The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT II , SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill.

The First Part of Henry the Fourth: ACT II


	Introduction

	ACT I

	ACT II

		SCENE I. Rochester. An inn yard.

		SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill.

		SCENE III. Warkworth castle

		SCENE IV. The Boar's-Head Tavern, Eastcheap.

	ACT III

	ACT IV

	ACT V

	About the Play

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SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill.

Enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS

POINS

Come, shelter, shelter: I have removed Falstaff's
horse, and he frets like a gummed velvet.

PRINCE HENRY

Stand close.

Enter FALSTAFF

FALSTAFF

Poins! Poins, and be hanged! Poins!

PRINCE HENRY

5 Peace, ye fat-kidneyed rascal! what a brawling dost
thou keep!

FALSTAFF

Where's Poins, Hal?

PRINCE HENRY

He is walked up to the top of the hill: I'll go seek him.

FALSTAFF

      I am accursed to rob in that thief's company: the
10    rascal hath removed my horse, and tied him I know
      not where. If I travel but four foot by the squier
      further afoot, I shall break my wind. Well, I doubt
      not but to die a fair death for all this, if I
      'scape hanging for killing that rogue. I have
15    forsworn his company hourly any time this two and
      twenty years, and yet I am bewitched with the
      rogue's company. If the rascal hath not given me
      medicines to make me love him, I'll be hanged; it
      could not be else: I have drunk medicines. Poins!
20    Hal! a plague upon you both! Bardolph! Peto!
      I'll starve ere I'll rob a foot further. An 'twere
      not as good a deed as drink, to turn true man and to
      leave these rogues, I am the veriest varlet that
      ever chewed with a tooth. Eight yards of uneven
25    ground is threescore and ten miles afoot with me;
      and the stony-hearted villains know it well enough:
      a plague upon it when thieves cannot be true one to another!

They whistle

Whew! A plague upon you all! Give me my horse, you
rogues; give me my horse, and be hanged!

PRINCE HENRY

30    Peace, ye fat-guts! lie down; lay thine ear close
      to the ground and list if thou canst hear the tread
      of travellers.

FALSTAFF

      Have you any levers to lift me up again, being down?
      'Sblood, I'll not bear mine own flesh so far afoot
35    again for all the coin in thy father's exchequer.
      What a plague mean ye to colt me thus?

PRINCE HENRY

Thou liest; thou art not colted, thou art uncolted.

FALSTAFF

I prithee, good Prince Hal, help me to my horse,
good king's son.

PRINCE HENRY

40 Out, ye rogue! shall I be your ostler?

FALSTAFF

      Go, hang thyself in thine own heir-apparent
      garters! If I be ta'en, I'll peach for this. An I
      have not ballads made on you all and sung to filthy
      tunes, let a cup of sack be my poison: when a jest
45    is so forward, and afoot too! I hate it.

Enter GADSHILL, BARDOLPH and PETO

GADSHILL

Stand.

FALSTAFF

So I do, against my will.

POINS

O, 'tis our setter: I know his voice. Bardolph,
what news?

BARDOLPH

50    Case ye, case ye; on with your vizards: there 's
      money of the king's coming down the hill; 'tis going
      to the king's exchequer.

FALSTAFF

You lie, ye rogue; 'tis going to the king's tavern.

GADSHILL

There's enough to make us all.

FALSTAFF

55 To be hanged.

PRINCE HENRY

      Sirs, you four shall front them in the narrow lane;
      Ned Poins and I will walk lower: if they 'scape
      from your encounter, then they light on us.

PETO

How many be there of them?

GADSHILL

60 Some eight or ten.

FALSTAFF

'Zounds, will they not rob us?

PRINCE HENRY

What, a coward, Sir John Paunch?

FALSTAFF

Indeed, I am not John of Gaunt, your grandfather;
but yet no coward, Hal.

PRINCE HENRY

65 Well, we leave that to the proof.

POINS

      Sirrah Jack, thy horse stands behind the hedge:
      when thou needest him, there thou shalt find him.
      Farewell, and stand fast.

FALSTAFF

Now cannot I strike him, if I should be hanged.

PRINCE HENRY

70 Ned, where are our disguises?

POINS

Here, hard by: stand close.

Exeunt PRINCE HENRY and POINS

FALSTAFF

Now, my masters, happy man be his dole, say I:
every man to his business.

Enter the Travellers

First Traveller

Come, neighbour: the boy shall lead our horses down
75 the hill; we'll walk afoot awhile, and ease our legs.

Thieves

Stand!

Travellers

Jesus bless us!

FALSTAFF

      Strike; down with them; cut the villains' throats:
      ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-fed knaves! they
80    hate us youth: down with them: fleece them.

Travellers

O, we are undone, both we and ours for ever!

FALSTAFF

      Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? No, ye
      fat chuffs: I would your store were here! On,
      bacons, on! What, ye knaves! young men must live.
85    You are Grand-jurors, are ye? we'll jure ye, 'faith.

Here they rob them and bind them. Exeunt

Re-enter PRINCE HENRY and POINS

PRINCE HENRY

      The thieves have bound the true men. Now could thou
      and I rob the thieves and go merrily to London, it
      would be argument for a week, laughter for a month
      and a good jest for ever.

POINS

90 Stand close; I hear them coming.

Enter the Thieves again

FALSTAFF

      Come, my masters, let us share, and then to horse
      before day. An the Prince and Poins be not two
      arrant cowards, there's no equity stirring: there's
      no more valour in that Poins than in a wild-duck.

PRINCE HENRY

95 Your money!

POINS

Villains!

As they are sharing, the Prince and Poins set upon them; they all run away; and Falstaff, after a blow or two, runs away too, leaving the booty behind them

PRINCE HENRY

      Got with much ease. Now merrily to horse:
      The thieves are all scatter'd and possess'd with fear
      So strongly that they dare not meet each other;
100   Each takes his fellow for an officer.
      Away, good Ned. Falstaff sweats to death,
      And lards the lean earth as he walks along:
      Were 't not for laughing, I should pity him.

POINS

How the rogue roar'd!

Exeunt

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