

Falstaff. Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?

[All laugh.]

Poins. Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge; when thou need'st him, there thou shalt find him.

Falstaff. Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.
Prince. [Aside] Poins, where are our disguises?

Poins. Here, nearby.

The Prince and Poins leave [L.], but reënter unobserved behind the hedge.

Falstaff. Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I, Every man to his business.

Three Travelers appear [R.].

1 Traveler. Come, neighbor; we'll walk afoot a while, and ease our legs. Thieves. Stand!

Travelers. Bless us!

Falstaff. Strike; down with them! Cut the villains' throats! Caterpillars! knaves! Down with them!

Travelers. O, we are lost, both we and ours for ever!

The thieves rob them and bind them.

Falstaff. Let us share, and then to horse before day. If Hal and Poins be not cowards! There's no more valor in that Poins than in a wild-duck.

Prince. Your money!

Poins. Villains!

The Prince and Poins set upon them; Gadshill and Bardolph run away; and Falstaff, after a blow or two, follows them [R.], leaving the booty behind.

Prince.

Falstaff sweats to death,

He lards the lean earth as he runs along.

Were't not for laughing, I should pity him.

Poins. How the rogue roar'd!

[Exeunt.]

Scene 3

The tavern again. The Prince and Poins are resting.

A very timid knocking is heard at the outside door; then a wait and another knocking.

Prince. Let them alone a while, and then open the door.

After another knock, Falstaff, Gadshill, and Bardolph come in [R.].

Poins. Welcome, Jack! Where hast thou been? Falstaff. A plague on all cowards, I say. Give me a cup of wine, rogue. [He drinks.] Go thy ways, old Jack; die when thou wilt, if manhood, good manhood, be not forgot upon the face of the earth! There live not three good men unhanged in England; and one of them is fat and grows old. A bad world, I say.

Prince. How now, what mutter you?

Falstaff. A king's son! If I do not beat thee out of thy kingdom with a dagger of lath,1 and drive all thy subjects afore thee like a flock of wild-geese! You Prince of Wales! Prince. Why, you round man, what's the matter? Falstaff. Are not you a coward? Answer me that; and Poins there?

Poins. 'Zounds, ye call me coward and I'll stab thee. Falstaff. I call thee coward! I'll see thee hanged ere I call thee coward; but I would give a thousand pound if I could run as fast as thou canst. Give me a cup of wine. I am a rogue, if I have drunk today.

Prince. O villain! thy lips are scarce wiped since thou drank'st last.

[Falstaff drinks again]

Falstaff. There be four of us here have taken a thousand pound this day morning.

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

Falstaff. Where is it! Taken from us it is; a hundred upon poor three of us.

Prince. What, a hundred, man?

1 See note 2 on p. 279. The wooden dagger or sword was split so that it popped like the slap stick of our modern clowns in a circus.

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 hand-saw. I never fought better since I was a man. A plague on all cowards! Let them speak; if they speak more or less than truth, they are villains and the sons of darkness.

Prince. Speak, sirs; how was it?

Gadshill. We three set upon some dozen ·

Falstaff. Sixteen at least, my lord.

Gadshill. And bound them.

Bardolph. No, no, they were not bound.

Falstaff. You rogue, they were bound, every man of them. Gadshill. As we were sharing, some six or seven fresh men

set upon us

Falstaff. And unbound the rest.

Prince. What, fought you with them all?

Falstaff. All! 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. 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 killed, two rogues in buckram suits. I tell thee what, Hal, if I tell thee a lie, spit in my face. Four rogues in buckram let drive at me Prince. What, four?

Falstaff. Four, Hal; I told thee four. These four came all a-front, and mainly thrust at me. I made no more ado but took all their seven points in my target,' thus. Prince. Seven? why, there were but four even now. Falstaff. In buckram?

Poins. Ay, four, in buckram suits.

1 target: shield.