SCENE II. The highway, near Gadshill. The First part of King Henry the Fourth  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry IV, part 1  | Act 2, Scene 2 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  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  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 

 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 

 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! 

 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 

 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  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 

 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  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 

 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  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  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  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  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  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 

 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 

 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. 

 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  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  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; 

 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  Shakespeare homepage  |  Henry IV, part 1  | Act 2, Scene 2 

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