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
	countenance. Farewell: you shall find me in Eastcheap.

PRINCE HENRY	Farewell, thou latter spring! farewell, All-hallown summer!

	[Exit Falstaff]

POINS	Now, my good sweet honey lord, ride with us
	to-morrow: I have a jest to execute that I cannot
	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.

PRINCE HENRY	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 sooner achieved, but we'll set upon them.

PRINCE HENRY	Yea, but 'tis like that they will know us by our
	horses, by our habits and by every other
	appointment, to be ourselves.

POINS	Tut! our horses they shall not see: I'll tie them
	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 garments.

PRINCE HENRY	Yea, but I doubt they will be too hard for us.

POINS	Well, for two of them, I know them to be as
	true-bred 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 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
	lies the jest.

PRINCE HENRY	Well, I'll go with thee: provide us all things
	necessary and meet me to-morrow night in Eastcheap;
	there I'll sup. Farewell.

POINS	Farewell, my lord.

	[Exit Poins]

PRINCE HENRY	I know you all, and will awhile uphold
	The unyoked humour of your idleness:
	Yet herein will I imitate the sun,
	Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
	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,
	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 behavior I throw off
	And pay the debt I never promised,
	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.
	I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
	Redeeming time when men think least I will.

	[Exit]

	1 KING HENRY IV

ACT I

SCENE III	London. The palace.

	[Enter the KING, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR,
	SIR WALTER BLUNT, with others]

KING HENRY IV	My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
	Unapt to stir at these indignities,
	And you have found me; for accordingly
	You tread upon my patience: but be sure
	I will from henceforth rather be myself,
	Mighty and to be fear'd, than my condition;
	Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
	And therefore lost that title of respect
	Which the proud soul ne'er pays but to the proud.